TAC Electronic Newsletter

Contents

• Long waiting list for antiretroviral treatment at Mahatma Gandhi Hospital in Durban Contents
  • Long waiting list for antiretroviral treatment at Mahatma Gandhi Hospital in Durban
  • International AIDS Conference – 13 to 18 August, Toronto, Canada
    • PRESS ALERT: Press conference: 13 August, 15h00 – Developing world activists set out their objectives and demands
    • List of events that TAC, ALP, CHMT and ARASA are participating in
    • We request Toronto conference presenters to include this powerpoint slide (or similar) asking people to visit the www.aidstruth.org website. Do your share to stop AIDS denialism.
  • Understanding South Africa’s HIV/AIDS statistics: A TAC briefing.
  Long waiting list for antiretroviral treatment at Mahatma Gandhi Hospital in Durban(Thanks to Sylvia Flynn for investigating and drafting this article. Thanks also to Lovisa Mbele, Deena Bosch and Linda Mafu for additional information.)You get terribly sick. You do the sensible thing and it gives you hope: you get tested for HIV, find out you are HIV-positive, have a CD4 count which shows that you have AIDS and learn about antiretrovirals. But then your hope is shattered; you are placed on a waiting list that’s almost a year long. Will you live long enough to access treatment? That’s the situation over 1,000 people at Mahatma Gandhi Hospital in Durban face.Mahatma Gandhi is a huge hospital, serving a vast population that is fed by six clinics. We were alerted to the long waiting list for treatment, but finding out precise details was extremely difficult. The hospital administration operates under the illusion that it is not obligated to share information with the public. Nevertheless, because of the persistance of TAC treatment literacy practitioner Lovisa Mbele, we were able to obtain critical facts.The hospital’s antiretroviral site has five nurses, seven counselors and two doctors. There are just over 900 people on treatment. The waiting list has over 1,300 people on it and the waiting period extends until July 2007. The feeder clinics should help decrease the hospital’s workload, but they have not been accredited as antiretroviral sites and the government has not given reasons why this is the case.The children’s clinic was accredited in February and started treating in March. The clinic started by putting two children on treatment per week but this has since increased to six. A mere 72 children are on treatment.The mother-to-child transmission prevention programme appears to be functional, albeit that it is using the sub-optimal single-dose nevirapine regimen. Statistics from May indicates that of 804 pregnant women, 345 tested HIV-positive and received Nevirapine.TAC’s Kwazulu-Natal office is mobilising a campaign to get the provincial government to resolve Mahatma Gandhi’s long waiting list and to get the hospital’s feeder sites accredited.[END OF MAHATMA GANDHI ARTICLE]TAC, ARASA, CHMT, ALP related events at the International AIDS ConferenceToronto Canada, 13-18 August 2006PRESS ALERT: Developing world AIDS activists speak outDate: 13 August 2006
  Time: 15h00
  Venue: Toronto City Hall, Committee Room 1All media are invited to a press conference shortly before the start of the Toronto International AIDS Conference. Activists from the developing world will describe their expectations, plans and demands for the world’s largest HIV/AIDS conference.Treatment Action Campaign, AIDS Law Project, Community Health Media Trust/Beat It! and the AIDS and Right Alliance for Southern Africa Participation at the International AIDS ConferenceSaturday, 12 August 2006Canadian AIDS Legal Network Satellite
  Global networking for AIDS, law and human rights
  Michaela Clayton, ARASA
  8:30-17:00
  Ontario Bar Association, 20 Toronto Street, Suite 200Sunday, 13 August 2006Developing Countries Consultation on Civil Society Leadership in HIV/AIDS Treatment, Prevention and Care
  Co-sponsored by TAC, ALP and ARASA
  9:00 – 14:00
  Toronto City Hall, Committee Room 1
  (Press conference @ 15h00)HIV science and responsible journalism
  Nathan Geffen, TAC
  (This session will be webcast.)
  10:00-12:15
  Session Room 2-Conference CenterMonday, 14 August 2006Controversy and Common Ground
  Hot Topics in Human Rights and HIV/AIDS
  Fatima Hassan, ALP
  10:45 – 12:15
  Session Room 3Oral Abstract Session
  Moving the agenda forward: Women’s rights and HIV
  Sipho Mthathi, TAC
  14:15 – 15:45
  Session Room 11Skills building session
  Enhancing Success in Scaling Up ART in Resource Limited Settings – The Role of Treatment Literacy
  Ntombesizwe Nombasa Gxuluwe, TAC
  14:15 – 17:45
  Skills building room 5Controversy and Common Ground
  HIV testing in the era of treatment scale up
  Mark Heywood, ALP
  14:15 – 15:45
  Session Room 3University of Toronto Skills Building Workshop
  Gender, sexuality & HIV/AIDS
  Jonathan Berger, ALP
  17:00 – 19:00
  Flavelle House, Faculty of Law, U of T (Museum subway)The Health Worker Crisis and AIDS
  (Jointly hosted by Physicians for Human Rights and several other organisations including TAC and ALP)
  18:00 – 20:30
  Room 310, Metro Hall, 55 John StreetTuesday, 15 August 2006Satellite Session
  UNGASS: After the Political Declaration – where to from here?
  Sipho Mthathi, TAC
  07:00 – 08:30
  Session Room 8ANRS Symposium Satellite
  New perspectives in prevention of HIV sexual transmission. From research to action in developing countries
  Mark Heywood, ALP
  18:00 – 20:00M
  Skills Building Room 3Satellite Session
  LGBT Prevention Efforts in the Developing World
  Jonathan Berger, ALP
  18:00 – 20:00
  Skills building room 11Programme Activities
  Premiere of Media, Message, Method
  Siyayinqoba Beat-it!
  Jack Lewis, Community Health Media Trust/Beat It!
  19:30 – 21:30
  Royal Ontario Museum, 100 Queen’s Park Toronto, ON
  at the Museum stop on the Yonge-University-Spadina subway lineWednesday, 16 August 2006Bridging Session
  Access to Treatment – People before Trade
  Sipho Mthathi, TAC & Jonathan Berger, ALP
  10:45 – 12:15
  Session Room 1Special Session
  25 years of AIDS – reflecting back and looking forward
  Gregg Gonsalves, ARASA
  12:45 – 13:45
  Session Room 1Bridging Session
  Human resources and HIV/AIDS: Advancing Health Workforce Capacity in delivering care, treatment and support
  Mark Heywood, ALP
  14:15 – 15:45
  Session Room 3Bridging Session
  The Forgotten Epidemic: HIV/AIDS in Prisons
  Jonathan Berger, ALP
  16:15 – 17:45
  Session Room 8Satellite
  Developing health literacy in resource-limited settings
  Gregg Gonsalves, ARASA
  18.00 – 20.00
  Skills Building Room 2HIV/AIDS and the Law: Canada and Beyond
  Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network / OSI
  Mark Heywood, ALP
  18.30 – 20.30
  Donald Lamont Learning Centre, Law Society of Upper Canada, 130 Queen St, West TorontoThursday, 17 August 2006Plenary Session
  The price of inaction
  Mark Heywood, ALP
  8:45 – 10:15
  Session Room 1Hot Topics in Human Rights and HIV/AIDS
  Getting the Balance Right: integrating HIV prevention and treatment programming
  Fatima Hassan, ALP
  10:45 – 12:15
  Session Room 4The Contribution of Human Rights Activists to Access to Treatment in South Africa
  Fatima Hassan, ALP
  10:45 – 12:15
  Session Room 3Oral Abstract Session
  Time to Deliver: Influencing Policy and Law
  Michaela Clayton, ARASA
  11:00 – 12:30
  Session Room 11PLWHA Challenging Barriers to Accessing HIV Drugs
  Fatima Hassan, ALP
  14:15 – 15:45
  Global VillageSatellite
  HIV/AIDS in East Europe & Central Asia
  Gregg Gonsalves, ARASA
  14:15 – 15:45
  Session Hall 2Oral Abstract Session
  Treatment Access, TRIPS and Trip-ups
  Jonathan Berger, ALP and Gregg Gonsalves, ARASA
  16:15 – 17:45
  Session Room 4Poster
  Regional Partnerships for Universal Access
  Michaela Clayton, ARASA
  Poster Exhibition area, Level 800Satellite Session
  Intensifying HIV prevention – Leveraging the global community
  Sipho Mthathi, TAC
  18:00 – 20:00
  Skills Building Room 1Satellite
  Community Preparedness for Effective HIV Treatment and Care: People Living with HIV/AIDS Leading the Way toward Universal Access
  Gregg Gonsalves, ARASA & Vuyani Jacobs, CHMT/Beat It!
  18:00 – 20:00
  Skills Building Room 11Friends of TAC Fundraising Event
  Venue: “The Orbit Room” http://www.orbitroom.ca/orbit.htm
  Acts include:
  Jemini (female spoken word artists)
  Unknown Mizery & Logikal Ethix, with Poor Man’s Militia and ALI (hip-hop)
  Door charge tbc.
  Takes place in the eveningWhat do South Africa’s AIDS statistics mean? A TAC briefing paperBy Nathan Geffen, 7 August 2006On 21 July 2006, the Department of Health released the annual HIV and syphillis antenatal survey2. What does this survey show? Is it of any use? Is it true that the number of people with HIV is finally stablising? What do we really know about the the prevalence of HIV and the number of AIDS deaths?TAC has been asked these and many similar questions. They are good questions and so this analysis will try to provide useful answers. But to do so, we really need to explain HIV/AIDS statistics in South Africa generally.Contrary to popular belief the quality of South Africa’s HIV/AIDS statistics are actually very good. From the available statistics we can estimate approximately how many people are infected with HIV and the minimum number of people who have died of AIDS. We also learn from the statistics who is most at risk of being infected, how serious prevalence rates in different provinces are, at what ages people are dying of AIDS and which opportunistic infections kill the most people. Read more …[END OF AIDS STATS]