Your daily Selection of IRIN Africa PlusNews reports, 6/2/2003

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U N I T E D N A T I O N S

Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs

Integrated Regional Information Network

CONTENT:

1 - ETHIOPIA: Geldof calls on leaders to take AIDS test

2 - SOUTH AFRICA: Feature - Treating HIV among township poor

1 - ETHIOPIA: Geldof calls on leaders to take AIDS test

ADDIS ABABA, 2 June (PLUSNEWS) - Bob Geldof has called on Ethiopia’s

leaders to be tested for HIV/AIDS to prove their commitment to combating

the pandemic.

The musician and Third-World campaigner has offered to be tested alongside

Prime Minister Meles Zenawi and his key ministers before leaving the

country.

His call comes at the end of a five-day official visit to Ethiopia - his

first since launching the Live Aid appeal back in 1984, which raised US

$100 million for famine victims. " I am prepared to be tested along with

the prime minister and the political leaders of this country, " the

51-year-old singer stated. " It will prove a commitment to fighting this

deadly virus. By doing so you can show that there is no stigma, no shame

attached to being tested or having the virus itself. "

Negatu Mereke, the head of the government's HIV/AIDS Prevention and

Control Office, has vowed to undergo a public HIV/AIDS test to help tackle

the stigma attached to the virus. He admitted he had not been tested

despite advising others to do so.

Ethiopia's health ministry says testing is a key weapon against HIV/AIDS,

which has infected 2.2 million people.

" HIV/AIDS-related stigma builds upon and reinforces earlier negative

thinking in many societies, " Negatu told IRIN. " People with HIV/AIDS are

often believed to have deserved what has happened to them for doing

something wrong, " he said.

" It is important that people have a test. If I start, I think my

colleagues will follow. It will send a message to people and show that I

am committed and others should follow. I have adjusted to this and spoken

to my family, so I am going to do it. "

Senior UN officials announced they had been tested. Nyambi, the UN

resident coordinator, and Bjorn Jungqvist, the head of the UN's Children's

Fund in Ethiopia, both said they had been tested. " The fear of stigma and

discrimination hinders people from adopting preventive measures such as

using condoms, seeking testing for HIV or discussing their HIV status with

their sexual partners, " commented Jungqvist.

[ENDS]

2 - SOUTH AFRICA: Feature - Treating HIV among township poor

CAPE TOWN, 2 June (PLUSNEWS) - Babalwa Tembani was diagnosed as

HIV-positive after being raped by her uncle. She was only 14 years old at

the time and knew nothing about AIDS. After being admitted to Cape Town's

Groote Schuur hospital, a nurse told her she had four days to live and

must " look for a place to die " .

" I was waiting for my day and the day didn't come until today, " she said.

Addressing a group of journalists at an event marking the two-year

anniversary of the Medecines Sans Frontieres' (MSF) antiretroviral (ARV)

therapy pilot programme in a Cape Town township, 21-year old Babalwa is

nowhere near ready to die. She's a bubbly, ambitious young woman, planning

to study medicine.

Tembani is one of 400 people receiving ARVs from the MSF project in

Khayelitsha, a poverty-stricken township just outside South Africa's

second city. The NGO started providing ARVs in May 2001 and is currently

in the process of extending the service to rural communities in the

Eastern Cape province.

Findings from the programme have demonstrated that treatment campaigns are

possible in poor communities, and AIDS activists hope that the national

government will take note of the project's experience when they introduce

ARVs through the public health sector.

According to the head of MSF in South Africa, Goemaere, after the

medical relief group began supporting the Western Cape's prevention of

mother-to-child (PMTCT) programme in 1999, the discussion over whether to

provide ARVs become more than just an " intellectual debate " .

" At delivery of the children, the women were asking 'What about us?' " he

said.

MSF has established three dedicated HIV clinics inside the township's

existing public health facilities, where most HIV patients are treated for

opportunistic infections. A limited number of these have been placed on

the ARV programme.

Patients with HIV/AIDS will only receive treatment after careful

selection, based on medical criteria such as their CD4 cell count (cells

that orchestrate the body's immune response) and their clinical status, as

well as a " patient-centred adherence approach " in which patients take

responsibility for their treatment.

This approach requires patients to have been on time for their clinic

appointments for the past three months and have a supportive home

environment, including a treatment assistant.

The beneficiaries receive a triple cocktail of generic drugs and visit the

clinics every week during the first month, followed by monthly visits. The

cost of the treatment is around US $1.50 per-patient per-day.

Up to 83 percent of the patients on ARVs remain in the programme after

being on treatment for 18 months. In most cases, their viral load drops

dramatically to undetectable levels after no more than three months on the

drugs, Dr Coetzee, a clinic doctor, noted.

High levels of treatment adherence have been attributed to the support

structures in place. However, Miliswa Galada, a counsellor at one of the

clinics admits that patients find it difficult to stick to their treatment

regimen, particularly in the first month.

When Babalwa went back to school, even her teachers would remind her when

it was time to take her tablets. She carries her pillbox and some fruit

" everywhere I go, so that I don't forget, " she told PlusNews.

But stigma and discrimination still make it difficult for people to come

forward and disclose their status.

Consequently, members of the AIDS lobby group, the Treatment Action

Campaign, have embarked on the " Ulwazi " (meaning " awareness " in Xhosa)

project, through which they explain to Khayelitsha residents the link

between HIV and AIDS, and how the disease can be prevented and treated.

The results are encouraging. In 1998, up to 500 HIV tests were conducted

in the township, which has now risen to between 12,000 and 14,000 tests a

year.

" Khayelitsha has become a place where people living with HIV/AIDS are able

to talk freely ... bringing dignity and hope back to the people, " Nomfundo

Dubula, coordinator of the Ulwazi project said.

The MSF programme hopes to reach 600 people this year and is making plans

to increase the number to 1,500 by the end of next year.

As Dr Coetzee points out, the Khayelitsha project is not out to prove that

ARVs work - but it has demonstrated that people like Babalwa and the rest

of the programme's beneficiaries can stick with, and benefit from, ARV

treatment when it is provided free of charge.

[ENDS]

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