Thursday, July 03, 2008

• Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Report Will Not Publish Friday, July 4

Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Report Will Not Publish Friday, July 4
[Jul 03, 2008]

      The Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Report will not publish on Friday, July 4 in observance of Independence Day. The report will resume publication on Monday, July 7.

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Bush Calls on Congress To Reauthorize PEPFAR Ahead of G8 Summit
[Jul 03, 2008]

      President Bush on Wednesday called on Congress to quickly reauthorize the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief ahead of the Group of Eight industrialized nations summit next week in Hokkaido, Japan, Reuters reports.

Senate leaders last week sought to bring legislation (S 2731) that would reauthorize PEFPAR to the floor for a vote, but some Republican senators blocked it because of its cost. The measure would authorize $50 billion in funding over five years for HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria programs (Zakaria, Reuters, 7/2). The House passed its version (HR 5501) of the measure in April. Bush has said he would like the Senate version to be approved so he can use it as leverage to ask other countries at the summit to make larger contributions to fight HIV/AIDS (Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Report, 6/30).

"It's very important that Congress reauthorize this plan," Bush said, adding, "One of my really important agenda items [will be] to ... rally our partners to make commitments and meet commitments" to fight HIV/AIDS in developing countries (Reuters, 7/2). He also said, "We need people who not only make promises, but write checks, for the sake of human rights and human dignity, and for the sake of peace" (Feller, AP/Google.com, 7/2). White House Deputy Press Secretary Tony Fratto said that Bush remains "very optimistic" that Congress would pass the reauthorization bill. "All of the discussions have been positive," Fratto said (Stolberg, New York Times, 7/3).

Bush noted that at the G8 summit he also will "discuss additional steps to confront some other challenges, such as the need to train health care workers in G8 partne[r] countries in Africa" (Reuters, 7/2). Experts from the World Health Organization on Wednesday said that increased international aid to Africa also should be used to increase salaries for physicians and strengthen the recruitment and training of medical staff, Reuters Health reports. Researchers from WHO and the University of California in a WHO bulletin said that there is a shortfall of 2.3 million physicians, nurses and midwives worldwide, with the largest shortfall in sub-Saharan Africa. The researchers wrote that there should be enough physicians worldwide to meet global needs by 2015, but counties such as Ethiopia, Kenya, Nigeria and Uganda are projected to be far short of meeting need (MacInnis, Reuters Health, 7/2).

The WHO bulletin on physician shortage is available online.

ActionAid Denounces G8 Draft Communiqué
In related news, ActionAid on Tuesday denounced a draft G8 communiqué scheduled to be issued at the summit because it does not cite 2010 targets for universal access to HIV/AIDS prevention, care and treatment or for $25 billion in annual aid to Africa that were set at the 2005 G8 summit in Gleneagles, Scotland, IANS/Thaindian News reports (IANS/Thaindian News, 7/2). According to a report released last month by an Africa Progress Panel, G8 aid to Africa will fall $40 billion short of the Gleneagles pledge (Manson, Reuters, 7/2).

The draft reportedly says that the G8 will continue "working towards the goal of universal access" to HIV/AIDS prevention, treatment and care, as well as commit to fulfilling "our commitments on [development aid] made at Gleneagles," but it but does not specifically mention the target dates. Some diplomats have said that the draft, dated June 25, might change, especially if African leaders increase opposition to the language over the next week (Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Report, 7/1).

Anne Jellema, international director of policy for ActionAid, said, "In the midst of a global food crisis, for the world's richest countries to backtrack on aid to the world's poorest continent would be a crime." Leonard Okello, head of HIV/AIDS for ActionAid, said, "Without releasing funds, all promises on HIV and AIDS will be broken." He added, "AIDS kills over 8,000 people every day, and we are faced with a global catastrophe if our G8 leaders continue to break their promises" (IANS/Thaindian News, 7/2).

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USAID Commits $7.6M To Care for AIDS Orphans, Other Vulnerable Children in Nigeria
[Jul 03, 2008]

      USAID on Monday announced that it is donating $7.6 million to provide quality comprehensive care to 8,616 AIDS orphans and vulnerable children in Nigeria, the country's Vanguard reports.

Yemi Osilaja -- executive director of HOPE worldwide, whose Nigerian chapter will receive the aid -- said that HIV/AIDS has left about one million children without parents in Nigeria and that the unprecedented number of orphans and other vulnerable children is an indication of the magnitude of the country's HIV/AIDS epidemic. Osilaja also cited UNAIDS estimates that 25 million African children will become orphans by 2010, and that an additional 55 million Africans will die of HIV/AIDS-related causes by 2020. He added that a lack of adequate care and support for children affected by HIV/AIDS will have negative long-term effects on their development, their communities and the future of African nations.

According to the Vanguard, the aid will support a three-year project called "Assistance and Care for Children Orphaned and at Risk." HOPE worldwide Nigeria also said it will use the funding to improve nongovernmental organizations' capacity to respond to HIV/AIDS in various communities (Obinna, Vanguard, 6/30).

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PEPFAR Allocates $1.4M for HIV/AIDS Initiatives in Vietnam
[Jul 03, 2008]

      The U.S. embassy in Vietnam on Tuesday announced that President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief will allocate $1.4 million to three HIV/AIDS initiatives in Vietnam, the Thanh Nien News reports.

For one of the initiatives, PEPFAR will provide support and distribute grants to the Center for Community Health Promotion, CARE International in Vietnam, the Health and Environment Services Development and Investment, and the Italian nongovernmental organizations CESVI. The NGO will provide support for HIV-positive people, orphans and vulnerable children through September 2009 in the Quang Ninh province, Nghe An province and Hai Phong, according to Thanh Nien News (Tuong, Thanh Nien News, 7/2).

For the second program, PEPFAR will assist the Ministry of Education and Training in providing reproductive health and HIV/AIDS education to secondary school students (Vietnam News Brief Service, 7/2). Save the Children will implement the education programs in Ho Chi Minh City and Quang Nihn and Quang Tri provinces through September 2010.

The third initiative aims to improve services for women living with HIV/AIDS in Ho Chi Minh City and Hai Phong City. The Center for Community Health and Development, the Center for International Health and Development at Boston University and the Development Center for Promotion of Quality of Life will administer the program through September 2009.

Thanh Nien News reports that PEPFAR is providing $88 million to Vietnam for HIV/AIDS programs in 200 (Thanh Nien News, 7/2).

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Gene Technique That Alters CCR5-Producing Gene Increases Resistance to HIV in Mice, Study Finds
[Jul 03, 2008]

      Altering the gene that produces CCR5 protein on the surface of immune cells using a harmless virus was found to significantly increase resistance to HIV in mice, according to a study published Sunday in the journal Nature Biotechnology, the Press Trust of India reports (Press Trust of India, 7/1).

The virus, called a "zinc-finger nuclease," can inhibit the production of CCR5, which is the protein on the surface of immune cells that HIV attaches to, NewScientist.com reports. The "zinc-finger" part of the molecule targets and binds exclusively to genetic material only found in the CCR5 gene. The "nuclease" of the zinc-finger is an enzyme that opens and alters the gene that produces CCR5 to inhibit production of the CCR5 protein, NewScientist.com reports. After this process, the cell is then effectively immune to HIV infection.

For the study, Philip Gregory, vice president for research at Richmond, Calif.-based Sangamo Biosciences, and colleagues infected half the mice with human T-cells treated with the zinc-finger nucleases and the other half with unaltered T-cells. All the mice were then infected with HIV. After six weeks, all of the mice showed some HIV resistance. "We saw a ten-fold suppression of the virus in the treated mice compared with controls, and we saw a five-fold increase in the number of circulating T-cells," Gregory said. He added, "What's really exciting is that the change in the genome is permanent, and inherited by all 'daughter' T-cells created when the alerted T-cells multiply" (Coghlan, NewScientist.com, 6/30).

The company plans to begin human studies of the treatment before the end of this year, Bloomberg reports (Lauerman, Bloomberg, 6/29). According to the researchers, if the treatment is successful in human trials, it could offer a more effective way for controlling HIV for people living with the virus. "The zinc-finger approach has significant potential compared to other strategies," Ed Berger, an NIH researcher credited for helping establish the link between HIV and CCR5, said. He added, "With genetic knockout of CCR5 by the zinc finger, the cells lacking CCR5 have a selective advantage." John Moore, co-discoverer of the CCR5-HIV link, said although the science is excellent, he doubts whether the gene can be inhibited in enough T-cells to make a difference to people living with the disease (NewScientist.com, 6/30).

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Number of Abortions Decreasing Among HIV-Positive Women in Belarus, Official Says
[Jul 03, 2008]

      The number of HIV-positive women in Belarus who are forgoing abortions is increasing, Svyatlana Shylava, chief ob-gyn for the country's Ministry of Health, said on Tuesday, BelaPAN reports.

According to Shylava, about 176 infants were born to HIV-positive women in 2007, up from 52 in 2000 and six in 1996. Since 1987, HIV-positive women in the country have given birth to at least 1,155 infants, 129 of whom tested positive for the virus and eight of whom died of AIDS-related conditions, BelaPAN reports. Shylava said the efficiency of care that HIV-positive women receive depends on how quickly they seek treatment. Last year, 4.7% of HIV-positive pregnant women did not report their pregnancies, down from 11.2% in 2006.

Shylava said that HIV-positive women who become pregnant can schedule a consultation to help decide whether to give birth to the infant. Late-term abortions are only allowed in Belarus if the life of the pregnant woman is deemed at risk (Darashchonak, BelaPAN, 7/1).

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NGO Leader In Angola Seeks To Mobilize Country's Youth For HIV Prevention
[Jul 03, 2008]

      Young people in Angola have a poor record of participation in HIV prevention efforts, including voluntary testing and condom use, according to Antonio Coelho, executive secretary of the Angolan Network of AIDS Service Organisations, Angola Press Agency/AllAfrica.com reports.

Coelho made the remarks Wednesday while speaking to the Angola Press Agency. According to Coelho, many young people have not accepted that HIV is a problem, even though they are a group at risk of the disease and have the advantage of improved access to HIV/AIDS information.

According to research by ANASO, 70% of youths in the country do not use condoms, despite their awareness of HIV. The network plans to partner with the Ministry of Education and communities throughout the country to mobilize and educate 340,000 young people through 2010 (Angola Press Agency/AllAfrica.com, 7/2).

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