Tag: AIDS/HIV

Generic AIDS Drugs Work as Well as Brand Name Drugs

The first clinical study of generic AIDS drugs has found that they work as effectively in treating AIDS as the more expensive brand-name versions of the drugs.

The United States has committed $15 billion to fight AIDS, but will not allow any of that money to be spent on generic drugs until they can prove they are as effective as brand name drugs. The World Health Organization and others already purchase and distribute generic AIDS drugs to the developing world.

Researchers followed 60 patines who took a generic version of a pill that combines three different anti-AIDS compounds. Eighty percent of those in the trial saw their virus levels decline to very low levels, consistent with what would be seen with brand-name drugs. Only one patient stopped taking the drug due to side effects.

Source:

Study finds generic AIDS drug effective. Donald G. McNeil, Jr., New York Times, July 2, 2004.

Fears of Polio Vaccine Grip Nigeria

The World Health Organization’s goal of eradicating polio worldwide by 2005 ran into a major obstacle in October 2003 when three Nigerian states suspended polio vaccination over fears that the vaccine could cause AIDS, cancer and infertility.

The largely-Muslim northern states of Kaduna, Kano and Zamfra ordered a stop to a WHO-sponsored vaccination program. Reuters quoted Dr. Datti Ahmed, president of Nigeria’s Supreme Council for Sharia Law, as saying,

A lot of documents have come into our possession indicating there are grave doubts and concerns about the safety of the oral polio vaccine being used in Nigeria. We therefore called on the authorities to suspend the immunization program and investigate these fears.

WHO representatives dismissed such objections saying the polio vaccine was safe.

Unfortunately, Nigeria is one of only 7 countries where the disease is still prevalent and many children there are not vaccinated. Authorities worry that the disease could expand from Nigeria into surrounding countries. According to WHO representative Dr. David Heymann,

In some parts of Nigeria, only 13 percent of children have been vaccinated, largely because of the fears about it that have been disseminated. Nigeria is now exporting the disease. It has already cost Nigeria’s five neighbors $13 million to launch their own campaigns against it and that could go up to $20 million if it is confirmed that Chad has cases.

The government set up a group to test the polio virus, but that group dealt another setback to the polio eradication in January when it issued results claiming it found high levels of estrogen in the polio vaccine which would render those who received the vaccine infertile.

Both the WHO and the Nigerian state dismissed these claims, but WHO’s efforts to vaccinate children in Nigeria appears to have been severely set back which bodes ill both for the children there who are unnecessarily exposed to the risk of contracting polio as well as neighboring states and the rest of the world that would like to see polio eradicated.

Source:

Health experts losing battle to promote polio vaccine in Nigeria. AFP, Friday January 9, 2004.

Nigeria orders polio vaccine tests. Associated Press, October 29, 2003.

Nigeria debates polio campaign. Anna Borzello, The BBC, December 22, 2003.

Just How Accurate Are HIV Estimates?

In January, Kenya announced that its HIV rate had fell almost in half overnight. But this was not due to any new program adopted by Kenya. Rather the government released a more accurate estimate that only 6.7 percent of people in Kenya suffer from AIDS compared to the older estimate of 15 percent.

The 6.7 percent infection rate is based on the most extensive look at AIDS in Kenya yet, and even then the Kenya Demographic and Health Survey looked at a mere 8,561 households in a country of 32 million people.

On the heels of other studies in Mali, Zambia and elsewhere that found similar overestimates, one has to wonder about the quality of data on HIV prevalence throughout the developing world.

Meanwhile UNAIDS advisor Catherine Hankins took the bizarre view that there was, in fact, no overestimation of HIV rates,

We cannot say that we have overestimated HIV rates in Africa. All figures for HIV prevalence in Africa are estimates.

Yes, but I don’t remember UNAIDS ever warning publicity that HIV prevalence may be off by up to 100 percent. Such large discrepancies could potentially cause donor nations to question the reliability of UNAIDS assessments of the epidemic.

Source:

Study cuts Kenyan HIV estimates. The BBC, January 9, 2004.

Catholic Church — Condoms Don’t Stop AIDS

The Roman Catholic Church came in for much-deserved criticism after a BBC documentary, “Sex and the Holy City,” that documented the Church’s ridiculous — and potentially deadly — practice of telling people in countries hit hard by AIDS that condoms don’t prevent the spread of HIV.

In the program, Cardinal Alfonso Lopez Trujillo is shown repeating a ridiculous claim that the AIDS virus can permeate a condom,

The Aids virus is roughly 450 times smaller than the spermatozoon. The spermatozoon can easily pass through the ‘net’ that is formed by the condom.

In fact, as the U.S. Centers for Disease Control notes,

Laboratory studies have demonstrated that latex condoms provide an essentially impermeable barrier to particles the size of STD pathogens.

But Trujillo would have governments regulate condoms in the same way they regulate cigarettes,

These margins of uncertainty…should represent an obligation on the part of the health ministries and all these campaigns to act in the same way as they do with regard to cigarettes, which they state to be a danger.

And this message is filtering down to Catholic officials in developing countries who are passing it on. Nairobi Archbishop Raphael Ndingi Nzeki tells the BBC program that,

Aids…has grown so fast because of the availability of condoms.

A spokesman for the World Health Organization told the BBC that the Church’s anti-condom campaign would only help to further spread AIDS,

Statements like this are quite dangerous. We are facing a global pandemic which has already killed more than 20 million people and currently affects around 42 million. There is so much evidence to show that condoms don’t let sexually transmitted infections like HIV through. Anyone who says otherwise is just wrong.

Condoms are not a magic bullet that makes it impossible to spread HIV, but studies suggest it does reduce the risk of AIDS transmission by up to 90 percent. Spreading misinformation and lies like this is simply unconscionable.

Sources:

Vatican: condoms don’t stop Aids. Steve Bradshaw, The Guardian, October 9, 2003.

Vatican in HIV condom row. The BBC, October 9, 2003.

HIV can ‘slip’ through condom. News24.Com (South Africa), October 9, 2003.

Fact Sheet for Public Health Personnel: Male Latex Condoms and Sexually Transmitted Diseases. U.S. Centers for Disease Control.

Population Action International: U.S. Abortion Gag Rule Undermines Health Care Around the World

Population Action International released a report in September charging that the U.S.’s global gag rule on abortion is undermining health care efforts in a number of countries. The gag rule bars any monies being given to family planning agencies that performs abortions or offers abortion counseling.

According to a press release from Population Action International announcing its report,

Conducted by a coalition of reproductive health care organizations, the study documents the effects of the Global Gag Rule in Ethiopia, Kenya, Zambia, and Romania. Health services have been scaled back and closings of reproductive health clinics have left some communities with no health care provider. Because of the gag rule, many family planning organizations have been cut off from supplies of USAID contraceptives, including condoms. Public health evidence shows that lack of contraception leads to an increase in unwanted pregnancies and unsafe abortion.

Population Action International cites the case of a clinic in Mathare Valley, Kenya, which had to shut down after the global gag rule was reinstituted. According to the report, this left 300,000 people in the Mathare Valley with no access to health care.

Similarly, the report found that after Lesotho refused to abide by the gag rule provisions, USAID refused to donate any condoms or other contraceptives to that nation. About a quarter of Lesotho’s population is HIV positive and USAID had been sending more than 100,000 condoms annually to the Lesotho Planned Parenthood Association.

Amy Coen, president of Population Action International, said in a press release, “The Global Gag Rule is yet another example of how the Bush Administration is allowing political ideology to trump science. The policy shows no respect for scientific evidence and proven public health practices, and no compassion for the millions of women around the world engaged in a daily struggle for existence.”

The full report is available here.

Sources:

US abortion rule ‘hits Africa women’. The BBC, September 25, 2003.

Bush AdministrationÂ’s Global Gag Rule Jeopardizing Health Care, Weakening HIV/AIDS Prevention and Endangering Lives. Population Action International, September 24, 2003.

UN Official Wars AIDS Crisis Could Wreck Africa’s Future

Speaking at a September AIDS conference in Kenya, UN AIDS Program director Michel Sidibe warned that, if left unchecked, the AIDS epidemic threatens to become a catastrophe that will wreck Africa’s future.

Sidibe’s speech reinforced the findings of a UN AIDS report, “Accelerating Action Against AIDS in Africa,” that called for increasing the pace of action against AIDS,

The effects of AIDS in Africa are eroding decades of development efforts. In high-HIV-prevalence countries, families are unraveling, economies are slowing down, and social services are deteriorating. In Southern Africa, where HIV prevalence is higher than anywhere else in the world, AIDS has exacerbated food insecurity, demonstrating how the epidemic and humanitarian crises intertwine.

AIDS has killed an estimated 15 million people in Africa already, and signs are not encouraging to prevent another 15 million deaths. The UN AIDS report notes that infection rates in southern Africa are unbelievably high — in Botswana, for example, 40 percent of the adult population is believed to be HIV positive. A World Health Organization study of pregnant women in southern Africa found 20 percent of those tested were HIV positive.

More money is being committed to fight the AIDS crisis in Africa, but whether aid agencies and governments will be able to translate that money into an effective anti-AIDS strategy remains to be seen. If they fail, Africa’s future is likely to be as bleak as its recent past.

Source:

AIDS ‘threatens African security’. The BBC, September 21, 2003.

U.N.: AIDS Is Major Challenge in Africa. Associated Press, September 21, 2003.