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I support the Vienna Declaration because, in most countries, approaches to drug use focus overwhelmingly on criminalization and the imposition of harsh penalties rather than public health measures. As a result, people who use illegal drugs worldwide continue being denied harm reduction services, have poor and inequitable access to antiretroviral therapy for HIV infection, suffer abuse and sometimes torture at the hand of law enforcement officials, and are often incarcerated for lengthy periods of time simply for using or possessing drugs.
These human rights abuses are reported from all regions of the world. They are abhorrent in themselves and we must fight them for this reason alone. Furthermore, they increase people’s vulnerability to HIV and negatively affect the delivery of HIV programmes. Much more needs to happen to fight these abuses.
As the Vienna Declaration highlights, one of the priorities is to stop wasting resources on the failed “war on drugs” that has turned into a war against people and communities. This war must end. Resources should instead be devoted to providing, to everyone who needs them, evidence-based and human rights–based interventions that prevent problematic drug use, treat drug dependence and ensure harm reduction services for people who use drugs.

The World Care Council is please to announce, and to welcome participation, in The State of the Stakeholding Studies, a series of research studies to evaluate the public's role in Public Health issues and institutions. The first of these Studies, commissioned by the Stop TB Partnership in Geneva, is on Component 5 of the Stop TB Strategy: Empower People with TB and Communities.

"Taking the Pulse of the Patients’ Charter Promotion’’ is multi-sectorial study in the ten highest TB burdened countries to determine the status of the Patients' Charter and measure knowledge and attitudes regarding Component 5 of the Stop TB Strategy.

The Stop TB Partnership seeks to understand where stakeholders 'are' on Component 5, and what they think can be done to improve implementation of this key part of the Strategy. The World Care Council applauds this new interest from the Stop TB Partnership in Empowering TB Patients and Communities, and is calling-up its network of volunteers to help make this Study a partnership building initiative. It's also calling on the IMAXI Cooperative for i-technical assistance.

A new Director of the WHO HIV Department, Dr Gottfried Hirnschall, was appointed last month. On paper, he seems to be a good choice. I hope his experience with 3x5 leads him to open up the WHO so that more secotrs and elements of society can be involved. Here's the background:
On 1 May 2010, Dr Gottfried Hirnschall started in his new position as Director of the HIV Department of the World Health Organization (WHO). In this role, Dr Hirnschall oversees the organization's HIV mandate to provide countries with vitally needed normative and policy guidance to deliver HIV services and build health systems. From 1991 to 2000, Dr Gottfried Hirnschall coordinated WHO's support to countries in the area of child and adolescent health. He then joined the HIV Department to develop evidence-based policy recommendations on wide-ranging technical and strategic issues.

Summary Report of the Consultation on the WHO HIV/AIDS Strategy 2011-2015 Held during the 26th meeting of the UNAIDS Programme Coordinating Board
Objectives: • Update key constituencies/partners on the WHO HIV/AIDS Strategy development process. • Receive input in the development of the WHO HIV/AIDS Strategy and identify priority issues that should be meaningfully reflected in the Strategy. • Discuss opportunities and modalities for collaboration and joint work.
Attendance: The consultation was chaired by Ambassador Marijke Wijnrocks (Netherlands), and held as a side meeting to the 26th meeting of the UNAIDS Programme Coordinating Board. Approximately 120 individuals attending the PCB participated in the consultation representing all key constituencies, including Member States, civil society and UN agencies.
Presentation: Dr Gottfried Hirnschall, Director HIV Department, WHO, briefly presented the draft strategy framework, and the consultative process for developing the strategy. Copies of the Strategy Outline Version 2.0 (Draft 18 June 2010) were provided in English, French and Spanish.
Participants were asked to comment on the scope and methodology for developing the strategy; the relevance of the proposed objectives; indicators and targets; and any other feedback.

My thanks goes out to the IMAXI Cooperative and all those who helped make UNAIDS4ALL a very productive pilot programme. It was interesting to see and hear what happened at the UNAIDS PCB meeting, and I now feel more engaged by what isgoing on way up top in Geneva. Among many other points of progress, I think the UNAIDS new Vision and Mission are worthy of both closer reading and of actively supporting:

-- The UNAIDS PCB ... Endorses a new vision statement for UNAIDS of: “Zero new HIV infections. Zero discrimination. Zero AIDS-related deaths”;
11.2 Endorses a new UNAIDS new mission statement of: “UNAIDS, the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS, is an innovative United Nations partnership that leads and inspires the world in achieving universal access to HIV prevention, treatment, care and support.
UNAIDS fulfills its mission by: (...continues - click read more below)

Shocking results from a study involving post-mortem examinations at a hospital in KwaZulu-Natal Province have revealed the extent to which tuberculosis (TB) is taking a toll on the lives of young, HIV-positive South Africans. The study, published in the 22 June issue of the PLoS Medicine journal, found that out of 240 inpatients aged between 20 and 45 - who died after being admitted to Edendale Hospital between October 2008 and August 2009 - 94 percent were HIV-positive and half had TB. South Africa is battling devastating dual epidemics of HIV and TB, with 80 percent of TB cases occurring in people who are also HIV-infected. While TB is known to be the country's leading cause of death, the difficulty of diagnosing the disease in HIV-positive people makes it hard to determine the true number of TB-related deaths.

Looking at the imaxi.org and the worldcarecouncil.org websites today there are posts on two separate but connected 'G' words. GIPT for people with TB and GIPA for PLHIV. Since TB is the biggest killer of PLHIV, and people with TB are usually from HIV very vulnerable communities, the two principles go readily together. Both are marginalized and suffer from discrimination and stigma. Both have rights consistently denied. Two Diseases, One Principle : Greater Involvement. I think we should consider a community strategy for HIV and TB that takes this into account.
http://www.unaids.org/en/PolicyAndPractice/GIPA/default.asp
http://www.imaxi.org/content/i-say-yes-gipa-desks-unaids-country-offices
http://www.worldcarecouncil.org/content/greater-involvement-people-tb-gipt
http://www.worldcarecouncil.org/content/new-job-reminder-gipt-consumers

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After lending a hand to the start-up of the IMAXI Cooperative's pilot studies at the WHA (World Open Health Assembly) in May and UNAIDS PCB Meeting (UNAIDS for ALL) in June, the World Care Council is now hands-on Component 5 of the WHO/ Stop TB Strategy, "Empower People with TB and Communities'". It's time to move Component 5 from words to action, and a clear understanding of what has been achieved, or not, in recent years is required to move forward.

We are pleased to announce that the Stop TB Partnership has just engaged the World Care Council to conduct a in-depth study of the 'State of the Stakeholding' in this important Component 5, and specifically to understand the present lack of data on the promotion of the Patients' Charter for Tuberculosis Care and Community Care in the 10 highest burdened countries. By reaching out and getting the inputs of hundreds of the 'key actors' from the public and private sectors, civil society leaders and community activists in these countries, a better understanding on advocacy and social mobilization will be gained, efforts to forge partnerships among the respondents will be strengthened, and more People with TB and their communities empowered.

Stayed Tune for further details, or contact us to lend a hand or a brain to this innovative initiative.

Ten months ago, the Global Fund put on hold about $95 million in potential disbursements under four grants to the Zambia Ministry of Health, because of fraud within the ministry that was first reported by a whistleblower. Seven current or former ministry employees were charged by the Zambian government in relation to the fraudulent appropriation of about $350,000 from one of the grants. The funding is still on hold except for payments for life-saving drugs, which are now bypassing the ministry and being sent direct to procurement agents or suppliers. The Fund later decided that the role of principal recipient (PR) for these grants would be taken away from the Ministry of Health and handed over to UNDP, and the ministry was asked to return $8 million in unspent funds. Grants with non-governmental PRs were not affected. The Global Fund Board was informed of these developments. But the public was told nothing; no press release was issued, and no information was placed on the Zambia pages of the Fund's website.