erika.blair's blog

Update 30.08.10: This outrage has been confirmed, and is in fact much worse than we had all thought. It all began with the posting below...
- It appears that people with TB are being imprisoned by the Gov't instead of fixing the failing Kenyan TB program. Blaming patients for Program failures is no longer acceptable, and imprisoning them is an outrageous violation of their human rights. The World Care Council has written to Dr. Sitieneii seeking urgent clarification.
NAIROBI, Kenya — A court has sentenced two tuberculosis patients who skipped their medications to spend eight months in prison to avoid spreading the deadly disease among the public, a senior health official said Saturday. The male patients were locked up in Kapsabet prison in western Kenya nearly 10 days ago to make sure they take their pills as prescribed and do not infect others, said Joseph Sitienei, the head of tuberculosis and lung diseases at the public health and sanitation ministry.
A person whose immune system is compromised by HIV is particularly susceptible to tuberculosis, which is caused by bacteria that usually attack the lungs. The disease is spread through the air when an infected person coughs or sneezes. Sitienei said the judge who sentenced the pair invoked a rarely utilized law that allows the government to jail patients with infectious diseases to safeguard the public health.

Guatemala: An analysis of Obstacles to Universal Access:  Hundreds of PLWA Fall Between the Cracks Each Month, by Lidice Lopez-Tocon* and Richard Stern**, Central America Access Project, Volume 1,#2, 15.O8.10
This is the first of two articles which describe the situation of ARVT access in Guatemala. The second will  focus drug procurement processes, prices, and other related topics.
The response to the HIV epidemic in Guatemala has grown considerably over the past five years. This is not just about national efforts, but also  international assistance, particularly The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria; The response during that period has increased both prevention efforts and medical attention to PLWA . Nonetheless, current data shows the response has yet to reach the required level for halting the spread of the epidemic, particularly in terms of delivering antiretrovirals and comprehensive health care.

It is time again to give an update where the campaign has gone since the beginning of this year.
- Kenya joined the campaign, carried it out in three sites in the country, and is now finalizing the report.
- Djibouti has sent a plan and has not yet been funded since the campaign has been stopped since May, because we are carrying out an evaluation of it. Questionnaires were sent to 20+ countries that have been involved; we got a good response rate and the global secretariat is now carrying out a follow up phone interview with respondents. Preliminary results will be presented at the PHM Steering Committee meeting in Colombo on August 18 and 19. We expect the evaluation to be finished by September and the new directions for the campaign be made public through the phm-exchange by then.
- Togo got funding to hold its workshop to present the assessment results and prepare an action plan; they have not yet reported on it; they report not having been very active this year, but looking to revitalize things. - Cameroun has sent a plan for the same workshop and has reworked its budget for that; they are waiting for their funding to be released by the global secretariat. Benin has promised a plan for the same type of workshop and was waiting for elections to be over. India continues to successfully carry out a community based monitoring of the RTH in several states. Guatemala has completed the assessment and we have received a preliminary report. Bolivia completed the campaign and has just sent in the final report; we just gave them feedback; they will make a national publication of the 74 pp report. The DRC and Congo still owe us a final revised report after long delays**. Mali has not reported on progress despite several emails. We have now uploaded 7 campaign reports in the PHM website (Benin, Uruguay, Zimbabwe, UK, Togo, Burkina, Cameroun); the Bolivian one will be uploaded shortly.

The Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) has come up with a benefit package for people with HIV/AIDS to fortify efforts to meet Millennium Development Goal No. 6, which is to “halt or reverse the spread” the virus. In PhilHealth Circular 19-2010, the agency said outpatients with HIV/AIDS are entitled to a P30,000 insurance package for one year, provided that the infection has been “confirmed” by the Sexually Transmitted Disease/AIDS Central Cooperative Laboratory or Research Institute for Tropical Medicine. This benefit package aims to increase the proportion of the population having access to effective HIV/AIDS treatment and patient education measures,” said PhilHealth president and chief executive officer Dr. Rey Aquino. But according to Dr. Susan Gregorio, medical specialist of the multi-sector Philippine National AIDS Council (PNAC), the benefit package is “small,” considering that the monthly cost of anti-retroviral (ARV) treatment that an HIV patient needs is P15,000. “I don’t know why it is like that because during our previous meetings, the amount we were eyeing was much higher,” she said.

I'm not one of the privileged people to go to Vienna for AIDS 2010, I followed it from the outside. Reading over a few posts and mails that came my way recently, pasted below, it sure looks like the activists scream Broken Promises while allowing misuse of funds and corruption to fester. It seems like Governments can break promises because they know that the screamers are paid advocates, or lobbyists. It seems that both the politicians who break promises and the activists are not accountable to anyone, particularly the tens of millions of people with HIV. It looks like the lobbyists, spin doctors, global NGOs, politicians and corrupt officials are all in the same business. Their lives depend on the income they get as Health 'Pros', personal revenue and power is their primary interest. Our lives depend on access to affordable quality treatment, thats our over-all interest. Its a divergence of interests that is killing us. How can politicians be held accountable when public health professionals, both governmental and NGOs, are not? How can our comrades in China and Zimbabwe for example be helped when no one wants to confront those governments because of their vested interests. For many that followed AIDS 2010 by internet, it sure looks like the professionals profited at our expense. It sure looks like our Rights were not there, and not now. Seems that way looking in from the outside. See what I mean:

Just read the information on the study State of the Stakeholding and the list of the ten highest burdened countries for TB. Brilli initiative, but what a challenge! How does the 'community' in China conduct research into why 'no data is available"? Each of the countries has specific challenges, which makes this study more difficult but a good overview on where the community stands in the eyes of hundreds of important people from those countries. Learning what empowerment is about in these ten countries might jump up effortson community participation. Getting a diverse spread of important people to participate is essential. So cast the net far and wide: Dear India, China, Indonesia, Nigeria, South Africa, Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Pakistan, Philippines, DRCongo and remember, "What doesn’t get measured, doesn’t get done!"

The following keywords were pulled from the agenda of the WHA, and the WOHA welcomes your views on these topics. The full 7 page agenda is at http://apps.who.int/gb/e/e_wha63.html
WHO, Dr Margaret Chan, Influenza, Access to vaccines, International Health Regulations, Public health, innovation, intellectual property, Health-related Millennium Development Goals, HIV/AIDS, Malaria, International recruitment of health personnel, Infant and young child nutrition, Birth defects, Food safety, Noncommunicable diseases, Alcohol, Tuberculosis, Multidrug-Resistant Tuberculosis, MDR & XDR TB, TB-HIV, Viral Hepatitis, Leishmaniasis, Chagas disease, Measles, Smallpox, Blood products, International Chemicals Management, Health research, Organ transplantation, Public health services by private sector, Pneumonia, Poliomyelitis, Human African trypanosomiasis, Reproductive health, Health workforce production, Nursing, Midwifery, Iodine deficiency disorders,  Multilingualism, Health of migrants, Climate change, Primary health care, Health system strengthening,  WHO Financial Reports, WHO Financial Regulations
Anyone have any thing to say on any of these issues? From monday 17 May - say it at www.imaxi.org

I'll not observe, celebrate or mark World Health Day until all the world can enjoy their right to health, as clearly stated in the WHO Constitution:
"The enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health is one of the fundamental rights of every human being without the distinction of race, religion, political belief, economic or social condition. / The right to health means that governments must generate conditions in which everyone can be as healthy as possible. Such conditions range from ensuring availability of health services, healthy and safe working conditions, adequate housing and nutritious food."
When WHO and its Members (192 governments) fulfill their responsibilities and the right to health is enjoyed by all, then I will celebrate World Health Day. Enjoyment must be equitable first.

The UN programme on HIV/Aids says HIV has become the leading cause of death and disease among women of reproductive age worldwide. At the start of a ten-day conference in New York, UNAids launched a five-year action plan addressing the gender issues which put women at risk. One of the key issues, it says, is that up to 70% of women worldwide have been forced to have unprotected sex. UNAids says such violence against women must not be tolerated. "By robbing them of their dignity, we are losing the opportunity to tap half the potential of mankind to achieve the Millennium Development Goals," said Executive Director Michel Sidibe.

"We have to learn to move from being-a-potential-power to being-a-real-power in world affairs; we have to liberate ourselves from simplistic general global objectives that lacks a clear sense of direction and purpose lest we get tangled up everywhere. There are concrete things to do to get us to such a position of real power… and it is the actions of those most affected –and not just of the intelligentsia– that will ultimately count." — This article seems very relevant and useful for our thinking about the UN Committee on ESC Rights, and the idea of mobilising for greater involvement on this mechanism. Worth a read: Human Rights Reader 233 by C. L. Schur
http://www.socialmedicine.org/2010/02/13/human-rights/learning-from-expe...