Kaisernetwork.org (Washington, DC)
14 October 2008
Global Challenges
Global Financial Crisis Puts Success of MDGs At Risk, U.N. Head Says
[Oct 14, 2008]
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Monday said he is concerned about the effects that the current global financial crisis will have on impoverished nations and efforts to meet the United Nations Millennium Development Goals -- which include targets to curb the spread of diseases like HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria -- AFP/The International News reports. Ban said he is "deeply concerned" about the impact of the financial crisis on the developing world, "particularly on the poorest of the poor and the serious setback this is likely to have on efforts to meet major goals." He also said there is a need to "consider urgent multilateral action to alleviate the impact of recent events on the development agenda" of the United Nations.
According to Ban, next month's Financing for Development Conference -- organized by the World Trade Organization in Doha, Qatar -- "provides us an important opportunity to review developments and the ensure that the current financial difficulties do not undermine commitments already undertaken to provide more aid and other financial resources for the achievement" of the MDGs. In addition, because the global financial crisis could add pressure to donor organizations, the World Bank estimates that as many as 100 million people are at risk of poverty because of higher food and energy prices (AFP/The International News, 10/14).
In related news, the Group of 24 developing nations -- which includes developing and emerging countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East -- on Friday said that they could be affected by the current financial situation, adding that wealthy nations are not meeting aid pledges. "Developed countries have the means to deal with the problem, but we who are developing countries, or emerging countries, could collapse under the weight of such a crisis," G24 chair Jean-Claude Masangu Mulongo, governor of the central bank of the Democratic Republic of Congo, said, adding, "Our banking systems could come really crashing down." According to Mulongo, the U.S. developed a $700 billion financial rescue package in one week but could not meet pledges made in 2005 to increase aid. "We heard promises being made for development and to help countries in trouble," he said, adding, "These promises have not been respected in the face of an international crisis, which may spread very quickly, become systemic, with the risk of the international, whole world economy falling apart, or collapsing."
The G24 includes Algeria, Argentina, Brazil, Egypt, Ghana, Gabon, India, Iran, Mexico, Pakistan, Peru, the Philippines, South Africa, Syria, Trinidad and Tobago, and Venezuela. China is a G24 observer (Wroughton, Reuters, 10/10).
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Canadian HIV/AIDS Advocates Call for Increased Efforts From Next Government To Fight HIV/AIDS
[Oct 14, 2008]
A coalition of Canadian HIV/AIDS organizations led by the Canadian AIDS Society on Thursday called for the country's next elected government to reinstate social support and other resources for people living with HIV/AIDS, the CP/Yahoo! News reports. The call came after the coalition contacted Canada's five main political parties to ask them about their stances on issues surrounding HIV/AIDS. It also comes in response to reductions in HIV/AIDS funding by the government since 2005, which has resulted in what the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network estimates is an overall funding reduction of 6.57 million Canadian dollars, or about $5.5 million. In addition, the current government has redirected 5.2 million Canadian dollars, or about $4.5 million, to HIV/AIDS vaccine efforts, according to the network (King, CP/Yahoo! News, 10/9). The Canadian AIDS Society reports that a government initiative in 2004 committed to increasing federal HIV/AIDS funding from 42.2 million Canadian dollars -- or about $36 million -- to 84.4 million Canadian dollars -- or about $72 million -- by fiscal year 2008-2009, the Toronto Star reports. However, funding, which should have reached $74.7 million this year, was lower by 11.8 million Canadian dollars -- or about $10 million -- according to the Canadian AIDS Society.
Monique Doolittle-Romas, executive director of the Canadian AIDS Society, said that the groups have been "stunned by the silence surrounding HIV" during the federal election campaign, adding, "This is a topic worthy of discussion, especially since HIV/AIDS is preventable." Out of the five parties contacted, the coalition has received commitments from four -- the Liberals, the Green Party, the Bloc and the New Democratic Party -- that they will provide funding for HIV/AIDS initiatives and support for harm-reduction programs, according to Doolittle-Romas (Talaga, The Toronto Star, 10/10). The parties also agreed that funding for community programs is necessary, Doolitte-Romas said (CP/Yahoo! News, 10/9).
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Nigerian Government Plans Week To Encourage Citizens To Receive HIV Tests, Official Announces
[Oct 14, 2008]
Nigerian Vice President Goodluck Jonathan on Thursday announced the government's introduction of an annual "Know-Your-Status Week" as part of its fight against HIV/AIDS, Nigeria's This Day reports.
At the opening of a forum on making HIV counseling and testing more widely available to Nigerians, Jonathan said, "In the fight against HIV and AIDS, we are all commanders, we are all generals. The fight against HIV and AIDS is one fight whose rules of engagements allow all of us to be leaders wherever we find ourselves." Jonathan added, "Collectively, we will all fight the war at the individual level, at our communities, local governments, states and, of course, the national level, we cannot afford to lose the war."
Jonathan said the government plans to start the week on Dec. 1, assuring stakeholders that the government will provide "the enabling environment for the successful fight against HIV and AIDS, as the nation marches towards an HIV-free society."
Babatunde Oshotimehin, director-general of the National Agency for the Control of AIDS, commended the government's efforts to curb the spread of the disease through increased HIV testing (This Day, 10/10).
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Science & Medicine
Global HIV/AIDS Vaccine Conference in South Africa To Seek New Strategies Against Disease
[Oct 14, 2008]
Experts at a four-day global HIV/AIDS vaccine conference in Cape Town, South Africa, that opened Monday plan to seek "fresh strategies" against the disease, with experts "weighing the value of basic laboratory research against large-scale human clinical trials after a string of disappointments," Reuters reports. According to experts, approaches focusing on "neutralizing antibodies" that would allow the human immune system to block infection completely are likely to become the focus over existing models that seek to manage HIV after infection with the virus.
Lynn Morris, co-chair of the AIDS Vaccine 2008 conference and head of the AIDS unit at South Africa's National Institute for Communicable Diseases, said, "There's a real redirection and rethinking," adding, "Fundamentally, we don't understand enough about the human immune system, and we don't know how the immune system deals with HIV."
Reuters reports that the conference follows a year of several setbacks in HIV vaccine research (Quinn, Reuters, 10/12). Merck in September 2007 announced it had halted a large-scale clinical trial of its experimental HIV vaccine after the drug failed to prevent HIV infection in participants or prove effective in delaying the virus' progression to AIDS. The vaccine candidate also might have put some trial participants at an increased risk of HIV. Following news of the Merck vaccine, trials of NIH's Vaccine Research Center's HIV vaccine candidate were scaled back (Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Report, 3/25).
As a result of the setbacks, Morris said research now will focus on laboratory work to discover how to help the body produce antibodies to prevent infection altogether. "Neutralizing antibodies are a major component of almost all other vaccines," Morris said, adding, "I think there is going to be a real swing back to thinking about them."
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