20, July 2019
‘HIV isn’t over’: The world’s waning response to the AIDS crisis 0
As France prepares to host the Global Fund Replenishment Conference on fighting AIDS, experts warn against complacency in the global fight against HIV. France leads in some areas of the battle but has some catching up to do in others.
The United Nations Programme on HIV and AIDS released its 2019 Global Update on Tuesday, reporting that of the nearly 38 million people known to have the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), 14.6 million are still without access to antiretroviral therapy (ART).
Though the report focuses primarily on eastern and southern Africa, the regions most seriously affected, acting executive director of UNAIDS Gunilla Carlsson emphasised that even high-income, more developed nations must continue to be vigilant in their defence against the spread of HIV.
“HIV is not over. The so-called Western world still needs to keep an eye on the key populations: gay men, sex workers, drug users and transgender people,” Carlsson told FRANCE 24. “There is still a need to make sure that these people are not marginalised.”
Peter Ghys, one of the researchers who worked on the UN’s report, echoed Carlsson’s appeal to address certain populations very specifically. He offered the example of the increasingly popular preventative measure Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis. Known by its acronym PrEP, the strategy involves taking daily HIV-fighting medicines that, when used correctly, are proven to be 100 percent effective at preventing infection.
“Overall, our approach to tackling HIV is similar worldwide, but there are certain differences,” Ghys told FRANCE 24. “Much of the transmission in Western Europe is between gay men, which is much less of a concern in southern Africa. So in Europe, increasing access to PrEP is key.”
Awareness isn’t enough
While France is considered one of the leaders in HIV awareness in Europe, alongside the UK, the 2019 Global Update reports that France has yet to reach the top tier of countries who have taken initiatives against HIV. Those countries that have achieved 90 percent awareness of, treatment for and suppression of HIV – known as the 90/90/90 – include both “high-income” countries such as the UK and lower income nations like Namibia.
Though significant efforts have been made in France, co-coordinator of Collectif Sida 33, Maryse Tourne, is unsurprised that France has yet to achieve 90/90/90 status.
“We are always behind Anglo-Saxon countries when it comes to identifying and treating people with HIV,” she told FRANCE 24. The Bordeaux-based collective (AIDS 33) seeks to promote disease prevention and treatment in the city and nationwide.
“General doctors, specialists, all public health workers should be encouraging patients to get tested,” Tourne added. “We need everyone.”
As France looks to boost the percentage of people living with AIDS who are receiving treatment from 83 to 90 percent, according to UN estimates, Ghys noted that Western Europe should be following the same basic strategies promoted by the UN for reducing mortality rates worldwide.
“The most important thing is for all people who have been diagnosed with HIV to start treatment immediately, instead of waiting for their bodily systems to degrade and deteriorate,” he said. “What is true in France and in Western Europe is also the case in Africa. Both populations are dealing with similar issues.”
In terms of practical responses, Ghys underscores that awareness can only be the start of the solution.
“In part it’s awareness, but it’s also condom use, harm reduction for drug users, circumcision and PreP,” he said. “Stopping the spread of AIDS is related to scaling up all those programmes.”
‘But what about women?‘
The UN estimates that approximately 170,000 adults and children are living with HIV in France, with an estimated 30,000 of whom (17.6 percent) are not on the lifesaving ART treatment.
One French study conducted in 2006 estimated the population of MSM, or men who have sex with men, in France to be 330,000. Less than half of those men (44.5 percent) regularly use condoms, according to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, which likely contributes to the 14 percent of MSM with HIV, compared to 0.3 percent of the general population.
“There has been a drastic decrease in government funding for contraceptives … it’s concerning,” said Tourne. “PrEP is effective, but it’s not a substitute for contraception.”
The EU estimates that 86 percent of French MSM are aware that they carry HIV, and 78 percent are receiving antiretroviral therapy. However, there is far less data available on the 45,000 women (age 15 and over) living with the virus in France.
“Females are always forgotten when we talk about HIV,” Tourne said, emphasising that more attention should be paid to sex workers, a high-risk population that is predominantly female. “PrEP is very effective at preventing infection in men, but what about women?”
With her organisation, Tourne often does testing “in the field”, seeking out people at high risk for infection and offering them free screenings. However, she notes that France needs to go further if it wants to become HIV-free.
“There are too many people with HIV in France who remain undiagnosed, who are carrying viruses or diseases and don’t even know it,” Tourne insisted. “We have to establish more testing and consultation centres – ones located in high-risk areas, that stay open late, and that can respond appropriately to the needs of those at risk.”
‘The last mile’
The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria announced last May that France would host the sixth annual Replenishment Conference in Lyon this October. The goal of the conference is to raise money to fund projects that are part of the United Nations political declaration on ending AIDS, made by the UN General Assembly in 2016.
“We are extremely grateful to President [Emmanuel] Macron for leading efforts to renew and expand our impact, to the benefit of millions of people,” said Peter Sands, executive director of the Global Fund, in a statement.
As one of the founding partners of the Global Fund and its second-largest donor, France has been called a “pioneer” in its efforts to combat the AIDS epidemic worldwide, but UNAIDS workers are clear that the financial gap remains significant.
“The gap between the resources available and the resources estimated to be needed is slightly over $7 billion (€6.2 billion),” explained Ghys. “In 2017, it was around $6 billion, so the amount of available resources is decreasing. That is not the direction that the world should be going when it comes to support for AIDS. It is an issue of global solidarity.”
UNAIDS Director Carlsson is adamant that the UN Sustainable Development goal of ending the AIDS epidemic by 2030 is still achievable, but says that people have to remain dedicated to the cause.
“It is possible to control AIDS. We know what works, but we need to walk the last mile together,” she said. “We all have to galvanise and make sure that we don’t stop supporting low-income countries too early. We committed to ending AIDS worldwide, and we owe it to them to keep that promise.”
Source: France 24
26, July 2019
Cardinal Tumi calls for schools to reopen in Southern Cameroons 0
Schools in Cameroon’s troubled Anglophone regions need to re-open at the beginning of the school year, according to the country’s only cardinal.
The country’s North West and South West regions have been suffering an ongoing insurgency by English-speaking rebels complaining of discrimination and marginalization by the French-speaking majority.
The boycotts began in 2016 with a strike by lawyers and teachers protesting the use of French in courts using the Anglo-Saxon common law tradition (practiced in the English-speaking parts of the country) and in Anglophone schools, and it soon boiled over to the general public, with many Anglophones calling for outright secession. Since then, armed rebels have enforced the school boycott, leaving children in the two regions without an education for three years. With barely two months until the start of the 2019/2020 academic year, Cardinal Christian Tumi, the Archbishop emeritus of Douala, has called for the schools to be re-opened.
“It can’t continue this way,” the cardinal told Crux in his Douala residence.
In a recent visit to his hometown Kumbo – located in the North West region – Tumi said he came home with the shocking realization that schools in that part of the country do not function anymore. “A people who go for a single moment without school – what future do they have?”
“Assuming that the ‘amba boys’ become political leaders tomorrow, where will they get the educated manpower to work with for the good of the state?” asked the cardinal, referring to the common term for the rag-tag force fighting for the independence of the English-speaking regions of Cameroon.
Tumi noted that most of them are illiterate, and he said he doubted whether they really understand “the importance of education for the human being.”
He also admonished them for kidnapping teachers and students and described such actions as “torture.”
“There is a Catholic school in my village – St. Augustine’s College – where they went and kidnapped 150 students at night. Imagine the school age these days – these were children between 12 and 14 years. They were taken at night without shoes on and forced to trek for several kilometers. It’s torture,” the cardinal said.
“No matter their convictions, even if they are convinced that it’s necessary to continue fighting against established authority, they should allow schools to continue,” Tumi said. Church leaders in Cameroon have accused the government of being heavy-handed in its actions against the separatists, and complained that innocent civilians are the ones suffering the most.
Rather than negotiate, the government opted for military force to quell the tensions, leading to several deaths.
Originally most of the population wanted greater autonomy within Cameroon, as promised in the country’s original constitution, but the actions of the security forces have moved more and more in to the camp of those demanding outright independence for a country they want to call “Ambazonia.”
So far, at least 2,000 people have died in the conflict, and over 400,000 have been driven from their homes.
In 2017, several Anglophone groups called for a stop to the school boycott, calling it counter-productive, but were brandished as traitors by the separatists and school authorities who tried to reopen schools, and students who tried to attend them, were often kidnapped.
UNICEF, The UN’s children’s agency, estimates over 600,000 school-aged children aren’t attending classes in the Anglophone regions.
“Prior to October 2016, more than 6,000 schools were operational within the region. As of December 2018, less than 100 schools were operational; meaning nearly 5,900 schools were closed down with over 40,000 students out of school and over 40 schools burnt down,” said a July 9 statement by the Center for Human Rights and Democracy in Africa.
Other prominent voices are joining the cardinal in urging the rebels to stop their boycott.
Mancho Bibixy Tse, a journalist jailed for his support of the Anglophone movement, originally supported the school boycott.
He signed a document from his prison cell to call for the schools to be reopened.
He said the decision to campaign for an effective start to the new school year is borne “out of our consciences given the injustices our children have suffered for three years as a result of school boycott.”
“Our protest was for an improvement of the living conditions in the Anglophone regions. It was meant to be the voice of the voiceless masses who have been suffering without a way of letting the authorities know. It was meant to improve our educational system and not to destroy it,” Bibixy said in the June 20 statement.
“The Coffin Revolution [the local name for the revolt] is not the cause of the current crisis. Our peaceful course was hijacked, and we are suffering the consequences. We therefore are calling on parents in the two Anglophone regions to send their children back to school in September (2019). We are appealing to all political, religious and traditional authorities, development associations, Parent Teacher Associations, Civil Society Organizations, and human rights groups to join us in sensitizing our parents, children and teachers and all those involved in the education of our children for a total resumption of school in September,” the journalist said.
Tumi told Crux that is the right thing to do, so that “light will chase away the darkness.”
Source: Crux