Results tagged “HIV/AIDS initiative” from AIDS & HIV

Author: Toni Lawson

Has HIV-AIDS been created in laboratories funded by neo-conservative ideologues and "religious fascists" to depopulate vulnerable target groups, including blacks and other minorities, homosexuals, and perceived "decadent" sexually active individuals?

Wangari Maathai suggests that HIV-AIDS is "man-made", and consistent with depopulation policy agenda. Depopulation has been a pivotal agenda of the neo-conservative American Eugenics Movement, in order to "free-up" resources for rich elites, and away from "inferior groups".

The first African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize, Wangari Maathai of Kenya, spoke out on the AIDS virus saying it was man-made and deliberate ploy created as a weapon of 'biowarfare'.

Global Fund International has approved $67m (Frw361.8bn) project proposals for Rwanda to control HIV/Aids and Tuberculosis (TB). According to sources, the approval follows the submission of three project proposals worth $76m (approxFrw410.4b) early this year.
 
Efforts to get a comment from Dr Innocent Nyaruhirira, the State Minister in charge of Aids and Other Infectious Diseases over the development were fruitless by press time.

ut a source in the Ministry of Health confirmed the approval of the two project proposals, saying they covered the next five years.Shakilla Umutoni, a member of the Global Fund Country Coordinating Mechanisms (CCMs) for Rwanda, said: “When we met as members of CCM-Rwanda, we had so many proposals under each programme (HIV/Aids, TB and Malaria). But as the Global Fund required, we had to fuse them all up or even drop others to come up with three of them.”

The delay in reauthorizing the Ryan White CARE Act -- which provides funding for HIV/AIDS programs in the U.S. -- is "playing havoc with AIDS funding for 10 states that have yet to convert to a new system" of reporting HIV/AIDS cases by name and could "seriously impair the care of thousands of AIDS patients in Maryland," a Baltimore Sun editorial says (Baltimore Sun, 11/2).

Legislation that reauthorized the CARE Act in 2000 gave states six years to begin reporting people who are HIV-positive by name, not numerical code, as Maryland currently does (Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Report, 11/1). If the reautorization of the CARE Act -- which contains an extension of the "grace period" for switching to name-based reporting -- is not approved, "about $10 million to $15 million in AIDS funding for the Baltimore area would be lost," according to the editorial.

"Maryland's senators should be looking for a way to press their colleagues to at least enact into law the reporting grace period," the editorial says, adding, "Barring that, the next governor should be prepared to cover some of the shortfall until a compromise" is reached (Baltimore Sun, 11/2).

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GENEVA (AFP) - The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria said it had failed to choose a new executive director among five candidates and would renew its search, postponing a decision until April 2007.

The administrative Board, meeting this week in Guatamala, "could not reach consensus," said Board President Carol Jacobs in a statement.

"The new executive director will need strong and broad support to accomplish our life-saving mission. The Board has therefore decided to continue the search process, with the goal of identifying and appointing a new Executive Director by its next Board meeting in April 2007," the statement said.

The term of the current executive director of the Fund, Richard Feachem, comes to an end in March 2007.

Southeast Asia's HIV prevention program has become ineffective because of a lack of political commitment in addressing the epidemic across the region, Thierry Mertens, special adviser to the WHO Regional Office for Southeast Asia, said Tuesday at a regional meeting, the Bangkok Post reports.

Mertens said poor health care services and inadequate human resources also are hindering efforts to control the spread of HIV and other infectious diseases, including tuberculosis and hepatitis C, in the region. In addition, Mertens said that Southeast Asian countries are at high risk of an HIV/AIDS epidemic in part because of a lack of education about condom use and the high prevalence of sexually transmitted infections in the region.

"The Southeast Asia region is not an exception to the documented global low coverage in prevention services," Mertens said, adding, "Despite effective interventions such as condom use, the coverage of these prevention interventions across the region has been poor."A 2005 WHO report found that there are about 6.7 million people living with HIV/AIDS in the Southeast Asian region. This year's figures will be released on World Aids Day on Dec. 1, the Post reports (Bangkok Post, 11/1).

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NEW YORK (Reuters) - Future treatment for the 40,000 people infected with HIV in the United States every year will cost $12.1 billion annually, a new study showed on Wednesday.

U.S. patients infected with HIV can expect medical bills for current care related to the disease of $618,900 during their lifetimes, according to the study, which will appear in the November issue of Medical Care.

Current medical bills for U.S. HIV patients from the beginning of care until death average $2,100 per month. The projected lifetime HIV-related medical costs were based on life expectancies of 24.2 years for patients in optimal HIV care.

A new drug for HIV/Aids sufferers will reduce side-effects and simplify pill regimes, the New Zealand Aids Foundation says.

The once-a-day protease inhibitor atazanavir (Reyataz) will be funded by Pharmac from today.

Protease inhibitors are taken to stop the HIV virus from reproducing.

Pharmac medical director Peter Moodie said HIV patients usually took a combination of different drugs, which had to be changed as people grew resistant to them.

LILONGWE (AFP) - The United Nations' special envoy for HIV and AIDS in Africa accused the world's wealthiest countries on Sunday of failing to deliver on promises to increase aid to the most impoverished continent.

"Where is the G8 money ? Where is the promise ... The world is running out of patience. Why has the G8 defaulted?" Stephen Lewis told reporters in Malawi.

The world's seven richest nations and Russia pledged at a summit in Gleneagles, Scotland, in July 2005 to provide universal access to treatment for AIDS sufferers in Africa until 2010.

The G8 nations had also promised to help support children orphaned by AIDS on the continent and double their donations to the Global Fund.

DURHAM, N.C.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Argos Therapeutics today announced that it has been awarded a $21 million National Institutes of Health contract to develop novel HIV immunotherapy candidates. Argos is developing personalized, RNA-loaded dendritic cell immunotherapy products designed to train the patient’s immune system to recognize, target, and destroy unique features of their disease.

“This substantial NIH award provides important validation of Argos’ pioneering approach to personalized immunotherapy, which may have strong applications not only for HIV, but also for cancer and other infectious diseases,” commented Dr. Charles Nicolette, Vice President of Research and Development at Argos and Principle Investigator for the contract. “Our unique technology utilizes patient-specific HIV antigens, allowing immune targeting of all private mutations that differ from patient to patient. This product candidate should induce immune responses perfectly matched to each individual’s unique viral profile.”

NEW DELHI - The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has pledged 23 million US dollars to India to help halt the spread of the virus that causes AIDS.

The money will be used to train government health workers in HIV and AIDS prevention programs and to fund groups that work with high risk segments of the population, such as prostitutes and intravenous drug users.

GENEVA (AFP) - The first beneficiaries of an international tax on air travel to help the world's poor will be 250,000 children suffering from HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis, French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy said.

Douste-Blazy, who was appointed to head the agency overseeing the funds, UNITAID, said 19 countries have started taking steps to implement the levy.

ABUJA, Nigeria - Microsoft Corp. founder Bill Gates met President Olusegun Obasanjo this weekend for talks on fighting poverty and disease on the world's poorest continent, a senior official said Sunday.

Information Minister Frank Nweke said Gates arrived in Nigeria with his wife, Melinda, on Saturday and met with Obasanjo at his farm on the outskirts of the country's biggest city, Lagos.

PHILIPPINES - A Departement of Health official said anti-retroviral (ARV) drugs for adults, or medications for the treatment of infection by retroviruses, primarily HIV, are available for free at the Davao Medical Center.

Department of Health Undersecretary Ethelyn Nieto, during the ongoing 8th Philippine National Convention on Aids at the Royal Mandaya Hotel, said ARV drugs will be released to any person depending on the patient's viral load or the concentration of a virus, such as HIV, in the blood.

DUBLIN (AFP) - Ireland will provide 70 million euros (89 million dollars) to help fight HIV/ AIDS in Africa under an agreement signed by Prime Minister Bertie Ahern and former US president, Bill Clinton.

The new funding agreement will make Ireland the largest single country donor to the Clinton Foundation HIV/AIDS Initiative.

The aid will be particularly targeted at Mozambique and Lesotho, two of the African countries worst affected by HIV/AIDS.