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ICEM HIV/AIDS e-bulletin - No. 79, April 2012

16 April, 2012

 

In this issue of the ICEM HIV/AIDS newsletter, we report on the HIV/AIDS project in India, on Women’s Day in Côte d’Ivoire and on the renewal of mining licences in South Africa being linked to HIV and TB workplace policies. We also address a call to the Canadian government to bring up the HIV/AIDS issue at next month’s G8 Summit in the US.

 

HIV/AIDS Workplace Project in India

The final report of the HIV/AIDS workplace project in India reveals the enormous impact the project has had. Sponsored by the German pharmaceutical company Boehringer Ingelheim, the project ran from August 2008 to the beginning of 2012.

Sixty-one master trainers were trained, who in turn organised 28 programmes in which 709 peer educators received skills training. Particular attention was also given to women who received training in courses exclusively for women. Furthermore, sensitization programmes were organised for para-medical staff and teachers and students of company schools.

In follow-up programmes at grass-root level, almost 20,000 people benefited from awareness and behaviour change messages.

    

Women’s Day Activity in Côte d’Ivoire

The HIV/AIDS Coordinator for Francophone West Africa, Charlotte Nguessan, organised a very successful symposium on Violence Against Women for women workers in the petroleum sector of Côte d’Ivoire. More than 200 women attended the deliberations; the Human Resources Directors of the companies were also present at the meeting. Sexual violence is a factor in transmitting HIV infections. An appeal was made to stop all forms of violence against women and to introduce effective sanctions when such violations happen.

In a statement on International Women’s Day on 8 March, the International Community of Women Living with HIV and AIDS called on world leaders to provide resources to stop HIV infection of women. Worldwide, women constitute around half of people living with HIV and AIDS. They represent 59% in sub-Saharan Africa and 53% in the Caribbean. In all regions, HIV prevalence in women has increased dramatically throughout the years.

        

South Africa: No HIV and TB Workplace Policy, No Mining Licence

Speaking to hundreds of mine workers and community members in the mining town of Carletonville, South Africa, on World TB Day, Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe, a former General Secretary of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), urged the mining industry to improve TB services, upgrading health centres to allow for the treatment of drug-resistant TB and to extend health services to those from surrounding communities and mines that may have limited access to healthcare.

At the same event, Mineral Resources Minister Susan Shabangu announced that mining companies which have HIV, TB and workplace safety policies audited by her ministry will have to submit their policies as a prerequisite for renewing their mining licenses.

As part of the deputy president's call for all mine workers to be screened for TB and HIV in the next year, World TB Day celebrations were accompanied by HIV and TB screenings, during which at least 1,220 people were examined for TB and 260 people were tested for HIV.

As in many countries in Southern and East Africa, South Africa's high TB incidence is fuelled by a high HIV prevalence. Although many people carry TB, only 10% will ever develop the active disease. But because of their compromised immune systems, people living with HIV are up to 37 times more likely to develop active TB.

Miners are also at a higher risk of TB due to bad living conditions, often in the poorly ventilated, overcrowded single-sex hostels that have historically characterized mining in South Africa, and have facilitated TB transmission. Miners exposed to high levels of silica dust also often acquire a serious respiratory illness called silicosis, which increases their risk of developing active TB.

(Source: IRIN News, Carletonville, 26 March)

                

G8 AIDS Campaign

Trade unions throughout Africa and Canada are calling on the Canadian government to champion a focus on HIV and AIDS at the next G8 Summit at Camp David, Maryland, in the US on 18-19 May 2012 with the theme “An AIDS-free Generation by 2015.”

A lobbying campaign delivers messages directly to Prime Minister Stephen Harper within Canada and through Canadian Embassies or Consulates throughout Africa. They are asking Canada to lead in calling on the G8 to implement the 2011 UN Political Declaration on HIV & AIDS and to replenish new resources to the Global Fund to fight AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria. They also want G8 countries to implement the ILO’s Recommendation 200 concerning HIV and AIDS and the World of Work, and strengthen the G8’s Accountability Framework.

Unions contend that the UN Political Declaration’s targets on AIDS are a time-bound road map, which are a logical extension of the G8 commitment to reach universal access to HIV prevention, treatment, care and support. Progress must be monitored through the G8 accountability mechanism. The same approach should be applied to the G8’s numerous affirmations of support for a fully-funded Global Fund.

(Source: CLC and ITUC emails)

                      

The Global Fund Finance Beyond Governments

Of every US$1 contributed to the Global Fund, more than 95 cents comes from the governments of rich countries. The Global Fund has been trying for years to obtain more revenue from other sources. Despite sizeable donations from foundations like the Gates Foundation (US$750 million donated for the period 2011–2016) and private sector companies (Chevron pledged US$55 million for the period 2008–2013) – and despite product marketing campaigns such as (PRODUCT) REDTMwhich has generated US$180 million for the Global Fund to date – such contributions still account for only a very small proportion of revenues.

Governments and activists have been searching for innovative ways to generate additional revenues – not just for the Global Fund itself, but also for the fight against specific diseases and for health and development more generally. Two of the ideas that have been explored are a tax on airline tickets and a tax on financial transactions.

The tax on airline tickets is already a reality. Between 2006 and April 2011, the tax raised US$2 billion for UNITAID, an international facility for purchasing drugs for HIV/AIDS, TB and malaria. The size and scope of the tax vary by country. This is still a sizable amount considering the fact that only nine countries implement the tax of which Chile, France and the Republic of Korea are the most important. The airline tax constitutes 70% of UNITAID’s revenues.

In September 2011, UNITAID commissioned a study on how to implement a financial transactions tax (FTT) on a national basis. Authors of the study estimated that a very small tax on a variety of financial transactions could generate €265 billion annually in the G20 countries. The idea of using an FTT to fund international development has been around for at least a decade but it is unlikely to be implemented universally.

(Source: Global Fund Observer, Issue 178 of 13 March. GFO is a free service of Aidspan www.aidspan.org; to receive GFO send an email to [email protected])

                              

African Sex Workers Top HIV Infection List

Prostitutes in sub-Saharan Africa have one of the highest rates of HIV infections in the world, an international study has established. The research findings also recommend that prostitution should be legalised to make working conditions for sex workers more tolerable and reduce their rate of HIV infections.

The study, which was released last Thursday, was funded by the World Bank and the UN and carried out by the US-based John Hopkins School of Public Health. It was published by The Lancet, a medical journal.

It recommends an urgent scale up of HIV programmes. The researchers sampled about 100,000 prostitutes from 50 countries in Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe, Latin America, the Caribbean and Middle East. They found that of all the prostitutes in the 50 countries, those in sub-Saharan Africa had the highest HIV prevalence. The survey, undertaken between the years 2007 to 2011, ranked prostitutes in Kenya, Uganda, Madagascar, South Africa, Malawi and Zimbabwe as having the highest rates of HIV infections.

(Source: Africa Review, Nairobi, 19 March)

                                  

ILO at UN Human Rights Council

At its 19th Session on 20 March 2012, the UN Human Rights Council held a panel discussion on giving a voice to people living with or affected by HIV/AIDS. The importance of workplace action was mentioned by the ILO, government of Brazil and government of France.

Alice Ouédraogo, Director, ILO Programme on HIV/AIDS and the world of work (ILO/AIDS), underlined that protection of human rights at work is essential and that 2010 ILO Recommendation on HIV and AIDS and the World of Work, the first human rights standard focusing on HIV/AIDS, should be widely used for improving legal protection of against discrimination. The importance of the workplace in protecting the rights of people living with of affected by HIV/AIDS was highlighted by Brazil and France.

Moyses Toniolo, National Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS, Brazil, said there were many forms of discrimination that people living with HIV/AIDS experience in the workplace. It was important to demystify HIV/AIDS, to stress that it could not be disseminated in the workplace through social interactions and to change people’s perceptions of people who were infected so that those who lived with HIV/AIDS were no longer stigmatized.

(Source: ILO/AIDS website)

                                        

News from Global Unions

The International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITFwww.itfglobal.org), in its latest HIV/AIDS update 120 of March reports on the establishment of the first network of HIV positive transport workers. USAFERI received its registration as a community based organisation from the Kenyan government.

The April 2012 Newsletter of the Swedish Workplace HIV and AIDS Programme (SWHAP), jointly run by the International Council of Swedish Industry (NIR) and the Swedish Industrial and Metalworkers’ Union (IF Metall), reports on a meeting of its Peer Educator Network. Peer educators are at the heart of most HIV/AIDS programmes. Their work is demanding and stressful and it is thus important for them to meet for debriefing and sharing of experience and strategies to help them cope with their roles.

Five Years Ago: From the April 2007 Issue (No. 19)

The first issue of the ICEM HIV/AIDS e-bulletin was published in October 2005. In current issues, we refer to an article from the same month five years ago and reflect on developments.

In the April 2007 HIV/AIDS e-bulletin, we reported, among other items, on the G8 campaign and on Côte d’Ivoire being on the right track; two topics which also appear in this April 2012 issue.

The G8 campaign in 2007 was lead by the Global Union AIDS Programme, which regrettably has ceased to exist. We made model letters available which were to be sent to German embassies, as the G8 in that year took place in Heiligendamm, Germany. As Germany also held the EU Presidency in the first six months of 2007, it organised an EU Presidency Conference in Bremen in March choosing HIV/AIDS as the main health policy topic. The German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, gave the keynote speech.

Important (and understandable because of the German double presidency) was her repeated reference to the G8 Summit. Germany had put HIV/AIDS on the agenda of the Summit and she promised that progress would be made.

The outcome document of the Conference in Bremen, the Bremen Declaration, made reference to trade unions: “We invite the employers and trade unions to ensure non-discriminatory policies for people living with HIV/AIDS and vulnerable groups in the workplace and to reduce fears of infection, stigma and discrimination among staff by providing objective, evidence-based information, and access to prevention, testing, treatment and care according to the ILO Code of Practice on HIV/AIDS and the world of work.”

On the other topic dealt with in the April 2007 issue, it is regrettable that the civil war in Côte d’Ivoire brought to nought many achievements and disrupted HIV and AIDS services. However, to the extent possible work in the ICEM-sponsored project continued and companies have become more cooperative.