THE ELECTRONIC BULLETIN OF THE SWISS PLATFORM FOR HIV/AIDS AND INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION

“Give people hope and perspectives!! Many examples have shown that even people in the worst stage of health have a chance to recover and to reassume responsibility for themselves.” This is one of the core statements by Lily Pulver on the occasion of the aidsfocus-Forum on “HIV-treatment for all. A realistic project” when she talked about the experiences of the Red Cross in Swaziland.

Hope and perspectives, but also information and support by the family and community are essential prerequisites for the willingness and ability to take up responsibility for one’s own health and for getting well again.

The international Community of Practice on HIV and Aids has coined the term of „treatment literacy“, i.e. treatment or patient competence. The South-African action group Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) emphasizes the meaning of treatment literacy in order for achieving success in treatments: „We must know our medicines by name, how they were found to be effective, and how and where in the body they work; their side effects and how they can be managed; how to monitor the safety of medicine; what food to take and not to take with them. That way we can feel we have some control over our health.”

Treatment literacy is just as important for children as for adults, here and elsewhere. Almost 200'000 children worldwide are included in an anti-retroviral therapy. With growing technological means and the increased access of children to HIV-treatments new and relevant questions emerge: What does a child understand by the fact of being HIV-positive? What does it need in order for a child to regularly take his/her medecine and to do this all one’s life and without interruption? What does this mean to his/her life, friends and schools? How can stakeholders help the children to live positively and to have a fulfilled and happy childhood?

More child-friendly material is needed in order for the children to learn to understand their status and their treatment – and once they have grown older in order to take responsibility for their treatment. A promising example is the ‘Children’s ART Literacy Toolkit for Communities’, that SAfAIDS in Zimbabwe developed on the basis on their own experiences. The toolkit works with the method of “edutainment”, a method of playful learning for children. SAfAIDS developed the toolkit for all children, HIV-positive or not, and for their circle of friends and care persons. It includes child-friendly messages and activities that help to understand what HIV and Aids is, as well as strategies to integrate treatment in every day life. This raises hopes and encourages to live one’s own dreams.

This is a very appealing toolkit! It is worth while for us adults as well to cast a glance at least into the electronic version.

Helena Zweifel Coordinator aidsfocus.ch

--------------------------------------------------------------- FOCUS

--------------------------------------------------------------- KIDS ART EDUCATION SERIES - THE CHILDREN'S TREATMENT LITERACY TOOLKIT

The package, Kids ART Education Series (KAES) shares knowledge, facts and a series of creative and fun activities, centered around children and antiretroviral therapy (ART). Children can share it with their peers, family, friends and other members in the community. Children living with HIV are a critical group of people living with HIV (PLHIV), and are often overlooked when efforts are made in promoting community ART literacy.(2008)

http://www.safaids.net

This findings paper by Healthlink Worldwide focuses on the role of communication in ensuring that people, individually and in communities, understand what anti-retroviral therapy (ART) is, why it is needed and what it can and cannot do. The paper, which draws on research from across the world, explores the issues of access, uptake and adherence of ARTs. It urges that learning from community responses is recognised as important for maximising access to and impact of treatment. (By Alison Dunn, Healthlink Worldwide, 2006)

http://www.healthlink.org.uk

HIV treatment literacy, particularly among children, has been discussed at a number of sessions at the International AIDS Conference in Mexico City in August 2008. Another important issue is the integration of treatment programmes with psychosocial support. During her speech at the IAC, Professor Richter laid out a new action agenda for the provision of social protection and universal access to some of the poorest families in low-income countries. (AIDSCAREWATCH Monitor Issue 42 September 2008)

http://eforums.healthdev.org

This evaluation report presents the findings of a project from KwaWazee supporting older people and their dependants in Tanzania and shows the impact of pensions on the lives of older people and their grandchildren. Besides presenting findings on the economic impacts of cash transfers, the study also presents remarkable findings on the rarely-explored area of psychosocial wellbeing of older people. Moreover, the study’s inclusion of children in an impact assessment of cash transfers through activity-based workshops is probably unprecedented.(2008) The report can be downloaded in English and German.

http://www.kwawazee.ch
http://www.aidsfocus.ch

Korean patients and activists are calling for "The Global Action Week Against Roche 1st-7th October 2008" to urge Roche to stop abuse their power and threaten HIV patients. Fuzeon is an essential drug for HIV-positive people who have tried other anti-HIV drugs in the past and are unable to keep their viral loads undetectable using drugs that are currently available. (People’s Health Movement)

http://www.phmovement.org

1. October 2008 - Luc Montagnier and Francoise Barre-Sinoussi, two French scientists who jointly were awarded half of the Nobel Prize for medicine earlier this week for voiced their concerns that international HIV/AIDS funding and research could decrease because of the recent global financial crisis. Montagnier also questioned whether assistance from the Global Fund To Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria for medicines in places such as Africa could continue in light of the financial situation.(kaisernetwork)

http://www.kaisernetwork.org

Harare, 29 September 2008 - AIDS activists are hoping that the country's new administration will make good on promises to urgently improve access to affordable HIV/AIDS treatment and services at state hospitals. The country's three political parties - ZANU-PF and the two factions of the majority Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) - signed a power-sharing deal on 15 September, ending one of the worst periods of inter-party political violence since Zimbabwe gained independence in 1980.(PlusNews)

http://www.plusnews.org

Zimbabwe, 18 September 2008 - The story about Tendai, 35, Red Cross home-based care client in Masvingo, is the third in a series of six profiles, looking at the people affected by Zimbabwe's food crisis. Over the past months, her conversations with the Red Cross carers have tended to be about food. Like many people in this dusty and dry town, Tendai can often go three or four days without anything to eat. (IFRC)

http://www.ifrc.org

Johannesburg, 26 September 2008 - Activists and health workers in South Africa celebrated outside the Cape Town parliament building last night after the news that Dr Manto Tshabalala-Msimang has been replaced as South Africa’s Minister of Health by Barbara Hogan, one of the few African National Congress (ANC) Members of Parliament who spoke out openly against AIDS denialism in former president Thabo Mbeki’s government.

http://www.aidsmap.com

Johannesburg, 19 September 2008 - Combining antiretroviral (ARV) therapy with treatment for tuberculosis (TB) could more than halve the current mortality rate among patients co-infected with HIV and TB, saving an estimated 10,000 lives a year in South Africa. These are the findings of a clinical trial by the Centre for the AIDS Programme of Research in South Africa (CAPRISA) in Durban, which compared mortality rates in three groups of co-infected patients who began ARV treatment at different stages of their TB therapy.(PlusNews)

http://www.plusnews.org

1. September 2008 - The scaled–up delivery of antiretroviral drugs through primary healthcare offers an important opportunity for health care systems to manage the transition towards caring for people with chronic illnesses as populations age and cancers and cardiovascular disease become more common, according to the authors of a South African study looking at causes of death over 13 years in rural South Africa.(aidsmap)

http://www.aidsmap.com

1. September 2008 - A patent request from the pharmaceutical company Gilead for its antiretroviral drug tenofovir was rejected by Brazil Wednesday. After announcing the decision, a Ministry of Health spokesperson confirmed a statement from the Patent Office that the request was rejected on the grounds that it "lacked technological inventiveness," according to Reuters. The decision means that Brazil now could import less expensive, generic versions of tenofovir because of World Trade Organization regulations).

http://www.kaisernetwork.org

The HIV Research Trust Scholarships are for physicians, nurses, scientists, and other health care professionals who are undertaking research in resource poor settings. The award is used develop a candidate’s career and, on return to the home institution, add to the capacity of the department to carry out research related to treatment and prevention. Scholarship applications will close on 31 October.

http://www.iasociety.org

There is a large number of religious organisations in the fight against AIDS. For example, the Catholic church takes 25% of the prevention and care programmes for its account. Discussions about AIDS continue stabbing on the role of the condom. Especially for religious organizations, this is an issue. Without wishing to undermine the condom discussions, Cordaid aims to emphasize the positive role of religious organizations. Submissions can be sent up to 15 november 2008.

http://www.cordaidpartners.com

There is increasing evidence that introducing antiretroviral treatment (ART) in resource poor settings can be very effective. ART is the focus of the monthly HIV and AIDS REPORTER August 2008. The reporter is produced by the IDS Health and Development Information team in collaboration with Eldis and the DFID Health Resource Centre and aims to provide readers with a more in-depth look at a particular area of health policy.

http://www.eldis.org

This paper describes efforts in the Asia/Pacific region to target young women with HIV prevention health messages. It seeks to provide non-formal HIV prevention educators with information and tools that will help them understand the complexities of gender specific to the region. (UNESCO, UNFPA 2008)

http://www.unescobkk.org

The annual World Health Report by the World Health Organization (WHO) finds that the inequalities are now much greater than they were 30 years ago and that too often health care is treated as a commodity on which a profit can be made. It recommends a return to primary health care, the more holistic approach developed in the 1970s where general practitioners, family doctors or nurses perform tasks that these days are frequently carried out by specialists. In far too many cases, people who are well-off and generally healthier have the best access to the best care, while the poor are left to fend for themselves. (October 2008)

http://www.who.int

The Global Health Watch is a call to all health workers to broaden and strengthen the global community of health advocates who are taking action on global ill-health and inequalities, and their underlying political and economic determinants. Unlike other reports on global health, it also draws attention to the politics of global health and the policies and actions of key actors. Global Health Watch 2 includes chapters on the Gates Foundation, the World Bank, the World Health Organization and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. (October 2008)

http://www.ghwatch.org

Basel | Medicus Mundi Switzerland is hosting the seventh Swiss Health Cooperation Symposium on the future of community health. The Declaration of Alma Ata was signed 30 years ago. It reaffirmed health as a basic human right. Health for all is only achievable if people throughout the world can get involved in its social, economic and political development. Community health projects are an important approach to doing so. Where does international health cooperation stand 30 years after Alma Ata? What is the future of community health? Who are the players who can help to achieve the right to health for everyone?

http://www.medicusmundi.ch

Berne | The annual meeting of aidsfocus.ch, the Swiss platform on HIV/AIDS and international cooperation, is an important forum for the sharing of information and experiences. Besides the annual report and accounts, there will be a window open for sharing of information and experiences. It will be followed by an input and discussion with Emery Mpwate, AIDS Coordinator of mission 21 in Cameroun: "The Role of Faith-Based organisations in the response to HIV and AIDS.

http://www.aidsfocus.ch

Partners: Afro-European Medical and Research Network, AIDS & Child, Bethlehem Mission Immensee, Caritas Switzerland, cinfo, CO-OPERAID, Déclaration de Berne, Doctors without Borders, Esperanza Medicines Foundation, FEPA, Fédération Genevoise de Coopération, Gemeinschaft St. Anna-Schwestern, HEKS, IAMANEH Switzerland, International Federation of the Blue Cross, INTERTEAM, Kindernothilfe Schweiz, Kwa Wazee, medico international Switzerland, mediCuba-Suisse, missio, REPSSI, SolidarMed, Swiss Aids Care International, Swiss Aids Federation, missio, mission 21, Swiss Aids Care International, Swiss Catholic Lenten Fund, Swiss MIVA, Swiss Red Cross, Swiss Tropical Institute, Tear Fund, Terre des hommes Foundation, terre des hommes schweiz, and World Vision Switzerland.