Despite being largely preventable, mother-to-child transmission of HIV accounts for 30 percent of all new infections in Malawi and is the second major mode of transmission after unprotected sex. Every year, an estimated 30,000 babies are born HIV positive.
Relatively simple interventions to lower the risk of infection are available to only a small number of women and lag far behind the country's antiretroviral (ARV) treatment programme, which now reaches 70,000 HIV-infected people, or about 40 percent of those who need them.
In 2005, 5,054 women received Nevirapine, an ARV drug that can lower the chances of a mother infecting her baby by up to 40 percent. This was almost twice the number who received the drug in 2004 but, according to UNAIDS, the total number of pregnant women in Malawi who accessed prevention of mother-to-child treatment (PMTCT) services was still only 3 percent.
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This issue has grabbed my passion as transmission from mother to child is preventable.
In "developed" nations such as the U.S., hardly any children contract HIV during pregnancy, labor & delivery or breastfeeding.
Our organization is working with this issue. Our Hope health centers provide PMTCT services to HIV positive mothers and distributes nevirapine. There are obstacles to the treatment besides just receiving the drugs. As I am sure I have mentioned earlier, there is still stigma about even getting tested for HIV. Even when a mother has been tested, she may be hesitant to receive PMTCT services because she fears discrimination from others if she is noticed.
Another challenge is that the majority of women give birth at home/in their village and not at a health center. While this isn't necessarily a problem, since women are sent home with the drug to take during labor and give to their child within the first 72 hours of birth, it has been found that they are less likely to take the medication in this situation. It is hoped that teaching Traditional Birth Attendants (TBAs)about HIV & AIDS and the importance of taking nevirapine will help.
The positive is that we can reduce the chance of transmission to nearly zero with drugs and education.
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
HIV and AIDS funding, past and present
Here is some information about HIV & AIDS funding from the U.S. from www.avert.org... I think it provides some telling information about the current government...
Spending per person living with HIV in the United States exceeds that in the Latin America and Caribbean region by a factor of 35, and is 1,000 times higher than in Africa.3
One of the main providers of global funding in the fight against AIDS is the United States government. In his State of the Union address in January 2003, President Bush promised the world the President's Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), a commitment to significantly increase US spending on HIV around the world. Planned to run for five years, the plan was intended to direct $15 billion to places where it was most needed. PEPFAR became an umbrella for all the existing work being done by the United States, and for all the HIV-related funding that was already going out through the Agency for International Development (USAID) and other government agencies. While this is a huge sum, it pales in comparison to the amounts spent on wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and only $10 billion of this total was new money, $1 billion of which is provided to the Global Fund (see below); $5 billion was money that had been previously allocated, meaning that it would have to come from existing programmes.
PEPFAR funding is disbursed in accordance with the political views of the United States Government – meaning that 33% of the prevention funds are directed towards giving abstinence-only prevention messages. It has been suggested that the choice of countries that PEPFAR focuses on is politically motivated.
PEPFAR also refuses to fund projects and organisations that do not explicitly oppose prostitution, and allows faith-based organisations to refuse to provide information about proven methods of protection against HIV/AIDS (condoms) or to refuse to make referrals to clinics or organisations that offer critical prevention services and information.
The President's plan has a goal of having 2 million people on antiretroviral AIDS medicines (ARVs) by 2008, preventing seven million new infections, and caring for 10 million people infected with HIV or children who have been orphaned by AIDS.
PEPFAR is reluctant to direct AIDS funding to any government that the USA sees as connected to terrorism – although some countries that are so labelled would benefit from HIV-specific donations.
Severely affected countries tend to spend as much of their national budget as they are able on helping their own citizens.
Debt relief is certainly still a major factor in determining the efforts that poor countries are able to put into the fight against AIDS in future years. (Debt relief is a complicated issue...there are many perspectives on various sides of the issue).
More information can be found about PEPFAR including its methods, main beneficiaries and successes in our page on the President's Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief.
The good news is...I received the following email from my senator: Thank you for contacting me regarding the Tom Lantos and Henry J. Hyde United States Global Leadership Against HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria Reauthorization Act of 2008. I am very pleased that with my support, Congress has passed this comprehensive, life-saving legislation, which was signed into law by the President on July 30, 2008.
This measure reauthorizes the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), providing $48 billion over five years for HIV/AIDS treatment, care, and prevention worldwide. It sets spending for tuberculosis at $4 billion, and malaria at $5 billion, and authorizes $2 billion for fiscal year 2009 for the Global Fund To Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria. The bill also specifies that 10 percent of funding be designated for orphans and vulnerable children, increases focus on women and girls, and addresses gender-based violence. Furthermore, it repeals the travel ban for individuals who have been diagnosed HIV positive and instead puts this decision in the hands of the Secretary of Health and Human Services. Finally, it removes the one-third spending requirement on abstinence prevention efforts, which has proven to be ineffective.
Spending per person living with HIV in the United States exceeds that in the Latin America and Caribbean region by a factor of 35, and is 1,000 times higher than in Africa.3
One of the main providers of global funding in the fight against AIDS is the United States government. In his State of the Union address in January 2003, President Bush promised the world the President's Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), a commitment to significantly increase US spending on HIV around the world. Planned to run for five years, the plan was intended to direct $15 billion to places where it was most needed. PEPFAR became an umbrella for all the existing work being done by the United States, and for all the HIV-related funding that was already going out through the Agency for International Development (USAID) and other government agencies. While this is a huge sum, it pales in comparison to the amounts spent on wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and only $10 billion of this total was new money, $1 billion of which is provided to the Global Fund (see below); $5 billion was money that had been previously allocated, meaning that it would have to come from existing programmes.
PEPFAR funding is disbursed in accordance with the political views of the United States Government – meaning that 33% of the prevention funds are directed towards giving abstinence-only prevention messages. It has been suggested that the choice of countries that PEPFAR focuses on is politically motivated.
PEPFAR also refuses to fund projects and organisations that do not explicitly oppose prostitution, and allows faith-based organisations to refuse to provide information about proven methods of protection against HIV/AIDS (condoms) or to refuse to make referrals to clinics or organisations that offer critical prevention services and information.
The President's plan has a goal of having 2 million people on antiretroviral AIDS medicines (ARVs) by 2008, preventing seven million new infections, and caring for 10 million people infected with HIV or children who have been orphaned by AIDS.
PEPFAR is reluctant to direct AIDS funding to any government that the USA sees as connected to terrorism – although some countries that are so labelled would benefit from HIV-specific donations.
Severely affected countries tend to spend as much of their national budget as they are able on helping their own citizens.
Debt relief is certainly still a major factor in determining the efforts that poor countries are able to put into the fight against AIDS in future years. (Debt relief is a complicated issue...there are many perspectives on various sides of the issue).
More information can be found about PEPFAR including its methods, main beneficiaries and successes in our page on the President's Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief.
The good news is...I received the following email from my senator: Thank you for contacting me regarding the Tom Lantos and Henry J. Hyde United States Global Leadership Against HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria Reauthorization Act of 2008. I am very pleased that with my support, Congress has passed this comprehensive, life-saving legislation, which was signed into law by the President on July 30, 2008.
This measure reauthorizes the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), providing $48 billion over five years for HIV/AIDS treatment, care, and prevention worldwide. It sets spending for tuberculosis at $4 billion, and malaria at $5 billion, and authorizes $2 billion for fiscal year 2009 for the Global Fund To Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria. The bill also specifies that 10 percent of funding be designated for orphans and vulnerable children, increases focus on women and girls, and addresses gender-based violence. Furthermore, it repeals the travel ban for individuals who have been diagnosed HIV positive and instead puts this decision in the hands of the Secretary of Health and Human Services. Finally, it removes the one-third spending requirement on abstinence prevention efforts, which has proven to be ineffective.
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