| prevention-news@cdcnpin.org 2005-03-19, 5:18 pm |
| CDC HIV/STD/TB Prevention News Update
Monday, March 14, 2005
The CDC National Center for HIV, STD and TB Prevention provides the following information as a public service only. Providing synopses of key scientific articles and lay media reports on HIV/AIDS, other sexually transmitted diseases and tuberculosis does
not constitute CDC endorsement. The following summaries were prepared without conducting any additional research or investigation into the facts and statements made in the articles being summarized, and therefore readers are expressly cautioned against re
lying on the validity or invalidity of any statements made in these summaries. This daily update also includes information from CDC and other government agencies, such as background on Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) articles, fact sheets and
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tracted below for full texts of the articles.
HEADLINES
NATIONAL NEWS
WISCONSIN: "Program Says It Saved $3.3 Million by Reducing Pregnancies"
INTERNATIONAL NEWS
GLOBAL: "Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria Meets in Sweden"
GLOBAL: "The Women and AIDS Resolution"
CHINA: "China Launches First Human Trials of AIDS Vaccine"
AUSTRALIA: "Renewed Calls for Chlamydia Screening Program"
MEDICAL NEWS
UNITED STATES: "Sexual & Reproductive Health: Disease Diagnosis Does Not Change Girls' Sexual Behavior and Attitude"
LOCAL AND COMMUNITY NEWS
FLORIDA: "AIDS Network Receives Critical State Funding"
DELAWARE: "AIDS Program Leader Seeks to 'Protect' Youths"
NEWS BRIEFS
GLOBAL: "Ailing Pope Renews Call for Abstinence to Fight AIDS"
CAMBODIA: "Women Infected with HIV/AIDS Increase in Cambodia"
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NATIONAL NEWS
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WISCONSIN:
"Program Says It Saved $3.3 Million by Reducing Pregnancies"
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (03.13.05)::Stacy Forster
Wisconsin's "family planning waiver" program, which provides reproductive health care and contraception to low-income women ages 15-45, has saved the state more than $3.3 million, according to preliminary analysis. The program offers more than contra
ceptives, including such preventive treatments as cancer screening, STD tests, and routine gynecological exams, improving the health of women who might not otherwise have had access to such care, said State Senate Minority Leader Judy Robson (D-Beloit), a
registered nurse.
The report was produced by the state Department of Health and Family Services for the US Department of Health and Human Services, which provides 85 percent of the program's five-year, $48.2 million budget. The waiver program began in January 2003 and
now has 50,980 clients, nearly 1,000 more than its five-year enrollment target. Since almost no minor girls earn income in Wisconsin, nearly all are eligible for the program. Girls ages 15-17 accounted for 7,892 of the 33,494 enrollees in 2003.
The waiver program spent $5.8 million on family planning services to women, and clients' contraceptive use averted 1,278 pregnancies in the last quarter of 2003. These would have cost Medicaid $9.1 million, according to the report. None of the averte
d pregnancies were due to abortion, said Jason Helgerson, executive assistant at HFS. "This is one of the most cost-effective programs we have for reducing Medicaid costs," said Mark Moody, director of the state Medicaid program, which is facing a $620 mi
llion deficit for the 2005-2007 budget.
But critics of the program want more than cost savings. "Let's take that money and put it in some really fine abstinence education," said Family Research Institute-Wisconsin Executive Director Julaine Appling. Sen. Glenn Grothman (R-West Bend) thinks
HFS overestimated the number of unwanted pregnancies prevented, since some of the projected number of pregnancies would have been planned. Helgerson stood by the figures, which he said were based on federally mandated methodology.
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INTERNATIONAL NEWS
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GLOBAL:
"Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria Meets in Sweden"
Associated Press (03.14.05)::Tommy Grandell
Today, UN and Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria officials gathered in Stockholm, Sweden, for a three-day meeting to assess the Global Fund's monetary needs and how it can best finance projects. Since its founding as an independent organizatio
n in January 2002, the fund has supported some 300 programs in 180 countries, said Richard Feachem, its executive director.
"The value of these programs are already $8 billion, so we have quickly become a large mechanism to finance the fight against AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria," Feachem said. "But in the future, we need substantial funds to be able to be predictable an
d sustainable, which is the reason for having launched this replenishment mechanism."
For the first time, efforts to fight AIDS are not lagging behind the disease, said Dr. Peter Piot, UNAIDS executive director. "We are seeing results in the terms of more people being treated, thanks to the support of the Global Fund and others," said
Piot. "We are also seeing a decline in the number of new infections among young people in many African cities," he said. "But it's not enough to say we've got money today. We also need to make sure there is a predictable and sustainable funding when it c
omes to the fight against AIDS, because AIDS is going to be with us for many years."
UN Deputy Secretary-General Louise Frechette is among the meeting's attendees.
GLOBAL:
"The Women and AIDS Resolution"
Miami Herald (03.12.05)
On Friday, delegates to the UN's Commission on the Status of Women wrapped up a two-week meeting by passing 10 resolutions, including one on women and AIDS.
The resolution urges governments "to take all necessary measures to empower women and strengthen their economic independence. to enable them to protect themselves from HIV infection." It calls on governments to take steps to help women prevent HIV in
fection "principally through the provision of healthcare and health services, including for sexual and reproductive health and through preventive education."
The resolution also calls for expanded access to HIV/AIDS treatment, including treatment to prevent mother-to-child transmission. It recognizes the importance of young men and women having access to information and "youth-specific education." In addi
tion, it calls for new programs "to enable men, including young men, to adopt safe and responsible sexual and reproductive behavior and to use effective methods to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS."
Other resolutions asked governments and organizations to ensure that girls receive education and women have access to reproductive health care and psychological support.
CHINA:
"China Launches First Human Trials of AIDS Vaccine"
Reuters (03.12.05)
On Saturday, China launched its first human trials of a new AIDS vaccine, Xinhua News Agency reported. A 20-year-old man was the trial's first volunteer, followed by seven others, four of whom were women, said Xinhua. About 49 participants ages 18-50
are to receive the vaccine in three phases, the first lasting 14 months.
China has been criticized for an initially slow response to its growing AIDS epidemic, which was exacerbated by the cover-up of a blood-selling scheme in the Henan province that infected thousands of people in the mid-1990s. The government estimates
that 840,000 people out of China's 1.3 billion population are HIV-positive, although experts believe the true figure is around 1 million to 1.5 million. UNAIDS has said the number of HIV-infected Chinese could rise to 10 million by 2010 if urgent measures
are not taken.
On World AIDS Day 2004, Premier Wen Jiabao visited AIDS patients in a Beijing hospital as a symbolic display of the government's commitment to fight HIV/AIDS. But politics and conservative attitudes toward sex continue to hamper HIV prevention effort
s.
AUSTRALIA:
"Renewed Calls for Chlamydia Screening Program"
Australian Associated Press (03.11.05)
Young Australian women are increasingly at risk for chlamydia, according to studies conducted by the Burnet Institute in Victoria, prompting calls for a national screening program for the often asymptomatic STD.
Margaret Hellard, head of Burnet's epidemiology and social research program, and colleagues surveyed 16- to 29-year-olds at Melbourne's Big Day Out festival in January and found that just 41 percent of the women insisted on using a condom with a new
sex partner in the previous three months. Another study of 1,000 Victorian women showed that 3.7 percent of sexually active women ages 18-24 are infected with chlamydia, which can lead to infertility if left untreated. Hellard said the studies can be tran
slated nationally.
From 1997 to 2003, chlamydia diagnoses in Australia have more than tripled from 47 per 100,000 people to 154 per 100,000. "There's certainly evidence that young people are not using condoms all of the time and are not using condoms with new partners
and that is an issue," said Hellard.
Christopher Fairley, a university of Melbourne sexual health professor, said most developed nations already have, or are putting in place, a chlamydia screening program. "The large pool of undiagnosed cases of chlamydia is really providing a silent e
pidemic of infertility amongst women that is largely preventable," said Fairley. "A screening program would provide Australian women with a higher level of health than they've previously had."
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MEDICAL NEWS
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UNITED STATES:
"Sexual & Reproductive Health: Disease Diagnosis Does Not Change Girls' Sexual Behavior and Attitude"
Women's Health Weekly (02.24.05)
In the current study, researchers sought to examine changes in sexual risk and condom use behaviors, together with perceived susceptibility to future STDs, among "adolescent females who were recently diagnosed with an incident STD compared to those w
ho were not diagnosed with an incident STD," explained T.S. Kershaw and colleagues at Yale University.
The researchers assessed 308 adolescent females at two time intervals six months apart. Between the two time points, 92 participants were diagnosed with an STD and 216 were not.
"Results indicated that adolescents did not significantly change their behaviors, attitudes, or perceptions following the diagnosis of an incident STD compared to those who were not diagnosed with an incident STD," wrote the authors. "This suggests t
hat an STD diagnosis alone is not sufficient to motivate adolescent females to reduce their sexual risk behavior and change their sexual risk attitudes and perceptions," they concluded.
The full study, "Sexual Risk Following a Sexually Transmitted Disease Diagnosis: The More Things Change the More They Stay the Same," was published in the Journal of Behavioral Medicine (2004;27(5):445-461).
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LOCAL AND COMMUNITY NEWS
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FLORIDA:
"AIDS Network Receives Critical State Funding"
Bradenton Herald (03.10.05)::Donna Wright
On Wednesday, the Florida Department of Health awarded a $173,297 CDC grant to Sarasota-based Community AIDS Network, which provides prevention outreach to people at risk for HIV in Manatee, Sarasota, DeSoto, and Charlotte counties. The CDC grant is
one of 32 awards totaling $4.7 million provided to Florida's community-based HIV/AIDS service organizations.
The funding is crucial for Manatee and Sarasota counties, two counties that have more cumulative HIV/AIDS cases than 25 states, said Harold Young, the network's vice president of prevention services. "We are very excited about this project because th
is is the first time we have been able to apply for funding to serve both counties," Young said. Because Manatee and Sarasota counties belong to different state Health Department districts, such collaborative efforts in the past were not possible.
The network plans to use the funds on two interventions. One, the VOICES project, is an interactive video program to help teach correct condom use and how HIV is spread. The second intervention involves HIV-prevention case management for at-risk indi
viduals. A federally funded study conducted one year ago by Manatee County Health Department will help the network identify ideal populations for the outreach efforts.
DELAWARE:
"AIDS Program Leader Seeks to 'Protect' Youths"
News Journal (03.05.05)::Mike Chalmers
Launched in 2000, Project PACT (Peers Achieving Change Together) is a program of AIDS Delaware that presents youth-oriented HIV-prevention outreach through peer-produced songs, skits, raps, and poems. Most of the teens who project coordinator Tanya W
ingate meets know how HIV is transmitted, how the disease progresses, and how to prevent it.
"So why do statistics reflect the fact that half of the new HIV cases happen in your age group?" Wingate asks. "The answer I always get is they don't think it's going to happen to them." That is why the skits are so important. "It's not like an adult
trying to instill a message," she said. "Their performances are fun but realistic."
Currently, the eleven teenagers involved in the project perform at schools, churches, community centers, and other locations. On March 4, the teens performed at Hearts and Minds Film Festival in Wilmington.
Project PACT's work is key to curbing HIV's spread among youths, said Frank Hawkins, education and outreach director for AIDS Delaware. Parents often dictate to their children rules about sex and other behavior rather than educating them about the co
nsequences of their choices, he said. A peer-led message about sex is usually more effective, said Wingate, who is working at AIDS Delaware through AmeriCorp's Public Ally program.
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NEWS BRIEFS
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GLOBAL:
"Ailing Pope Renews Call for Abstinence to Fight AIDS"
Agence France Presse (03.11.05)
In a statement released Friday from the Rome hospital where he continues to recover from throat surgery and the flu, Pope John Paul II again called for fidelity between spouses and abstinence to fight the AIDS pandemic. In a message to the bishops of
Tanzania, where an estimated 2 million people are HIV-infected, the pope said promoting genuine family values is "all the more urgent on account of the terrible scourge of AIDS afflicting your country and so much of the African continent. Fidelity within
marriage and abstinence outside it are the only sure ways to limit the further spread of infection. Communicating this message must be a key element in the Church's response to the epidemic. It especially grieves me to consider the many thousands of chil
dren left as orphans in the wake of this merciless virus."
CAMBODIA:
"Women Infected with HIV/AIDS Increase in Cambodia"
Xinhua News Agency (03.08.05)
Cambodia has made progress in fighting HIV transmission, especially between sex workers and their clients, but concern is growing over the increase in transmissions between husbands and wives and from mothers to their children. The number of men with
HIV has been in decline since 1997, but the number of infected women continues to climb. The National AIDS Authority reported on March 8 that 57,500 Cambodian women have HIV, representing about half the nation's 123,000 HIV patients.
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