HIV/AIDS response falls short
Press release of www.shaii.org
March to the Indian Mission at the UN in New York : India's response to HIV/AIDS pandemic falls short 
Activists urge immediate action to stop HIV/AIDS
 
Contact: Vineeta Gupta, US; Phone: 202-789-0432, Ext.207;          Email: vineeta@shaii.org

New York, May 31, 2006— Twenty-five years after the first AIDS case was diagnosed, thousands of people living with HIV, civil-society delegates, and AIDS activists from India and worldwide marched in front of the UN missions of India, Nigeria, Uganda, and the US. As world leaders gather at the UN General Assembly Special Session on HIV/AIDS (UNGASS), observers question their progress toward the goals endorsed in the 2001 Declaration of Commitment and call for greater efforts to accelerate access to HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment. 

"In 2001, the Indian government committed to reducing HIV prevalence by 2005.  Instead there has been a 32% increase in AIDS cases and an additional 1.3 million people infected with HIV.  Lack of effective action by the Indian government is costing lives every day," said Dr. Vineeta Gupta, Director of the HIV/AIDS in India Initiative (SHAII) , at a rally outside the Indian mission to the UN.  She demanded universal access to AIDS treatment and prevention in communities around the world through strengthening affordable basic heath care systems.

In addition to Dr. Gupta, speakers at the rally and march included Rosie Perez, actress/director and AIDS activist; Sipho Mthathi, Treatment Action Campaign (TAC), South Africa; Violetta Ross, Bolivian Network of People Living with AIDS; Beatrice Were, Action Aid, Uganda; Raminta Stuikyte, Central and Eastern Europe Harm Reduction Network; and Waheeda Shabazz, ACTUP Philadelphia.  A coalition of AIDS groups is demanding political accountability for the 15 million AIDS deaths and 25 million new HIV infections since 2001.  

In India less than 4% of HIV-positive mothers are receiving testing and counseling services, and less than 3% are receiving antiretroviral (ARV) prophylaxis to prevent HIV transmission to their infants.  India has not met the UNGASS goal of providing 20% of HIV-positive mothers with ARV prophylaxis by the end of 2005.  While millions of people in India urgently require ARV treatment, the Indian government has failed to disburse a $37 million grant from the Global Fund to scale up treatment programs that could potentially have saved more than 45,000 lives.

"With 70,000 children in dire need of antiretroviral treatment, only 1,048 are currently receiving such treatment. When will our government speed up action to save lives?" said Dr. Priya Ranjan of the Association for India's Development , Maryland.  More than two decades after the epidemic emerged, the Indian government still has no formal plan or guidelines for providing lifesaving ARV therapy to children.   India's large generic pharmaceutical industry—a source of affordable HIV/AIDS medicines for as many as half of all people with HIV/AIDS in poor countries—is under severe threat from powerful multinational pharmaceutical companies. Global health activists are urging the Indian government to deny Gilead Pharmaceuticals a patent on tenofovir, an important second-line AIDS medication.

The rally and march was organized by ACTUP - African Services Committee - American Jewish World Service - Community HIV/AIDS Mobilization Project - Gay Men's Health Crisis - Health GAP - Housing Works - New York City AIDS Housing Network - Positive Health Project - Student Global AIDS Campaign and supported by hundreds of groups from all over the world (END).


SHAII- Overview
Stop HIV AIDS in India Initiative (SHAII) 

SHAII is directed towards policy advocacy, grassroots activism, influencing international HIV/AIDS policies that affect India. It links the health movement in India with international advocacy to address the urgency of the HIV/AIDS pandemic in India. SHAII coordinated and mobilized an international response to oppose amendments to the Indian Patents Act, which threatened access to affordable generic medicines. The campaign resulted in significant positive changes in the proposed amendments.  SHAII is hosted by the Global AIDS Alliance (GAA), a non-profit advocacy group dedicated to catalyze the political will and financial resources needed to address the global HIV/AIDS crisis.   


SHAII stresses strengthening of basic health care to address HIV/AIDS and combines advocacy with campaigns against malaria, tuberculosis, and OVC rights.  SHAII works to increase knowledge of the issues, barriers and key needs facing HIV/AIDS patients among the public, policy makers, Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) and grassroots organizations in order to galvanize a response to the HIV/AIDS crisis. SHAII is urging Indian decision-makers to ensure that the new patent law safeguards access to affordable generic medicines by Indian citizens and millions of people throughout the developing world.  SHAII calls attention to the extent of the OVC problem and works towards changes in policy and law.


The policies and projects of the International Financial Institutions (IFIs) often have conditions attached to them requiring domestic policy changes which have a wide-ranging impact on HIV/AIDS and health. These conditions result in the imposition of user-fees on basic social services like health, education and water and have a disproportionate impact on poor people, particularly women and OVC. The user-fee makes health services costlier and often forces them to depend on unqualified medical help, which can result in the spread of communicable diseases such as HIV through unsafe injections.  It is estimated that 62.9 per cent of the injections in India are unsafe (WHO). SHAII works towards removal of user-fee in health.

 
Vineeta Gupta 

Dr. Vineeta Gupta is the founder and director of the Stop HIV/AIDS in India Initiative. She has a unique formal education (she holds degrees in both medicine and law) and an impressive eighteen years of experience as a grassroots human rights activist and community organizer in India and the U.S. These skills helped her to develop and lead multiple international and grassroots campaigns in order to promote justice and challenge economic and social marginalization.


Between 1986 and 2003, she served as a national council member of the Peoples' Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) in India. There, she investigated and reported on human rights violations and corruption in the Indian government at a grave risk to her career and person. She received Rotary Service to Humanity Award for her work among others honors. In 1998, Vineeta became the General Secretary of Insaaf (Justice) International, where she built and coordinated the volunteer-based organization to spread health and human rights awareness.


She used various tools in her work like workshops and trainings, street theater, international and national (India) coalition building, grassroots mobilization, and public interest litigation. Her involvement in human rights brought her face to face with the wide array of injustices that the impoverished, especially women, in India face daily. Vineeta obtained a Master's degree in International Human Rights Law (LL.M.) from the University of Notre Dame. Since then, she has devoted her time, energy, and extensive experience in health care, the law, and international advocacy to the Stop HIV/AIDS in India Initiative in order to mobilize international response to end the devastating pandemic in India.


Background for UNGASS AIDS Issues
 
GLOBAL:
 
In 2001, world leaders gathered at the UN General Assembly Special Session (UNGASS) on HIV/AIDS to declare promises on scaling up treatment and prevention to fight the pandemic. The Declaration of Commitment (DoC) outlined commitments on an international, regional, and local level designed to prevent and to provide care, support, and treatment in order to respond to contain and reduce the spread of HIV/AIDS. These include: (1) a deadline to reduce HIV prevalence among young men and women aged 15 to 24 in the most affected countries, specifically by 25 percent by 2005 in the most affected countries; (2) articles pertaining to "care, support and treatment" encourage the creation of regional and national strategies that promote an environment for investment in research and development while improving access to new drugs for anti-retroviral and related disease treatments; and (3) set goals for the development and implementation of national policies that would improve national policies that increase assistance to orphans and vulnerable children by 2003 and 2005.
 
On May 31-June 2, world leaders are again meeting at the 2006 UN High Level Meeting on AIDS to evaluate the progress made towards their original goals from 2001 and to declare new commitments to continue fighting AIDS.
 
In the five years since that original meeting, 15 million more people have died of AIDS and 25 million people have been newly infected with HIV. 
·        IN THE US, over 1,000 individuals were on wait lists for HIV treatment at the beginning of this year.  According to a recent report, half of all HIV+ people who need treatment are not receiving it.
·        IN THE US,  51% of new infections occur in African Americans though they make up only 13% of the population. 
·        THROUGHOUT THE WORLD, only 1.3 million individuals are receiving antiretrovirals (ARVs) out of the 6.5 million in clinical need of HIV treatment. 
·        This summer the G8 leaders of the wealthiest countries in the world committed "as close as possible" to universal access to AIDS drugs.  According to UNAIDS projections, this will mean getting at least 10 million people on treatment by 2010. [1]   Currently several countries are resisting to commit to such a target at the UN.
·        In order to achieve universal treatment, access trade agreements and procurement programs must promote the production of affordable generic medications, The Global Fund for AIDS, TB, and Malaria must be supported with full funding, the U.S. government must fund a comprehensive Ryan White Care Act, and governments must fund and support minimum levels of 1 community health care worker per 1,000 residents.

INDIA
Overview of HIV/AIDS Situation in India

  • In 2005, HIV prevalence was an estimated 5.21 million people; this was an increase of nearly 1. 3 million people, up from 3.97 million in 2001. [2] As of December 2005, the number of HIV-positive people on ART in India through government programs is only 23,784.
  • Among women ages 15-24, the number of women living with HIV/AIDS is almost twice that of young men. Women account for 38% of India's estimated adult HIV/AIDS prevalence, and this rate has been on the rise, especially among pregnant women.
  • Only 2.74% of pregnant women expected to be infected with HIV/AIDS receive anti-retroviral prophylaxis. In India less than 4% of HIV-positive mothers are accessing testing and counseling services and less than 3% are receiving antiretroviral therapy (ART) prophylaxis to prevent transmission.  In order to reach the UNGASS goal of providing 20% of HIV-positive mothers with ARV prophylaxis by the end of 2005, 7 million more mothers would have needed prevention services.
  • India's National AIDS Control Organization (NACO) figures show that women who do not receive antenatal counseling and testing are 60% more likely to be HIV-positive.
  • Of the 5.1 million people infected with HIV in India, at least 250,000 of them are children.  In 2005, there were approximately 70,000 new pediatric HIV infections in India and 60,000 children died of AIDS in India. [3] Only 1048 children are getting any ARV treatment while more than 70,000 need it urgently.   India has failed to meet the UNGASS goal 20% parent-to-child-transmission coverage by 2005 by a margin of 18.83%.  
  • India has not released any pediatric treatment guidelines to facilitate the treatment of children and NACO does not provide pediatric drugs at most of their sites.
  • India has already adopted a new Patent Act which threatens to raise the costs of HIV/AIDS drugs and reduce accessibility to communities that are already under-treated. Currently, India is considering the implementation of the Data Exclusivity Act, which would yield negligible gains for pharmaceutical companies and restrict the number of people able to acquire generic drugs to combat HIV/AIDS. 

THE SPONSORING COALITION AND SPONSORING ORGANIZATIONS for the UNGASS March include:

ACTUP - New York, ACTUP – Philadelphia, African Services Committee, American Jewish World Service, Community HIV/AIDS Mobilization Project (CHAMP)- Friends of TAC - North America, Gay Men's Health Crisis, Health GAP (Global Access Project), Housing Works, New York City AIDS Housing Network (NYCAHN), Positive Health Project, Student Global AIDS Campaign, Accion Ciudadana Contra el SIDA - Venezuela ActionAid International – International, ACTUP Austin - TX, USA, ACTUP East Bay - CA, USA, ACTUP Hellas - Greece, ACTUP Paris – France, Advocates for Youth – USA, Agua Buena Human Rights Assocation - Costa Rica, Africa Action – USA, Aid for AIDS International - NY, USA, AIDS Alliance in Nigeria – Nigeria, AIDS Foundation of Chicago - IL, USA, All Ukraine PLWH Network – Ukraine, American Medical Student Association – USA, AMSA, New York College of Osteopathic Medicine Chapter - NY, USA, AREA (American Run to End AIDS) - NY, USA Artists for a New South Africa - CA, USA, Asia Pacific Network of PLHA (APN+) - Thailand Asia Pacific Network of Sex Workers – Thailand, Beijing AIZHIXING Institute  - China, Blueprint for Action on Women and HIV/AIDS – Canada, Bolivian Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS (REDBOL+) – Bolivia, Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network – Canada, Center for Health and Gender Equity (CHANGE) – USA, Center for the Right to Health – Nigeria, Citiwide Harm Reduction - NY, USA, Difaem - German Institute for Medical Mission – Germany, East European & Central Asian Union of PLWH Organisations – Ukraine, EATG, European AIDS Treatment Group – Belgium, End AIDS Now! - International Foundation for Integrative AIDS Research - NY, USA, Friends of TAC – UK, GAT, Grupo Português de Activistas sobre Tratamentos de VIH/SIDA – Portugal, Gestos- Soropositivity, Communication and Gender – Brazil, Global AIDS Alliance – USA, Global Network of Sex Work Projects - Hong Kong, Global Youth Coalition on HIV/AIDS – USA, HEAL Foundation - Sri Lanka, Hispanosida – Spain, India HIV/AIDS Alliance – India, International Community of Women Living with HIV/AIDS – UK, International Council of AIDS Service Organisations (ICASO) – Canada, Italian League for Fighting AIDS – Italy, John Mordaunt Trust – UK, and Stop HIV/AIDS in India Initiative - USA


 
[1] UNGASS India Report, "Progress Report on the Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS", 2005
[2] National AIDS Control Organiation (NACO). "Table III: Comparative HIV Estimates in various subpopulation groups 2000-2005 (in million)" HIV/AIDS epidemiological surveillance and estimation report 2005. 2006
[3] Figures are estimates based on the size of India's pediatric AIDS epidemic.   Because India accounts for 11% of total global pediatric HIV infections, it is assumed that India accounted for 11% of the new infections and deaths last year.


 

" The future depends on what we do in the present." Gandhi
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