The Global Fund's China Legacy

Source: forbes.com

Last week, twelve African countries met in Windhoek, Namibia to discuss the new funding model of the Global Fund to Fight HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis (TB) and Malaria. With its emphasis on actual disease burden and flexibility, the launch of the new funding model put the final nail in the coffin of the old approach, which allocates grants based on the need of individual countries and the quality of each proposal. Indeed, even prior to the unveiling of the new funding model, the Global Fund had made China and several other G20 upper-middle income countries ineligible due to their “less than an extreme disease burden.” China, which began receiving Global Fund support in 2003, quickly became one of the Global Fund’s largest recipients. This decision hit China hard, as China had been expecting to be eligible for some $880 million in grant renewals during the 2012-16 period. Since China also decided to forego transitional funding from the Global Fund, the Fund officially closed its portfolio in China rather unceremoniously at the end of 2013. More…

27/04/2014

China city to sell condoms in school

Source: timesofindia.com

BEIJING: Health officials in a Chinese province are facing flak from parents opposing their decision to sell condoms to middle school students. Parents are saying the move will promote teenage sex.

But Ma Guanghui, the director of the disease control office at the provincial health and family planning committee of Shaanxi, has held his ground saying the decision to allow middle schools to sell condoms on campus was based on in-depth research and months of careful planning.

Shaanxi province officials said studies have revealed that teenage sex was prevalent, and it was necessary to protect the young from HIV, STD and unwanted pregnancies.

According to the National Center for AIDS and STD Control and Prevention, there were only 482 HIV/AIDS cases among young people aged 15 to 24 in 2008. The number of cases, however, rose to 1,387 in 2012.

Shaanxi officials have set a target of decreasing the number of new HIV cases by 25 percent by the end of next year and selling condoms is part of different efforts bring undertaken to achieve the target, said Liu Ling, the deputy director of the province's health and family planning committee.

Parents are using the Internet to voice their protests. A mother, whose son will soon be entering junior high school, said students should learn good values and morality in school instead of becoming curious at how condoms are used, eventually promoting teen sex.

"Condoms are sold in stores, supermarkets, and shops. Why do we have to peddle condoms in schools? Why can't authorities instead launch information drive to educate students about HIV?" another mother said in Weibo, China's Twitter.

01/05/2014

HIV, syphilis and HCV rates vary among female sex workers in China

Source: healio.com

The overall prevalence of HIV, syphilis and hepatitis C virus among female sex workers in China decreased between 2008 and 2012, but there appears to be a disparity in disease prevalence between high- and low-tier sex workers, according to recent findings.

In the serial cross-sectional study, researchers evaluated 827,079 female sex workers (FSWs) in all 31 provinces, municipalities and regions of China. They mapped 500 study sites and classified the locations as high tier or low tier based on the socioeconomic status of the sex workers at these locations. High-tier locations included karaoke bars and hotels, whereas low-tier establishments included salons, foot-bathing shops, massage parlors and public outdoor locations. All study participants were older than 15 years.

Participants filled out questionnaires and provided information about age, marital status, residence, level of education, and length of time working at the given location. Behavior questions addressed condom use during commercial sex during the past month and use of injection drugs during the participant’s lifetime. The investigators also collected blood samples from each participant that were screened for HIV, syphilis and HCV.

The researchers found that there was a significant decrease in the overall incidence of HIV in FSWs during the study period. However, higher HIV prevalence was seen in lower-tier FSWs vs. higher-tier (0.8% lower-tier vs. 0.4% higher-tier in 2008, and 0.6% vs lower-tier vs. 0.1% higher-tier in 2012). Additionally, although the prevalence of syphilis was significantly reduced among high-tier FSWs during the study period, it showed a nonsignificant upward trend in the lower-tier FSWs. Similarly, the prevalence of HCV was significantly decreased in the high-tier FSWs (0.8% in 2009, 0.6% in 2012), but this trend was not consistent in the low-tier group.

The rate of consistent condom use was slightly lower among low-tier FSWs compared with high-tier FSWs, but this rate increased in both groups during the study. More…

06/05/2014

Why is the Gates Foundation still in China?

Source: humanosphere.org

The China office of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is one of its biggest – second only, in size and staffing, to that of the philanthropy’s India office.

Yet China, compared to India and other poor or middle-income nations hamstrung by many living in extreme poverty, seems capable of taking care of itself.

China is home to the world’s second largest and fastest growing economy. Its, so far, successful brand of communistic capitalism continues to worry America Firsters that we will be soon permanently displaced as global number one.

India’s economy is big and growing as well; but India is also still home to hundreds of millions of very poor people. The estimates vary, but anywhere from 12 to 25 percent of Indians live in extreme poverty. However you count it, India is today home to most of the world’s extremely poor.

In contrast, China has, in the past 15 years and according to the World Bank, reduced the number of its citizens living in severe poverty down to about one percent of its population.

Some Chinese have gotten so wealthy Bill Gates recently urged them to start thinking like philanthropists.More…

09/05/2014

HIV drugs help woman fulfil dream of becoming a mother

Source: South China Morning Post

Ling and her two-year-old boy are just like any other mother and son, except in one regard. One day, when he gets older, Ling will have to sit down with her son and explain that she carries the virus that can lead to Aids.

It is not a conversation she is used to having: she has not even told her own mother about her condition in the decade since she was diagnosed with HIV. Instead, her mother wondered why Ling and her husband were not giving her grandchildren.

"We said we didn't have the financial ability, and our home wasn't big enough," said Ling, who prefers not to give her real name or more details of her life.

Mother-to-child transmission was once one of the main ways the virus spread, but antiretroviral medication has given women with HIV the chance to have children.

The condition almost cost Ling her life soon after the diagnosis, but she has taken the drugs diligently ever since.