Treatment Action Campaign
Electronic Newsletter

25 July 2005


Contents

• March to Frontier Hospital in Queenstown on 26 July 2005 to demand treatment and end to police brutality
• UNAIDS statement condemning police brutality against TAC demonstrators
• List of organisations that condemned attack by police on TAC members in Queenstown on 12 July 2005
• Seven-year-old, Pretty, waits for antiretrovirals as her health deteriorates.
  

Quick news

• TAC calls for organisational endorsements for its campaign for 200,000 people to be treated with antiretrovirals in the South African public health sector by the end of March 2006. Read about TAC's Treat 200,000 by 2006 campaign here or in the July issue of TAC's magazine, Equal Treatment.
  
  To endorse, send your organisation's name and contact details to .

• The July issue of TAC's magazine, Equal Treatment, is available. Download it electronically from:
  
  http://tac.org.za/Documents/EqualTreatment/equal_treatment/ET16PDFversion.pdf
  
  To receive a hard copy, email .
  

March to Frontier Hospital in Queenstown on 26 July 2005 to demand treatment and an end to police brutality

TAC will lead a march to Frontier Hospital in Queenstown on 26 July 2005 to demand antiretroviral treatment for people with HIV and an end to police brutality. This will be a much bigger march than the one that took place on 12 July, at which police responded to TAC's demands with rubber bullets, gas and batons. It will show the Eastern Cape government and the management of Frontier Hospital that TAC will not be intimidated by the police brutality of 12 July and our campaign for treatment at Frontier Hospital will not cease until people on the waiting list for antiretrovirals have access to them.

On Saturday 23 July, the TAC National Executive Committee resolved to use protest and litigation to ensure that Frontier Hospital delivers antiretroviral treatment to all who need it.

We invite everyone in the Queenstown area to join the march tomorrow.

(A detailed statement will follow the march.)

[END OF QUEENSTOWN DEMONSTRATION - BACK TO CONTENTS]

Statement by UNAIDS condemning police brutality against treatment demonstrators

Violence against protesters threatens AIDS response

Geneva, 14 July 2005 - The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) finds unacceptable, the actions of the police during a protest of people living with HIV at a South African hospital in Queenstown, Eastern Cape province.

According to news reports about 40 people were injured, one seriously, following a peaceful protest for HIV treatment at the Frontier Hospital.

UNAIDS has long supported and will continue to support the freedom of assembly and association for people living with HIV. It is imperative for people living with HIV to be able to openly share information about the disease, to learn about options for treatment and to advocate for better care-including access to life-saving treatment.

UNAIDS calls on leaders across the globe to ensure that people living with HIV are not deprived of these rights.

[END OF UNAIDS STATEMENT - BACK TO CONTENTS]

List of organisations expressing solidarity for TAC following attack by police on demonstrators in Queenstown

TAC thanks the organisations and numerous individuals who sent letters of solidarity to us condemning the attack by police on Queenstown demonstrators.

The following organisations condemned the police brutality against TAC:

UNAIDS
International AIDS Society

ACT UP East Bay, USA
ACT UP New York, USA
ACT UP Philadelphia, USA
Advocates for Youth, USA
Africa Action, USA
African Services Committee, USA
Agua Buena Human Rights Association, Costa Rica
AIDS Action Baltimore, USA
Aids fonds, Netherlands
AIDS Foundation Chicago, USA
AIDS Healthcare Foundation, USA
Aids Hilfe München, Germany
AIDS Policy Project, USA
AIDS Survival Project, USA
AIDS-Care-Watch Campaign, Chiang Mai, Thailand
AIDS, Medicine & Miracles, USA
AIDSmeds.com, USA
All Together, Ukraine
Artists for a New South Africa, USA
Associação dos Técnicos Agro-Pecuários (ATAP), Mozambique
Association PLWHA " CREDINTA ", Republic Moldova
Campaign to End AIDS, USA
Center for Heath and Gender Equity, USA
Central and Eastern European Harm Reduction Network (CEEHRN), Vilnius, Lithuania
Children's Rights Centre, South Africa
Colombian Lesbian and Gay Association (COLEGA)
Community HIV/AIDS Mobilization Project (CHAMP), USA
Community of People Living with HIV/AIDS, Moscow, Russia
CORDAID, Netherlands
Delhi Network of Positive People (DNP+), India.
Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation, USA
European AIDS Treatment Group  (EATG), Belgium
Foundation for Integrative AIDS Research (FIAR), USA
Gay Men's Health Crisis, USA
Global AIDS Alliance, USA
Grupo Português de Activistas sobre Tratamentos de VIH/SIDA  (GAT), Portugal
Health GAP, USA
HIV Prevention Programme, Kekava, Latvia
HIV/AIDS Legal Network, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
HIV/AIDS Patients Survivors Union, USA
HIVOS, Netherlands
Housing Works, USA
Hungarian Civil Liberties Union (HCLU), Hungary
ICCO, Netherlands
International Council of AIDS Service Organizations, Canada
International Harm Reduction Development Programme (part of the Open Society Institute), USA
Intersect Worldwide, USA
Jewish World Service, USA
KAIPPG International
KAIPPG Kenya
Latino Commission on AIDS
Lawyers Collective HIV/AIDS Unit, India
Mano a Mano, USA
Michigan Positive Action Coalition (MI-POZ), USA
Middle East Childrens Alliance, Berkeley, USA
Mumias, Kenya
National Association for Victims of Transfusion-Acquired AIDS USA
National Minority AIDS Council, USA
NOVIB, Netherlands
ODYSEUS, Slovak Republic
Physicians for Human Rights, USA
Positive Malaysian Treatment Access and Advocacy Group, Malaysia
Positive Nation, UK
Reach-Out children center, Kisumu, Kenya
Rural Doctors Association of South Africa (RUDASA), South Africa
SIDACTION, France
South Africa Development Fund
STOP AIDS NOW (SAN), USA
Student Global AIDS Campaign, USA
The Well Project, USA
Towards Change, Nepal
Treatment Action Group, USA
UKC (UK Coalition of People Living with HIV and AIDS)
Women's Equity in Access to Care and Treatment, USA and Rwanda
Zimbabwe Activists against HIV/AIDS (ZAHA)

[END OF LETTERS OF SOLIDARITY FOR TAC - BACK TO CONTENTS]

Seven-year, Pretty, waits for antiretroviral treatment as her health deteriorates

By Sibongile Mashele

[SURNAME WITHDRAWN UNTIL WRITTEN PERMISSION OBTAINED - EDITOR]

Pretty is a seven-year-old girl who lives in Pienaar near Nelspruit. Pretty was born with HIV and she lives a positive but difficult life with the virus.

Pretty’s mom didn’t know her status when she was pregnant with Pretty and she did not know about mother-to-child transmission.

Since Pretty's birth, she has experienced serious illnesses such as skin problems, vaginal thrush and oral thrush. In 2002 she got very sick and was admitted to hospital and was diagnosed with tuberculosis (TB). Pretty’s mom was advised to test her for HIV and she did. That’s when she found out about her status.

Since then Pretty has been in and out of hospital experiencing opportunistic infections like diarrhea, oral thrush, skin problems and difficulties breathing. The only treatment she has been getting is for TB and cotrimoxazole for prophylaxis against PCP.

In January 2005 she was assessed for antiretroviral treatment and even now she hasn’t received treatment yet due to the long waiting list in Bambanani clinic in Themba Hospital, Mpumalanga. Her CD4 count is very low and her TB has re occurred.

Pretty is now doing her grade 1 and she and her mom are surviving on the grant they receive from social services. Pretty’s mom is afraid of her daughter's life because Pretty is sick and needs antiretrovirals now. The only medication she is getting is TB treatment and it’s been 6 months and nothing is being done to help her get treatment. Pretty’s mom is always going to the clinic with hope that her daughter will get access to treatment.

[END OF PRETTY'S STORY - BACK TO CONTENTS]

[END OF NEWSLETTER]