April 2008

[HIV status no longer automatically prohibits people from serving in the U.S. Foreign Service]
[Faith-based organizations rally to support needle exchange programs in effort to curb HIV/AIDS transmission]
[HIV numbers among MSM to increase significantly in Australia ]
[President calls on Congress to reauthorize AIDS relief]

HIV status no longer automatically prohibits people from serving in the U.S. Foreign Service

HIV has been removed from a list of medical conditions that automatically disqualified people from entering the U.S. Foreign Service by the State Department.

Foreign service candidates living with HIV will now be considered on a case-by-case basis, similar to candidates who have other diseases such as cancer, to determine if they are eligible for “worldwide availability,” according to a report by the Kaiser Network.

The policy change came less than two weeks before a trial in a lawsuit involving a man with HIV who was rejected by Foreign Service despite his qualifications. The lawsuit was filed by Lorenzo Taylor, a trilingual international affairs specialist. Taylor passed the Foreign Service examination process but was denied entry into the program when he revealed his HIV-positive status to the State Department.

“Now people who are like me who apply to the Foreign Service will not have to go through what I did,” Taylor said in a press release. “They and others with HIV will know that they do not have to surrender to stigma, ignorance, fear or the efforts of anyone, even in the federal government, to impose second-class citizenship on them. They can fight back.”

The change was lauded by Lambda Legal, the New York-based organization that represented Taylor and is an advocate for homosexuals, bisexuals, transgender people and people with HIV.

“The new guidelines mean that candidates for Foreign Service posts who have HIV will now be assessed on a case-by-case basis, as the law requires,” Bebe Anderson, Lambda Legal’s HIV project director, said in a press release. “At long last, the State Department is taking down its sign that read, ‘People with HIV need not apply.’”

According to the State Department, the policy was changed after consultation with medical experts and in response to the lawsuit. The State Department maintained that the policy never purposefully discriminated against people with HIV. Department of State officials said that the previous policy only applied to Foreign Service candidates and not those who acquired HIV during their tours.

“We have a policy requiring that all Foreign Service officers be worldwide available as determined by a medical examination at the time of entry into the Foreign Service,” Gonzalo Gallegos, a Department of State spokesman, said in a press release. “That has not changed.”

Faith-based organizations rally to support needle exchange programs in effort to curb HIV/AIDS transmission

Officials from a group of faith-based organizations voiced their support of needle exchange programs to prevent the spread of HIV through intravenous drug use during an event held March 3.

The meeting was sponsored by the Interfaith Drug Policy Initiative and the Drug Policy Alliance and was convened to further the effect of needle exchange programs.

Some members of the Unitarian Church, the Episcopal Church, and some Baptists voiced support for needle exchange, according to Charles Thomas, executive director of the Interfaith Drug Policy Initiative.

“Some would say this is a little left leaning for [the Society of Christian Ethics], and they would be right,” Mary Jo Iozzio, a Society for Christian Ethics board member, said in a press release. “But to do anything less is to fail to act to save human lives.”

In December 2007, President George W. Bush signed a $555 billion fiscal year spending bill to lift the ban on city funding for needle exchange programs in Washington, D.C., which was the only city in the United States barred from using local funds for needle exchange programs since 1999.

IV drug use was the second most common form of HIV transmission in the city, according to a report released by city health officials in November 2007.

HIV numbers among MSM to increase significantly in Australia

By 2015, new HIV cases among men who have sex with men are expected to increase by about 75% in the Australian state Victoria if current trends continue, according to a report released March 3 by the National Center in HIV Epidemiology and Clinical Research.

Researchers reported a 44% annual increase in the number of new cases nationally among MSM. Researchers also found the number of new HIV cases among MSM in Victoria increased by 96% between 1999 and 2006. New cases among MSM are likely to increase by approximately another 75% by 2015, according to the report.

Researchers predicted a 20% increase in new HIV cases among MSM in Queensland, which has reported a 68% increase in new cases since 1999. New HIV cases among MSM increased by 7.3% in New South Wales. Despite this increase, researchers predicted a 12% decrease in the number of new cases of HIV in that state by 2015.

Nationally, the number of new cases of HIV among MSM will increase between 8% and 10% by 2015.

Also, about one in five MSM who were newly diagnosed with HIV acquired the virus from people who were in the early stages of infection. Researchers also estimated that one in three new HIV cases were transmitted by men who did not know they had HIV, and about 13% of men in Australia are unaware they have HIV.

Experts cited reduced condom use among MSM and an increase in other STDs as contributors to the increase in new HIV cases. The Victoria state government plans to launch a new HIV prevention strategy to thwart further HIV transmissions. Last year, it launched a $6.5 million HIV and STD action plan.

President calls on Congress to reauthorize AIDS relief

President George W. Bush asked Congress to quickly reauthorize the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) during a trip to Tanzania in February.

Bush was on a five-country tour of Africa to highlight programs funded by PEPFAR and the President’s Malaria Initiative, according to a press release from the Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Report.

PEPFAR was initially authorized to direct $15 billion during five years for HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis, primarily in 15 focus countries. In May 2007, the president called on Congress to increase the original PEPFAR funding level to $30 billion for five years after the program’s original mandate expires in September 2008.

In the press release Bush called PEPFAR a “balanced program” that has been effective, and he urged lawmakers to “listen to leaders on the continent of Africa, analyze what works, stop the squabbling and get the program reauthorized.” He also said that it is of national interest to address HIV/AIDS-related issues in Africa. Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete called the Bush administration a good friend to Tanzania and Africa.

The president also visited Rwanda and Benin during the trip.