| Ethiopian Infections Rate Rose By 26 Percent. |
| "The vision which fueled our struggle for freedom… will be needed if we are to bring AIDS under control. This is a war." Former South African President Nelson Mandela, February 2002 |
October 7, 2007
A new report conducted by Ethiopia’s Federal
HIV/AIDS Control Office (FAPCO) reveals that new
HIV infections there have increased 26 percent
compared to data collected at the beginning of this
year.
In the first phase of the study, from November 2006
through January 2007, researchers found that
37,943 Ethiopians were HIV positive, representing
5.4 percent of the total population. The second
phase, which ended in August 2007, showed that
70,470 people (7.3 percent of the population) were
living with HIV.
While FAPCO’s Millennium AIDS Campaign aimed to
test 1.8 million Ethiopians from January through July
of this year, only 982,452 people were tested.
According to Dr. Yibeltal Assefa, health program
officer at HAPCO, 3 million testing kits have been
prepared for the new year.
A new report conducted by Ethiopia’s Federal
HIV/AIDS Control Office (FAPCO) reveals that new
HIV infections there have increased 26 percent
compared to data collected at the beginning of this
year.
In the first phase of the study, from November 2006
through January 2007, researchers found that
37,943 Ethiopians were HIV positive, representing
5.4 percent of the total population. The second
phase, which ended in August 2007, showed that
70,470 people (7.3 percent of the population) were
living with HIV.
While FAPCO’s Millennium AIDS Campaign aimed to
test 1.8 million Ethiopians from January through July
of this year, only 982,452 people were tested.
According to Dr. Yibeltal Assefa, health program
officer at HAPCO, 3 million testing kits have been
prepared for the new year.
| One in 20 people there is HIV positive. |
October 8, 2007
This year’s crop of incoming college students may
have heard plenty about HIV throughout their lives—
but they still might not make prevention a personal
priority, NPR reports.
At a recent meeting at Howard University in
Washington, DC, UNAIDS director Dr. Peter Piot
urged students to become informed about the virus—
and to realize that the global AIDS epidemic is far
from over. He also addressed DC’s high HIV-
infection rate: One in 20 people there is HIV positive.
According to an American College Health
Association study, HIV prevalence among college
students last year was nearly equal to HIV
prevalence in the general population.
This year’s crop of incoming college students may
have heard plenty about HIV throughout their lives—
but they still might not make prevention a personal
priority, NPR reports.
At a recent meeting at Howard University in
Washington, DC, UNAIDS director Dr. Peter Piot
urged students to become informed about the virus—
and to realize that the global AIDS epidemic is far
from over. He also addressed DC’s high HIV-
infection rate: One in 20 people there is HIV positive.
According to an American College Health
Association study, HIV prevalence among college
students last year was nearly equal to HIV
prevalence in the general population.
More NEWS |
| NEWS |
November 13, 2007
Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness are constitutionally guaranteed
rights in the United States, but when immigrants go searching for Lady
Liberty, HIV status may affect their chances of chasing down the
American dream.
In 1987 HIV was declared a "dangerous disease" and became a
ground of inadmissibility for immigrating to or, technically, visiting the
US, but in 1990 Congress softened its wording - HIV was now not
"dangerous" but "communicable" - and under the Clinton
administration lifted the ban on accepting HIV-positive refugees.
However, the debate over the legislation continues, according to Todd
Pilcher, senior managing attorney at the Whitman-Walker Clinic, one of
Washington's most prominent centres for HIV care and treatment.
"In 1990, it was considerably embarrassing to health officials and
activists that HIV was a ground of inadmissibility, because we were
holding the 6th International Conference on AIDS in San Francisco and
many of the people who were trying to come here for it were turned
away at the border," Pilcher told IRIN/PlusNews. "Since 1990, we've
never hosted an international HIV conference of that level."
e clinic's legal department was founded in 1986, primarily to help
HIV-positive people with legal problems relating to their status, such as
employment discrimination, accessing private medical aid and estate
planning but, nevertheless, the clinic now had a complex and growing
immigration practice.
About 35 million immigrants live in the US, accounting for just over 12
percent of the population, according to a study done by the Migration
Policy Institute (MPI) earlier this year. Twelve million of these
immigrants are estimated to be illegal.
"For positive people, especially those from developing countries, its
very important that they legalise their status here in the United States,"
Pilcher said. "Some can't return to their home countries because they
can't get the medication."
In 1996, a memorandum from the then US Immigration and
Naturalisation Service (INS) recognised that HIV-positive status could
qualify as a social affiliation, for which people could experience
persecution and, hence, could be grounds for asylum.
According to the Department of Homeland Security, which took over
responsibilities previously assigned to the INS in 2003, the top three
refugee-producing African countries are Somalia, Liberia and Ethiopia.
While Somalia's HIV-prevalence rate is low - 0.9 percent of adults - in
2006 Liberia's national ministry of health estimated prevalence at 5.3
percent, while Ethiopia put its at 6.6 percent. In Liberia and Ethiopia,
only a fraction of those needing treatment are receiving it.
Refugees
A lack of treatment is only one aspect of Raul Hernandez's pending
application for asylum. "The requirement for proving grounds for
asylum is proving a high degree of fear of mistreatment or harm," said
Stephanie Hogan, a lawyer at Holland & Knight, the Washington law
firm handling the case pro bono.
"Essentially, our goal will be to demonstrate that fear, using past
experiences and what he expects would happen if he was to return.
"One of the reasons he fears returning now is because of the
availability of the drugs that he needs," said Hogan, speaking for her
client, who was unavailable for comment.
"We're making a three-pronged argument: he's HIV positive, he's a gay
man, and he'd be declared a political dissident because he left the
country."
Growing up in conservative Cuba, Hernandez, 30-something, often
experienced intolerance. By the age of 18, he was keeping a
home-made weapon by his bedside at his government-run high
school. Though never openly gay, his sexual orientation became the
stuff of hallway whispers that sometimes escalated into physical
violence but, fearing expulsion, he kept quiet.
College was much the same, and in 1992 he left for Brazil on a visitor's
permit. "He wasn't intending to stay, but when he went there and saw
initially that he didn't face the same types of discrimination and
harassment he had known in Cuba, that's when he decided," Hogan
said.
After coming to the US with his partner in 2000, Hernandez applied for
citizenship under the Cuban Adjustment Act, which provides Cuban
citizens with special means to become US permanent residents and
has a much lower burden of proof than having to demonstrate grounds
for asylum, according to Hogan.
But Hernandez, who subsequently discovered he was HIV positive,
found that the HIV ban on immigration also applied to that act, and his
only hope of remaining in the US legally was to gain asylum.
For the past six years, the US has limited the number of refugees it
accepts to 70,000 annually - a 70 percent decrease from when it first
opened its doors to refugees 27 years ago, according to the MPI.
Anti-terrorism legislation introduced since 2001 has also added to the
woes of potential asylum seekers.
Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness are constitutionally guaranteed
rights in the United States, but when immigrants go searching for Lady
Liberty, HIV status may affect their chances of chasing down the
American dream.
In 1987 HIV was declared a "dangerous disease" and became a
ground of inadmissibility for immigrating to or, technically, visiting the
US, but in 1990 Congress softened its wording - HIV was now not
"dangerous" but "communicable" - and under the Clinton
administration lifted the ban on accepting HIV-positive refugees.
However, the debate over the legislation continues, according to Todd
Pilcher, senior managing attorney at the Whitman-Walker Clinic, one of
Washington's most prominent centres for HIV care and treatment.
"In 1990, it was considerably embarrassing to health officials and
activists that HIV was a ground of inadmissibility, because we were
holding the 6th International Conference on AIDS in San Francisco and
many of the people who were trying to come here for it were turned
away at the border," Pilcher told IRIN/PlusNews. "Since 1990, we've
never hosted an international HIV conference of that level."
e clinic's legal department was founded in 1986, primarily to help
HIV-positive people with legal problems relating to their status, such as
employment discrimination, accessing private medical aid and estate
planning but, nevertheless, the clinic now had a complex and growing
immigration practice.
About 35 million immigrants live in the US, accounting for just over 12
percent of the population, according to a study done by the Migration
Policy Institute (MPI) earlier this year. Twelve million of these
immigrants are estimated to be illegal.
"For positive people, especially those from developing countries, its
very important that they legalise their status here in the United States,"
Pilcher said. "Some can't return to their home countries because they
can't get the medication."
In 1996, a memorandum from the then US Immigration and
Naturalisation Service (INS) recognised that HIV-positive status could
qualify as a social affiliation, for which people could experience
persecution and, hence, could be grounds for asylum.
According to the Department of Homeland Security, which took over
responsibilities previously assigned to the INS in 2003, the top three
refugee-producing African countries are Somalia, Liberia and Ethiopia.
While Somalia's HIV-prevalence rate is low - 0.9 percent of adults - in
2006 Liberia's national ministry of health estimated prevalence at 5.3
percent, while Ethiopia put its at 6.6 percent. In Liberia and Ethiopia,
only a fraction of those needing treatment are receiving it.
Refugees
A lack of treatment is only one aspect of Raul Hernandez's pending
application for asylum. "The requirement for proving grounds for
asylum is proving a high degree of fear of mistreatment or harm," said
Stephanie Hogan, a lawyer at Holland & Knight, the Washington law
firm handling the case pro bono.
"Essentially, our goal will be to demonstrate that fear, using past
experiences and what he expects would happen if he was to return.
"One of the reasons he fears returning now is because of the
availability of the drugs that he needs," said Hogan, speaking for her
client, who was unavailable for comment.
"We're making a three-pronged argument: he's HIV positive, he's a gay
man, and he'd be declared a political dissident because he left the
country."
Growing up in conservative Cuba, Hernandez, 30-something, often
experienced intolerance. By the age of 18, he was keeping a
home-made weapon by his bedside at his government-run high
school. Though never openly gay, his sexual orientation became the
stuff of hallway whispers that sometimes escalated into physical
violence but, fearing expulsion, he kept quiet.
College was much the same, and in 1992 he left for Brazil on a visitor's
permit. "He wasn't intending to stay, but when he went there and saw
initially that he didn't face the same types of discrimination and
harassment he had known in Cuba, that's when he decided," Hogan
said.
After coming to the US with his partner in 2000, Hernandez applied for
citizenship under the Cuban Adjustment Act, which provides Cuban
citizens with special means to become US permanent residents and
has a much lower burden of proof than having to demonstrate grounds
for asylum, according to Hogan.
But Hernandez, who subsequently discovered he was HIV positive,
found that the HIV ban on immigration also applied to that act, and his
only hope of remaining in the US legally was to gain asylum.
For the past six years, the US has limited the number of refugees it
accepts to 70,000 annually - a 70 percent decrease from when it first
opened its doors to refugees 27 years ago, according to the MPI.
Anti-terrorism legislation introduced since 2001 has also added to the
woes of potential asylum seekers.
© 2007 Abesha Care Inc. All Right Reserved. office@abeshacare.org
| In the land of the free - HIV restrictions in the US |
| NEWS |
Despite this, the US continues to resettle more
refugees overall than any other country in the
world: about 60 percent of the cases referred to it
by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees in
2005; Canada, the world's second largest
receiver of refugees, resettled about 15 percent,
according to MPI.
By applying for asylum, Hernandez and Hogan
will shoulder a heavier burden of proof when they
appear before an asylum officer but Raul's HIV
status will become a non-issue.
Immigrants
With the change in refugee legislation, new
regulations have come into play for
organisations such as Washington's Ethiopian
Community Development Council (ECDC), one
of 10 national organisations contracted by the
US State Department to resettle refugees.
The ECDC's director of operations, Tori Wolan,
said the new regulations, coupled with the less
stringent regulations regarding status, meant
things were often easier for HIV-positive
refugees than their immigrant counterparts.
"With the refugees that are resettled, they get
treatment - that's part of the deal," she said. "We
have to remember that immigrants, although
they come with a different status, have to deal
with the same problems and don't even have
[medical] insurance." In terms of US legislation,
refugees are entitled to eight months of state
health insurance upon arrival.
Under the current HIV ban, positive foreign
nationals can only obtain permanent residency,
otherwise known as a "green card", by having the
HIV requirement waived, according the
Immigration Nationality Act. One of the possible
waivers allowed is demonstrating that you have
immediate family in the country.
"We have a lot of clients who are trying to get
their green cards through family or an
employment agreement, or maybe they won the
lottery and have to demonstrate that they have a
spouse, child or parent in the US that has US
citizenship or is a lawful permanent resident, in
order to get this waiver," Pilcher said.
For those lucky enough to prove immediate
family and receive a waiver, they - like refugees -
must demonstrate that their status poses no
threat to the national public health. Pilcher called
this requirement a relic from the pandemic's
early days, when HIV transmission was not well
understood.
"It's pretty easy to demonstrate you're not going
to be a public health risk but it can be kind of
humiliating for our clients," Pilcher said.
"Imagine having to ask a 70-year-old Ethiopian
female client to sign a statement talking about
her HIV, and saying how she lives carefully and
that she knows the virus is transmitted through
bodily fluids."
For those who can't prove that they have
immediate family in the country, there is not
much that can be done. "So often they're just not
eligible for anything. They entered illegally, or
they overstayed, or they don't have a qualifying
relative; their only relative may be their same-sex
partner, and there's nothing we can do," Pilcher
said.
Other times, stigma and humiliation might keep
immigrants who apply for asylum quiet - and
illegal. Either way, the end result is usually one
of two options: deportation, or a life lived on the
hidden margins of American society.
"There's a pretty significant underground here of
people living day-to-day, hoping never to get
caught, hoping for some sort of amnesty,
because they'll never be able to go back home,"
Pilcher said.
Resource
(IRIN) HIV/AIDS (PlusNews)
refugees overall than any other country in the
world: about 60 percent of the cases referred to it
by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees in
2005; Canada, the world's second largest
receiver of refugees, resettled about 15 percent,
according to MPI.
By applying for asylum, Hernandez and Hogan
will shoulder a heavier burden of proof when they
appear before an asylum officer but Raul's HIV
status will become a non-issue.
Immigrants
With the change in refugee legislation, new
regulations have come into play for
organisations such as Washington's Ethiopian
Community Development Council (ECDC), one
of 10 national organisations contracted by the
US State Department to resettle refugees.
The ECDC's director of operations, Tori Wolan,
said the new regulations, coupled with the less
stringent regulations regarding status, meant
things were often easier for HIV-positive
refugees than their immigrant counterparts.
"With the refugees that are resettled, they get
treatment - that's part of the deal," she said. "We
have to remember that immigrants, although
they come with a different status, have to deal
with the same problems and don't even have
[medical] insurance." In terms of US legislation,
refugees are entitled to eight months of state
health insurance upon arrival.
Under the current HIV ban, positive foreign
nationals can only obtain permanent residency,
otherwise known as a "green card", by having the
HIV requirement waived, according the
Immigration Nationality Act. One of the possible
waivers allowed is demonstrating that you have
immediate family in the country.
"We have a lot of clients who are trying to get
their green cards through family or an
employment agreement, or maybe they won the
lottery and have to demonstrate that they have a
spouse, child or parent in the US that has US
citizenship or is a lawful permanent resident, in
order to get this waiver," Pilcher said.
For those lucky enough to prove immediate
family and receive a waiver, they - like refugees -
must demonstrate that their status poses no
threat to the national public health. Pilcher called
this requirement a relic from the pandemic's
early days, when HIV transmission was not well
understood.
"It's pretty easy to demonstrate you're not going
to be a public health risk but it can be kind of
humiliating for our clients," Pilcher said.
"Imagine having to ask a 70-year-old Ethiopian
female client to sign a statement talking about
her HIV, and saying how she lives carefully and
that she knows the virus is transmitted through
bodily fluids."
For those who can't prove that they have
immediate family in the country, there is not
much that can be done. "So often they're just not
eligible for anything. They entered illegally, or
they overstayed, or they don't have a qualifying
relative; their only relative may be their same-sex
partner, and there's nothing we can do," Pilcher
said.
Other times, stigma and humiliation might keep
immigrants who apply for asylum quiet - and
illegal. Either way, the end result is usually one
of two options: deportation, or a life lived on the
hidden margins of American society.
"There's a pretty significant underground here of
people living day-to-day, hoping never to get
caught, hoping for some sort of amnesty,
because they'll never be able to go back home,"
Pilcher said.
Resource
(IRIN) HIV/AIDS (PlusNews)
More NEWS |
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