African Traditional Herbal Research Clinic Why ... - Blackherbals.com

Scientists say Africa MustMake Own Drugs to FightAIDS, MalariaBy ELLIOTT SYLVESTERAssociated PressMarch 20, 2003STELLENBOSCH, South Africa - Scientists challengedAfrican nations Thursday to produce their owngeneric drugs - not just rely on pharmaceutical giants tohelp fight AIDS, malaria and other diseases ravagingthe continent.African nations lag behind countries such as Cuba andIndia that produce "homegrown" medicines, GordonDougan, a British vaccine expert, told a conference onthe human genome initiative."We need to reinvent local production of high qualitygeneric vaccines," Dougan said. "Countries are nolonger producing their own vaccines, and this is whyhuge pharmaceutical companies control the industry."More than 300 scientists from 16 countries are inStellenbosch, about 30 miles north of Cape Town, at aconference aimed at using knowledge of the humangenome - a genetic blueprint that scientists are workingto map - to help combat diseases.Dr. Hoosen Coovadia, HIV/AIDS researcher at SouthAfrica's University of Natal, said African governmentsshould translate scientific research into policy toovercome the most serious diseases facing Africa.The United Nations estimates there were 3.4 millionnew HIV infections in Africa in 2001 - almost 70percent of the global total.British Dr. Matt Berriman told the conference humangenome research has cut the time it is taking him tofind a vaccine for malaria - a vaccine he said may readyfor use in 20 years.The mosquito-borne disease kills about 3,000 Africansa day, most of them under five years of age.☻☻☻☻☻☻To all African People Livingin New ZealandMarch 1, 2008This letter is to let all African people living in NewZealand about the discrimination that is happening herein New Zealand in regard to the testing, diagnosis andtreatment in the area of enforced HIV illness. And theletter has been sent to one of the prominent figurewithin the African community. We will appreciate ifyou can pass on this letter to other African peoplewithin the community.I believe that the human and health rights of Africans inNew Zealand are being severely transgressed in thetesting, diagnosis and treatment (especially whenenforced) of HIV disease. This discrimination ismanifest in several forms.Simply being Black African in New Zealand is seen as“high risk” compared to being tested in Africancountries. This is an important consideration in relationto interpretation of the tests (because the interpretationis arbitrary). The staff deciding the test results areinformed in their own 2000 handbook: “By mid 1999,1,355 patients had been reported with HIV infectionsince the beginning of the epidemic and 678 withAIDS.Currently there are about 700 HIV infected peopleliving in New Zealand of whom 107 have AIDS.Homosexual males remain the biggest identifiable riskgroup (63% now) but in the last 18 months infectedheterosexual immigrants, particularly from Africa, arethe most rapidly increasing group. After falling forseveral years, the number of newly reported HIVinfected people rose in 1998, significantly contributedto by this immigrant group,” i.e. it’s those BlackAfricans who are increasing our rate of HIV disease,not our racist coercion in testing. Black Africans aremore than 200 times more likely to be “positive” onthese tests. Rules of privacy and confidentiality are notadhered to; the doctors reason that hospital personnelhave a right to know if a Black African has HIV so theydon’t “catch” the AIDS disease.This despite the fact that not one single health careworker anywhere in the world has contracted AIDSthrough accidental exposure in the 23 years since the‘epidemic’ began. Black Africans and their children arebeing coerced into these tests, where white Europeansare not. A Black African presenting with any medicalcondition, however unrelated to any possible HIVdisease, to a New Zealand hospital suffers greatpressure to get an HIV test.MOH and Statistics NZ figures demonstrate that BlackAfricans have a higher prevalence of HIV in NewZealand than the reported rate in extremely high riskand frequently tested prisoners in South Africanprisons. The prison population comprises intravenousdrug users and men who have sex with men withoutcondoms. Given that these prisoners are all tested everyContinued on page 36-24- Traditional African Clinic October 2008