VICTORY & ROAD TO EQUALITY IN EMPLOYMENT FOR PEAPLE WITH HIV

AFRICAN INSTITUTE UBUNTU VIEW

AISD JOINS THE NATIONAL AIDS TRUST, THE HIV CHARITY TO WELCOME GROUNDBREAKING STEP TO PROHIBIT THE USE OF PRE-EMPLOYMENT HEALTH QUESTIONNAIRES



New legislation looks set to remove a significant barrier in recruitment for HIV positive people by outlawing the use of pre-employment health questionnaires

NAT (National AIDS Trust) are today celebrating a significant step forward towards the end to discrimination in recruitment for people living with HIV. Last night saw the introduction to the Equality Bill of a ground breaking clause that received cross party support and will for the first time see the prohibition of health questionnaires prior to an offer of employment.

Until now, employers have been able to ask job applicants whether they have a disability, are taking medication or have a medical condition – even if it has no relevance to the role. NAT has worked with politicians from all parties to secure this outcome, playing a key role in the campaign to prohibit the use of these questionnaires that have enabled less scrupulous employers to filter out applicants with a disability or long term health condition.

Deborah Jack, Chief Executive of NAT, comments:

“We are delighted that the Government has listened to NAT’s concerns and that the Equality Bill will prohibit the use of pre-employment health questionnaires, bringing the UK into line with international best practice around recruitment and disability.

Many employers do not realise that someone living with HIV can have an active career and be an asset to their organisation – even if they are the best candidate for the job, people are turned down because employers makes incorrect assumptions about their health. In a difficult economic climate and with a reformed benefits system it is more important than ever to remove the discrimination which prevents so many HIV positive people from entering paid employment. In the past, irrelevant and intrusive questions have deterred people from applying for jobs and provided opportunities for unfairness and prejudice, we are therefore today celebrating the Bill’s prohibition of questionnaires that will remove one of the key barriers to disabled people entering the workplace.”

NAT are now calling on the Government to make sure this Bill reaches the statute books before an election is called, so that these new measures prohibiting the use of health questionnaires become a reality for people living with HIV.

Notes to the Editor:
1 – The Equality Bill debate in the Lords on pre-employment health care questionnaires can be found at http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld200910/ldhansrd/text/100119-0008.htm
2 – NAT worked with Rethink on this issue. Our joint submission to the Work and Pensions Committee on the issue of pre-employment questionnaire is available at:
http://www.nat.org.uk/Our-thinking/Law-stigma-and-discrimination/Human-rights-and-discrimination.aspx

As member of NAT Policy Network, the African Institute for Social Development ask all our partners in Nottingham, the East Midlands and beyond to raise awareness of this bill and positive gains it allow us to go ahead in defieting disadvantadge and discrimination based on HIV status, we are achieving the UBUNTU for people said Mr Juma the AISD community director.

WORLD TB DAY AT AISD NOTTINGHAM

Dear Reader

The World Tuberculosis Day

World Tuberculosis Day, falling on March 24 each year, is designed to build public awareness about the global

epidemic of tuberculosis and efforts to eliminate the disease. Today tuberculosis causes the deaths of about 1.6 million people each year, mostly in the Third World.
March 24th commemorates the day in 1882 when Dr Robert Koch astounded the scientific community by announcing that he had discovered the cause of tuberculosis, the TB bacillus. At the time of Koch's announcement in Berlin, TB was raging through Europe and the Americas, causing the death of one out of every seven people. Koch's discovery opened the way toward diagnosing and curing tuberculosis
World Tuberculosis Day 2010
On the occasion of World TB Day 2010, the International Committee of the Red Cross declared that attempts to stem the spread of tuberculosis across the globe are likely to fall well short of what is needed unless authorities in affected countries significantly increase their efforts to stop the deadly disease from breeding inside prisons. As a result of overcrowding and poor nutrition, TB rates in many prisons are 10 to 40 times higher than in the general public. The ICRC has been fighting TB in prisons in the Caucasus region, Central Asia, Latin America, Asia Pacific and Africa for more than a decade, either directly or by supporting local programmes [1].
Themes by year
2010: On the move against TB: Innovate towards action
2009: I am stopping TB
2008: I am stopping TB
2007: TB anywhere is TB everywhere
2006: Actions for life – Towards a world free of TB
2005: Frontline TB care providers: Heroes in the fight against TB
2004: Every breath counts – Stop TB now!
2003: DOTS cured me – it will cure you too!
2002: Stop TB, fight poverty
2001: DOTS: TB cure for all
2000: Forging new partnerships to Stop TB

"We ask all men, women and young people to join our efforts in highlighting health challenges that African Communities are facing right now in the UK, in Africa and accross the world. TB infection is here in the Eastmidlands and numbers are shoking" Mr Amdani Juma from AISD

TALK & TEST Campaign in England

African Institute for Social Development (AISD)

We are pleased to launch TALK & TEST campaign in Nottingham. AHPN tailored HIV prevention interventions are required for African living in England

Testing is the only way you can tell if you are infected with HIV

is the message emphasised in the new HIV testing campaign by the African HIV Policy Network (AHPN).
The campaign is part of the Department of Health funded National African HIV prevention (NAHIP) programme

Having an HIV test is the only way to know for sure if you are infected. The sooner the diagnosis, the more likely it is that HIV treatments will keep you healthy. The campaign carries the theme TALK and TEST and aims to signpost those who wish to TALK about their concerns regarding testing for HIV and living with HIV, to a free and confidential helpline 0800-0967-500.

Visitors to www.doitright.uk.com, can access facts and figures about HIV, find out more about the HIV test, and can complete an interactive HIV information quiz (Life check), providing a range of information from the basics of HIV to taking treatment.

TALK & TEST builds on the findings of the latest Bass Line survey of 2,500 Africans living in England. The Bass Line survey was commissioned by AHPN and undertaken by Sigma Research. Its aim was to provide a better understanding of the gaps in HIV prevention within African communities in England.

Bass Line 2008-09 suggested that almost 40% of African people in England had never tested for HIV, and among them, almost 10% were too afraid they might have HIV to test. About one-in-eight (12.2%) of those completing the survey wanted to test for HIV but did not know where to go for an HIV test.

Ford Hickson, Senior Research Fellow at Sigma Research and the lead researcher on Bass Line said “Many African people in England would test for HIV if they knew where to go for a test. This simple need should be addressed as a matter of urgency. However, influencing testing in other Africans requires increasing their perception of risk from HIV infection, and increasing their understanding of the benefits of testing and the potential harm associated with not knowing their HIV status.

When it came to essential awareness about HIV, the vast majority of those completing the survey knew that: HIV is a virus that can be passed during sexual intercourse, that HIV cannot be passed through everyday contact, and that there is a medical test that can show whether someone is infected.

Jabulani Chwaula –NAHIP Programme Manager says; “The value these findings bring to HIV prevention programmes, is that, while on one hand the HIV prevention needs may be basic and primarily information-based for some, for others they are likely to be quite complex. Those who lack social power turn out to be those with the greatest need for skills and confidence to help them avoid getting or passing on HIV. Resolving this means paying attention to treatment access, stigma, discrimination, and immigration policy”.

It is the position of the AHPN that an essential element of planning, funding and delivery of HIV prevention for African people in England is recognition of people’s rights to access information and health services including testing for HIV.

A Department of Health spokesperson said: “We are pleased to support the Bass Line survey, which provides a valuable insight into the HIV prevention needs of African communities. Today, it’s never been easier to get an HIV test with excellent access to confidential GUM and sexual health clinics. We will consider the survey findings in taking forward our national African HIV prevention programme”. port: HIV in the United Kingdom: 2009 Report.
The final report of Bass Line 2008-09 is available free at:
www.sigmaresearch.org.uk/go.php/reports/report2009h
www.nahip.org.uk

For more information Contact:
AHPN Information -020 7017 8910 or info@nahip.org.uk


**Notes for Editor:
The AISD is one of African Community Based Organisation involved in the campaign in Nottingham. AISD works with local, regional and national partnership to improve health and skills in African Communities in Nottingham and region. AISD is one of 19 NAHIP partners’ organisations working to accelerate response of reducing HIV infection of African men, women and young people in England. contact us at http://africaninstitute-aisd.blogspot.com/ email: africaninstitute@live.co.uk or call us at +44(0)7834459076

The AHPN is an alliance of African community-based organisations and their supporters working for fair policies for people living with HIV/AIDS in the UK, providing training, support, research and information. The AHPN is the only African organisation in the UK whose work is dedicated to policy, advocacy and representation at national level. Its major focus is on HIV and the sexual health of Africans in the UK.
National African HIV Prevention Programme (NAHIP) NAHIP is a Department of Health-funded programme managed by the AHPN. It works with community-based organisations to implement prevention initiatives at national level. For more information, please visit http://www.nahip.org.uk/

Sigma Research is a social research group specialising in the behavioural and policy aspects of HIV and sexual health. It also undertakes research and development work on aspects of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) health and wellbeing. Sigma is part of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Portsmouth. It provides research and development services across the UK but it has its offices in London.
In the last ten years, Sigma Research has undertaken more than fifty research and development projects concerned with the impact of HIV on the sexual and social lives of a variety of populations. Projects include local, regional and national needs assessments, intervention and programme evaluations and service and policy reviews.

HIV in the UK

People living with HIV:
More than 85,000 people are living with HIV in the UK
Over a quarter of people with HIV in the UK are undiagnosed
About two thirds of people living with HIV are men and a third are women
Over half of all people living with HIV are aged between 30 and 44, but there are significant numbers both of young people and older people now living with HIV

New HIV cases in 2008: 7,298 new diagnoses
The two groups most affected remain gay and bisexual men and black African heterosexuals. Three-quarters of people diagnosed were between these two groups.
2,760 new diagnoses among men who have sex with men
2,790 new diagnoses among people from black and minority ethnic communities

All figures from the Health Protection Agency report: HIV in the United Kingdom: 2009 Report.

African Institute AISD will launch Gender Campaign for Teens against violence

In 2010, The African Institute for Social Development(AISD) champions equality and right to fair treatment between both teenagers and young people. We support and campaign for a progressive home and school education that deals with sexuaity, gender, power and violance as HIV and Sexual Health studies show that those issues are closely related.
AISD will campagn along side the government to fight against violence among young people especially those in sexual relationships to improve lives and prevent all forms of abuses. It is appropriate to support African young people and involve teenagers in the below government campaign

Teen partner violence campaign launching 15
February 2010
As a first step in the long-term commitment to change public attitudes towards violence against women and girls, the government is launching a marketing campaign to tackle attitudes to violence in teenagerelationshipson 15 February 2010. Recent NSPCC research showed that violence in teenage relationships is highly prevalent and that teenagers have surprisingly tolerant attitudes to violence in relationships. Partner exploitation and violence in teenage intimate relationships, Barter et al (University of Bristol and NSPCC,2009)
Evidence also shows that coercive and controlling behaviour canescalate into both physical and sexual violence and lead to repeat instances.

Campaign aims
The campaign is aiming to interrupt the pattern of violence by showing teens that the behaviour is unacceptable and to influence them before their attitudes or behaviour become too entrenched. Home Office is leading on the campaign and DH is working alongside them to ensure the relevant health messages are incorporated into the work. The marketing campaign is intended to challenge the attitudes of 13-18yearolds, getting them to re-think their views by showing them that they do not have to accept or tolerate violence in relationships. Parents and carers also need to be made aware that teen partner violence is a problem so that they can pick up on any potential relationships where violence could escalate and talk to their teens about this very difficult subject.

Media
The campaign is launching with a TV campaign on youth TV channels, supported with posters in places that young people frequent, press and editorial in girls magazines, radio partnerships for boys and a digital online presence to send all teens for more information or help andadvice. In order to raise awareness of the issue to parents and carers, pressadvertisements will be placed in women's weekly and lifestyle magazines alongside editorial. Professional-facing comms

A specific leaflet has been produced for health professionals providing background and a link to support materials including child safeguarding guidance. As well as Home Office working with DH, they are liaising with DCSF to develop campaign materials to target teachers. This includes packs for schools to support the campaign.



Actions for NHS
Please promote by downloading the campaign posters and leaflets and displaying in waiting rooms and where relevant. Professionals are to familiarise themselves with the issues surrounding teen partner violence by visiting the relevant links below.

Web links
From 15 February 2010:
NHS communicators: download campaign materials and read more aboutthecampaign at http://www.crimereduction.homeoffice.gov.uk/
NHS health professionals: read safeguarding guidance and find outaboutthe campaign at http://www.crimereduction.homeoffice.gov.uk/
Teens can find out more at www.direct.gov.uk/thisisabuse
Parents can find out more at www.direct.gov.uk/spotteenabuse
If you have any further questions about the campaign, please email violence@dh.gsi.gov.uk



Please write to AISD at africaninstitute@live.co.uk contact us through our blogger

African Institute AISD Sexual Health in 2010

Sexual Health and HIV work in 2010 based on Researches and Surveys we did together.

We are pleased at AISD to share findings from our work within the NAHIP partnership and researchers from the Sigma Research part of the University of Portsmouth.

Men, not women, should be prioritised by health promoters working with African communities in England, researchers reported earlier this month. The findings from the latest BASS Line survey suggest that men are more likely than women to report sexual risk behaviours, to have lower levels of knowledge and are less likely to have been tested for HIV.

The researchers also recommend that work with men pays particular attention to the needs of men men who have sex with both men and women, and those who only have sex with men. In addition, there are high levels of need among those with limited schooling.

After a first survey conducted in 2007, the second BASS Line survey was conducted with a convenience sample of Africans living in England from October 2008 to January 2009. A total of 2,580 valid responses were received from individuals completing the survey either in booklet form (distributed by health agencies) or online (promoted by African community or commercial websites).

A great many of the results confirm the findings of the first BASS Line (extensively reported on aidsmap.com, here, here and here). With 4,712 valid responses, the 2007 study was the largest ever study of sexual health and HIV prevention needs among African people in England.

A third of all respondents had never received an HIV test result and a similar proportion had never been tested for other STIs. Only a half of those who had never tested for HIV said they were willing to test.

Men were less likely than women to have tested for HIV, to have diagnosed HIV and to know where to test for HIV.

The main reason respondents gave for never having tested was perceiving no need. (In line with this, only a third of respondents knew that at least 1-in-20 of all Africans living in England have HIV infection.) The authors recommend that to increase uptake of testing, health promoters must increase individuals’ awareness of their vulnerability to HIV and the potential consequences of not knowing their HIV status.

Three quarters of all respondents were sexually active in the last year. More than half had a regular sexual partner, which was more common in men than in women. One-in-four of the people with regular partners said they had other sexual relationships outside the regular relationship, again more common in men than women.

In addition, one-in-ten who said they had sex in the last year reported definitely or probably having sexual intercourse without a condom with someone of a different HIV status to themselves. Men and those with more sexual partners were more likely to report this.

Moreover, compared to women, men were more likely to be unconcerned about being involved in HIV transmission, and more likely to have a problem getting hold of condoms, and were significantly less knowledge about HIV in general.

Among the men, those who had sex with both women and men were the most likely to report having multiple partners, sex outside a relationship, unprotected sex with someone of a different HIV status and condom failure. Men who only had sex with other men were the most likely to be diagnosed with a sexually transmitted infection or with HIV.

As a consequence, the researchers call for more work with homosexually active African men, including men who also have sex with women.

Although the sample was generally well educated (three quarters had a university or college education), 4% had no formal education or only went to primary school. The researchers recommend that more prevention resources are targeted at this group. While they were the least likely to be tested for HIV, they were the most likely to be diagnosed with it, or with another sexually transmitted infection. There were also strong associations between low education and risky behaviour, and low education and lower levels of HIV knowledge.

Interventions
The survey asked respondents about the ways in which they would prefer to learn more about HIV. Overall, more respondents preferred to get further information through reading compared to talking to someone, although many people mentioned both.

“Reading in private” was the most popular reading option, and of those who specified a particular type of written format, a website was the most popular. However face-to-face conversations were preferred to talking to health workers via a helpline or an internet chat room.

Respondents were asked who they would most prefer to be giving information or advice about HIV. A strong preference emerged for health professionals, especially doctors (49%). The authors comment that workers in community organisations will need to have sufficient expertise in HIV if they are to engage effectively with service users. Very few individuals specified that the person giving information should be of a certain ethnicity, gender or age, or should have HIV themselves.

NAHIP programme
This study adds to a body of work undertaken as part of the National African HIV Prevention programme (NAHIP) that will help health promoters tailor interventions for African communities in England:



The planning framework, The Knowledge, the Will and the Power which outlines priority groups and strategic aims for HIV prevention.



The African HIV Prevention Handbook which gives practical advice and shares best practice in delivering a range of HIV prevention interventions.



The previous BASS Line survey.

Reference
Hickson F et al. BASS Line 2008-2009: assessing the sexual HIV prevention needs of African people in England. Sigma Research, 2009.

HIV Dissidents and their dangers in our African community

Dear Readers of AISD news!

I am pleased to introduce the work of Seth Kalichman, Ph.D. I hope that we will all benefit from his huge experience and sharpen our understanding with regard to a minority but yet outspoken and militants who can bring lies and negative arguments to deny the reality we have to deal with as African people in the UK and beyond.

Seth short introduction:

Seth Kalichman is a clinical-community psychologist and professor of psychology at the University of Connecticut. He has dedicated his career to preventing the spread of HIV and improving the health of people living with HIV/AIDS. His research program is focused in the southeastern United States and South Africa. He is also the editor of AIDS and Behavior, a leading social and behavioral science peer-reviewed journal. He is the author of Denying AIDS: Conspiracy Theories, Pseudoscience, and Human Tragedy, published by Springer Science. All of the royalties from Denying AIDS are donated to purchase HIV treatments in Africa. Visit his author's blog at http://denyingaids.blogspot.com/.

Please read what he has to say:

Does HIV really exist? And if it does exist, can it cause harm?
They're ridiculous questions, of course. If you're reading this, there's a 99.9 percent chance you agree that HIV does exist and it can cause harm. After all, the virus has been isolated in laboratories.1,2 We have blood tests that can determine how much of the virus lives inside a person's body.3-5 Scientists have even taken pictures and videos of it.6
And, of course, there is also the terrible, mind-numbing, physical proof of what HIV can do. Globally, more than 25 million people have died from the virus in the past 30 years, and 33 million people are estimated to be living with HIV right now.7
Just 12 years ago, being diagnosed with HIV was almost invariably a death sentence in the developed world.
But then, right around 1996, the skies cleared, hope spread and men and women started regaining weight and strength. Thanks to focused research, amazing scientific discoveries and the tireless work of activists, combination antiretroviral therapy brought new life to HIV-positive people who thought they had none left. Within a few years the AIDS floors in AIDS-designed hospitals throughout the U.S. emptied out.


What do you think is the most important area of HIV treatment research today?

• Figuring out when, and with what, to start HIV treatment
• Developing new meds for people with HIV drug resistance
• Finding ways to fight HIV besides antiretrovirals
• Creating HIV meds that don't cause difficult side effects
• Finding causes for metabolic and cardiovascular problems in HIVers
• Learning how gender and race affect the way HIV and meds work
• Finding a cure
  

None of these

Many HIV-positive people who took these new antiretroviral medications shook off death and slowly regained their energy.8 Some even grew strong enough to return to work and some HIV-positive women felt confident enough to fulfill their dream of having a child. This transformation was one of the most amazing success stories of modern medicine.
Speak to a person living with HIV who survived the early years of the epidemic, and you can still hear the wonder in his or her voice, as well as sense the mourning and even disbelief with respect to the hundreds of thousands of people who suffered a nightmarish litany of illnesses and died and couldn't partake in the miracle.
Yet there exists a small group of people oblivious to these remarkable successes. And it's not a world of people with any actual hands-on experience: None work in HIV medicine providing care or conducting HIV research. None seem to have witnessed the miraculous rebound of so many HIV-positive people after their initiation of HAART [highly active antiretroviral therapy]. None of them volunteer or work for any of the hundreds of HIV/AIDS organizations across the U.S. catering mostly to poor and underinsured people living with HIV. None are AIDS activists who have transformed HIV care and policy.
No, these people scoff from afar at the successes against HIV. They call themselves "AIDS dissidents." We in the HIV community call them "denialists." They are led somewhat indirectly by a tenured professor named Peter Duesberg, who is not a medical doctor. Together, this small but vocal group of people write and theorize and blog. It's like a hobby for them.
And even though they have no hands-on experience -- remember they have no medical training and no first-hand experience with patient care -- they claim to know more about HIV than all the HIV physicians, nurses and activists in the world. Among their claims is that HIV does not cause AIDS, because either HIV does not exist9 or, if it does exist, it is harmless.10 Other denialists claim that HIV tests aren't accurate.11
In the denialists' conspiratorial worldview, we've all been bought off -- I've been bought off, all the HIV specialists, all the HIV nurses, all the HIV organizations in the entire world have been bought off. Anyone who doesn't agree with them they imply is corrupt, has no integrity, has no humanity and is in cahoots with the pharmaceutical industry.

Denying AIDS by Seth Kalichman, Ph.D. To view an excerpt from Denying AIDS, click here.It's an impossible scenario, if you think about it. No one can control that many people. But they believe it and they are looking for willing recruits who'll buy into their theories.
Every now and again, this group wins a dollop of attention from the media. But this attention is always short-lived and the denialist movement retreats back into well-deserved obscurity.
So why am I talking about them? Because even though they're irrelevant, they can still do damage. Each HIV-positive person who is pulled in by their misinformation and ends up not starting life-saving HIV treatment is one life that may be lost. Denialists can only be ignored to a certain extent. It's our responsibility to inform the world about HIV, and that includes informing the world about the harmful information that denialists dish out.
The question is: Why do these people do what they do? Why do they continue to deny the truth about HIV and AIDS? Why do they persist in the face of overwhelming evidence? We'll be looking at this subject in this, as well as the next, episode of This Month in HIV. First, we'll meet someone who went underground and learned how this group works. In our next episode, we'll talk to patients who have been duped by them and well-known activists who have dealt with them.
So let me welcome clinical psychologist Seth Kalichman, who is also a professor of social psychology at the University of Connecticut. He recently completed a fascinating book, titled Denying AIDS: Conspiracy Theories, Pseudoscience, and Human Tragedy, in which he looked into this odd group of people. He'll try to help us understand how the AIDS denialist movement came to be and what keeps it going.

Let us know what you think of this important debate and your learning from Seth.

Thanks

AISD editors

HIV in the UK African Communities

HIV stands for Human Immunodeficiency Virus, which is a virus that can damage the body's defence system so it cannot fight off some infections. If a person with HIV goes on to get certain serious illnesses, this condition is called AIDS, which stands for Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome. There is currently no cure for HIV or AIDS, and no vaccine is available to prevent people from becoming infected with HIV. Men who have sex with men remain the group most affected in the UK, but more heterosexual men and women have been diagnosed with the virus in recent years.

Africans have a poor rate of late presenting of their HIV results which lead to more and more people having to die of infections related to AIDS. Following medical advancement and HIV successful treatments in the UK, people who are dignosed with HIV can live full lives

HIV is a long term chronic condition but it is till a danger to African people because of deep stigma attached to people who live with it. It is time we leave this life style behind. We need to get educate ourselves and progress with medical technology in the 21 century. People with HIV contribute in our economy and they can enjoy and achieve more if we as a community treat them well with respect and dignity

AISD