PHA-Exchange> AIDS In Africa Mostly Caused By Unprotected Sex... (2)

[Claudio]

From: "Nance" <nance at documentaliste.com>

> ------------------------------------------------------
> 
> Safe Health Care and HIV/AIDS Working Group
> 
> RECOMMENDATIONS TO MEMBERS OF THE EXECUTIVE BOARD - WORLD HEALTH
> ORGANISATION
> 
> Preventing Transmission of HIV and other Diseases through Unsafe
> Health Care (January 2004)
> 
> 
> Incorporate safe health care in "3 by 5"
> 
> As members of the Safe Health Care and HIV/AIDS Working Group,
> we are encouraged to see WHO's World Health Report 2003 remind
> the world that HIV is a "bloodborne retrovirus" and acknowledge
> that "Poor-quality health care...contributed to the entrenchment
> of" HIV/AIDS. We hope that this statement will inform planning
> for the immensely important "3 by 5" initiative, so that the
> initiative does not become a source of new HIV infections. We
> are encouraged that WHO recommends that "The safety of health
> care procedures should be ensured through the use of universal
> precautions, blood safety measures, safe injections and medical
> waste management." We hope that WHO and its partners will be
> certain to ensure that this recommendation is implemented, and
> that safe health care is incorporated into treatment scale-up
> efforts at all levels.
> 
> Encourage public discussion of health care risks and safety
> measures
> 
> As WHO addresses the transmission of HIV and other bloodborne
> pathogens through unsafe health care practices, we are concerned
> about the need for public discussion of risks for HIV and other
> bloodborne pathogens in health care and associated prevention
> measures. Public awareness and discussion of health care risks
> for HIV are crucial to the evolution and application of effec-
> tive solutions. While experts in WHO and other organizations
> have much to offer, workable solutions will come from the people
> who are on the frontlines as patients and healthcare workers,
> who know their conditions and risks, and who will be the ones to
> implement solutions.
> 
> To ensure a comprehensive approach to health care safety, in-
> cluding public awareness, we urge WHO to develop and promote
> policies in the following areas:
> 
> * Incorporate safe health care messaging into HIV/AIDS public
> education for HIV prevention.
> 
> * Provide training for health care providers in resource-
> strapped settings to help ensure adherence to safe health care
> practices.
> 
> * Monitor and identify gaps in collecting information about
> health care transmissions of HIV, including in HIV-positive
> children with HIV-negative mothers.
> 
> * Conduct outbreak investigations of iatrogenic infections (as
> in Libya, Russia, and Romania).
> 
> * Ensure single-use equipment for drawing blood (for HIV testing
> and other aspects of "3 by 5").
> 
> * Ensure the appropriate use of injections.
> 
> * Assist countries in choosing and supplying equipment for
> health care safety (including syringes with re-use prevention
> features and safety features).
> 
> * Institute infection prevention and control policies and guide-
> lines in all health care facilities (public and private), in-
> cluding home-based care.
> 
> * Ensure adequate supplies of syringes, gloves, and other infec-
> tion prevention and control items (including possibility of de-
> veloping an essential supplies list to parallel WHO's essential
> medicines list).
> 
> * Incorporate health care safety into maternal health programs.
> 
> * Ensure safe health care aid in post-conflict settings (such as
> in Sierra Leone).
> 
> For more information, please contact
> Eric Friedman
> Physicians for Human Rights, USA
> Tel: +1-202-728-5335
> Fax: +1-202-728-5335
> mailto:efriedman at phrusa.org
> http://www.htm-journal.info
> 
> 
> --
> The Safe Health Care and HIV/AIDS Working Group is an interna-
> tional coalition that includes members from NGOs, health minis-
> tries, academic institutions, labor unions, and industry, all
> committed to ending the transmission of HIV, hepatitis B and C,
> and other bloodborne pathogens through unsafe health care. We
> believe that all forms of HIV transmission must be stopped, and
> do not seek to minimize the importance of stopping sexual trans-
> mission. We maintain that respect for human rights must underpin
> all responses to HIV/AIDS, and that the right to safe health
> care is held by all people, everywhere.