HIV vaccine welcome, BUT first address the causes that make people vulnerable!

[Guest guest]

Vaccine against AIDS welcome, but ensuring treatment and addressing the causes

still the topmost priority - Mainstreaming Resource Unit (MRU) ActionAid Orissa

News of a successful HIV AIDS vaccine trial is welcome, but treating

existing infections and fighting the underlying causes including the

epidemic of violence against women remain more important priorities,

warns Mainstreaming Resource Unit (MRU) of ActionAid in Orissa.

Early HIV vaccines with modest levels of efficacy should be used as

complementary tools to promote changes in social norms entrenching

gender inequality and violence against women, ActionAid believes.

Underlying the persistent spread of HIV and AIDS is an epidemic of

violence against women which no vaccine will stop. We need governments to take

strong steps to guarantee the rights of women and empower them against chronic

abuse and coercion by men, says the MRU Orissa.

According to the BBC, it is the first time a vaccine has been shown to give even

this limited protection against the virus that causes Aids.

The vaccine was tried out on 16,000 volunteers in Thailand. The vaccine trial,

which was funded by the US army, involved a combination of two vaccines that

individually had proved ineffective.

The World Health Organisation says it offers the promise of a safe vaccine

eventually becoming available for people around the world.

Which means the vaccine is only partially effective at the moment, says

ActionAid and warns that the false news of a " silver bullet " against AIDS may

lead men to resume risky and coercive sexual practices, unless governments

expand prevention and education programmes.

" Vaccine breakthroughs, although hugely exciting, must not distract

attention from the lives being lost every day to existing infections.

Already, in the wake of the global recession, there are reports of ARV

stock-outs and caps on enrolling new patients in treatment programmes, " states

the Orissa Mainstreaming Resource Unit.

Majority of the affected are women and girls, who still lack access to treatment

and the human and economic cost of this shocking neglect is intolerably high.

Mainstreaming Resource Unit

ActionAid Orissa

Santosh Padhy

e-mail: <santosh.padhy@...>