House of Lords to Investigate HIV
posted: 21/12/2010
The House of Lords today set up a new Committee on HIV and AIDS, chaired by Lord Fowler. Lord Fowler was the Secretary of State for Social Services with responsibility for public health, at the start of the HIV epidemic. He was a key figure in the first national public HIV awareness campaign.
Investigating and reviewing HIV in the UK
The new House of Lords Committee will look in detail at HIV in the UK. They will ‘call for evidence’ in the New Year, inviting written evidence from everyone. They will then hold public evidence sessions, before producing a report next summer.
Prevention, Testing, Treatment, Discrimination
The committee is interested especially in reviewing prevention, testing, treatment and discrimination.
After the creation of the Committee Lord Fowler, said
"The Committee's report will appear almost exactly a quarter of a century since the 'Don't Die of Ignorance' campaign in 1986. This is a good time to review the success of prevention and treatment policies. In the last 25 years, various efforts have been made to check the spread of the infection. Nevertheless today the number of people living with HIV is nearing 100,000. The committee will examine whether public education has been effective and how it might be improved; and also the importance of early diagnosis. Currently about 27 per cent of those with HIV do not know that they are infected. The committee will examine what improvements can be made in testing and consider evidence of discrimination. A call for evidence will be issued in the New Year."
The Committee will have a webpage within the House of Lords Committee section of the Parliamentary website. The HIV Select Committee webpage is here
HIV Committee membership:
- Lord Fowler (Chairman)
- Baroness McIntosh of Hudnall
- Lord Gardiner of Kimble
- Baroness Masham of Ilton
- Baroness Gould of Potternewton
- Lord May of Oxford
- Baroness Healy of Primrose Hill
- Lord Rea
- Baroness Hussein-Ece
- Baroness Ritchie of Brompton
- Lord McColl of Dulwich
- Baroness Tonge
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Rise for HIV in Spending Review
posted: 09/11/2010
The Government has commited itself in the recent Spending Review to include specific amounts for HIV social care needs within the local authority grant for the next five years. Remarkably the funding identified for ‘AIDS Support’ is increased from £25.5 million this year to £36.2 million by 2014/15.
George House Trust and other HIV organisations have been in a campaign over the last few months lead by NAT (National AIDS Trust), to persuade the government to at least specify an amount for HIV within local authority budgets.
Following the Spending Review all the grants for special needs – including the AIDS Support Grant – are absorbed into the block grant given to councils, known as the Formula Grant.
However, the government says it will tell councils how much of their Formula Grant is for HIV. These are the figures.
Deborah Jack, Chief Executive of NAT, says:
‘NAT is extremely pleased to see a commitment from the Government to increase funding for HIV social care following our recent campaign. This commitment shows an acknowledgment of the importance of funding these services, and recognition that the rising numbers and ageing population of people living with HIV will result in both continuing and increasing social care needs within this group.
‘However, we do remain concerned that with the removal of the ring-fence around this funding and the increased emphasis on local flexibility, there is a risk that HIV social care funds could be spent elsewhere. NAT encourages all local authorities to ensure the needs of people living with HIV in every area are met, and this means using the funding committed to HIV social care to provide the services necessary.’
Further information (including the figures above) are in a
letter on Local Government and the Spending Review from the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government
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African Asks of Government
posted: 05/05/2010
This is a compilation of the voices, issues, needs and thoughts of African communities living with and affected by HIV in the UK, put together by the African HIV Policy Network.
These are the issues African people living with and affected by HIV in the UK want the next Government to deal with.
We ask the UK Government to:
- Provide free HIV testing, treatment and care for any person living in the UK, including those who are detained or in the prison system.
- Invest in public awareness, prevention, research and education programmes on HIV and sexual health to challenge stigma at all levels of society.
- Address the level of mental health problems affecting Africans living with HIV and seek to improve the health and well being outcomes for African communities in the UK.
- Put measures in place for effective management of the transition of children living with and affected by HIV into adolescent services, and from adolescent to adulthood, ensuring that the rights of families remain protected.
- Promote the elimination of all forms of discrimination of people living with HIV and eradicate any discriminatory practice in public and private spheres.
- Reverse the law on criminalisation of HIV transmission as it is not an effective tool for prevention. It instead reinforces stigma and discrimination of the most affected communities.
- Review the impact of current immigration guidelines and practice on people living with HIV and take an approach that is embedded in Human Rights, equality, dignity and respect.
- Review the rights of asylum seekers and their right to work as this would save the state money and encourage integration into the UK society.
- Invest in community development to achieve active and meaningful involvement of communities and individuals living with and affected by HIV, so that their voices influence decision making. For example, we ask that a person living with HIV have a seat on the All Party Parliament Group on AIDS (APPGA).
- Influence and ensure better EU-wide HIV and health policy that affect African communities and involve Africans in the diaspora in decisions that are being made regarding development in Africa.
African HIV Policy Network wants to see:
- Communities less at risk
- Strong and strategic communities’ voices
- Sustained support for communities’ well being
Some key facts:
- There are over a million Africans in the UK and this is growing significantly, especially in London
- Of the 83,000 people living with HIV in the UK, about 25,000 of them are Africans, 7,000 of whom don’t know they have HIV
- Africans make up more than half the people diagnosed with HIV in England every year and late diagnosis is still a major problem
- Africans generally experience worse health and social problems and African people living with HIV usually have particular health and social care needs
- HIV stigma is a still a problem, threatening valued means of support, personal networks, health and wellbeing of Africans in the UK.
AHPN 10 Asks of the Government
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Guidelines to protect expert HIV advice
posted: 10/11/2009
Expert independent HIV advice to the government should be on a firmer foundation from Christmas. Faith in how the government treats all the scientific advice it asks for and is given, including HIV advice, was rocked when the Home Secretary, Alan Johnson, sacked the chair of the independent Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs.
Scientists, HIV experts and others asked themselves - what is the point of advising the government with the best scientific views, if that advice can be treated with contempt and the government also then shoots the messenger?
Guidelines by Christmas
Now the science minister, Lord Drayson, has committed the government to producing guidelines by Christmas to ensure the independence of its scientific advisers. The move comes after ministers faced days of criticism from senior scientists, MPs and commentators, over the sacking of the independent chair for drugs advice, David Nutt.
A bit of sacking background
Home Secretary Alan Johson sacked Professor Nutt after he overrruled the Advisory Council for the Misuse of Drugs' advice and made cannabis crimes more serious by moving cannabis from grade C to grade B. Nutt is an academic professor who writes articles in academic journals and gives lectures. Johnson stamped his foot like a toddler when Nutt carried on giving the same advice in an article and lecture, and sacked him, claiming academic articles and lectures are 'campaigning' against government policy. Most people can see this for what it was - a professor doing his job and asserting the truth of independent scientific advice. This sacking was not Johnson's finest political moment - perhaps he felt threatened because his explanation for rejecting the panel's scientific advice was so weak.
"What's happened is that the dismissal of Prof Nutt and the circumstances around that has upset, rightly, the scientific community and led to a lot of concern," said Drayson. "The government understands the importance of independent academic advice."
He said the events of the past few days had brought the concerns of scientists and their relationship with government to the top of the agenda. "If I had been consulted by the home secretary [before he sacked David Nutt], I would have had an opportunity to have said to him that there is a rumbling concern within the academic community with regards to the independence of scientific advice."
Smoothing ruffled scientific feathers
Science minister Drayson was in Japan last week when Professor Nutt was sacked, and returned to the UK on Tuesday. He has spent the past few days in meetings with cabinet colleagues, government science advisers and members of the scientific community in an attempt to find out why he was not consulted about the sacking, and how the government can undo the collapse in confidence it has caused in providing government with scientific advice.
The science minister's first response, leaked in an email earlier this week, was to say he was "pretty appalled" by the decision. But he later said that both the home secretary and the prime minister had assured him they understood the importance of independent scientific advice and academic freedom.
To remedy the situation, Drayson said he would take forward the guidelines now issued by senior scientists to keep scientific advice free from political interference.
Science advice guidelines
More than 20 academics drafted the guidelines, which they said "would enhance confidence in the scientific advisory system and help government to secure essential advice". Signatories included the former chief of the Medical Research Council Colin Blakemore, former government chief scientist Robert May, the president of the Royal Society Martin Rees and the director of the Science Museum Chris Rapley. In addition, there are chairs and other members of independent scientific advisory committees and the heads of several academic and research bodies.
Dealing with disagreement with government
The guidelines argued that "disagreement with government policy and the public articulation and discussion of relevant evidence and issues by members of advisory committees cannot be grounds for criticism or dismissal." When scientific advice is rejected, the experts said, the reasons should be explained explicitly and publicly.
Drayson welcomed this. "I think what's important now is that some good comes out of this. That means me working inside government to make sure that these points are understood, come out and very clearly reassure people. These principles that have been set out are a very helpful foundation."
Other proposals to safeguard advice
Among the ideas he will examine are the publication of all scientific advice, regardless of whether the government decides to follow it, and setting up an independent press office for science advisory committees to communicate their ideas directly to the public.
The minister will work with the signatories of the guidelines and the science advisory network in government, under chief scientist John Beddington, to come up with a clear set of "rules of engagement" by Christmas. "This incident has highlighted that people are not as clear as they need to be and that lack of clarity is on both sides."
Government decides but must explain
He said scientists also had to change some of their views of government. "A small number of scientists have gone on the record in the past few days and said the government has to take scientific advice. Well, with respect, it doesn't. Government has to get the best possible scientific advice it can and then government needs to reflect carefully on that advice, then it is the role of ministers to make the decisions. What they have to do is explain why they have made those decisions. And, if it differs from the advice they've been given, to explain why."
Protecting HIV advice
The department of health is advised on national HIV policy by the Expert Advisory Group on AIDS (EAGA), made up of some the country’s top HIV experts in community, health and social care organisations. It’s an advisory non-departmental public body which is non-statutory. The Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs has a stronger position – it was set up by Parliament, so it cannot be abolished.
EAGA was established in 1985 with the following terms of reference: "To provide advice on such matters relating to HIV/AIDS as may be referred to it by the Chief Medical Officers of the Health Departments of the United Kingdom".
It publishes on the EAGA web-pages its agendas and meeting minutes and other material, such as recent advice on PEP (post-exposure prophylaxis - treatment with HIV drugs for one month, starting immediately after exposure to HIV, in order to prevent HIV infection).
More about the Draft Scientific Advice Guidelines
Source
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