Some announcements from the US on World AIDS Day

On this World AIDS Day, the US government held a press conference that made several announcements. First of all, the World AIDS Conference will come to Washington in 2012, the first time it has been held in the US since 1990. Reuters also reports that the Obama Administration will lift the ban on people entering the US that are HIV positive.

Finally, changes will be announced to PEPFAR, the initiative to provide emergency vaccines to those with AIDS in the under-developed world. President George H W Bush began the program, now the Obama administration would like to make some changes to PEPFAR.

Those changes are the focus of our snippet for this post, Reuters reporter Andrew Quinn found out what the changes may entail.

Eric Goosby, President Barack Obama's global AIDS coordinator, said he would announce later this week a five-year strategy for PEPFAR that would see the emphasis shift from emergency interventions such as providing drugs to longer-term efforts to improve basic healthcare services.

Goosby said his review would include details of how PEPFAR will work with international partners and recipient governments to improve healthcare delivery and address stigma and discrimination in a "global response to a global responsibility."

The AIDS virus infects 33 million people globally and about a million in the United States, but more people are living longer thanks to HIV drugs, according to a recent U.N. report.

But more than half the people who need lifesaving drugs are not getting them, the World Health Organization and Joint U.N. Program on HIV/AIDS say.

Cocktails of drugs can control HIV but there is no cure and no vaccine.

PEPFAR, the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, has been credited with helping to cut AIDS deaths by 10 percent in targeted African nations and saving more than a million lives, in large part by supplying HIV drugs.

World AIDS Day: a profile of an Indonesian survivor

On this World AIDS Day, the Jakarta Post has a great profile of an AIDS survivor who has to battle the disease while living in poverty. Reporter Anton Muhajir introduces us.

Life for Ketut Sari (not her real name) is more than complicated. The 25-year-old has to struggle not only with poverty but also with the deadly HIV inside her body.

Living in one of the island's poorest and most isolated hamlets does nothing to help her situation.

Sari lives in a hamlet in Datah village in Abang district, Karangasem, about 150 kilometers east of Denpasar. It takes two and a half hours to drive to her place from the capital. The last leg of the trip involves navigating a dirt road through rough terrain.

Once every two weeks Sari sets out on the rough trip for her regular appointment with a medical team in Denpasar. The team gives Sari treatment against the HIV and monitors her health.

Sari's husband passed away six months ago after a bout of HIV/AIDS-related diseases. Only after his death did Sari learn she too was infected.

The realization came gradually. Initially, she suffered from various opportunistic diseases closely associated with HIV/AIDS. Voluntary Counseling and Testing (VCT) at Denpasar's Wangaya hospital confirmed that she had the virus. By then, the opportunistic diseases had already taken a major toll on her health.

"My husband was probably the person who infected me," she said, pointing out that she had never participated in high-risk behaviors, such as having more than one sexual partner.

She also admitted her husband was an intravenous drug user (IDU) who often shared his needles with fellow users.

...

Sari now spends her days weaving tiny pandan mats that Balinese Hindus place on shrines. She can make up to 10 mats per day and sells 50 mats for Rp 10,000 (less than US$1). The money goes toward paying for the family's basic daily needs.

"The money is not enough to buy meals let alone to buy medicine for my treatment," she said.

Sari has not taken an ARV (anti-retroviral) cocktail yet because she is still in relatively good health. However, she must undergo specific therapy to prevent her physical health from deteriorating as well as to ward off any opportunistic diseases.

Her financial condition and the remoteness of her hamlet make it difficult for her to access proper health services, she said.

Comment on World AIDS Day

Today is World AIDS Day. A day to recognize efforts to fight the disease, and to remember those victimized by it.

In today's Miami Herald a founding chairman of the Friends of the World Food Programme wrote a op ed piece on the fight against AIDS. Marshall Matz notes how food can help to keep those with AIDS healthier.

As national governments and international organizations continue to address this crisis, we must not overlook the role of food in both the prevention and cure of the disease.


Anti-retroviral drugs (ARVs) are commonly prescribed to stave off the effects of the virus. Like many prescription drugs, however, ARVs must be taken with food to be effective.

Not only can the combination of medication and food delay the onset of HIV/AIDS-related illnesses, but it also improves the quality of life for those living with HIV/AIDS. In places like Africa, where access to a steady supply of food is often a critical issue, many HIV/AIDS patients are forced to take their ARVs on an empty stomach. Side effects can be so severe that patients cease treatment altogether.

When that happens, a vicious domino effect begins: Patients lose their physical strength and are unable to work; their households suffer from the loss of income and/or food; children are removed from school so that they can work; and getting enough to eat becomes an everyday struggle. In some countries, HIV/AIDS has wiped out entire generations, leaving families with no food and no money.

Ensuring that HIV/AIDS patients receive adequate nutrition is certainly an achievable goal. Two HIV/AIDS relief initiatives are doing exactly that.

• Through the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), President Bush committed $15 billion over a five-year period to addressing HIV/AIDS in 15 African and Asian countries. PEPFAR is the largest commitment by any nation to combat a single disease. Today, PEPFAR supports life-saving treatment for nearly two million people worldwide. Building on this wonderful success story, President Bush signed legislation last July that would extend PEPFAR for another five years. Most importantly, a nutrition component was included in the reauthorization. We must now build upon that authorization to provide a fully funded food component.

• The U.N. World Food Program (WFP) also recognizes the importance of food for HIV/AIDS patients. In coordination with other humanitarian relief organizations, WFP provides patients with food supplies when they receive their medication. This regimen will help patients regain their strength so they can return to work and provide for their families. In particular, farmers will remain healthy long enough to teach vital agricultural skills to their children so that farming practices will continue to be passed on from generation to generation.

Jeffrey Sachs stresses economics to reduce poverty

from The Brown Daily Herald

Irene Chen

Speaking as part of a World AIDS Day symposium Saturday, Jeffrey Sachs and Sonia Ehrlich Sachs outlined ways to improve conditions in countries around the world that have been devastated by poverty and infectious disease.

Several speakers addressed a crowded Smith-Buonanno 106 as part of "Voices from the Front Line: Global Economics, Health Disparities, and the AIDS Pandemic," which was sponsored by several organizations, including the Brown University AIDS Program.

Sachs, an economist who heads Columbia University's Earth Institute, delivered the keynote address with his wife Sonia, a senior health scientist at the institute.

Sachs began his speech with a single image: malaria-stricken children from Malawi, several of whom were in coma-like states. "It's unbelievable to see this, I certainly never expected to see so many children dying (of malaria) before my eyes," Sachs said. "It's a violation of our hopes and our promises. It's also a violation of common sense: it is $5 for a bed net, and three days of pills only cost $1. And yet, we haven't figured out how to (fund this). It ain't so hard."

Part of the problem, Sachs believes, is that people do not focus enough on the ecological problems relating to disease and poverty. "The core is to understand the underlying epidemiology of the situation," Sachs said. "We spent a lot of time trying to understand why Africa's disease burden was so high. Poor people die of everything, but the excess disease burden is concentrated in the infectious disease burden."

Sachs applauded Brown's contributions to HIV/AIDS research and treatment around the world stating that, "I think there are a few places in the world, few institutions in the world, that can do what Brown is doing, (that) can accomplish what Brown is doing," Sachs said.

"The world is our classroom and we'll never know what to say in the classroom if we aren't out there in the world," Sachs said.

Still, Sachs noted the lack of a global response in addressing issues of poverty and inequality. "Never before have we had so much and so many powerful tools and the means to take on this challenge," he said.

Sachs presented a chart of the disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) affecting several countries around the world. DALYs "are the sum of the years of life lost due to premature mortality in the population and the years lost due to disability," according to the World Health Organization Web site.

In poor and rich countries, DALYs are comparable in cases such as cancer, accidents and cardiovascular diseases. The striking disparity is in three categories: AIDS, infectious diseases and infant mortality.

Sachs presented the startling differences in diseases that are commonly thought to have been eradicated. "There are 8,000 children dying of measles (in poor countries), while essentially no children die of measles in the rich countries."

Sachs spoke briefly about his book, "The End of Poverty," which, according to a March 2005 press release from the Earth Institute, explains "why wealth and poverty have diverged and evolved as they have and why the poorest nations have been so markedly unable to escape the cruel vortex of poverty."

Sachs criticized the way "help" has been given to countries in Africa in the past. "The farm yields are a third or a quarter of the yields achieved by farmers around the world, because African farmers do not have the basic tools needed," Sachs said. "We're not paying attention to the more important fact that Africa needs help growing crops, not the occasional dribble of food from Western farmers."

Sachs stressed that the root of all these problems is poverty. "It's not a lack of caring or focus," Sachs said. "It is an extreme poverty from the village up to the government. It is poverty, not corruption that is a fact of life, except for maybe in Washington."

Sachs argued that instability in poor regions is also due to poverty. "Poverty is the core instigator of war," Sachs said. Illustrating his point, he noted that only two countries come close to Africa's mortality rate of children under 5: Iraq and Afghanistan.

Sachs also called for more research to figure out why Africa is the epicenter of the AIDS pandemic, saying, "Little work has been done to disentangle the reasons."

He also suggested a beginning for the eradication of poverty as well as disease. "This is where the economist comes in. We've got plenty of money in the world," Sachs said. "What would it take to ensure public access to services? About 40 bucks (per) capita in Malawi."

"For less than 1 percent of the income of the rich world, all those basic needs could be met, and this could unlock the economic barriers," Sachs said. "The evidence is that economic development kicks in after these barriers have disappeared."

Ehrlich Sachs works with her husband on the Millennium Village Project, a group seeking to alleviate poverty worldwide that is part of the Earth Institute.

Ehrlich Sachs's speech described how the Millennium Villages Project works. "We've chosen 12 different sites in 10 different countries in Africa, which comprised about 95 percent of different means of livelihood," Ehrlich Sachs said. "We chose one small area which is the sentinel village, studied very closely by monitoring and measuring … before we help communities with interventions."

In villages across Africa, the Millenium Villages Project provides fertilizer that increases nutrient levels and crop returns decreasing cases of malnutrition in African children.

"This increased harvest enables people to have the problem of storage. They no longer have a problem of hunger," Ehrlich Sachs said. "They have enough for themselves, enough for their children and a surplus to create an income which will help them get into other cash-creating opportunities."

This surplus has far-reaching benefits. "From the surplus of their harvest, they donate 10 percent of the excess to the schools, which can offer school lunches. Often the one meal the kids get a day," Ehrlich Sachs said. "The attendance has sky-rocketed, and there has also been a measurable difference in school performance."

HIV Discrimination in UK Causing Poverty

from Christian Today

by Anne Thomas

Hate crime and discrimination against people with HIV in the UK are driving some into poverty and isolation, according to a report by the National Aids Trust and Crusaid charities.

The study, which was launched to mark World Aids Day on Friday, also blamed government policies on asylum for causing poverty.
The government said adequate levels of support were being provided.

The report said that since Crusaid was established in 1986, one in three people diagnosed with HIV had turned to the Crusaid Hardship Fund for support.

In the past four years, applications from those in the most extreme poverty had risen by 33 per cent, the report said.

In 2005, the average income of applicants to the Hardship Fund fell to £60 per week, while the number of applications for basic needs such as food and clothing has risen.

The report also said restrictions on asylum seekers' rights to work
and benefits were fuelling the problem.

It said many HIV positive asylum seekers were living in
substandard housing and were unable to afford basic food and clothing.

Deborah Jack, chief executive of the National Aids Trust, said: "It's shocking that one in three of all people diagnosed with HIV in the UK have experienced real poverty.

"Much of this poverty arises from government policy decisions and from continuing discrimination in society.

"Urgent action is needed to end the unjust burden of poverty on so many people living with HIV - our report sets out a clear agenda to make this happen.”

On World AIDS Day last Friday, more than 250 young adults in Northern Ireland helped Christian relief agency Tearfund launch their new Work a Miracle appeal at the Strand cinema, Belfast.

The appeal aims to help HIV-infected women get access to medicines and information that will prevent their babies being born with the disease.

'Discriminated HIV sufferers face poverty'

from ITV

Increasing numbers of people are being driven into isolation and poverty because of the stigma associated with HIV, a report issued on World Aids Day has said.

Charities Crusaid and the National Aids Trust claim prejudice and discrimination can lead to people falling on hard times as well as damaging them physically and mentally.

One in three people diagnosed with HIV has turned to Crusaid for financial support since the charity was set up 20 years ago.

The average income of applicants to the charity's Hardship Fund fell to £60 per week in 2005 while the number of requests for help to cover basic needs such as food and clothing rose sharply.

HIV positive asylum-seekers, who are prevented from working and claiming benefits, are living in substandard housing and are unable to afford basic food and clothing, researchers said.

Chief executive of Crusaid, Robin Brady, said: "Our report shows how HIV and poverty are intertwined for so many people. It is shocking that after 20 years Crusaid is still being called upon to help people living with HIV and in poverty.

"That is why we teamed up with the National Aids Trust to produce a report that exposes the problems that people living with HIV face on a daily basis.

"There is a need to challenge and alleviate the growth in HIV-related poverty in the UK. This report highlights the need, and it is time for Government to pick up the responsibility."

Meanwhile, the International Labour Organisation has said that the workplace may be the best setting to have drugs administered to millions of people living with HIV and Aids.

The UN agency said that more than 24 million people in the global workforce in 2005 suffered from HIV or Aids and almost 67 per cent of these live in Africa.

It estimated that 1.8 million more African workers would be alive in 2010 if 80 per cent of the workforce were to start and stay on anti-retroviral drugs from this year.

On World AIDS Day, woman releases book

from Inside Bay Area

Group becomes 'hands and feet of Jesus' in Africa

By Tim Hunt

Editor's note: Former Herald editor and associate publisher is traveling in Africa to Kenya and Malawi with a Heart for Africa team. He is chair of the Heart for Africa board and filed this report from Malawi on World AIDS Day.

LILONGWE, Malawi

A TEAM OF 27 NORTH AMERICANS arrive here today to work in the poorest areas of Lilongwe with Theresa Malila and her Somebody Cares organization of Lilongwe.

Leading the Heart for Africa team is Janine Maxwell, whose book Its Not Okay With Me, is being released today on World AIDS Day. Maxwells book describes her transformation from successful marketing agency owner to leader of this faith-based humanitarian organization based in Atlanta.

Its appropriate that Im here in Africa as the book God led me to write is being released in North America. My heart is here coming alongside Africans who are doing the work of caring for some of Gods poorest and neediest kids, Maxwell said. Im excited to have other North Americans here with me to be the hands and feet of Jesus along with our African partners.

Too many of Gods precious children die in Africa every day because theres no food, no safe water and the HIV/AIDS pandemic has left in its wake 15 million orphans in sub-Saharan Africa. God has called me and my family to do what we can to help change this awful reality, Maxwell continued.

Maxwells life changed dramatically after she was in New York City with one of her clients, Kelloggs Canada, when the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks occurred. The first chapter of her book traces her escape from New York City after which she fell into a deep depression and began questioning what she was doing with her life.

In 2003, she went to Kenya on a mission trip, which began the transformation of her life. By mid-2004, God had led Maxwell and her husband, Ian, to close their agency, Onyx, and search for a way to make a difference. Their client list included many of the Fortune 50 companies in Canada and they had 75 employees.

Meanwhile, she continued to travel to Africa and began raising money to help orphans. In 2005, her entire family went to Africa to spend the summer as volunteers with Dream for Africa, the predecessor organization to Heart for Africa. Two months after they agreed to join the staff, Ian Maxwell was named president in late September 2005.

The organization has taken more than 4,500 North Americans to Swaziland, South Africa and Malawi to plant gardens to help Africans move toward food security. In Swaziland, more than 95 percent of the homesteads have been planted.

The book chronicles some of the amazing incidents Maxwell encountered while working in Africa, such as one involving a young girl named Lillian and her sisters. On Maxwells first trip to Kenya in 2003, she was in the Kipsongo slum in Kitale with Charles Mully, founder of the Mully Childrens Family.

They were told to go into one hut and discovered a girl who weighed just 12 pounds and was near death. They took her to a hospital and later learned her parents had both died of AIDS and shed lived alone in that hut for eight months. Amazingly, with treatment and lots of prayer, Lillian recovered and now lives in the Mully home in Ndali.

Equally amazing, on two successive trips into that slum — months apart — Maxwell recognized two girls who looked remarkably like Lillian. They were the sisters that Mully and Maxwell did not know existed. The three sisters now all live in Ndali.

Maxwells book tells of the awful poverty and living conditions of millions of African children, but also provides hope that if caring people intervene, they can make a big difference, one child and one family at a time.

The title calls people to action by agreeing that its not OK that:

- A child in sub-Saharan Africa dies every three seconds because of hunger and malnutrition.

- Every 14 seconds a child is orphaned by AIDS.

- Orphans live alone or in gangs on the streets because, in many heavily AIDS-infected countries, theres no one to care for them. The governments are simply overwhelmed by the numbers. Last year, the World Health Organization estimated there are more than 15 million orphans in sub-Saharan Africa.

- Orphans and poor children live in deplorable conditions in slums and scavenge garbage dumps for something to eat. In many slums, theres no clean water supply or no simple sanitation, such as pit toilets.

Here in Malawi, the Heart for Africa team will spend several days working in the Nagona slum, as well as several villages outside of Lilongwe. Team members will be putting roofs on mud huts damaged in the recent torrential rains and planting community gardens to help the Malawians grow nutritious vegetables to improve their diet.

The lack of food and poverty multiplies the effects of HIV/AIDS. Even if the anti-viral drugs are available, many Africans are so malnourished that their bodies cannot process the drugs.

The community gardens are one way that Heart for Africa is helping Africans toward a sustainable food supply. North Americans plant vegetable seedlings and then Somebody Cares provides the ongoing support for the community gardens and the families they feed. Heart for Africa focuses its efforts on hunger, orphans, poverty and education.

Working in the villages of Deya, Matunda, Chatimba and Njewa, Heart for Africa and Somebody Cares have installed three bore holes, fixed a fourth bore hole, committed to building a school that will break ground in February, planted community gardens and brought immediate aid and comfort to thousands of people in Malawi.

Somebody Cares, the Lilongwe-based partner organization, provides home-based care in the poorest areas of this city. Its headed by Theresa Malila, who received Heart for Africas Woman of the Year award in 2005.

For additional information about the book, visit http://www.itsnotokwithme.com. To learn more about Heart for Africa, visit http://www.heartforafrica.org.

Bulgaria Marks World AIDS Day with 677 HIV-Positive

from The Sofia News Agency

Bulgaria marks this year's World AIDS Day with information campaigns across the country, part of a nationwide initiative for HIV/AIDS prevention.

Bulgaria's HIV-positive patients on record grew to 677 in November, up by 76 since the beginning of the year, latest figures show.

Though experts suppose the actual number of the infected exceeds that figure, AIDS is not an epidemic of catastrophic proportions for a population of approximately 8 million.

The lethal disease has been spreading mostly among men, younger people and residents of larger cities. HIV has already crossed into the mainstream population and take its toll among people from all ages, social groups and professions.

In over 90% percent of the cases the disease has been transmitted through sexual contacts. In this form the disease knows no age limits - unprotected sex inflicts with HIV people aged from 16 till 70.

Bulgaria's young pay a high price for being the first generation to have lived so far without the strict restrictions of the former totalitarian regime, often without any clear vision for the future and often in poverty. More than 70% of HIV infections are among 20-39 years old and the spread of the virus is particularly severe among young intravenous drug users. The youngest is aged 16.

Bulgaria is considered to have a relatively low number of HIV positive people presently, and health officials say efforts must focus on prevention.

The government seems to try hard to address the issue. As early as 2001 the National Strategy and the National Action Plan for Prevention and Control of AIDS was adopted to cover the period from 2001-2007.

HIV pushing sufferers in Britain into poverty

From Reuters Alert Net

By Patricia Reaney

LONDON, Dec 1 (Reuters) - Shortly after breaking up with his partner, a British man with HIV found that his address was posted in a shop window along with a warning that he was an AIDS carrier.

Days later he was beaten with chair legs by men in his home.

"I spent years coming to terms with living with HIV, then just one person turned my life around through pure spite," said John, a 36-year-old who lives in the Midlands.

Twenty-five years into the AIDS epidemic, people infected with the virus still face hate crimes, stigma, discrimination and abuse. In Britain where an estimated 63,000 people are infected with HIV, it is driving many sufferers into extreme poverty.

"It is a real enough phenomenon for us to need to do something about it," said Yusef Azad of the National AIDS Trust (NAT) in Britain.

A report by the trust and Crusaid, a charity dedicated to helping people affected by HIV/AIDS, shows a third of all people diagnosed with HIV in Britain have sought hardship help to relieve their poverty.

"We're talking very significant proportions of people living with HIV who are having to deal with poverty issues," Azad said in an interview.

"HIV often drives people into poverty and poverty makes the condition more difficult to manage and deal with," he added.

MONEY FOR FOOD

The report, released on World AIDS Day, highlights cases of people hounded out of jobs because of their HIV status, or who faced discrimination when they tried to get one. Others live in sub-standard housing and have been abandoned by friends and family and ostracised by their community.

"My bosses never said anything in particular but kept making it clear that I should consider taking a long rest and maybe not return at all," said Graham, who eventually quit because he felt so isolated.

Britain has one of the highest increasing rates of HIV in Europe. In 2005 it recorded the biggest ever number of new HIV diagnoses in gay and bisexual men. About 85 percent of the rise in heterosexual transmissions is in people who migrated from other countries with high infection rates.

"The worrying thing is that, at a time when HIV is probably the most serious communicable disease threat for the UK, funds for HIV prevention are being cut," said Azad.

More people are being pushed into poverty because of HIV/AIDS and it is becoming more extreme. In the past people sought money from Crusaid's hardship fund to buy items such as appliances. Now it is for food.

"The depths of destitution and the depths of need are much more severe than they have been in the past. The people in those categories, and there are many more of them, tend to be people within the asylum and immigration system," according to Azad.

The report called for the government and police to establish policies that explicitly address HIV hate crimes and help tackle unemployment and poor housing among people with HIV.

"The asylum and immigration system needs to insure people living with HIV have enough to live on ... and should allow people who have been here for six months the right to work," Azad added.

HIV Driving People Into Extreme Poverty In The UK

from Medical News Today

On World AIDS Day, 1 December, Crusaid and the National AIDS Trust launch a shocking report into the rising numbers of people living with HIV in extreme poverty in the UK.

The report launched to MPs at the House of Commons on World AIDS Day highlights the effect of stigma and discrimination in driving people living with HIV into poverty. Hate crime and discrimination not only have a damaging effect on the physical and mental health of people living with HIV, but can also lead to isolation and poverty. Recent research shows that a third of people living with HIV have experienced discrimination.

The report calls for action in tackling the root causes of poverty among people living with HIV, including addressing high levels of hate crime, unemployment and poor housing among people living with HIV.

Policies restricting asylum seekers right to work and appallingly low benefits also means that many HIV positive asylum seekers are living in substandard housing and are unable to afford basic food and clothing.

Poverty is far too common among people living with HIV. Since it was established in 1986, one in three people diagnosed with HIV have turned to the Crusaid Hardship Fund for support. In 2005, the average income of applicants to the Hardship Fund fell to £60 per week, while the number of applications for basic needs such as food and clothing has risen.

Key Facts (Crusaid Hardship Fund 2005)

* In 2005 the fund gave out £400,000 to 2,400 people
* The average grant was £140
* 10% of UK nationals applying to the hardship fund had no income
* Over one in five people receiving grants from the Hardship Fund have one or more dependants.

Information on the Crusaid Hardship fund

The Crusaid Hardship Fund helps with basic needs such as food and clothing as well as access to respite care, mobility equipment and household goods. The vast majority of applications are to cover basic needs such as food, bedding or a fridge to store medication at the correct temperature. It also helps people re-train in new skills in order to find a long-term route out of poverty. Applications are made via referring agencies, including social workers and GPs, and are rigorously tested to ensure that grants are made to those most in need.

Key recommendations

1. The Government and police must address HIV related hate crime and enforce policies on HIV related domestic violence

2. Public sector bodies should introduce HIV awareness training and act as champions to encourage the private sector to break down barriers to employment for people living with HIV.

3. Local authorities should prioritise the housing and social care needs of people living with HIV particularly those with poor health.

4. Subsistence for asylum seekers should be increased to a level that is equivalent to income support and they should be granted permission to work after six months.

Case studies

Graham
Graham was employed by a well-established retail chain as a store assistant. When he was diagnosed HIV positive, his condition was made public at work without his consent. " My bosses…kept making it clear that I should consider taking a long rest and maybe not return to work at all. But I wanted to work and was able to work." Said Graham.

A colleague bought him a cup, plate and fork so Graham did not infect anyone in the canteen. An anonymous petition was posted to request Graham be given his own toilet cubicle and he received an anonymous letter telling him not to attend the staff Christmas party as "no-one wants AIDS for Christmas."

Graham felt so isolated he felt he had no option but to resign, and as he had made himself voluntarily unemployed he had to wait 14 weeks before being eligible for benefits. His wife also moved out taking his daughter and he applied for support to the Crusaid Hardship Fund to cover his gas and electricity bills.

John Aged 36 year, John lives in the Midlands and was diagnosed four years ago. After a fall out with his long-term partner, John's HIV status and home address were displayed on a card in his local shop window, warning people that he was an 'AIDS carrier'. A few days later, John came home from work to find two guys in his flat. They beat him with chair legs, putting him in hospital for six days. John said: "I spent years coming to terms with living with HIV, then just one person turned my life around through pure spite."

Alice's story Alice suffers from chronic asthma, pains in her legs and feet and chronic weight loss relating to being HIV positive. The property she lives in is in very poor repair - it has been invaded by mice, is so damp there is black mould growing on the walls and she has to climb 40 steps to reach her room. She has been on a re-housing list for five years. "When you are chronically ill, society assumes you have nothing left to offer and thinks its OK to leave you on the scrap heap" said Alice. Alice applied to the Crusaid Hardship Fund to replace mouldy bedding, towels and curtains and for help with the costs of running an electric heater.

###

Author: Emma Bickerstaff
Communications Manager
National AIDS Trust

For further information please go to:
National AIDS Trust And
Crusaid