Elton John and Prince Harry launch bid to 'smash' AIDS stigma

Yahoo – AFP, July 24, 2018

Elton John and Britain's Prince Harry launched a new initiative to break the
cycle of HIV transmission (AFP Photo/Robin Utrecht)

Amsterdam (AFP) - Elton John joined forces with Britain's Prince Harry to launch a $1.2 billion initiative on Tuesday to "break the cycle" of HIV transmission by targeting young men, among whom infections are on the rise.

On the second day of a major international AIDS conference in Amsterdam, the two lent their mega-wattage star power to calls for action to end the lingering stigma around the virus and protect generations to come.

"Young people are the only age group where HIV infections are rising, not falling," warned rock star and veteran AIDS campaigner Elton John as he announced the launch of the MenStar Coalition.

"We have to do much, much more to bring men, especially younger men more fully into the fold," he insisted.

The coalition brings together different partners, including the UN's Unitaid and the US fund PEPFAR, as John warned that 24- to 35-year-old men were accessing HIV testing and treatment at "unacceptably low rates".

Much work has been done to protect women and girls but "we can't solve the whole problem if we are only addressing half the situation," John said.

"If we want to win this fight, if we want to end AIDS once and for all, we must make men part of the solution" and teach them to protect themselves, "not only their wives and girlfriends, their sisters, and daughters, but also critically their brothers and their sons."

The countries with the highest rates of new HIV infections (AFP Photo/Cecilia SANCHEZ)

'Dangerous complacency'

Some 15,000 delegates -- researchers, campaigners, activists and people living with the HIV virus which causes AIDS -- have gathered for the five-day war council, amid dire warnings the AIDS epidemic could yet spiral out of control.

"The progress we have fought so hard for is at risk from a dangerous complacency," Prince Harry told conference delegates.

"Too many around the world are still ignoring the damaging knock-on effects on education and other community services for not prioritising HIV prevention and treatment."

The new initiative was focused on "the tough but essential work of truly changing mindsets," the Duke of Sussex said.

"Inspired by the growing alarm of the rate of new HIV infections among young women, this campaign is bravely tackling the root of this problem -- the lack of awareness of HIV prevention amongst hard-to-reach young men."

He urged people to unite around the "smashing of a deadly stigma" surrounding HIV, "and calling out the prejudice that is still there".

South African actress Charlize Theron agreed as she addressed the day's opening plenary session entitled: "Breaking the barriers of inequity".

"We have come a long way as a global community from that moral panic that defined early stages of this epidemic," she told the audience.

But she warned that "most of us now know and understand that HIV is not just about sex or sexuality... We know it is linked to the second-class status of women and girls worldwide."

Britain's Elton John and Prince Harry launch a $1.2 billion initiative to fight AIDS transmission by targeting the education of young men, during a major international AIDS conference in Amsterdam pic.twitter.com/wCizRktKBI

— AFP news agency (@AFP) July 24, 2018

Anti-tobacco conference struggles to stub out lobbyists

Yahoo – AFP, Anais Llobet, 18 Oct 2014

While delegates at the World Health Organization gathering were discussing ways

 to stop people lighting up, those representing the interests of the tobacco industry

were doing their best to influence the outcomeSAGET (AFP Photo/Joel Saget)

Moscow (AFP) - A major conference in Moscow aimed at cutting global smoking rates this week found itself grappling with another issue: how to stop the powerful tobacco lobby from butting in on the debate.

While delegates at the World Health Organization gathering were discussing ways to stop people lighting up, those representing the interests of the tobacco industry were doing their best to influence the outcome.

Officially, lobbyists were banned from attending the week-long gathering that involved government representatives from some 190 countries. But they still made their presence felt on the sidelines -- and sometimes even inside the conference hall itself.

Russia's President Vladimir Putin (R)

and Director-General of the World Health

Organization Margaret Chan (L) meet in the

 Novo-Ogaryovo residence outside Moscow,

 on October 13, 2014 (AFP Photo/Vasily

Maximov)

That led those in charge to sound the warning alarm over any attempts to derail the talks that included discussions on raising taxes, proposals the industry is desperately trying to stub out.

"The cigarette manufacturers insist on being an integral part of the debate to find solutions," WHO director Margaret Chan told the roughly 1,500 delegates.

"But allowing a place for the tobacco industry would be the same as letting the foxes look after the chickens," Chan said. "Don't let them seduce you."

International officials at the biennial conference discussed -- and eventually agreed -- guidelines for taxes they hope will help stop a habit blamed for some six million deaths each year.

But some from the tobacco lobby turned a deaf ear to the trenchant warnings from organisers and snuck into the conference in the area reserved for members of the public.

Francois van der Merwe, from the International Tobacco Growers Association, woke up at 6am to snatch his seat but was then among a group of lobbyists turfed out after a vote by the delegates.

"We don't need these members of the public here," said the Ugandan delegate Sheila Ndyanabangi.

Van der Merwe though argued that it was wrong to kick him out.

"I represent thirty million farmers. Is it right that they expel me while they decide my future?" he huffed to AFP.

For anti-smoking activists the spat was part of a long-standing push by the multi-billion dollar industry to try to stamp out any curbs on their business.

"These places are almost all snapped up by people who work for the tobacco industry and who walk the halls every day to convince delegates not to vote on tobacco control measures," said Jesse Bragg, spokesman for Corporate Accountability International.

Sideline meetings

While the lobbyists may have been chucked out of the conference itself that did not stop them setting up meetings on the sidelines to try to get their point of view across.

Persona non grata Van der Merwe arranged a lunch for eight handpicked journalists to hear his views.

Meanwhile, the International Tax and Investment Centre, a group financed by the big four cigarette producers, organised a conference in Moscow on the eve of the WHO summit and invited all the delegates along.

"We had to send around a note out explaining that it was not one of our meetings and encouraging delegates not to visit it," said one of the organisers of the anti-tobacco event.

"We had suspicions about interference by the pro-tobacco lobby at our conference."

The major cigarette manufacturers have blasted the moves to exclude them from the talks, with a spokeswoman for Philip Morris calling them a "flagrant violation" of the meeting's commitments to public debate.

For anti-tobacco activists, however, keeping the industry lobbyists out of the discussion was much-needed.

"WHO is facing a challenge: how to ensure the transparency of our conference without allowing the tobacco industry to participate because they use the same desire for transparency to threaten the whole process," said Bragg, spokesman for Corporate Accountability International.

Related Article:

Asia's rising tobacco epidemic

How We Care: Schizophrenia

People living with mental illness have reason for hope and help

Jakarta Globe, Woodwing Importer, Oct 02, 2014

A coalition of mental health advocates will hold a series of events to raise awareness for
schizophrenia and other disorders, starting on Oct. 10 with a public seminar at @america
 in Pacific Place, as well as a candle lighting the same evening at Bunderan HI in Central
Jakarta. (JG Photo/Sylviana Hamdani)

Life is fragile. What we have today — our health, riches and family — may easily be stripped from us in an instant.

Many have watched the 2001 Hollywood blockbuster “A Beautiful Mind,” which tells the true story of John Forbes Nash, a Princeton mathematician whose brilliant career spirals out of control when he begins to experience hallucinations that worsen to the point that he attacked a colleague and nearly injured his wife and child.

Nash was sent to a psychiatric facility where he was diagnosed with schizophrenia. Thereafter, the mathematician’s life yielded to a series of struggles between maintaining his family and career, and giving in to his demons.

Likewise, chemist Poltak Tua Dorens Ambarita’s life changed when he began seeing visions in 2005 while working at a packaging firm in Karawang, West Java.

“I thought [the visions] were a gift from God,” he said.

Poltak became convinced that God had chosen him to be a prominent national leader and marry a certain top celebrity.

Poltak couldn’t stop talking about these thoughts with friends and colleagues. “I couldn’t concentrate at all,” said the 32 year-old. “All I could think about was the visions.”

He then started hearing voices too.

“I went barefoot on the streets just to follow the voices,” he said.

When friends began to realize something was wrong, they subdued the heavy-set Poltak and took him to a mental hospital where nurses restrained him and injected him with tranquilizers.

“I tried to break free, because I believed I wasn’t ill [and] didn’t belong at the mental hospital.”

It took Poltak many years before he could accept that he has to live with schizophrenia, psychotherapy, medication and repeated hospitalizations.

Ash Xyle was a manager at a private company in Jakarta, as well as a loving husband and father of two children, when he started experiencing paranoid schizophrenia — seeing things on his computer screen and hearing whispers behind his back at the office.

“After a week, it started getting really scary,” Xyle said. He took time off work and stayed in his room for three weeks straight.

“I couldn’t sleep, couldn’t talk with anyone,” he said. “I couldn’t make sense of what’s going on.” His wife then took him to a psychiatrist.

“He asked me very carefully whether I know what schizophrenia is,” Xyle recalled. “I said yes, I’ve seen it in the movies. They’re usually killers.”

“[The psychiatrist] said very gently to me, ‘Well, my friend, you have that,’ ” Xyle recalled.

‘Not the end of the world’

“Having schizophrenia is not the end of the world,” Ayu Agung Kusumawardhani, a doctor who chairs the Association of Indonesian Psychiatrists’ (PDSKJI) schizophrenia section, said.

“Schizophrenia is a [mental] illness. It’s not a curse or caused by santet [black magic]. With support from families and friends and proper medication, people with schizophrenia may fully recover and function as normal,” Agung said.

(JG Photo/Sylviana Hamdani)

According to the Ministry of Health’s 2013 Basic Health Research ( Riskesdas ), almost two out of every 1,000 Indonesians report that they live with a serious mental illnesses, including schizophrenia. And that prevalence estimate may be conservative.

“Early detection is the key to treating schizophrenia,” Agung said.

The first signs of schizophrenia usually happen between the ages of 15 and 25. Early symptoms vary from depression, withdrawal from friends and families, hallucinations, delusions to violent agitation.

Some parents, upon seeing these symptoms, think their child may be possessed and bring them to a dukun [spiritual healer] where they undergo rituals that jeopardize their mental and physical health.

“Parents should immediately bring their children to the psychiatrist [when they recognize these symptoms] to get proper treatments,” Agung said, adding that it is important for schizophrenia to be properly diagnosed and treated within the first two years of its onset.

“With immediate diagnosis and [adherence to] treatment, patients may recover fully much sooner,” she said.

Psychiatrists typically treat schizophrenia with a combination of medicines and behavioral remedies that give patients the tools they need to anticipate and deal appropriately with symptoms that remain despite medication.

A significant problem for people living with schizophrenia is adhering to the treatment that doctors prescribe, which may involve daily pills or injections every two or four weeks.

Severe cases may require hospitalization until symptoms are under control.

Support from family and friends plays an important role in assisting patients’ recovery. “It’s important that [patients’ family and friends] understand the disease and accept and love the patient as he or she is,” said Agung.

Part of that support also entails ensuring patients follow the medication prescribed by their psychiatrist.

“The most important thing is hope,” Agung said. “Patients should have the hope that one day they can recover fully and function normally in the society.”

Hope arrives in Indonesia

A new hope is budding for people living with schizophrenia in Indonesia. Earlier this year, the government passed Law 18 on mental health, which affirms the right of every Indonesian to receive treatment for mental health problems that is fair, humane and free of discrimination.

“It’s a great, positive move by the government,” Eka Viora, director of the Ministry of Health’s mental health division, said. “Previously, according to our surveys, about 14 percent of people with serious mental health problems are either abandoned by their families or shackled at home.”

Often, families cannot afford treatment for loved ones with mental illness.

“There is only one mental hospital in each province,” Eka said. “And they’re usually located in the capital cities.”

Under the new law, the Ministry of Health will train general practitioners and nurses at community health clinics ( puskesmas ) in remote areas to recognize and properly treat early symptoms of mental illnesses.

“This way, patients and their families won’t have to travel very far and spend a lot of money to get help,” Eka said.

Currently, doctors and nurses at community health centers would refuse treatment to mentally ill patients, partly on the grounds of being under-resourced and under-trained to deal with such cases.

“They thought that mental illnesses are none of their business,” Eka said. “This is a very wrong misconception. Mental health is actually everybody’s business.”

Indonesia’s new universal health insurance scheme, known as BPJS, also gives new hope for people living with schizophrenia.

Under BPJS, people with schizophrenia are nominally entitled to full medication, treatment and hospitalization for free. Over 127 million people in Indonesia are currently covered by BPJS, Eka said.

However, rollout of the program has been rocky. Patients regularly report problems accessing appropriate care, while doctors complain they have been encumbered by low reimbursement rates and regulations that limit the amount of medication they are allowed to prescribe for chronic diseases to just a few days of pills at a time.

Join the dialogue

To boost awareness of schizophrenia, the Ministry of Health, PDSKJI and Care for the Schizophrenia Community (KPSI) will conduct a series of public campaigns in October and November 2014, among them a public seminar held at @america, in Pacific Place Mall, South Jakarta, on Oct. 10 to observe World Mental Health Day.

The seminar will feature Byron Good of Harvard University, who will speak about research on schizophrenia that he conducted in Yogyakarta. Later that evening, KPSI will conduct a candle lighting ceremony to acknowledge people in Indonesia living with schizophrenia at the Hotel Indonesia traffic circle in Central Jakarta.

“We hope to increase people’s care and awareness for schizophrenics in Indonesia,” KPSI chairman Bagus Utomo said. “We also hope that [people with schizophrenia] will no longer be treated as second-class citizens in this country.”

The campaign will also feature the National Games for Mental Health Rehabilitants ( Porkesremen ) in Singkawang, West Kalimantan, held by the Ministry of Health, from Oct. 29 to Nov. 1. About 400 people, including mental health practitioners and people in rehabilitation from all over Indonesia, will participate.

“This is one of our efforts to eliminate the stigma on people with mental health problems. We want to ensure that when these people are properly treated, they too can achieve much in their lives,” Eka said.

Taking control

Poltak now says his experience proves that schizophrenia can be overcome with treatment, enabling great achievements. He now takes his medicine daily to control his schizophrenia, and practices prayer and meditation to help control his hallucinations.

Poltak says that after staying for several months in a Bandung hospital for treatment, he regained his mental and verbal capabilities by teaching chemistry at a his hometown high school in Medan, North Sumatra.

“Teaching encouraged me to take control of my mind and speech,” Poltak said.

In 2007, Poltak took the test to become a civil servant in the Ministry of Industry. He passed, and was appointed as a chemical analyst in a government-owned industrial research and standardization agency in Manado, North Sulawesi. In 2012, Poltak won a double-degree scholarship at Bandung’s Institute of Technology (ITB) and Chang Yuan Christian University in Taiwan. He recently graduated from his studies with flying colors.

“I would encourage fellow schizophrenics not to lose hope. “Life doesn’t end with schizophrenia. With proper medication and treatment, we all can still have a bright future,” Poltak said.

Ash Xyle agrees. “Schizophrenia is like a hard-to-tame pet The day you tame it, it’s yours. But until then, you have to run around to wipe up the pee and the poo.”

Aids medicines unaffordable for many victims

The international medical organization Doctors without Borders has said that medicines for treating AIDS are still too expensive for many patients. This is especially true for victims living in developed countries.

Deutsche Welle, 21 July 2014

The organization revealed the results of a study at the World AIDS Conference taking place in Melbourne. The charity said that victims in poorer countries were much less affected by the spiraling prices, spending only around 100 euros ($135) a year on drugs to treat the disease, but that pharmaceutical companies were charging patients in developed countries huge amounts.

"Today, we know exactly which tools we need to keep the virus within limits in patients living with HIV," Jennifer Cohn, the medical director of the access campaign for Doctors without Borders said. "But in most cases, the prices are too high. We need to remove barriers on patents and provide more finances.”

No sign of a cure

AIDS researchers also said there were no imminent signs of a cure for the disease. Steven Deeks, researcher at the University of California, said that developing a cure for those already infected could take "many, many years."

Scientists had been optimistic after an infant responded to treatment and appeared to have no traces of the virus without antiretroviral treatment. But recently, the virus showed up again on the so-called "Mississippi" baby, leading scientists to abandon the hope that they were on the path to a cure.

Need for new laws

Activists at the World AIDS conference accused national governments of being responsible for the increase in the number of AIDS victims because of their laws.

"The cruel reality is that in every region of the world, stigma and discrimination continue to be the main barriers to effective access to health," said Nobel Laureate Francoise Barre-Sinoussi, who co-discovered the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV).

A recent United Nations report said that 79 countries had laws that criminalize same sex practices. Uganda and Nigeria have recently passed anti-gay laws and India has restored a previous law which bans sodomy.

Experts say that HIV spreads stealthily when, for example, sex workers, gays and intravenous drug users are criminalized. Kene Esom, a Nigerian gay rights activist said these laws sometimes crippled efforts to spread the word about safe sex and improve access to life-saving drugs.

Western countries donated 14 billion euros last year to fight AIDS in developing countries. However, Former Australian high court justice Michael Kirby said: "they cannot expect taxpayers in other countries to shell out…huge funds for antiretroviral drugs if they simply refuse to reform their own laws and policies to help their own citizens." If Western governments heed Kirby’s words, future funds to developing countries fighting AIDS may be subject to several conditions.

mg/pfd (AFP, dpa)

AIDS conference spared worst with Malaysia plane toll at six

Yahoo – AFP, Richard Ingham, 19 July 2014

International AIDS Society president Françoise Barre-Sinoussi of France

 addresses the media at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre (MCEC)

in Melbourne on July 19, 2014 (AFP Photo/Esther Lim)

A global AIDS summit was in shock Saturday at the loss of colleagues in the Malaysia Airlines disaster over Ukraine, but spirits were lifted when the number who died was put at six, far fewer than feared.

Reports on Friday said as many as 100 passengers on the plane were en route to the 20th International AIDS Conference in Melbourne when it went down in a rebel-held part of the country on Thursday, killing all 298 on board.

People gather next to a sign reading AIDS

 2014 in Melbourne on July 18, 2014 after

 news that downed Malaysia Airlines flight

 MH17 was carrying many participants

headed to the 20th International AIDS

Conference planned in the Australian city

(AFP Photo)

But International AIDS Society president Francoise Barre-Sinoussi said just six attendees were confirmed dead.

"The number that we have confirmed through our contacts with authorities in Australia, in Malaysia, and Dutch authorities as well is six people. It may be a little bit more, but not the numbers that have been announced," she said.

Those killed include prominent Dutchman Joep Lange, a pioneer of cheap anti-retrovirals for the poor who had been involved in HIV research and treatment since 1983.

Officials said Pim de Kuijer from STOPAIDSNOW was also on board, along with Lucie van Mens, director of AIDS Action Europe and her colleague Maria Adriana de Schutter.

World Health Organization official Glenn Thomas and Jacqueline van Tongeren from the Amsterdam Institute for Global Health and Development also died in the crash.

Flight MH17 from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, which US officials believe was hit by a surface-to-air missile, was due to connect with another flight to Melbourne.

Despite the death toll not being as bad as feared, the sense of loss was palpable as attendees gathered at the Melbourne Convention Centre on the eve of the high-powered meeting, the largest of its kind in the world.

File photo of leading AIDS researcher

Joep Lange (AFP Photo/Jean Ayissi)

"The extent of our loss is hard to comprehend and express," Barre-Sinoussi, a Nobel prize winner, said ahead of the summit that opens on Sunday.

"Our colleagues were travelling because of their dedication to bringing an end to AIDS.

"We will honour their commitment and keep them in our hearts as we begin our programme on Sunday. This tragedy is probably a good sign to work again together and to continue as a tribute for our colleagues."

The loss of Lange was felt particularly hard by Barre-Sinoussi.

"Joep was not only a great researcher, a great champion of the fight against HIV for many years, he was also a wonderful human being," she said.

"He was firmly believing that a cure for HIV was possible, as we all do, and was one of the first supporters of the idea of integrating social science with the search for a cure."

Officials from the PharmAccess Foundation, which Lange launched in 2000 to facilitate access to treatment for HIV and AIDS patients across Africa, said his death was "a massive loss".

Clinton: Victims are 'martyrs'

Some 12,000 participants are due to take part in the conference, including former US president Bill Clinton, who told CNN that those who died were "martyrs".

Wreckage from the crashed Malaysian

 airliner is shown near the town of

Shaktarsk, in rebel-held east Ukraine,

July 17, 2014 (AFP Photo/Dominique

Faget)

"Thinking about those people, knocked out of the sky, it's pretty tough," he said, adding that "they were doing so much good".

"Those people are really, in a way, martyrs to the cause that we are going to Australia to talk about."

Clinton is due to give an address in Melbourne on Wednesday.

Held every two years, the International AIDS Conference is a forum for campaigners to highlight developments in fighting the disease and discuss financing problems.

It is this year also expected to channel anger about laws in Africa that stigmatise homosexuality and in the former Soviet Union that punish intravenous drug users -- a crackdown now extended to Russian-annexed Crimea.

Some 35 million people live with HIV, although global AIDS-related deaths and new infections have fallen by more than a third in a decade, raising hopes of beating the killer disease by 2030.

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Bali to host Asia-Pacific conference on disaster mitigation

Antara News, Monday, September 6, 2010 13:53 WIB

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Bali is to host an Asia-Pacific Association on Emergency and Disaster Medicine (APCEDM) Conference in 2010, the organization`s chairman Dr Abdul Rajak said here on Monday.

"Of the two other candidates, namely Banda Aceh and Jakarta, the organization`s board of directors choose Bali," he said adding that he could not yet mention the exact date of the conference.

Rajak added the conference would consist of a three-day seminar and one-day simulation to test disaster management at district, province, national and international levels.

Though the conference would mainly focus on post-disaster medical and health care , Rajak said, the coordinating committee would still involve the National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) in planning the conference.

The Asia-Pacific region is among the most disaster-prone parts of the world. Disasters hitting this region are mostly landslides, volcanic eruptions, earthquakes and tsunami.

This condition has made governments in the region more and more aware of the need to unite in facing natural disasters.

Last year, the military chiefs of 24 Asia-Pacific countries agreed to enhance cooperation in tackling the effects of natural disasters and epidemic diseases, an Indonesian military official said.

The agreement was reached at the 12th Chiefs of Defense (CHOD) Conference in Hawaii, United States, last October 26-29, 2009, Indonesian National Defense Forces (TNI) Chief Gen Djoko Santoso said.

"Several issues were discussed in the forum, including post-disaster management and ways to tackle epidemic diseases," Djoko said, adding that the three-day meeting also agreed to improve cooperation in anti-piracy operations.

Aceh to host mental health confab next month

Antara News, Sunday, June 13, 2010 14:04 WIB

Banda Aceh, Aceh (ANTARA News) - The Indonesian western-most province of Aceh will host the second national Islamic Mental Health conference here, July 29-30, which will be attended by medical specialists and paramedics as well as the foreign guest speakers.

The foreign guest speakers include mental health specialists from Malaysia and Brunei Darussalam, chairman of the conference organizing committee, dr Syahrial SpKj, said here on Sunday.

"The meeting will also gather information on mental health development across the country," he said, adding that a seminar on mental health will also be held featuring Prof DR dr Hatta Sharum, a lecturer of the Malaysian Kebangsaan University.

"We welcome the neighboring countries` participation although it is actually a national conference," Syahrial said.

According to him, the appointment of Aceh to host the conference has to do with the free shackling program promoted by the Aceh provincial administration this year.

Syahrial believed that the Banda Aceh mental health hospital will get much information from the conference in handling patients.

National Symposium Held on Brain and Heart

Friday, 27 March, 2009 | 17:40 WIB

TEMPO Interactive, Jakarta:The Indonesian Cardiocerebrovascular Association’s board, supported by the Indonesian Doctors Association is holding the Brain and Heart Symposium IX on March 26 – 27 in Batam. The event is expected to improve knowledge and capacity as well as health services, particularly for heart disease and stroke.

The event held at the Planet Holiday Hotel, Batam, is being attended by doctors who are the front runners for health services in remote areas. The event is also to publish ways to prevent heart disease and stroke for the public.

HERU TRIYONO

Fifth Microbiology Symposium in Jakarta

Wednesday, 21 January, 2009 | 16:35 WIB 

TEMPO Interactive, Jakarta: The association of Indonesian microbiologists, together with several medical experts, will hold the fifth Indonesian Antimicrobials Resistance Watch Symposium on January 24-25 at the Novotel Hotel, Mangga Dua, Jakarta. 

This will discuss problems related to infection, its prevention and management, at both community and hospital levels. 

“The mortality rate due to infection has been continuously increasing in Indonesia,” said a microbiologist from the University of Indonesia, Professor Usman Chatib Warsa, during a press conference at the university's Microbiology Department, last Wednesday. 

The symposium will be opened by Health Minister Siti Fadilah Supari, who will also be a keynote speaker. 

HERU TRIYONO

West Java women hold first congress

Yuli Tri Suwarni, The Jakarta Post, Bandung | Sun, 12/21/2008 8:26 PM  

Some 350 women representing various organizations, political parties and individuals joined on Sunday the first-ever West Java Women Activists Congress held at the Indonesia Menggugat building on Jl Perintis Kemerdekaan. 

Held to commemorate Mother's Day which falls on Dec. 22, the congress was aimed at empowering women from all sectors of development to help improve the future of women in the province. 

Chairwoman of the conference, Hetifah Siswanda, said West Java women were facing various issues including economic problems, political accessibility, women's health and domestic violence. 

"We are not going to establish a new NGO (non-governmental organization) after this, but we want to empower women to facilitate mutual help instead," Hetifah said at the conference. 

Chairwoman of West Java Family Welfare Movement Netty Heryawan who officially opened the congress said, it was time for women in the province to be more concerned with fellow women's problems.

Related Article:

Good news in the gloom: Check out Malaysia

Decentralization helps Bali improve healthcare services

Hyginus Hardoyo, The Jakarta Post, Sanur  Sat, 11/15/2008 11:03 AM  

Amid the many failures and deviations when it comes to implementing autonomy in regions throughout Indonesia, Bali has managed to take advantage of the opportunities, a lecturer of state-run Udayana University says. 

The ability to make the most of opportunities, which were made possible after the downfall of the authoritarian New Order administration in the late 1990s, has enabled the local administration to reach their potential in nearly all sectors of development, A.A Gde Muninjaya said Thursday. 

Muninjaya spoke at a panel discussion entitled "Decentralization and Autonomy in Bali: Challenges and Opportunities for Community Health", which was part of a three-day conference being held until Saturday by the East-West Center in Sanur, Bali. 

Muninjaya said decentralization in response to the passage and implementation of the Autonomy Law in 1999 and 2001, followed by health sector reform, facilitated greater community participation after being dominantly governed by Jakarta. 

"Decentralization has encouraged intersectoral cooperation while improving the quality of health services management up to the regency levels," he said. 

Muninjaya told The Jakarta Post about two regencies in Bali -- Jembrana and Tabanan -- which were able to take advantage of the decentralized system to provide qualified and affordable health services to locals. 

"The Jembrana regency administration, for example, has been able to create a health insurance system, which no longer uses assistance from the central government, but from its own regency budget," he said. 

Under the new system the regency administration guarantees all residents, including the poor, access to health services, he said. 

Muninjaya said Tabanan regency administration had also been successful in changing the image of state-run hospitals, which used to be shunned by patients due to their dirty and dismal conditions, into convenient hospitals by using money from its own budget. 

Muninjaya said the breakthrough was only possible through the work of visionary leaders, who worked to improve people's welfare, and not those who only thought about their own coffers. 

Thanks to decentralization, he said, Bali currently enjoyed better health services, with its development indexes being higher on average than the national figures. 

"Due to steady health development, life expectancy rate in Bali reached an average of 70.4 years, slightly higher that the national rate of 68.1 years," he said. 

Despite the many successes, however, Muninjaya said there were still a number of shortcomings, including the high prevalence of communicable diseases, like dengue fever, HIV/AIDS, TB, tetanus and gastroenteritis.

Bali to host int`l confab on reproductive health management

Denpasar, Bali (ANTARA News) - At least 26 countries and tens of international agencies engaged in family planning will take part in an "International Conference on Reproductive Health Management Emphasis on Family Planning" here on May 6-8, an Indonesian family planning official said.

Some 400 delegates would attend the conference among other things to exchange experience in implementing reproductive health programs in their respective country in order to find ways to get better results, Dr Siswanto Agus Wilopo, deputy chief for family planning and reproductive health of the National Family Planning Coordinating Agency (BKKBN), said here Friday.

A similar conference was held previously in Manila, the Philippines, in 2006.

He said discussions in the conference would focus on reproductive health management and critical problems affecting reproductive health programs.

The conference was also being supported by the United Nations Fund for Population Activities (UNFPA).

Bali to host sixt international AI summit in March 2008

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Indonesia`s resort island of Bali will host the Sixth International Bird Flu (Avian Influenza/AI) Summit from March 27 to 28, 2008, the event`s organizers said in a statement.

Top leaders and key decision-makers of major companies representing a broad range of industries will meet with noted scientists, public health officials, law enforcers, and other experts to discuss pandemic prevention, preparedness, responses and recovery of bird flu at the summit, according to a press statement of the Summit`s organizing committee, the US-based New Fields Exhibitions, Inc., on Friday.

The summit`s participants will be able to draw on first-hand best practices to create the solid business continuity plans that their companies and organizations need in order to prepare for, respond to, and survive a pandemic.

The summit would draw on the successes of the five previous summits which featured as speakers distinguished personalities such as Dr. David Nabarro, the United Nations Coordinator for Avian and Human Influenza, Alex Thiermann of the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) and Dr. Wenqing Zhang of the WHO Epidemic and Pandemic Alert and Response, it said.

Well-known emergency responders, heads of hospitals from around the world, and poultry industry leaders also spoke in previous summits. Included in the list are Adolfo Garcia-Sastre of the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, John Thompson of the National Sheriffs Association, Prof. Oleg I. Kiselev of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences, Anna Thorson of Sweden`s Karolinska Institute and Dr. Bruce Stewart-Brown, Vice President of Food Safety and Quality for Perdue Farms.

Among topics of discussion during the Summit will be Preparing Community Strategies, Local Partnership Participation, Delivery of Vaccine and Anti-viral Medication, National Pandemic Influenza Medical Countermeasures and Benefit-Risk Assessment: Public Health, Industry and Industry Regulated Perspectives.

Health services said to be ready for UN conference

Wasti Atmodjo, The Jakarta Post, Denpasar

The Bali Health Agency has established a special team to provide health services for the delegates of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) conference being held next month in Nusa Dua.

Dewa Ketut Oka, head of the agency, said Wednesday every hospital in Bali, especially those in Denpasar and Badung, had been informed of the conference. They have all made the necessary preparations to provide delegates with the best available health services.

Dewa Oka said the agency is coordinating with the managements of all state-owned and private hospitals in Bali -- Sanglah General Hospital, nine regional hospitals, 12 private hospitals, as well as health centers at the airport and seaports, hotel clinics, community health centers and the Bali chapter of the Indonesian Red Cross.

All have been ordered to be on standby throughout the Dec. 3-14 conference.

Regarding transportation for patients, Dewa Oka said the agency was also coordinating with ambulance operators. At least one helicopter will be available at all times for emergency evacuations prior, during and one week after the conference.

"We've asked the central government for at least one helicopter, but I don't know how many helicopters will be given. The most important thing is that such a mode of transportation is badly needed in case there is an emergency," he said.

Dewa Oka also promised a sufficient supply of medicines during the conference.

He predicted any medical problems experienced by delegates would relate mainly to the weather, food and fatigue.

"We understand because the delegates will come from many different countries with different weather conditions and customs."

Another official, Gede Wiartana, said special health posts would also be established for the conference.

The one at the airport will start operating on Dec. 1 when delegates are expected to begin arriving. Two ambulances will be stationed at the post.

Another health post will be set up inside the conference's main venue at the Bali International Conference Center.

That post will be equipped with emergency equipment and manned by medical specialists, including specialists in coronary disease.

Sanglah Hospital director Wayan Sutarga said his facility would set aside two VVIP rooms and one intensive care room during the conference.

"We will prepare all the facilities for that purpose without neglecting routine services to the public," he said.