The Indonesia National AIDS Commission, or KPAN, recently provided the provinces of East Java, Bali and South Sulawesi with funding in an effort to increase HIV/AIDS responses in the regions, the Jakarta Post reports. The funding was worth 44.25 billion rupiah, or $4.25 million, and came from a Global Fund To Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria grant. National AIDS Commission Secretary Nafsiah Mboi said she hopes stakeholders would appropriately direct funding toward solutions to address critical issues surrounding the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the regions. She added, “All stakeholders need to back each other to stop the spread of HIV/AIDS, as the disease is currently spreading fast, infecting mostly teenagers or people in their productive age.” According to Mboi, 21.11 billion rupiah, or $2.02 million, will be allocated to East Java; 10.85 billion rupiah, or $1.04 million, will be given to Bali; and 12.27 billion rupiah, or about $1.17 million, will be directed to South Sulawesi.

East Java Deputy Governor Syaifullah Yusuf said that the province ranks second in the number of people with HIV/AIDS, adding that the province previously ranked third. “This shows there is still much action needed to solve the problem,” he said. East Java’s government has allocated 1.2 billion rupiah, or about $1.1 million, from its 2009 provincial budget to put toward HIV/AIDS efforts — an increase from the 780 million rupiah, or about $79,800, allocated last year (Jayakarna/Harahap, Jakarta Post, 5/6).

Reprinted with kind permission from http://www.kaisernetwork.org. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery at http://www.kaisernetwork.org/dailyreports/healthpolicy. The Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report is published for kaisernetwork.org, a free service of The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation.

© 2009 Advisory Board Company and Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.

The Rochester Democrat and Chronicle on Thursday examined HIV/AIDS vaccine research being conducted in the area. More than 1,200 people in the Rochester area, most of whom are HIV-negative, have participated in vaccine trials at the University of Rochester Medical Center. According to the Democrat and Chronicle, the medical center runs one of the oldest vaccine research programs nationwide. Katharine Kripke of NIH, who was speaking in the area on Wednesday as part of a National HIV Vaccine Awareness Day forum, said that some people do not participate in trials because they believe they might contract HIV from experimental vaccines. She added that the experimental vaccines cannot transmit HIV.

The Democrat and Chronicle reports that researchers at the URMC vaccine program, which on Wednesday was renamed the Rochester Victory Alliance, are preparing to participate in a large-scale trial that will examine a government-developed experience vaccine among men who have sex with men. Other studies at URMC test immune responses among HIV-negative people. Michael Keefer, lead investigator for the program, said that the research has been incremental and that it might be several years before a vaccine is developed. “We’re in this for the long haul,” he said (Wang, Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, 5/7).

Reprinted with kind permission from http://www.kaisernetwork.org. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery at http://www.kaisernetwork.org/dailyreports/healthpolicy. The Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report is published for kaisernetwork.org, a free service of The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation.

© 2009 Advisory Board Company and Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.