From "La Repubblica" of 11/28/04
MTV and La7, TVs with a red ribbon for the fight against AIDS
For December 1st, a day dedicated to promoting the fight against the disease, the networks are mobilizing – The series "Angels in America" starring Al Pacino and Meryl Streep will premiere on TV from Tuesday.
Angels in America
AIDS has not been defeated, but it is a danger ready to strike anyone who engages in risky behavior. This is, in short, the message launched on the occasion of World AIDS Day (December 1st) by La7 and MTV, which have revolutionized their programming by dedicating significant space and fundraising initiatives to LILA, the Italian League against AIDS. "The scope of action is very broad," explains Antonio Campo Dall'Orto, CEO of MTV Italia and director of programming at La7, "given that approximately 12-13 million viewers a day watch La7 and 7-8 million MTV. After the boom of the early 1980s, media coverage of AIDS has declined, while the problem is growing.".
For the first time, in addition to MTV, La7 will also "wear" the red ribbon, symbol of the fight against AIDS. On November 30th, December 1st and 2nd, La7 will present its first TV broadcasts Angels in America – A gay fantasia on national themes, the award-winning series (5 Golden Globes, 11 Emmy Awards, a record), directed by Mike Nichols and starring Al Pacino, Meryl Streep, and Emma Thompson, addresses the issues of AIDS and homosexuality. Originally a play, it earned author Tony Cushner the Pulitzer Prize for Best Drama in 1993, as well as several Tony Awards. Adapted into a film by HBO in 2003, it left a lasting impression on American viewers, sparking a discussion about the disease. Set in New York, Angels in America recounts the gay relationship between Louis Ironson and Prior Walter and the marriage between Mormon lawyer Joe Pitt and Harper, his young, depressed wife. The real-life character of Roy Cohn, a famous lawyer and fixer, stands out. The two stories intertwine by pure chance, upending the protagonists' destinies. Numerous initiatives are also on MTV. On December 1st, Camila Raznovich will host a live episode of Loveline; at 1 p.m., 10 p.m., and 4 a.m., a special co-produced by MTV and CNN on the hardships of the disease will air. Promos for World AIDS Day and the new Save the Humans campaign will also air, featuring animal protagonists discussing the virus and pledging to do something to "save the human race.".
From "La Stampa" of 28.11.04 by m. acc.
«"AIDS: More and more heterosexuals are at risk."»
«"AIDS continues to spread, partly because people have lowered their guard, thinking that with new drugs it has become a minor problem..." Valter Galante, regional health councilor, doesn't hide his concern. The figures presented yesterday in Turin, on the eve of World AIDS Day, say that three out of four new infections are sexually transmitted. AIDS is increasingly becoming less and less the disease of homosexuals and drug addicts, and more and more the scourge of many heterosexual men and women.
A prevention problem, therefore, but also a resource problem, given that new drugs have increased survival. "Patients of the past are living longer thanks to medications," emphasizes Dr. Chiara Pasqualini, of the Regional Epidemiology Service for the Surveillance, Prevention, and Control of Infectious Diseases. "This means we cannot abandon them to their own devices, but it will always be necessary to include the issue in the objectives and strategies of social policies." New cases of infection in Piedmont are approximately 300 per year, and are rising steadily. This represents nearly nine cases per 100,000 inhabitants, a figure higher than the national estimate. "Over the last five years," emphasizes Professor Giovanni Di Perri, director of the Infectious Diseases Clinic at the University of Turin, "40 percent of new cases of infection have been diagnosed too late, either because they were already diagnosed with full-blown AIDS, or because the infection has progressed to the point of compromising the success of treatment." "The numbers speak for themselves: the main avenue for prevention," it was said yesterday, "is 'safe sex' campaigns." These campaigns, however, continue to fail, in the mistaken belief that talking about it is equivalent to pushing young people into having sex. And so, silence after silence, we continue to deal with infections."«
From "Unità" of 29.11.04 by Cristiana Pulcinelli
The double vulnerability of women
Nearly half of the people living with HIV infection worldwide are women. In Asia, Eastern Europe, and Latin America, the percentage of women among HIV-positive people is growing. In sub-Saharan Africa, girls between the ages of 15 and 24 are three times more likely to become infected than their male peers, while worldwide, women are twice as likely as men to contract HIV from a single unprotected sexual encounter. This greater biological vulnerability is also accompanied by greater social vulnerability: women are often dependent on men, unable to enforce the use of prevention methods, such as condoms.
The data from the annual report drawn up by the’Unaids, the United Nations program for the fight against AIDS, primarily concern women. It's therefore understandable why World AIDS Day, scheduled for December 1st, is dedicated to them this year: women.
The rise of infection among women has a double negative impact. Women, in fact, care for the home and the family. If they get sick, the entire family unit will suffer. In poorer countries, where public services are also poor, the spread of the epidemic among women will therefore have dramatic social, economic, and health consequences. And a vicious cycle easily develops: in the countries most affected by the epidemic, girls are forced to drop out of school to care for a sick relative or younger siblings whose sick mothers can no longer care for. But attending school is an important factor in acquiring the ability to protect oneself from infection. Thus, as can be seen in the table we publish on this page, very few girls know the methods to prevent infection.
The UNAIDS report highlights an important development in the way AIDS is spreading across the planet. While women in Africa were affected by the epidemic from the very beginning, this phenomenon has recently been growing in other parts of the world. Indeed, the onset of the HIV epidemic is often characterized by the rapid spread of infection in relatively small population groups, but characterized by high-risk behaviors. For example, in the early 1980s, the epidemic began among male homosexuals in the United States or among drug addicts (the vast majority of whom were male) in Mediterranean European countries. In the late 1980s, however, drug addicts and prostitutes were the initial focus of the epidemic in Southeast Asia, and drug addicts were also the group among whom the epidemic began in the 1990s in the former Soviet bloc countries.
‘Within these groups, the epidemic is explosive in its initial phase: many people become infected because there are many opportunities for contagion (sharing needles or having sex with multiple partners). However, these are still relatively small groups within the population. Therefore, if the infection remained confined to these groups, it would be destined to peter out. However, this is not what happened with AIDS. The infection also spread to the so-called general population, that is, to people with lower-risk behaviors. And the route of spread was heterosexual transmission.
In reality, the average risk of infection for sexually active people in Western countries is relatively low, but it affects virtually anyone who isn't in mutually monogamous or protected relationships: a very large segment of the population. This means that even in industrialized countries, thousands of new infections affecting both sexes are recorded every year.
In the early 1990s, there were fears that this shift to the general population could lead to a spread of HIV in Western and Asian countries comparable to that in Africa. This has not happened, and many are wondering why this difference exists. Possible explanations include society's ability to respond to a health problem or biological factors such as the frequency of other sexually transmitted infections that could favor the spread of HIV. Furthermore, as Daniel Halperin and Helen Epstein of the US Agency for International Development suggest in an article published in the Lancet in July of this year, differences in sexual behavior may play a significant role. This difference is not related to the number of partners, but rather to the fact that in Africa, people frequently have more than one stable relationship at a time. The period of peak contagion is, in fact, the period immediately following infection. Having sexual intercourse with another partner immediately after contracting the virus increases the likelihood of transmitting the infection.
From "Il Riformista" of November 30, 2004 by Giancarlo Mancini
Even angels have AIDS
THE FILM PRODUCED BY HBO ON LA 7.
Angels in America, a sweeping portrait of Reagan-era America directed by Mike Nichols, the director of The Graduate and Carnal Knowledge, and featuring an exceptional cast including Al Pacino, Meryl Streep, and Emma Thompson, finally arrives on our television screens after sweeping the recent Emmy Awards. The film, six hours long and divided into several episodes, will be broadcast on La7 starting today and during the days dedicated to the fight against AIDS. Indeed, the central theme of Tony Kushner's play, on which it is based—a landmark in American drama—is precisely the transformation of life forced to confront one of the greatest diseases in human history. Even today, it's worth asking ourselves whether the prejudices, hypocrisies, and false beliefs surrounding homosexuality, and the right to break the taboos dictated by religions or moralities that are too invasive of the individual, have truly evaporated.
Certainly, there are many parallels between 1985, when the story begins, and the current state of affairs, with debates between atheistic bigots and increasingly feeble old-school progressives, both within and beyond the confines of the film, a testament to its fascinating textual architecture. It's no coincidence that the film opens with a Rabbi denouncing the hypocritical completeness of the melting pot, the project of racial fusion conceived by the nation's founding fathers. Diversity has remained unchanged, while the pursuit of success, the ambition for advancement, and the ultra-pragmatic selfishness of the Yuppie generation have advanced.
The first part of Millennium Approaches paints a picture of the desolate decadence of the West, unprepared for the ruins of a competitive lifestyle that has now reached the point of collapse.
Ray Cohn (Pacino), a prominent figure in the government establishment since Senator McCarthy's Committee on Communist Infiltration in the 1950s, refuses to confess to his illness, which stems from excessive attention to children, choosing to buy AZT, the only medicine deemed effective at the time, under the counter in exchange for his silence about the many dirty deals he has been involved in throughout his career. Prior, a thirty-year-old man who has fallen into despair after his fiancé's abandonment, reacts in the opposite way. He begins to have visions of a captivating angel (Emma Thompson), determined to turn him into a prophet of doom for the human race. This ensemble film often features multiple roles, including Thompson and the stunning Meryl Streep, who simultaneously plays Ethel Rosenberg, a woman sentenced to the electric chair by Cohn many years earlier for being a communist. Streep also plays a stubborn mother who comes to New York after the loss of her son, dedicated to the compassionate work of helping the less fortunate.
There are many more characters to discuss, so vast is the human lineage in this diverse work by Kushner, who is not reluctant to pay due homage to the masters Brecht and Melville. AIDS, a terrible scourge of America and the West, but later and with even greater impact in Africa, is presented as a trial by fire that in our era men have had to endure to put to the test those ideals of social renewal and coexistence so vaunted in the 1970s. It is a perestroika, the title of the second part, on which we can and must bet, resisting titanically like Prior, or turning completely toward others like Streep. Many are the states of mind traversed in these six hours through the faces of the protagonists of this important production from HBO, the cable television network that has produced hits like The Sopranos and Sex and the City. Who knows if our producers, swamped with the usual four subjects—cloistered nuns, priests, friars, policemen, and Carabinieri, all the way down to kind-hearted fascists—don't pinch their plump cheeks a little when they see the craftsmanship and seriousness of this work. After all, there must be some CRT angels here too.
From "La Gazzetta del Sud" of 11/27/04
AIDS, an infection every two hours
Every year in Italy, four thousand new HIV cases are diagnosed. The national ANLAIDS congress is held in Milan. A new alarm is raised: many people only discover they are infected after age 60.
MILAN — Four thousand people in Italy are infected with HIV each year, one person every two hours; but one in two is unaware of their HIV status and, like a "loose cannon," will infect others for years before discovering they have AIDS, perhaps after age 60, as happens to one in 20 people today. This leads experts to say that AIDS "is starting to turn gray..." This is the new image of AIDS, with numbers provided by experts on the eve of the 18th Congress of the National Association for the Fight against AIDS (ANLAIDS), which opens tomorrow in Milan, chaired by Tiziana Ferrario and Mauro Moroni, and concludes on Tuesday the 30th after three days of work. These numbers are causing concern among Italian infectious disease specialists, who, at the press conference introducing the congress, sounded the alarm: "Don't let your guard down. The decreasing trend in new annual cases, which last year stood at 3,500 (compared to 12,000 in 1995), has been interrupted, and Italy, with 4,000 new cases annually, is once again a country at risk of a growing epidemic. It's an epidemic different from that of past years, no longer affecting specific groups, such as homosexuals (in the early years in the US) or drug addicts (as in Europe), but affects everyone in general, "so much so that," Moroni emphasizes, "the planet of gray hair is growing: more and more older people (today 1 in 20 is 60 years old or over) are infected with the virus during risky sexual encounters while seeking thrills. And often these are unsuspecting people, widows and widowers, wealthy people who travel a lot, people with seemingly quiet lives.".
‘Roman immunologist Fernando Aiuti emphasizes the great commitment of Anlaids, "a commitment," he says, "more relevant than ever, given that HIV infection has changed and is causing fewer concerns for people. There is a noticeable lowering of guard, almost as if the disease had been defeated. What a mistake!" He asks Minister Sirchia to work to lower the price of condoms, just as he has done for formula and the flu vaccine. "The use of condoms," Aiuti states, "reduces the number of 90% infections, with enormous benefits for the individual, but also for the entire community. But for many, using them is a problem due to the cost, which is deemed too high." He recalls the results of a trial conducted in the US, where an increase in AIDS awareness campaigns and the price of condoms reduced to zero coincided with an increase in the use of 90%. For this reason, Aiuti is asking Minister Sirchia to intervene to lower the price of condoms by at least 50%, similar to what the minister did for formula and the flu vaccine: "The condom," he says, "is a public health device." In addition to calling for action against the industry, Aiuti also invites consumer associations to take action: "We must not view the condom," he concludes, "as something related to pleasure and vice, because sexual intercourse is an absolutely normal act. If protected, it is better." And regarding the price of condoms, he is supported by the results of a survey conducted by Tiziana Ferrario among 1,000 students from 12 Milanese high schools, interviewed before and after attending a lecture given by doctors who are experts in AIDS. Many of the students said they had no preconceptions about condoms, and 98.6% are aware that not using one carries the risk of transmitting the disease. «But they don't use it – says Ferrario – also because for 4 out of 10 students it costs too much for their budget‘.
From "Corriere della Sera" of 27.11.04 by A.Bz.
«"I'm alive, but my body is changing."»
""...It's a question that only leads to further discrimination. Against drug addicts, against those infected with needles. Sexual discrimination, against homosexual men...""
She tries to engage in online conversation with those who, like her, are living with AIDS, but it's difficult. "There's too much fear of coming out, too much mistrust," says Paola, 46, who for twenty years lived with a "companion"—HIV—that was initially silent, then aggressive, and that killed the baby Paola had been trying to conceive a few years ago. Now the "companion" seems dormant, even though she has stopped treatment. "Among our desires as HIV-positive people," she says, "we prioritize normality, the desire to re-plan our lives. The fear of dying is less strong than it once was. Back then, when I discovered the infection, the virus wasn't well understood. It wasn't even called HIV like it is today, but HTLV III. For sure, though, we knew it was deadly." How did she become infected?
«"It doesn't matter how," Paola replies. "It's a question that only leads to further discrimination. Against drug addicts, against those infected with needles. Sexual discrimination, against homosexual men.".
Is it discrimination that scares the most? The fear of loneliness?
«"That too. I remember well that years ago, when I lived in Padua," continues Paola, who now lives in Perugia, "in the bars near the hospital they gave paper cups to HIV-positive people.".
Has anything changed today?
«"Not much. Certain excesses have been toned down, but it could be even worse. There is social marginalization and discrimination in the workplace.".
Paola was quite lucky: at the time, there were no treatments and people were dying like flies. She survived and began treatment in 1999, but she had problems with the medications. "For three years, everything went well," she continues. "Then the side effects began. Lipodystrophy in particular, this forced transformation of the body, which begins to grow in the belly and become thinner in the legs. It's a horrible feeling.".
Paola had the courage to disclose her illness, but many don't. On the Italian network of HIV-positive people's Internet portal (www.npsitalia.net), some are afraid to send a simple email.