Joe DeCapua 23 July 2010

As the HIV/AIDS epidemic continues to spread, new research shows it’s taking an increasing toll on men-having-sex-with men or MSM.  The issue was addressed at the 18th International AIDS conference in Vienna, with calls for greater funding and human rights efforts.

Activists say men having sex with men have been hit hard by the epidemic, but have not received nearly as much attention or resources as many other groups.  They’re hoping scientific data on the effects of HIV on MSM – released at the conference - will change that.

Shivananda Khan of India is with Naz Foundation International, which provides technical and development assistance to MSM groups in South Asia.  Khan says data from the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health comes none too soon.

Shivananda Khan , Naz Foundation International

“We’ve been waiting a long time for this data.  I’ve been engaged in this area for 20 years and this is the first time I’m hearing this sort of data when from a day-to-day perspective we watch people every day for the last 20 years, getting infected and dying from HIV,” he says.

Who are they?

UNAIDS says the term – Men Having Sex with Men – describes a behavior rather than a group of people.  MSM includes self-identified gay, bisexual, or heterosexual men, many of whom, it says, may not even consider themselves gay or bisexual.

In 2008, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon said, “In countries without laws to protect sex workers, drug users and men who have sex with men, only a fraction of the population has access to prevention.”  He added, “Not only is it unethical not to protect these groups; it makes no sense from a health perspective.  It hurts all of us.”

Khan warns of grave consequences if things don’t change.

He says, “Right now, if you look at the data from Asia and the Pacific, if there is no increase in HIV interventions for MSM and transgenders, then something like by the year 2020 – which is only 10 years away – 50 percent of all new infections will be MSM or transgenders.”

He says less than four percent of HIV/AIDS funding around the world goes to men having sex with men and transgenders.

“Nine out of ten, nine out of ten MSM and transgenders do not get services.  And right now in Asia, every day there are about 200 people – MSM and transgenders – getting infected because they don’t have services,” he says.

Iranian Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei (file photo)

Iran is reacting to the increasing pain of economic sanctions. Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is urging greater efficiency and motivation, and Iran's vice president is threatening to stop doing business in dollars and euros.

As new U.S. and U.N. economic sanctions step up the pressure on Iran's economy, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is urging his countrymen to change their habits. Fars News Agency reports that the Ayatollah wants Iranians to work harder, use more initiative and be more creative.

Top Iranian vice president Mohammad Reza Rahimi also told journalists Friday that the government was planning to stop selling oil in euros and dollars. Iran has threatened to stop selling oil in dollars, before, but with limited success. It was the first time that Tehran has threatened to stop using the euro.

European Union ambassadors, meeting in Brussels, agreed Thursday to a new package of sanctions targeting Iran's energy sector. The sanctions must be approved Monday at a meeting of EU foreign ministers. The U.N. and U.S. imposed fresh sanctions on Iran, last month, to force it to stop enriching uranium for its controversial nuclear program.

An Iranian delegation, including Oil Minister Massoud Mir-Kazemi, met with Turkish counterparts in Ankara this week, to sign a deal to build a new natural gas pipeline and to increase gas sales to Turkey. Iran signed a similar deal with Pakistan, last month, although it is not clear if it will be implemented.

Deputy Oil Minister and head of the National Iranian Gas Company Javad Owji describes the deal.

He says that a new pipeline will be laid between Mindana and Bazargan, near the Turkish border, to increase the volume of Iranian gas sold to Turkey. He adds that Turkey will own 77 percent of the project and Iran 23 percent, and that it will take three years to complete.

In other economic news, Iran's commerce minister Mehdi Ghazanfari repeated an earlier warning by parliament speaker Ali Larijani that Tehran would respond to any inspection of its cargo ships on the high seas. The latest U.N. sanctions authorize the inspection of any suspicious cargo on ships or planes bound for Iran.

Analyst Houchang Hassan-yari, who teaches at Canada's Royal Military College, says that the recent reactions of Iranian leaders demonstrate a growing realization on their part that sanctions are starting to have a negative impact on their economy.

"All those [economic] problems and all those reactions [by Iranian leaders] are a response to the sanctions imposed by not only the fourth U.N. Security Council [sanctions] resolution, but maybe more importantly the unilateral sanctions imposed by America and now by the European Union," he said.

Recent energy shortages, including gasoline rationing, he argues, are starting to affect all sectors of the Iranian economy. "When, in the context of Iran, you talk about the rise in the price of gas, you will see the impact of that on everything else, and I mean everything: not only transportation, but also production or presentation of tomatoes in the market, bread….everything is going to be impacted," said Hassan-yari.

Hassan-yari says that Iranian threats to retaliate against searches of cargo vessels are mostly empty rhetoric, because many are no longer even willing to sail to Iranian ports due to insurance issues. Lloyds of London began refusing to insure ships sailing to Iran, last week.