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EL ROTATIVO, Oaxaca
March 6, 2005
In the Public Opinion ...
Today, the State Council on AIDS, COESIDA,
will announce
the forming of its first Combined Commission on
Transparency in the Distribution of Antiretroviral
Medications. The installation of commission members
will take place in the offices of COESIDA on Boulevard
Porfirio Díaz 318-A, at 1:00 PM.
The formation of this committee, with its
supposed objective “to make transparent,” is notable
given the resistance of this institution to share
information with non-governmental organizations, such as
the Frente Común Contra el SIDA, who have petitioned a
number of times information from COESIDA to confirm that
the patients under the care of their AIDS Clinic are
receiving the attention and treatment they deserve.
The small amount of information which the
Frente Común has been able to acquire over the recent
years demonstrates the unwillingness of this institution
to permit a professional analysis of the status and
attention of the patients in the AIDS Clinic of COESIDA.
We, at the Frente Común Contra el SIDA, a
community organization with more than 13 years of AIDS
work in Oaxaca, here manifest:
Transparency is an obligation
of our intsitutions, which should be available to all
sectors of our society without restriction.
The forming of this
committee only adds to the bureaucracy, distracts much
needed funds, and actually hinders the flow of
information. Further, there exists a clear human rights
violation in the requirements for membership in this
commission, namely those to integrate this commission
“certify” themselves as persons living with HIV/AIDS.
We consider this a breach of the guarantee of
confidentiality which should exist for all persons
living with HIV/AIDS.
As citizens we have the right
to solicit information from the responding institution
without the need for an intermediary, respecting at
every moment the confidentiality of personal
information.
We request from the Secretary
of Health that it be made known to the public the full
inventory of the pharmacy of the AIDS Clinic during the
last year, the number of persons classified as patients
(without names), and the tri-monthly statistics of total
AIDS cases in Oaxaca. With this information, we will be
able to make an accurate assessment and transparency
will exist.
We remain committed to seeing
that every person with HIV/AIDS receives the best
medical attention and treatment from our public health
institutions.
Frente Común Contra el SIDA, Oaxaca, A.C.
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