2010
- HIV/AIDS: Top 10 for 2010
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - December 29, 2010
- NAIROBI, 29 December 2010 (PlusNews) - This has been an exciting year for the fight against HIV, with dramatic developments in biomedical HIV prevention and a record five million people receiving life-prolonging treatment. It has also been a year fraught with funding difficulties and the continued discrimination agains
- Sri Lanka: Stigma stifles HIV reporting
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - December 28, 2010
- COLOMBO, 28 December 2010 (IRIN) - Reducing social stigma and improving awareness is needed to better monitor and prevent the spread of HIV in Sri Lanka , experts say. HIV prevalence in Sri Lanka is relatively low: The latest government figures (December 2009) indicated 1,196 cases - less than 0.
- Ethiopia: Five-year plan to halve new HIV infections
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - December 23, 2010
- ADDIS ABABA, 23 December 2010 (PlusNews) - Ethiopia s government has come up with an ambitious plan to halve new HIV infections, quadruple its annual condom distribution and put 85 percent of people who need life-prolonging HIV medication on treatment within five years. An estimated 1.2 million Ethiopians are HIV-posit
- Uganda: Strong turnout as male circumcision kicks off in the north
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - December 22, 2010
- GULU, 22 December 2010 (PlusNews) - After years of hearing about the protective effects of medical male circumcision against HIV, many men in northern Uganda are taking advantage of a government move to provide the procedure free of charge. Uganda launched its national male circumcision policy in September 2010; in 200
- HIV/AIDS: Disability, HIV find common ground
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - December 21, 2010
- NEW YORK, 21 December 2010 (PlusNews) - People living with disabilities are known to be just as, if not more, at risk of contracting HIV as non-disabled people, but there is little specific data or programming that reflects this reality on a global scale. That is slowly starting to change, say HIV/AIDS and disability c
- Technology: IRIN's pick of the year - 2010
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - December 21, 2010
- NAIROBI, 21 December 2010 (IRIN) - It has been a big year for the uptake of new online technologies in emergencies, especially those using mobile money, text messaging (SMS), online mapping and crowd-sourcing. We have also spotted a number of interesting, off-beat and innovative science and technology developments. He
- South Africa: New ARV tender halves drug prices
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - December 20, 2010
- JOHANNESBURG, 20 December 2010 (PlusNews) - South Africa s newly announced tender for antiretrovirals (ARVs) has halved the price the government will pay for the life-saving drugs; however, fixed dose combinations, which would decrease the pill burden, are still largely absent from the deal. With estimated savings of a
- South Africa: Nurses step into ART breach
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - December 15, 2010
- JOHANNESBURG, 15 December 2010 (PlusNews) - At Malvern Clinic, a primary healthcare facility serving an impoverished suburb east of Johannesburg s city centre, every seat was taken on a recent Monday morning. Today, I m running like a headless chicken, we re very short-staffed, said Sihle Motha, a nurse, who sees an av
- Uganda: "Sexual network" campaign lacking, says study
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - December 14, 2010
- NAIROBI, 14 December 2010 (PlusNews) - Uganda has taken steps to address the HIV threat posed when people have multiple sexual partners, but according to a recent study, campaigns to address the issue are having a limited impact. Analysis of the current communication environment in Uganda shows there is a range of - al
- Swaziland: Army slowly winning the HIV/AIDS battle
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - December 14, 2010
- MBABANE, 14 December 2010 (PlusNews) - Swaziland has the world s highest estimated HIV prevalence, and its military is not exempt, although a wellness and prevention programme has seen a remarkable drop in AIDS deaths over the past two years, with a steady decline in new infections. We have seen [that] the infecti
- Sihle Motha, "You have this person's life in your hands"
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - December 14, 2010
- JOHANNESBURG, Sihle Motha, a nurse at Malvern Clinic, in Johannesburg, is among the first to have been trained in the management and initiation of patients on antiretroviral (ARV) treatment. She will soon be joined by thousands more as the government rolls out nurse-initiated ARV treatment at primary healthcare clinics
- Princey Mangalika: "My neighbours burned my house because they thought I had HIV"
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - December 14, 2010
- GOTHATUWA, There are few positive stories of people living with HIV out of Sri Lanka , but Princey Mangalika s is an exception. Since learning she was HIV positive in 2001, she has made overcoming stigma associated with HIV a personal crusade, heading the Positive Women Network, one of a handful of NGOs working to supp
- Nepal: Migrant workers' wives talk sex
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - December 10, 2010
- NEPALGANJ, 10 December 2010 (IRIN) - It was only after her husband died that Tika Thapa discovered he was HIV-positive. That was eight years ago. When her husband returned from working in the Indian state of Gujarat, he was severely ill. He told her it was probably tuberculosis (TB); they continued to have unprotected
- Health: WHO approves new rapid TB test
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - December 9, 2010
- NAIROBI, 9 December 2010 (PlusNews) - The UN World Health Organization (WHO) has endorsed a new rapid test for tuberculosis that could save millions of lives through early diagnosis of the disease. TB killed an estimated 1.7 million people globally in 2009. This test will be very important for our country and other dev
- Africa: Getting men talking about condoms
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - December 8, 2010
- JOHANNESBURG, 8 December 2010 (PlusNews) - Why, if condoms are available, is AIDS still spreading in Africa? asks Elkana Ong esa, an elderly Kenyan man in the new documentary, Protection: Men and condoms in the time of HIV and AIDS. Because AIDS has not been sufficiently explained to people, replies a young man partici
- Swaziland: A poorer government means more poor people
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - December 7, 2010
- Mbabane, 7 December 2010 (IRIN) - Swaziland s declining revenue and a refusal to shelve prestige projects in the face of growing unemployment is exerting pressure on public health services and food production. The government recently conceded that unemployment was running at 40 percent, despite doggedly maintaining for
- Africa: Risky sex does not equal HIV risk - study
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - December 7, 2010
- JOHANNESBURG, 7 December 2010 (PlusNews) - Zimbabwean women reported significantly less risky sexual behaviour than their counterparts in Tanzania , despite being almost four times more likely to be HIV-infected, a comparative study has found. Researchers from the Universities of Zimbabwe and Oslo in
- Ethiopia: HIV risk in a booming construction industry
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - December 6, 2010
- ADDIS ABABA, 6 December 2010 (PlusNews) - Everywhere in Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital, modern buildings are popping up and wide roads are being built. The country s booming construction sector is attracting thousands of labourers, and government officials are increasingly recognizing the need to target these worke
- Africa: Mobile phones for health
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - December 3, 2010
- ACCRA/NAIROBI, 3 December 2010 (PlusNews) - Some 80 health professionals and telecom operators are meeting in the Ghanaian capital Accra to explore ways to use mobile phones for better healthcare delivery. What we are trying to do here is to find out what mobile technology applications will help us fix some of Africa s
- Myanmar: Funding, access challenges to TB treatment
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - December 3, 2010
- YANGON, 3 December 2010 (IRIN) - Access to health services remains a challenge for tuberculosis (TB) patients in rural Myanmar . There is a need to improve case-finding because some areas are hard to reach, Eva Nathanson, technical officer for the World Health Organization (WHO), told IRIN in the Burmese former
- Kenya: Walking 26km for a condom
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - December 2, 2010
- NAROK, 2 December 2010 (PlusNews) - Correct and consistent condom use is one of the bedrocks of Kenya s HIV/AIDS prevention programme but many people in rural areas have limited access to condoms. Condoms are good and I use them with girls - they have taught us how to use them... but here in the rural area there is a p
- Zambia: How to make broad ARV access work
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - December 2, 2010
- JOHANNESBURG, 2 December 2010 (PlusNews) - Zambia is a poor country with a severe shortage of health workers, but it is closer to achieving universal access to antiretroviral treatment by the end of 2010 than many of its equally resource-limited neighbours. Crispin Moyo of the ministry of health said about 78 percent o
- HIV/AIDS: Does the world need more AIDS targets?
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - December 1, 2010
- JOHANNESBURG, 1 December 2010 (PlusNews) - With just a month to go before the deadline for achieving the targets of universal access to HIV prevention, treatment and care expires, it is clear very few countries will reach them. What is less certain is whether such ambitious goals have positively affected global HIV/AID
- Uganda: Striving to provide first-, second- and third-line ARVs
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - December 1, 2010
- KAMPALA, 1 December 2010 (PlusNews) - Life-prolonging antiretroviral (ARV) medication is reaching more HIV-positive Ugandans than ever before, but health workers are concerned about how they will deal with the inevitable rise in drug resistance. An estimated 400 accredited facilities are providing about 218,000 Ugandan
- Africa: Mapping progress on universal access
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - December 1, 2010
- JOHANNESBURG, 1 December 2010 (PlusNews) - In sub-Saharan Africa, which shoulders nearly 70 percent of the global HIV burden, progress on the universal access targets for HIV/AIDS ranges from the good to the bad, and for most countries is somewhere in between. HIV infection rates in sub-Saharan Africa range between les
- HIV/AIDS: Looking forward to an AIDS-free generation
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - December 1, 2010
- NEW YORK, 1 December 2010 (PlusNews) - Achieving an HIV-free generation by 2015 is feasible, but will require innovative approaches to reach marginalized populations, says the UN Children s Fund (UNICEF). Attaining virtual elimination - meaning fewer than 5 percent of babies born to HIV-positive pregnant mothers contra
- Kenya: HIV prevention jeopardized by PM's call for arrest of gays
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - November 30, 2010
- NAIROBI, 30 November 2010 (PlusNews) - Gay Kenyans will be driven further underground and away from HIV prevention, treatment and care services following a recent call by Prime Minister Raila Odinga for a nationwide crackdown on homosexuals, activists say. Addressing a rally in Nairobi on 28 November, Odinga ordered th
- South Africa: HIV prevention drugs raise more questions than answers
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - November 29, 2010
- JOHANNESBURG, 29 November 2010 (PlusNews) - Recent studies have shown that antiretroviral [ARV] drugs can reduce the risk of HIV-infection but for researchers and governments - the research raises more questions than answers about its implementation. The New England Journal of Medicine recently published the results of
- Africa: Straight Talk with Sheila Tlou, new UNAIDS head for Eastern and Southern Africa
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - November 29, 2010
- JOHANNESBURG, 29 November 2010 (PlusNews) - Sheila Tlou, former Minister of Health in Botswana , took over as UNAIDS director for East and southern Africa in November, just a month before the deadline for achieving universal access to treatment, prevention, care and support expires. With only two countries in the r
- Somalia: Baby steps towards a PMTCT programme
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - November 29, 2010
- NAIROBI/HARGEISA, 29 November 2010 (PlusNews) - Many African countries are struggling to eliminate mother-to-child HIV transmission, a vital component of the universal access to HIV prevention target, but in Somalia a programme to prevent such infections is just getting started. In 2008, only six Somali women receive
- South Africa: MSM left out of media, prevention programmes
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - November 26, 2010
- JOHANNESBURG, 26 November 2010 (PlusNews) - Men who have sex with men (MSM) do not make headlines in South African media and HIV experts have warned that a lack of accurate coverage prevents targeted HIV prevention and care for these men. Oscar Radebe is a doctor specializing in HIV care and treatment at the Simon Nkol
- HIV/AIDS: AIDS epidemic changing course
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - November 24, 2010
- JOHANNESBURG, 24 November 2010 (PlusNews) - A new UNAIDS report claims the world has finally turned the corner on the AIDS epidemic, citing a downward trend in new HIV infections and AIDS-related deaths over the past decade and stabilization of the number of people living with HIV globally. We are breaking the tra
- HIV/AIDS: MSM groups hail pill to prevent HIV
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - November 24, 2010
- NAIROBI, 24 November 2010 (PlusNews) - Gay rights groups have hailed the results of the first study to show that an antiretroviral (ARV) drug can prevent HIV as an important step in the fight against HIV, but say that in countries that criminalize homosexuality, the breakthrough is unlikely to have a significant impact
- Zambia: Ephraim Banda, "The third-line drugs we don't have"
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - November 23, 2010
- LUSAKA, 23 November 2010 (PlusNews) - Before Zambia s public health sector started providing free antiretroviral drugs (ARVs) to people living with HIV, Ephraim Banda bought his own medication. But his supply was often interrupted and the available drugs changed frequently and he is now one of a growing number of HIV-p
- Ssenga Bernadette Nabatanzi, "We used to put premature babies in underground holes"
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - November 23, 2010
- KAMPALA, Ssenga Bernadette Nabatanzi, 70, has been a herbalist and traditional birth attendant for over 30 years, a skill passed down by her grandmother. Nabatanzi still practises her craft, but today she is also a trainer with Uganda s Traditional and modern Health practitioners Together against AIDS and other disease
- South Africa: HIV prevalence among farm workers hits 40 percent
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - November 23, 2010
- JOHANNESBURG, 23 November 2010 (PlusNews) - The HIV prevalence rate among farm workers in South Africa is about 40 percent, the highest ever recorded in southern Africa, according to a new study. The survey, conducted between March and May 2010 and commissioned by the International Organization for Migration (IOM), use
- Zimbabwe: Drop in condom use following HIV prevention trial
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - November 22, 2010
- NAIROBI, 22 November 2010 (PlusNews) - When researchers returned to Zimbabwe several months after the end of a trial involving condom and diaphragm use, they were disappointed to find that condom use - which had risen to 86 percent during the trial - had reduced significantly. What happens after trials has always rem
- Haiti: HIV-positive people especially vulnerable to cholera
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - November 22, 2010
- PORT-AU-PRINCE, 22 November 2010 (PlusNews) - As the death toll from the cholera epidemic sweeping through Haiti surpasses 1,000, with more than 19,000 confirmed cases, health officials say people living with HIV are especially vulnerable. Only about 25 percent of people infected with cholera develop symptoms - mainly
- Southern Africa: HIV prevention for youth - it's complicated
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - November 19, 2010
- JOHANNESBURG, 19 November 2010 (PlusNews) - When it comes to understanding what drives HIV infections among young people in southern Africa, the epicentre of the global AIDS pandemic, why not ask young people themselves? A five-country study by the Southern African AIDS Trust (SAT) in partnership with the Health Econom
- East Africa: CEOs lead by example, take public HIV tests
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - November 18, 2010
- KAMPALA, 18 November 2010 (PlusNews) - At least 40 East African chief executive officers (CEOs) recently took public HIV tests, a move designed to show their commitment to fighting HIV in the workplace in an increasingly integrated region. The objective was to encourage them [CEOs] to be role models, to plan properly f
- Haiti: Combating TB in Port-au-Prince's tent cities
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - November 17, 2010
- PORT-AU-PRINCE, 17 November 2010 (PlusNews) - Health workers in Haiti are concerned about the spread of tuberculosis (TB) in the tent cities that have housed more than one million people since the massive earthquake in January. With the quake this became an emergency, said Macarthur Charles, a doctor with Group for the
- Swaziland: Declining customs union revenues threaten AIDS response
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - November 16, 2010
- MBABANE, 16 November 2010 (PlusNews) - An economic meltdown in Swaziland , exacerbated by a major decline in revenue from the Southern African Customs Union (SACU), is unlikely to leave the national AIDS response unscathed, say local health officials. There will be an impact on the health sector, but to what extent we
- South Africa: No change in HIV rate among pregnant women
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - November 12, 2010
- JOHANNESBURG, 12 November 2010 (PlusNews) - About 29 percent of South African pregnant women were living with HIV in 2009 - a figure that has barely shifted over the past four years, despite increased levels of commitment from the country s health department and numerous prevention campaigns. Based on blood samples fro
- South Africa: Preventative TB therapy halves risk of death among ARV patients
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - November 11, 2010
- JOHANNESBURG, 11 November 2010 (PlusNews) - Preventative tuberculosis (TB) therapy can reduce death among patients on antiretroviral (ARV) treatment by about half, according to new research from South Africa . Based on an observational study, researchers found that patients newly initiated on ARV treatment who had also
- Kenya: Exxxposed! A high-risk porn business
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - November 11, 2010
- NAIROBI, 11 November 2010 (PlusNews) - The US adult film industry was brought to a virtual standstill recently after an actor tested HIV-positive and all his sexual partners were tested for the virus. There are no such precautions in Kenya s porn industry, where actors usually perform without a condom or routine HIV te
- Africa: EU-India deal could threaten access to essential HIV drugs
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - November 9, 2010
- NAIROBI, 9 November 2010 (PlusNews) - As Indian and European officials meet in Brussels to thrash out the details of a Free Trade Agreement (FTA), civil society activists are concerned the deal could mean tighter intellectual property protections that could reduce access to cheap Indian generic drugs. The European Unio
- Southern Africa: No sex for a month to prevent HIV
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - November 9, 2010
- JOHANNESBURG, 9 November 2010 (PlusNews) - An aggressive national campaign to persuade people to abstain from sex or commit to 100 percent condom use for a month could make a significant contribution to HIV prevention efforts, says a leading HIV expert. Alan Whiteside of the Health Economics and HIV/AIDS Research Divis
- Kenya: Need to reduce HIV risk among health workers
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - November 8, 2010
- NAIROBI, 8 November 2010 (PlusNews) - The Kenyan government is working to reduce health workers risk of HIV infection but experts say there is a need for greater focus on providing health workers with proper safety equipment and education. According to government statistics, an estimated 2.5 percent of new HIV infectio
- Thailand: Struggling to sell safe sex
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - November 5, 2010
- BANGKOK, 5 November 2010 (IRIN) - Health experts in Thailand say the odds are stacked against them in combating one of the highest HIV prevalence rates in Asia, with only 2 percent of the country s AIDS budget going on condoms. The belief is that it is the responsibility of the people who want to buy sex that they have
- South Africa: ART patients defy risky sex expectations, says study
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - November 3, 2010
- JOHANNESBURG, 3 November 2010 (PlusNews) - Fears that antiretroviral therapy might lead healthier-feeling HIV-positive people to have more sex and potentially infect others may be unfounded, according to a new South African study, which recorded patients having significantly less sex as well as safer sex after starting
- Kenya: Mau Forest evictees struggle in camps
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - November 2, 2010
- KERINGET, 2 November 2010 (IRIN) - Delays in resettling hundreds of people evicted from the Mau Forest Complex in Kenya s Rift Valley region have forced the displaced to endure harsh camp conditions without proper health and sanitation facilities, sources said. I used to comfortably live in a three-bedroom house before
- Kenya: Counselling key to success of male cut
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - November 2, 2010
- KISUMU, 2 November 2010 (PlusNews) - When Kenya launched its national voluntary male circumcision campaign in 2008, critics worried that it could lead to greater sexual risk-taking - but men in the western Nyanza Province seem to be disproving this theory. When I heard people say male circumcision helps in reducing HIV
- South Africa: Hospitals failing to treat HIV-positive infants
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - November 2, 2010
- JOHANNESBURG, 2 November 2010 (PlusNews) - KwaZulu-Natal Province remains the epicentre of South Africa s HIV epidemic but new research reveals that nearly a third of hospitals surveyed had not started a single HIV-positive infant on antiretroviral treatment in several years. The research, presented at this week s Orph
- Kenya: Mother-baby packs to reduce HIV transmission
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - October 29, 2010
- KISUMU, 29 October 2010 (PlusNews) - A new, easy-to-use pack for pregnant, HIV-positive women could significantly reduce rates of mother-to-child HIV transmission (MTCT) in Kenya . The mother-baby pack contains antiretroviral drugs (ARVs) and antibiotics that women can easily administer themselves at home to reduce the
- South Africa: Clowning around boosts HIV-positive children
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - October 29, 2010
- KHAYELITSHA, 29 October 2010 (PlusNews) - Shrieks of laughter echo through the community centre in the Cape Town township of Khayelitsha as 20 children aged between four and 15 play a game of tag. They are part of the Cirque du Monde Ibhongolwethu Project run by Cape Town s Zip Zap Circus School with Medecins Sans Fron
- Uganda: Deadly consequences of inadequate HIV counselling
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - October 28, 2010
- GULU, 28 October 2010 (PlusNews) - Carol Apiyo* is struggling to cope with bitterness and anger towards her husband, whom she blames for infecting her with HIV; a few months ago, she tried to kill him by poisoning his food. Fortunately her husband recovered after treatment at Gulu Hospital in northern
- Mozambique: Technology revolution hits HIV testing and treatment
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - October 25, 2010
- MAPUTO, 25 October 2010 (PlusNews) - Delayed test results often mean HIV patients in Mozambique fail to get timely treatment, but new technology is reducing the need to send tests to far away laboratories, and speeding up test results and HIV treatment. Mozambique s Ministry of Health has increasingly begun experimenti
- Kenya: Male clinics boost men's participation in PMTCT
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - October 22, 2010
- VIHIGA, 22 October 2010 (PlusNews) - An initiative that encourages men to visit exclusively male clinics is gaining popularity in western Kenya and increasing male participation in prevention of mother-to-child HIV transmission (PMTCT) programmes. Most clinics are dominated by female staff and patients, which can be of
- South Africa: Research shows World Cup did not fuel sex work or HIV
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - October 22, 2010
- JOHANNESBURG, 22 October 2010 (PlusNews) - The South African sex work industry has released a new report that has shown the country s recent soccer World Cup did not fuel a rise in sex work - and that thousands of dollars may have been wasted on ill-tailored HIV prevention campaigns. New research by the South Africa s
- Kenya: Sex workers care for HIV-affected peers
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - October 21, 2010
- NAIROBI, 21 October 2010 (PlusNews) - Shunned by mainstream society, sex workers with HIV-related illnesses in Nairobi are unlikely to receive help from concerned neighbours. Instead, some of them are being cared for by fellow sex workers. A group of 25 sex workers who call themselves Knight Nurses , have been active f
- South Africa: Business to boost funding, monitoring of national VCT campaign
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - October 19, 2010
- JOHANNESBURG, 19 October 2010 (PlusNews) - South African business leaders have banded together to introduce new ways to finance and monitor the world s most ambitious national HIV testing campaign. Since the April 2010 launch of the campaign, which aims to test 15 million people over 12 months, about 2.8 million people
- Africa: Study highlights need for better post-rape care in conflict
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - October 19, 2010
- NAIROBI, 19 October 2010 (PlusNews) - Recent research into the effect of mass rape on HIV in conflict situations has highlighted the need for better post-rape care services for affected women and girls. Published in AIDS, the official journal of the International AIDS Society, the study, entitled Assessing the Impact o
- HIV/AIDS: Concurrency debate heats up
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - October 18, 2010
- JOHANNESBURG, 18 October 2010 (PlusNews) - An academic dispute about whether concurrent sexual partnerships are really a major factor behind high rates of HIV in sub-Saharan Africa could affect the future of prevention programmes. The relatively common practice in many African countries of having ongoing relationships
- HIV/AIDS: Tracing the multiple concurrent partner debate
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - October 18, 2010
- JOHANNESBURG, 18 October 2010 (PlusNews) - As the debate heats up about whether or not multiple concurrent partnerships (MCPs) are major drivers of Africa s HIV epidemics, IRIN/PlusNews takes a look at the evolution of the theory behind MCPs. 1982 - Uganda diagnoses its first case of HIV along the shores of Lake Victor
- Asia: Laws driving HIV prevention underground
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - October 15, 2010
- BANGKOK, 15 October 2010 (IRIN) - In a region where carrying a condom has been construed as evidence of illicit activity, 10 million women sell sex to 75 million men, who then have sex with another 50 million people, according to the multinational Independent Commission on AIDS in Asia. The technology is there to preve
- Kenya: HIV prevention for married adolescents
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - October 15, 2010
- MT ELGON, 15 October 2010 (PlusNews) - Doris Chebet has never had a say in her life; married off at 14, she has always taken orders, first from her own family, and now from her husband s. When Chebet, now 18 and living in the western Kenyan region of Mt Elgon, fell pregnant at 15, her mother-in-law made sure she gave b
- TIMOR-LESTE: HIV prevalence rate "under-reported"
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - October 14, 2010
- DILI, 14 October 2010 (IRIN) - HIV prevalence is low in Timor-Leste - 0.2 percent based on results from the latest surveillance by the government and World Health Organization (WHO). But this rate is rapidly increasing and most likely under-reported, according to the Health Ministry. Data on risky behaviours is p
- HIV/AIDS: Global Fund looks to private sector to fill funding gap
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - October 14, 2010
- JOHANNESBURG, 14 October 2010 (PlusNews) - With its coffers running at least US$1 billion short, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria is looking to the private sector to fill the funding gap. At a 12 October conference on the role of buisness in health in Johannesburg, South Africa , member
- New global plan aims to wipe out TB
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - October 14, 2010
- JOHANNESBURG, 14 October 2010 (PlusNews) - A new roadmap for curbing the global epidemic of tuberculosis aims to save five million lives between 2011 and 2015 and eliminate TB as a public health problem by 2050 but comes with a price tag of US$47 billion, nearly half of which must still be found. The Global Plan to Sto
- Africa/US: Standing up for HIV-positive immigrants
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - October 13, 2010
- NEW YORK, 13 October 2010 (PlusNews) - A new campaign aims to beat stigma and discrimination against HIV-positive Africans in New York by urging the wider population to show solidarity with them. For those living outside their home turf, the vulnerability that comes with being HIV-positive really exacerbates HIV stigma
- Sudan: Stigma continues to hold back Darfur's HIV fight
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - October 13, 2010
- NYALA, 13 October 2010 (PlusNews) - There are nine voluntary counselling and testing centres in the Sudanese state of South Darfur, but rather than risk being recognized at one of them, many people travel to a different state to seek HIV testing or treatment. My best friend is HIV-positive and every month travels to El
- Bangladesh: Mixed messages on sex work undermine HIV prevention
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - October 12, 2010
- DHAKA, 12 October 2010 (IRIN) - Civil society is preparing to challenge a recent government decision in Bangladesh to exclude prostitution as a profession on new voter cards on the grounds it effectively blocks sex workers access to HIV prevention and life-saving health care. On 17 August the Bangladesh Election Co
- Mozambique: HIV patients team up to make treatment cheaper
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - October 11, 2010
- TETE, 11 October 2010 (PlusNews) - For HIV patients in Africa, monthly trips to refill antiretroviral (ARV) prescriptions cost time and money that may be in short supply. But a new strategy being pioneered in Mozambique is easing the burden of monthly refills for patients and the health system. Developed by health
- HIV/AIDS: The future of HIV epidemics and funding
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - October 8, 2010
- JOHANNESBURG, 8 October 2010 (PlusNews) - New modelling has offered governments and donors a glimpse into the future of HIV epidemics - and what it will cost to prevent and treat them. Researchers warn of hard choices ahead and a need for some countries to take more responsibility for their national programmes. Publish
- Uganda: HIV-positive teens choose religion over ARVs
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - October 7, 2010
- KAMPALA, 7 October 2010 (PlusNews) - Ugandan health workers are concerned by the growing number of HIV-positive teens who are abandoning their HIV treatment after turning to bogus religious leaders. Over the years we have noticed a growing trend of adolescents and caregivers who have withdrawn from treatment with a bel
- HIV/AIDS: Record contributions to Global Fund "not enough"
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - October 6, 2010
- NEW YORK, 6 October 2010 (IRIN) - Donor countries and private corporations pledged a record US$11.7 billion to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria at the end of a funding conference in New York on 5 October, allowing another two million people access to HIV treatment by 2015, but still falling short
- Kenya: Religious outrage over minister's support of gay rights
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - October 6, 2010
- NAIROBI, 6 October 2010 (PlusNews) - A Kenyan cabinet minister who called for greater acceptance of gays by society has been accused of promoting un-African acts and asked to resign. Special Programmes Minister Esther Murugi recommended more tolerance towards men who have sex with men (MSM) at a national symposium on
- Zimbabwe: HIV patients forced to pay up or go without
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - October 5, 2010
- HARARE, 5 October 2010 (PlusNews) - Rampant corruption in the provision of life-prolonging antiretroviral (ARV) drugs and other HIV services is threatening Zimbabwe s national AIDS response according to a recently released report by a local human rights group. Commissioned by the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR
- Kenya: Training health workers on HIV prevention for positives
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - October 4, 2010
- BONDO, 4 October 2010 (PlusNews) - Kenyan health workers have been missing the opportunity to prevent HIV-positive people from infecting others because they lack the skills and knowledge to counsel this population, say specialists. Health workers have certain misconceptions about people living with HIV... many don t ha
- East Africa: Community radio reaches refugees with HIV messages
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - October 1, 2010
- NGARA, 1 October 2010 (PlusNews) - An FM radio station broadcasting from the western Tanzanian town of Ngara is bringing vital HIV prevention information to thousands of Burundian and Rwandan refugees living in the region. A weekly 30-minute HIV-focused programme entitled, You and Me, Together We Can, is broadcast on R
- HIV/AIDS: Patent pool gets first licence but drug companies still not on board
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - October 1, 2010
- NAIROBI, 1 October 2010 (PlusNews) - The US National Institutes of Health (NIH) has become the first patent holder to join the recently created Medicines Patent Pool, but unless other patent holders follow suit, the NIH s move will not increase access to HIV treatment. By licensing the life-prolonging antiretroviral (A
- HIV/AIDS: New ways to bridge the AIDS funding gap
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - September 30, 2010
- JOHANNESBURG, 30 September 2010 (PlusNews) - Money, or the lack of it, is likely to be the deciding factor in meeting global health targets. This was one of the main messages to emerge from both the recent Millennium Development Goals (MDG) summit in New York, and the latest report by UNAIDS on progress towards ach
- Global: Serious fun - how to reach young donors
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - September 30, 2010
- DAKAR, 30 September 2010 (IRIN) - Older givers have the deepest pockets when it comes to donating to humanitarian and development non-profits, according to several NGOs IRIN spoke to; but many NGOs face an aging supporter base, and are increasingly targeting children, youths and young adults through social networking a
- Swaziland: A dialogue to defeat AIDS
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - September 29, 2010
- LUBOMBO, 29 September 2010 (PlusNews) - Communities in Swaziland are coming together as never before to tackle the HIV/AIDS epidemic that has so deeply affected them. We will defeat AIDS, we the women of this village! chant a group of older Swazi women wearing voluminous black skirts and bright red wraps in Ka-Vikizuul
- Kenya: Infant male circumcision for HIV prevention "promising"
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - September 28, 2010
- KISUMU, 28 September 2010 (PlusNews) - Circumcising infant boys could become part of Kenya s voluntary male circumcision programme, at present restricted to over-15s, if an ongoing pilot project in the western province of Nyanza recommends it. June Odoyo, of the University of Manitoba project, told IRIN/PlusNews that t
- HIV/AIDS: Value for money central to achieving universal access
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - September 28, 2010
- NAIROBI, 28 September 2010 (PlusNews) - A global shortage of funds for the fight against HIV means universal access to prevention, treatment and care is unlikely unless HIV programmes get better value for their investments, says a new report by UNAIDS , the UN Children s Fund and the UN
- HIV/AIDS: Straight Talk with Mitchell Warren, executive director of the AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - September 27, 2010
- NAIROBI, 27 September 2010 (PlusNews) - There have been unprecedented developments in HIV vaccine research recently, but the field is threatened by the global downturn in funding for HIV/AIDS. Ahead of the AIDS Vaccine 2010 conference starting in Atlanta on 28 September, IRIN/PlusNews spoke to Mitchell Warren, executiv
- Kenya: When orphans become care-givers
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - September 24, 2010
- BONDO, 24 September 2010 (PlusNews) - The role of grandparents and other members of the extended family in raising HIV orphans is well established; what is less recognized is the contribution these children make to their carers lives. Grandparents, often elderly and infirm, rely heavily on these children for household
- MDGs: Donors hold key to HIV-free generation
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - September 23, 2010
- NEW YORK, 23 September 2010 (PlusNews) - Top UN health officials are confident that an HIV-free generation is possible by 2015, but have warned of the need to fully fund HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment programmes to ensure that steady progress in recent years does not fall by the wayside. This is an unprecedented mom
- MDGs: Tracking progress on MDG six
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - September 21, 2010
- NAIROBI, 21 September 2010 (PlusNews) - Significant strides have been made in the global fight against HIV, but major gaps remain that could prevent many countries from achieving UN Millennium Development Goal (MDG) six relating to HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases. IRIN/PlusNews examines global efforts to halt and
- Kenya: Home HIV testing helps early diagnosis of high-risk children
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - September 21, 2010
- NAIROBI, 21 September 2010 (PlusNews) - Home-based voluntary counselling and testing (HCT) can help to diagnose HIV early among high-risk children, new research in western Kenya has found. Through home-based counselling and testing, you are able to get children and parents who might not go to health facilities for thes
- Southern Africa: HIV-related cancer poorly diagnosed, treated
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - September 20, 2010
- MANZINI, 20 September 2010 (PlusNews) - Kaposi s sarcoma (KS), an HIV-related cancer, may not make headlines in southern Africa, but dealing with this disfiguring and potentially deadly illness presents a daunting task for health workers. How to administer chemotherapy at a small rural clinic is just one of the many di
- Kenya: Targeting older people in HIV prevention
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - September 17, 2010
- KAKMEGA, 17 September 2010 (PlusNews) - Older Kenyans, often neglected by HIV programmes that assume they are no longer sexually active and therefore not at risk, are slowly becoming more visible in the fight against the pandemic. The NGO, HelpAge Kenya, is training older people to talk to their peers about how HIV is
- One-hour TB test "must be affordable" for poor countries
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - September 16, 2010
- NAIROBI, 16 September 2010 (PlusNews) - A new one-hour test for tuberculosis will only have an impact in the global fight against the disease if it is made affordable to poor countries, experts say. If it comes out and costs a million dollars, then clearly it won t be feasible; it needs to be cheap enough for poor coun
- Kenya: Activists appeal for release of TB prisoners
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - September 15, 2010
- NAKURU, 15 September 2010 (PlusNews) - Kenyan human rights activists have filed an appeal for the release of two men imprisoned for defaulting on their tuberculosis (TB) treatment, and are warning that the arrests could discourage other patients from seeking treatment. The appeal has been filed at Kapsabet court in Rif
- Uganda: US helps bridge gap in ARV supply
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - September 13, 2010
- KAMPALA, 13 September 2010 (PlusNews) - The US government has boosted its assistance to Uganda s AIDS programme with an emergency supply of antiretroviral (ARV) drugs worth more than US$5.5 million - enough to put an estimated 72,000 HIV-infected people on the treatment over the next two years. But it has also served n
- South Africa: Early HIV treatment may be cheaper than thought
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - September 13, 2010
- MANZINI, 13 September 2010 (PlusNews) - Research by South Africa s University of the Witwatersrand and Boston University in the US, has found that starting HIV-positive people on antiretrovirals (ARVs) earlier, and at a higher CD4 count (a measure of immune system strength), may be cheaper than previously thought. Afte
- Africa: Drug-resistant HIV threat looming
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - September 9, 2010
- JOHANNESBURG, 9 September 2010 (PlusNews) - HIV-positive patients about to start antiretroviral treatment are warned not to skip even the occasional dose of their medication because of the virus ability to mutate rapidly and become drug resistant; but what about patients who have never taken treatment and already have
- Kenya: Help HIV-positive children in pain, urges HRW
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - September 9, 2010
- NAIROBI, 9 September 2010 (PlusNews) - A new report by Human Rights Watch (HRW) says the Kenyan government needs to do more to provide palliative care for children with chronic illnesses, including cancer and HIV/AIDS. Many children in Kenya, including those who are suffering from cancer and HIV/AIDS, are undergoing ex
- Botswana: Amendment to end dismissal based on HIV status
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - September 9, 2010
- GABORONE, 9 September 2010 (PlusNews) - The Botswana government has passed an amendment to its Employment Act that will bring an end to dismissal based on an individual s sexual orientation or HIV status, but rights groups believe the legislation needs to go further. Civil society organizations in Botswana welcomed the
- Kenya: Kicking HIV out of Nairobi's slums
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - September 8, 2010
- NAIROBI, 8 September 2010 (PlusNews) - On a dusty football field in Mathare, one of the largest slums in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, young boys chase a rough, home-made ball. Their coach, Elias Mwangi, 21, a former drug addict, hopes football will not only keep the boys away from crime but motivate them to avoid behav
- South Africa: National HIV testing campaign disappoints
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - September 7, 2010
- MANZINI, 7 September 2010 (PlusNews) - South Africa , home to the world s largest HIV treatment programme, is trying to pull off the most extensive global HIV testing campaign but the ambitious initiative is facing some daunting realities. Launched in April 2010, the campaign aims to test 15 million South Africans over
- Kenya: Nomadic communities struggle to access PMTCT
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - September 7, 2010
- SAMBURU, 7 September 2010 (PlusNews) - Nomadic Kenyan women who test positive for HIV but live in remote areas far from the nearest health facility are missing out on the opportunity to prevent their children from becoming infected with the virus. Mary Lesojile* discovered her HIV status when, pregnant with her fifth c
- Swaziland: Task-shifting could improve HIV treatment and prevention
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - September 3, 2010
- MANZINI, 3 September 2010 (PlusNews) - Swaziland has yet to act on a 2006 World Health Organization (WHO) recommendation to alleviate health worker shortages through task-shifting and according to the Ministry of Health, the failure to do so is compromising scale-up of the antiretroviral (ARV) programme.
- South Africa: Strike sends XDR-TB patients home
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - September 3, 2010
- DURBAN, 3 September 2010 (PlusNews) - Striking public health workers in South Africa have virtually shut down King George V Hospital, a referral facility in the port city of Durban, KwaZulu-Natal Province, which specializes in caring for and isolating patients with multidrug-resistant (MDR) and extremely drug-resistant
- Global: New two-hour TB test
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - September 3, 2010
- JOHANNESBURG, 3 September 2010 (PlusNews) - A new, accurate, easy-to-use test can diagnose tuberculosis (TB) - including drug-resistant strains of the disease - in less than two hours. It has the potential to save thousands of lives in developing countries, where current tests are often unreliable, take weeks to proces
- South Africa: Survivor's guide for non-striking health workers
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - September 2, 2010
- JOHANNESBURG, 2 September 2010 (PlusNews) - Public sector strikes in South Africa have become so common in recent years that people are asking if plans should not be put in place to prevent the disruption of HIV and tuberculosis [TB] treatment, and prepare health workers. Striking public sector health workers launched
- Kenya: Camel clinics bring condoms to nomads
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - August 31, 2010
- SAMBURU, 31 August 2010 (PlusNews) - In the remote and rural district of Samburu, northern Kenya , where paved roads are scarce and motorised transport hard to come by, reaching the mostly pastoralist and nomadic inhabitants with HIV/AIDS services requires an unusual approach. John Lokolale, 21, a Samburu Moran (warrio
- Uganda: New strains of HIV spreading in fishing communities*
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - August 31, 2010
- ENTEBBE, 31 August 2010 (PlusNews) - A study of HIV-positive people in fishing communities on the shores of Lake Victoria in central Uganda has found that more than a quarter have recombinant viruses that might threaten both treatment and prevention efforts. Of the numerous sub-types of HIV circulating worldwide, A and
- Southern Africa: More sterilizations of HIV-positive women uncovered
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - August 30, 2010
- JOHANNESBURG, 30 August 2010 (PlusNews) - Veronica* did not realize she had been sterilized while giving birth to her daughter until four years later when, after failing to conceive, she and her boyfriend consulted a doctor. I was like Okay, fine , because there was nothing I could do by then, but I was angry. I hate [
- South Africa: Pholokgolo Ramothwala, "You can never hide HIV forever"
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - August 26, 2010
- JOHANNESBURG, 26 August 2010 (PlusNews) - Journalist and long-time HIV activist Pholokgolo Ramothwala, 32, was diagnosed HIV-positive at the age of 19. He runs his own communications company and writes an online diary about living with HIV. He spoke to IRIN/PlusNews about love, disclosure and discordance. I get hundred
- Uganda: Optimism as PEPFAR increases funding*
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - August 25, 2010
- KAMPALA, 25 August 2010 (PlusNews) - More Ugandan HIV patients are set to receive life-prolonging medication after the United States President s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) responded to appeals from healthcare providers overwhelmed by patients by committing to increase its support of the country s treatment
- Kenya: Government changes tack on HIV prevention, treatment for drug users
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - August 24, 2010
- NAIROBI, 24 August 2010 (PlusNews) - Intravenous drug users (IDUs) have been largely ignored by the government s HIV programmes on the basis that drug-taking is illegal, but a new policy is being drafted with the aim of reducing HIV transmission among this high-risk group. If we want to talk about HIV prevention, then
- Kenya: TB patients held in police cells for defaulting on treatment
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - August 24, 2010
- NAIROBI, 24 August 2010 (PlusNews) - Kenyan government officials have defended the arrest and incarceration of two men infected with multi-drug resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB), who failed to adhere to their treatment. For more than a week, the two men have been held in police remand in Kapsabet town in Rift Valley Prov
- South Africa: Strike jeopardizes HIV treatment
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - August 24, 2010
- JOHANNESBURG, 24 August 2010 (PlusNews) - A strike for better wages by South African health workers is putting the lives of HIV-positive people on the line as industrial action disrupts treatment programmes. Services providing antiretroviral (ARV) and tub erculosis (TB) treatment, and prevention of mother-to-child tran
- South Africa: Communities debate microbicide results
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - August 23, 2010
- JOHANNESBURG, 23 August 2010 (PlusNews) - The recent release of positive results from a microbicide trial in South Africa have kick-started discussions between scientists, activists and community workers about the quickest and most responsible way of getting a product into women s hands. The trial by the Centre for
- South Africa: Nevirapine linked to HIV treatment failure
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - August 20, 2010
- JOHANNESBURG, 20 August 2010 (PlusNews) - One of the cheapest and most commonly used drugs for treating HIV in Africa - nevirapine - has been associated with an increased risk of treatment failure in a retrospective South African study. The study, published in the August 15 issue of the Journal of AIDS, looked at adult
- Kenya: TB patients with HIV miss out on ARVs
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - August 20, 2010
- NAIROBI, 20 August 2010 (PlusNews) - Only a third of Kenyans infected with tuberculosis and HIV are receiving treatment for both conditions, despite the latest World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines recommending that anti-retrovirals be taken soon after TB treatment begins. Kenya has achieved good results with its
- TOGO: Manya Andrews, "The condoms had the thickness and sensitivity of a tyre"
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - August 19, 2010
- JOHANNESBURG, 19 August 2010 (PlusNews) - Manya Andrews is a health communications consultant and former head of the international reproductive health organization, Populations Services International, in Togo . At a recent conference on HIV and couples, she spoke to IRIN/PlusNews about how she and her team had to rethi
- Global: NGO survey on human rights, United Nations - 15 Sept.
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - August 19, 2010
- JOHANNESBURG, 19 August 2010 (PlusNews) - The UN Secretary General is inviting civil society organizations to give their input on how to promote and implement human rights-based HIV/AIDS programmes as part of his upcoming report in accordance with Human Rights Council resolution 12/27. To have your say, fill out the qu
- Swaziland: HIV threat "exaggerated", says King's brother
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - August 18, 2010
- MANZINI, 18 August 2010 (PlusNews) - Remarks disparaging programmes to reduce HIV infections, made by Swaziland s second top-ranking traditional leader, have sparked disbelief and anger among AIDS activists. The threat of HIV and AIDS was being exaggerated by profit-hungry pharmaceutical companies and condom makers, an
- Tanzania: Women caught in crossfire of HIV battle
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - August 18, 2010
- MKINGA, 18 August 2010 (PlusNews) - Regina Joseph was beaten up by a group of young men for dressing indecently on her way to the local market in northeastern Tanzania s Mkinga District. They stopped me and told me to remove my clothes because the way I was dressed, it is as if I wanted to walk naked, the 21-year-old t
- Kenya: Clampdown on bogus herbalists
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - August 17, 2010
- NAIROBI, 17 August 2010 (PlusNews) - The Kenyan government is drafting new regulations to stop fraudulent herbalists claiming to be able to treat diseases, including HIV, from practising. Anybody found selling untested herbal products will definitely face legal action for endangering people s lives, said Jayesh Pandit,
- Swaziland: ABC approach to be shelved
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - August 16, 2010
- MBABANE, 16 August 2010 (PlusNews) - In a country with the highest HIV infection rate in the world and the lowest life expectancy, experts are still at a loss as to why Swazis have resisted all attempts to change the behaviours that put them at risk from the virus. The ABC (Abstain, Be Faithful, Condomise) approach has
- Southern Africa: No single formula for MCPs
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - August 16, 2010
- JOHANNESBURG, 16 August 2010 (PlusNews) - In southern Africa, prevention campaigns highlighting the HIV risks of having more than one partner at the same time have largely targeted heterosexuals and ignored the fact that men who have sex with men also have multiple partners. Men who have sex with men (MSM) describes me
- Somalia: Let's talk about HIV stigma
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - August 12, 2010
- GAROWE, 12 August 2010 (PlusNews) - In conservative Somali culture, discussions about HIV are frowned upon, but four young people recently broke with tradition to speak to IRIN about their experience of living with the virus. I always thought that anyone with the disease is like a dying person or worthless, Hangade Huf
- Kenya: Traditionalists resist the call for a cleaner cut
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - August 12, 2010
- KAKAMEGA, 12 August 2010 (PlusNews) - For thousands of young men in western Kenya and eastern Uganda , the month of August heralds the season during which they pass from childhood to manhood through the traditional ritual of circumcision. Here you are no man if you are not cut, said Lucas Wanyama, a traditional circum
- Global: Straight Talk with Dr Zeda Rosenberg, CEO of the International Partnership for Microbicides
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - August 12, 2010
- JOHANNESBURG, 12 August 2010 (PlusNews) - There were cheers and some tears at the International AIDS Conference in Vienna in July when delegates heard the news that a clinical trial in South Africa , had found a vaginal gel containing the antiretroviral drug, tenofovir , was 39 per
- Kenya: HIV prevention for sex workers by sex workers
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - August 11, 2010
- NAIROBI, 11 August 2010 (PlusNews) - By night, Viviane Muasi, 25, is a sex worker in Kenya s capital, Nairobi, but when not canvassing for clients, she spends much of her time convincing other sex workers to test for HIV and use condoms. Muasi, a sex worker for nine years, is a peer educator with the Sex Workers Outrea
- Burundi: HIV-positive people struggling for treatment of opportunistic infections
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - August 11, 2010
- BUJUMBURA, 11 August 2010 (PlusNews) - Thousands of Burundians living with HIV are failing to obtain drugs to treat opportunistic infections since a system to provide them with free medical care has come to an end. The National AIDS Control Council (CNLS) has, for the past two years, provided free medical care to an es
- Africa: Could HIV be a matter of biology?
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - August 10, 2010
- JOHANNESBURG, 10 August 2010 (PlusNews) - Africa s HIV epidemic may not be driven by behaviour alone according to a new study suggesting that Kenyan women are more biologically susceptible to the virus. The study compared CD4 cells [white blood cells that lead the immune system s response to infections] from cervical c
- South Africa: Unpaid VCT counsellors threaten to walk out
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - August 6, 2010
- JOHANNESBURG, 6 August 2010 (PlusNews) - After months of non-payment, lay counsellors vital to government s ambitious target of testing 15 million South Africans for HIV by April 2011, are threatening to walk out of voluntary counselling and testing (VCT) clinics. Lay counsellors in at least two of South Africa s nine
- Sri Lanka: Taboo reinforces ignorance about HIV
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - August 5, 2010
- COLOMBO, 5 August 2010 (PlusNews) - Sri Lanka has remained relatively unscathed by the global AIDS pandemic, but for the tiny minority of people living with HIV, life is extremely hard. If you have AIDS, you become an immoral person overnight, said Chamara Sumanapala, a social commentator at the University of Colombo
- Kenya: Support groups boosting PMTCT uptake
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - August 4, 2010
- KAMWIMBI, 4 August 2010 (PlusNews) - When Esther and Chrispus Ireri from the remote village of Kamwimbi in Kenya s Eastern district of Mbeere lost all three children in quick succession, they had no idea it was because of HIV infections. I had despaired after the deaths of our children one after the other; the pressure
- Africa/Asia: Worrying rates of second-line treatment failure
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - August 4, 2010
- JOHANNESBURG, 4 August 2010 (PlusNews) - Patients with HIV on second-line antiretroviral (ARV) treatment are significantly more likely to experience treatment failure than those on first-line treatment, according to new research by health NGO Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF). Published in the Journal of the
- South Africa: Government debt delays treatment
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - August 3, 2010
- JOHANNESBURG, 3 August 2010 (PlusNews) - Drugs to treat HIV and tuberculosis (TB) are not reaching patients in South Africa s Eastern Cape Province because the local health department has not paid its suppliers, according to a civil society watchdog. Hospitals and clinics in the Eastern Cape have struggled since March
- Kenya: Ill-equipped for election-related sexual violence
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - August 3, 2010
- NAIROBI, 3 August 2010 (PlusNews) - On the eve of the referendum on the constitution that has divided Kenya , health workers fear they are not equipped to deal with a possible resurgence of the sexual violence that followed the December 2007 election. The best we can do is to give pain-killers and make referrals [to a
- Analysis: HIV generics under threat from tighter patenting rules
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - August 2, 2010
- VIENNA, 2 August 2010 (PlusNews) - Most of the estimated 5.2 million people worldwide on antiretroviral (ARV) treatment are taking generic versions manufactured primarily in India , but tighter global intellectual property rights and trade rules could shut down the pharmacy of the developing world . While the paten
- Africa: Addressing the role of religion in HIV response
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - July 30, 2010
- NAIROBI, 30 July 2010 (PlusNews) - At a church compound in Nairobi s Mathare slum, women and their children line up for food rations. Among them is Zipporah Mueni, an HIV-positive mother of five. I have come here to receive food which I will share with my children, said Mueni, whose husband was killed during the post-e
- Zimbabwe: Low breastfeeding rates threaten PMTCT efforts
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - July 30, 2010
- HARARE, 30 July 2010 (PlusNews) - Health and nutrition experts in Zimbabwe are worried that one of the lowest exclusive breastfeeding rates in the region could have a negative impact on the country s prevention of mother-to-child HIV transmission (PMTCT) programme. Just six percent of mothers exclusively breastfeed the
- Africa: Mapping health budgets and child deaths
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - July 28, 2010
- Click here to see a larger version of the map JOHANNESBURG, 28 July 2010 (PlusNews) - As many African countries battle to bring down staggering rates of maternal and child mortality, maternal and child health made for a fitting theme at the African Union (AU) Summit this week in Kampala, Uganda . At the su
- Global: "Seek, test, treat and retain" to stem HIV among drug users
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - July 28, 2010
- VIENNA, 28 July 2010 (PlusNews) - Activists and scientists at the International AIDS Conference in Vienna called on governments to stop criminalizing drug users and instead to provide them with addiction and HIV treatment. Sooner or later, people have to figure out that we re not going to be able to solve the HIV epide
- South Africa: Child deaths stubbornly high
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - July 27, 2010
- JOHANNESBURG, 27 July 2010 (PlusNews) - The race to meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) by 2015 is more than halfway run, but new reports say South Africa is unlikely to reduce its burden of deaths in children under five in time to cross the finish line. A report by Countdown to 2015, an international group mon
- Kenya: Government takes first steps to roll out less toxic ARVs
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - July 27, 2010
- NAIROBI, 27 July 2010 (PlusNews) - HIV-positive people on treatment will be switched from regimens containing the antiretroviral Stavudine to less toxic combinations in line with UN World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines, according to a senior official. We want to start initiating patients to the safer drugs
- Global: Survey reveals gaps in doctor-patient dialogue
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - July 26, 2010
- JOHANNESBURG, 26 July 2010 (PlusNews) - A new, global survey has revealed the conversations healthcare providers aren t having with their HIV-positive patients with potentially negative consequences for their treatment and health. The AIDS Treatment for Life International Survey (ATLIS 2010) of more than 2,000 HIV-posi
- Global: Straight Talk with Eric Goosby, head of PEPFAR
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - July 26, 2010
- VIENNA, 26 July 2010 (PlusNews) - The US president s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) has committed about US$32 billion to the global fight against HIV since its launch in 2003, making it the largest donor for HIV/AIDS globally. Following annual increases in contributions, however, PEPFAR has effectively flat-li
- Africa: Cash in hand keeps HIV at bay
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - July 23, 2010
- JOHANNESBURG, 23 July 2010 (PlusNews) - Giving young women small, regular cash payments can reduce their dependence on sexual relationships with older men, which also lowers their HIV risk, according to a new study by the World Bank. Malawi s southeastern Zomba district, where the survey took place, has high rates of p
- Global: Hunting for a "cure" for HIV
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - July 23, 2010
- VIENNA, 23 July 2010 (PlusNews) - A successful microbicide trial and the promise of HIV treatment as prevention have dominated the scientific breakthroughs making headlines at the International AIDS Conference in Vienna, but scientists working on a cure for HIV say they are making slow but significant headway in findin
- Global: Criminalization of HIV on trial
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - July 23, 2010
- VIENNA, 23 July 2010 (PlusNews) - There is a tug-of-war going on with governments trying to criminalize the transmission of HIV on one side, and activists who say such laws are not only ineffective as a deterrent but are also harming the fight against AIDS, on the other. There is no evidence of criminal law application
- Blog: The female condom - you've got to sell it right
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - July 23, 2010
- VIENNA, 23 July 2010 (PlusNews) - I m so used to, and bored by, the bland white packaging that carries the underused female condom that at this year s International AIDS Conference, I walked past several press releases and demonstrations of it without much interest. So it was with some surprise that I came upon a stand
- Blog: Bursting my AIDS 2010 bubble
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - July 22, 2010
- VIENNA, 22 July 2010 (PlusNews) - This is my second International AIDS Conference and now I know for sure, Mexico wasn t a fluke - I really do love these gatherings. I love the passion of the speakers, the excitement the boffins create around their new research and the let s all get behind this spirit the activists br
- Global: Seven strategies for smarter HIV programmes
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - July 22, 2010
- VIENNA, 22 July 2010 (PlusNews) - Speaking at the International AIDS Conference earlier this week, former US President Bill Clinton told delegates that the credit crunch meant HIV programmes would need to work faster, better and cheaper . IRIN/PlusNews has put together a list of ways HIV service providers could cut cos
- Global: MTV drama brings cool to HIV prevention
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - July 21, 2010
- VIENNA, 21 July 2010 (PlusNews) - It s a story of sexy young guys and girls having a good time in the big city, of friendships pushed to the edge, and families struggling to survive, but underneath all the drama, MTV s Shuga is a story about HIV. My character, Ayira, is young, attractive and very ambitious. When her fa
- Global: Microbicides - from results to reality
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - July 21, 2010
- VIENNA, 21 July 2010 (PlusNews) - The dust has barely settled after the announcement of the first positive results from a microbicide trial, but scientists and policy makers are already asking themselves, What s next? The results are exciting - a vaginal gel containing the antiretroviral (ARV) drug,
- Africa: Better prevention needed for HIV-exposed babies
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - July 21, 2010
- JOHANNESBURG, 21 July 2010 (PlusNews) - About half the babies exposed to HIV may not be getting the antiretroviral (ARV) drugs they need to be born HIV-free and stay that way, say the findings of a four-country study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). The study, conducted in
- Africa: The dilemma of discordance
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - July 20, 2010
- VIENNA, 20 July 2010 (PlusNews) - Discordant couples, in which one partner is HIV-positive and the other HIV-negative, are increasingly common in African countries with high prevalence, but there is often little support to help them navigate the complexities that the virus adds to a relationship. The research and progr
- Global: Finally, positive results from a microbicide trial
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - July 20, 2010
- VIENNA, 20 July 2010 (PlusNews) - The HIV prevention world is abuzz with excitement following news of the first clinical evidence that a vaginal gel - known as a microbicide - can help to prevent sexual transmission of HIV infection. A study by the Centre for the AIDS Programme of Research in South Africa
- Africa: Six challenges to delivering treatment as prevention
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - July 20, 2010
- VIENNA, 20 July 2010 (PlusNews) - Using HIV treatment to drastically reduce transmission of the virus is the big issue at the International AIDS Conference in Vienna; scientists and health workers are optimistic but recognize that scaling up treatment will not be easy, especially for poor countries. IRIN/PlusNews has p
- Kenya: Focus on fistula
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - July 19, 2010
- NAIROBI, 19 July 2010 (IRIN) - It is both preventable and treatable, but obstetric fistula plagues the lives of thousands of women in Kenya every year, leaving them incontinent and ostracized. Here are some reasons why: Information deficit Lack of reproductive health education means there is widespread ignorance of the
- Zimbabwe: New treatment guidelines yet to be implemented
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - July 19, 2010
- HARARE, 19 July 2010 (PlusNews) - Zimbabwe s government has adopted new guidelines set by the World Health Organization (WHO) for treating people living with HIV, but there may not be enough money to implement them. The new WHO guidelines recommend that countries start giving antiretroviral (ARV) treatment to HIV-posit
- Global: Funding pall hangs over AIDS 2010 conference
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - July 19, 2010
- VIENNA, 19 July 2010 (PlusNews) - A chaotic protest against reduced funding for HIV delayed the opening of the International AIDS Conference, where money, or the lack of it, is likely to dominate proceedings. Dozens of activists stormed the stage of Vienna s Reed Messe Centre, holding a giant banner reading No Retreat,
- Blog: African governments also need to dig deep for AIDS treatment
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - July 19, 2010
- VIENNA, 19 July 2010 (PlusNews) - Ahead of the AIDS 2010 conference in Vienna, Austria , the international medical charity, Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), has launched The Ten Consequences of AIDS Treatment Delayed, Deferred, or Denied , another damning indictment of international donors back-pedalling on promises of
- Global: A radical new UNAIDS treatment strategy
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - July 16, 2010
- JOHANNESBURG, 16 July 2010 (PlusNews) - UNAIDS has launched a simpler, more cost-effective approach to HIV treatment, aimed at simultaneously achieving two holy grails of the AIDS response: drastic reductions in AIDS-related deaths and new HIV infections. The approach, dubbed Treatment 2.0 , aims to drastically scale u
- Global: The big five at AIDS 2010
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - July 15, 2010
- VIENNA, 15 July 2010 (PlusNews) - Rights Here, Right Now is the theme of the 18th International AIDS Conference, also known as AIDS 2010 , opening on 18 July in Vienna, Austria . Around 25,000 policy-makers, programme implementers, scientists, community workers, activists and people living with HIV will gather to discu
- Global: Poll ranks AIDS as top health issue
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - July 14, 2010
- JOHANNESBURG, 14 July 2010 (PlusNews) - AIDS is the world s most important health-care issue according to people all over the world who were polled for their perceptions of the AIDS epidemic in a new survey commissioned by UNAIDS . Optimism about the state of the global AIDS epidemic and progress in responding to it va
- Global: Young people lead "prevention revolution"
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - July 14, 2010
- JOHANNESBURG, 14 July 2010 (PlusNews) - Across the world, but especially in parts of sub-Saharan Africa, young people are taking action to protect themselves from HIV, says a new study by UNAIDS . Young people have shown that they can be change agents in the prevention revolution, the agency said in a supplement to th
- South Africa: Government greenlights three-month supply of ARVs
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - July 13, 2010
- JOHANNESBURG, 13 July 2010 (PlusNews) - In a bid to ease pressure on South Africa s over-burdened public health sector, the government has given hospitals and clinics permission to give patients on HIV/AIDS treatment a three-month supply of their antiretroviral medication (ARVs). In a recent memo the Department of Heal
- South Africa: Counsellors to give "the prick"
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - July 9, 2010
- JOHANNESBURG, 9 July 2010 (PlusNews) - Lay counsellors in South Africa can now legally perform HIV tests, but delays in paying them and shortages of test kits are threatening a national campaign to scale up voluntary HIV testing and counselling (VCT). Before new regulations came into effect in May 2010 only nurses were
- Tanzania: Taking the HIV risk out of road crews
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - July 8, 2010
- TANGA, 8 July 2010 (PlusNews) - An initiative by the Tanzanian government hopes to reduce HIV transmission along the country s expanding road network by targeting construction crews and the communities that surround them. The government requires that road construction companies implement HIV prevention services for the
- Uganda: Sex workers demand "rights, not rescue"
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - July 8, 2010
- KAMPALA, 8 July 2010 (PlusNews) - When Macklean Kyomya came to the Ugandan capital, Kampala, at 19, she found work as a lap-dancer in a nightclub and was soon accepting money from clients in exchange for sex. I enjoyed the feeling of power I had over men; I had a pimp who looked after me so I was never forced to do any
- Global: Straight Talk with Gottfried Hirnschall, WHO's director of HIV
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - July 8, 2010
- NAIROBI, 8 July 2010 (PlusNews) - The UN World Health Organization (WHO) recently appointed Gottfried Hirnschall the new director of its HIV department. IRIN/PlusNews talked to him about the state of universal access to HIV prevention, treatment and care, and how countries need to respond to waning donor funding for HI
- East Africa: Community HIV drug distribution improves adherence
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - July 7, 2010
- NAIROBI, 7 July 2010 (PlusNews) - Local East African programmes are discovering the benefits of bringing HIV services closer to rural communities, with mobile drug distribution improving HIV-positive patients adherence to antiretroviral treatment (ART). While there might be health facilities in rural areas, they are no
- Africa: Money no protection from HIV
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - July 6, 2010
- JOHANNESBURG, 6 July 2010 (PlusNews) - A new study has challenged widely held assumptions about income level in relation to HIV, finding that neither wealth nor poverty are reliable predictors of HIV infection in Africa. Previously, the argument that poverty drove HIV epidemics was supported by the World Bank and
- Southern Africa: AIDS activists take funding fight to the pitch
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - July 5, 2010
- JOHANNESBURG, 5 July 2010 (PlusNews) - Janet China Mpalume led Zimbabwe s ARV Swallows to a decisive victory in the Halftime Football Tournament in Johannesburg on 2 July 2010. She wasn t playing for the FIFA World Cup, but for something potentially far more important. As the battle for the World Cup heats up, HIV-posi
- Kenya: Muslim leaders champion HIV testing in marriage
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - July 2, 2010
- MOMBASA, 2 July 2010 (PlusNews) - Binti Omar waits anxiously for her HIV test in a tent erected as part of a testing drive being conducted by the Council of Imams and Preachers of Kenya (CIPK) in the coastal city of Mombasa; Omar is accompanied by her fiance, Abubakar Ismael, and his two wives. I m about to be par
- South Africa: World Cup kicks off camps for kids
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - July 1, 2010
- JOHANNESBURG, 1 July 2010 (PlusNews) - School s out, the FIFA World Cup is on, and HIV/AIDS groups are using the opportunity to bring HIV messages to South Africa s youngest and least privileged soccer supporters. Camp I Am , an initiative by the South African Business Coalition on HIV/AIDS (SABCOHA), an NGO that coord
- Kenya: Targeting men for HIV testing at World Cup games
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - July 1, 2010
- NAIROBI, 1 July 2010 (PlusNews) - James*, a 23-year-old football enthusiast in Kenya s capital, Nairobi, has been playing a dangerous game during this year s FIFA World Cup; some nights at his local pub, he finds a girl cheering for a rival football team and makes a bet with her - if her team loses, she has sex with hi
- Middle East: New HIV report turns up some surprises
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - June 30, 2010
- DUBAI, 30 June 2010 (IRIN) - Statistics on the prevalence of HIV/AIDS in the Middle East are hard to come by but a new study launched on 28 June in the United Arab Emirates has attempted to gather all existing data into one place and add some analysis and action points for policymakers.
- Uganda: Challenging culture in HIV campaigns
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - June 30, 2010
- KAMPALA, 30 June 2010 (PlusNews) - Over a glass of wine in a bar in Kampala, the Ugandan capital, two young women have a heated discussion about Tim*, who is married to their friend Becky*; Tim s side-dish , or mistress, is pregnant and the two women disagree over whether Becky should leave him or not. Becky knew what
- Uganda: Public irritated by yet another condom shortage
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - June 29, 2010
- KAMPALA, 29 June 2010 (PlusNews) - At the Kampala headquarters of an NGO that looks after sex workers, staff members make calls to the government, the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) and various NGOs in search of much-needed free condoms. The clinic where we normally get them has none and UNFPA says they can only give them
- Uganda: Finally ready for male circumcision
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - June 29, 2010
- RAKAI, 29 June 2010 (PlusNews) - The Ugandan government will begin a nationwide male circumcision programme in July as part of its HIV prevention strategy, a senior government official has said. We now have a national vision on how to move forward, and a government policy and communication strategy will be launched in
- Swaziland: Poor health services hamper PMTCT progress
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - June 28, 2010
- MBABANE, 28 June 2010 (PlusNews) - Swaziland has made remarkable progress in reducing HIV transmission from infected mothers to their babies, but health activists worry that this may be stalled or even reversed if lapses in basic health services are not addressed. Since prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT
- In Brief: UN urges Asia to focus on gender in HIV policies
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - June 28, 2010
- BANGKOK, 28 June 2010 (PlusNews) - The UN is urging Asia Pacific governments to step up their efforts to address gender inequalities in HIV response as rates of infection among women in the region continue to rise. Some 1.6 million women are living with HIV in the Asia Pacific region, while 35 percent of all HIV infect
- South Africa: Who's tracking the world's biggest ARV programme?
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - June 25, 2010
- JOHANNESBURG, 25 June 2010 (PlusNews) - The world s largest antiretroviral (ARV) programme may be operating in the dark most of the time, according to a long-awaited review of the HIV/AIDS national strategic plan (NSP) released by the South African National AIDS Council (SANAC). Some of the news is good. SANAC s prelim
- Chad: Sex workers ill-informed about HIV
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - June 25, 2010
- FITINE, 25 June 2010 (IRIN) - One-third of sex workers interviewed in a recent survey by the Chad government thought mosquito bites or sharing a meal could spread HIV. Almost half the workers had been tested, but few had a clear understanding of the disease, with the most misinformation reported in the central and nort
- Lesotho: Hard times delay MDGs
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - June 25, 2010
- JOHANNESBURG, 25 June 2010 (IRIN) - Life is mostly hard in the mountainous kingdom of Lesotho , but the chronic droughts that seem to signal the unfolding impact of climate change are projected to become more severe, and could squeeze cultivable land from an already slim 10 percent to a mere three percent in 25 years.
- Global: New US grant to boost health systems
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - June 24, 2010
- JOHANNESBURG, 24 June 2010 (PlusNews) - The United States has named the first eight recipients of its new Global Health Initiative (GHI) Plus grant, aimed at strengthening health systems in developing countries. Countries including Ethiopia , Kenya and
- South Africa: Hidden toll from TB
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - June 23, 2010
- JOHANNESBURG, 23 June 2010 (PlusNews) - Shocking results from a study involving post-mortem examinations at a hospital in KwaZulu-Natal Province have revealed the extent to which tuberculosis (TB) is taking a toll on the lives of young, HIV-positive South Africans. The study, published in the 22 June issue of the PLoS
- Chad: Stranded in the shallow end
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - June 23, 2010
- FITINÉ, 23 June 2010 (IRIN) - Water levels in Lake Chad have been steadily dropping for decades, causing propellers to snag vegetation and sputter in the shallows, and making it harder for people who live on the islands to reach life-saving healthcare. If I cannot make it off the island on market day, there is little c
- Africa: Straight talk with MSF medical coordinator Dr Eric Goemaere
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - June 22, 2010
- JOHANNESBURG, 22 June 2010 (PlusNews) - Dr Eric Goemaere is the medical coordinator of Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) in South Africa . His career in HIV and AIDS has spanned decades, moving from an era in which antiretroviral (ARV) drugs were beyond the reach of most, to a time where millions are living with HIV and o
- South Africa: HIV infection rate slowing - study
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - June 21, 2010
- JOHANNESBURG, 21 June 2010 (PlusNews) - South Africa s HIV/AIDS epidemic may finally be slowing, according to a new study which found a 35 percent decline in the rate of new HIV infections between 2002 and 2008. Using prevalence data from national HIV surveys conducted in 2002, 2005 and 2008, researchers from South Afr
- South Africa: Study backs nurse-monitored HIV treatment
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - June 18, 2010
- JOHANNESBURG, 18 June 2010 (PlusNews) - A South African study suggests that nurses are able to manage patients on antiretroviral (ARV) therapy as effectively as doctors, supporting the case for task-shifting in HIV treatment. The study, published in the Lancet on 16 June, divided 812 HIV patients into two groups - one
- Africa: AIDS activists slam Obama
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - June 17, 2010
- JOHANNESBURG, 17 June 2010 (PlusNews) - AIDS activists are to march on the US Consulate in Johannesburg on 17 June to protest against the deaths they say will result from President Barack Obama s anti-treatment policies . The US President s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) has been a major source of funds for AI
- Africa: World Cup HIV campaigns
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - June 17, 2010
- NAIROBI, 17 June 2010 (PlusNews) - The 2010 FIFA World Cup is underway in South Africa and HIV/AIDS campaigners are taking advantage of the international focus on Africa to raise awareness about HIV. IRIN/PlusNews lists some of the campaigns running during the month-long tournament from 11 June to 11 July. Give AID
- Tanzania: Party hearty, but beware of HIV
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - June 16, 2010
- MKINGA, 16 June 2010 (PlusNews) - It is six o clock in the evening in the village of Mabukweni, in northeastern Tanzania s Mkinga district, where Mbaruku*, 21, is looking forward to celebrating a friend s wedding at an all night party; he is sure he will meet a girl there to have sex with. For us who are not married, t
- Kenya: "What would happen if my penis refused to heal?" Why men refuse circumcision
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - June 15, 2010
- KISUMU, 15 June 2010 (PlusNews) - The government of Kenya is running an ambitious programme that aims to have all uncircumcised men - an estimated 1.1 million - circumcised by 2013. Most uncircumcised men live in the western province of Nyanza, where so far more than 100,000 have had the procedure, and the drive is see
- Africa: Mother knows best
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - June 15, 2010
- NAIROBI, 15 June 2010 (PlusNews) - One after the other, the women entered the doctor s office full of hope and expectation and left with a sense of doom: their pregnancies were confirmed but so was their HIV status - positive. To them it sounded like a death sentence, for themselves and their unborn babies. No matter h
- East Africa: Pregnancy and HIV vaccine trials
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - June 14, 2010
- NAIROBI, 14 June 2010 (PlusNews) - Unintended pregnancies during East African clinical trials of an HIV vaccine are proving problematic. One or two women dropping out of a study of 40 people makes a big difference to the data, said Prof Omu Anzala, programme director of the Kenya AIDS Vaccine Initiative (KAVI). On
- Kenya: For the first time, money for ARVs
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - June 14, 2010
- NAIROBI, 14 June 2010 (PlusNews) - Kenya has set aside an unprecedented 900 million shillings (US$11.25 million) for the first time in its annual budget to purchase life-prolonging antiretroviral (ARV) medication; AIDS activists have welcomed the move but say more needs to be invested. It is quite commendable that
- South Africa: TB patients not getting HIV counselling
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - June 11, 2010
- DURBAN, 11 June 2010 (PlusNews) - Too many tuberculosis patients are not receiving counselling about the link between TB and HIV, according to new research. A study by South Africa s University of the Free State (USF), involving 600 TB patients, found that about 40 percent had never received HIV counselling, and 75 per
- South Africa: Straight Talk with FIFA's Social Responsibility Head
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - June 10, 2010
- JOHANNESBURG, 10 June 2010 (PlusNews) - South African AIDS organisations have issued a statement lambasting FIFA, the world soccer body, for ignoring their requests to distribute HIV prevention information in stadiums and fan parks during the Soccer World Cup. IRIN/PlusNews sat down with Federico Addiechi, head of FIFA
- Chad: Rethinking HIV testing on the islands
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - June 9, 2010
- LAKE CHAD, 9 June 2010 (IRIN) - Health authorities in Chad are considering how to re-launch HIV testing on the islands of Lake Chad after they were forced to cut short their first attempt in April. The testing was offered without counselling or health education - and ended with rumours and confusion. We need to fi
- Global: Factory closure could leave 7,000 babies without ARVs
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - June 9, 2010
- NAIROBI, 9 June 2010 (PlusNews) - Civil society activists are protesting the closure of a factory that produces the only UN World Health Organization-pre-qualified version of a life-prolonging antiretroviral (ARV) drug for infants. Pharmaceutical giant Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS), which owns the French factory that prod
- Africa: Testing an ARV-containing vaginal ring
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - June 9, 2010
- NAIROBI, 9 June 2010 (PlusNews) - Researchers have begun a clinical trial to test the safety and acceptability of a vaginal ring containing an antiretroviral (ARV) drug to prevent HIV transmission during sex. [Vaginal rings] are designed to provide sustainable protection for a month or longer, said Dr Zeda Rosenberg, c
- South Africa: World Cup poses risks for out-of-school kids
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - June 8, 2010
- JOHANNESBURG, 8 June 2010 (PlusNews) - As South African children look forward to a mid-year school holiday that will last longer than the usual winter break because of the FIFA World Cup, parents and caregivers are faced with the dilemma of how to keep them safe during the five weeks of festivities. The length of the h
- South Africa: World Cup HIV prevention plans fall short
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - June 4, 2010
- JOHANNESBURG, 4 June 2010 (PlusNews) - The excitement over the FIFA World Cup is not just about football, it s also about the party. Large quantities of alcohol are sure to be consumed as foreign football fans rub shoulders with locals, and inhibitions are likely to fall away. The World Cup has long been associated wit
- South Africa: Drug resistance, alcohol and money
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - June 4, 2010
- DURBAN, 4 June 2010 (PlusNews) - A complex mix of issues drives drug-resistant tuberculosis (TB) patients to default on medication, not least of which are alcohol and money, according to new research presented by Medicines Sans Frontiers (MSF), the international medical charity, at the South African TB Conference in th
- Uganda: When do we tell children they are HIV positive?
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - June 3, 2010
- KAMPALA, 3 June 2010 (PlusNews) - A Ugandan draft policy recommending that HIV-positive children be informed of their status by the age of 10 has drawn mixed reactions from health workers. The previous policy required parental consent to tell children under the age of 12, but the new policy allows health workers - with
- South Africa: Activists call for integrated HIV/TB services
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - June 3, 2010
- DURBAN, 3 June 2010 (PlusNews) - A consortium of AIDS organizations has given the South African government three months to deliver on promises to integrate TB and HIV services. A local AIDS lobby group, the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC), international medical charity Medicines Sans Frontiers (MSF), and the AIDS and R
- South Africa: TB response fails children
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - June 2, 2010
- DURBAN, 2 June 2010 (PlusNews) - The fight against tuberculosis (TB) has failed children: the share of paediatric TB is increasing, and children have not escaped the rising tide of drug-resistant strains, according to new research presented at the South African TB Conference. Dr Ntombi Mhlongo-Sigwebela, TB programme d
- South Africa: Sports stars urge men to "do the right thing"
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - June 1, 2010
- JOHANNESBURG, 1 June 2010 (PlusNews) - A team of top South African and international sportsmen will lend their star power to a campaign that promotes HIV prevention, and relegates violence against women and children. South African football players Matthew Booth and Teko Modise, rugby captain John Smit, cricket captain
- Kenya: HIV carries moral stigma - report
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - May 31, 2010
- NAIROBI, 31 May 2010 (PlusNews) - Many Kenyans see HIV as a punishment for immoral behaviour, which tends to perpetuate stigma against people infected with the virus, according to a report by ActionAid International, an anti-poverty agency, and Women fighting AIDS in Kenya, a local NGO. The study, Extent and Impact of
- Africa: Eliminate bottlenecks to end mother-to-child HIV transmission
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - May 28, 2010
- NAIROBI, 28 May 2010 (PlusNews) - Making services for the prevention of mother-to-child HIV transmission (PMTCT) available without addressing the factors that keep mothers from accessing these services was an exercise in futility, experts told a press briefing in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi. There are barriers that sto
- Kenya: Putting HIV-positive people at the centre of prevention
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - May 28, 2010
- NAIROBI, 28 May 2010 (PlusNews) - People living with HIV must take their place at the forefront of HIV prevention efforts in Kenya if they are to be truly successful, senior government officials said at the launch of a set of national guidelines for rolling out Prevention with Positives in the capital, Nairobi. W
- Malawi: Malawi moves to adopt WHO guidelines
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - May 27, 2010
- JOHANNESBURG, 27 May 2010 (PlusNews) - Developing countries like Malawi are calculating the cost of adhering to new World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines that recommend starting HIV-positive people on antiretroviral drugs (ARVs) sooner. Malawi is one of three African countries that have conducted WHO-supported fea
- Africa: New research backs "treatment as prevention"
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - May 27, 2010
- NAIROBI, 27 May 2010 (PlusNews) - Targeting antiretroviral treatment (ART) programmes to prioritize people with low immunity and a high viral load could be an effective HIV prevention strategy, say the authors of a new study published in The Lancet. A study of 3,381 couples in seven African countries found that the ris
- Africa: Lost funding means lost lives
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - May 27, 2010
- JOHANNESBURG, 27 May 2010 (PlusNews) - As donors retreat from funding HIV and AIDS programmes, years of progress in HIV treatment are under threat and the lives of HIV-positive people are increasingly on the line, according to a new report by the international medical charity, Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF). Improved a
- South Africa: Troops reinforcing a porous and dangerous border
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - May 26, 2010
- MUSINA, 26 May 2010 (IRIN) - South African special forces troops have begun a six-month deployment along the troubled border with Zimbabwe , where rape, robbery and other crimes are commonplace, and the flow of desperate migrants continues unabated. This is a battle to stop people coming across the border illegally - i
- Global: PMTCT could be key to cutting child mortality
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - May 25, 2010
- JOHANNESBURG, 25 May 2010 (PlusNews) - Sub-Saharan Africa is struggling to meet the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) of reducing child mortality but with greater access to prevention of mother-to-child HIV transmission (PMTCT) services, some countries are slowly catching up. A new study by the Institute for Health Met
- Global: ARVs for prevention? Proceed with caution, say researchers
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - May 25, 2010
- JOHANNESBURG, 25 May 2010 (PlusNews) - Two new studies have confirmed fears that the use of antiretroviral (ARV) drugs to prevent HIV could lead to drug resistance if inadvertently used by people who were already infected. The findings presented this week at the International Microbicides Conference in Pittsburgh, in t
- Global: Pregnancy increases men's HIV risk
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - May 24, 2010
- JOHANNESBURG, 24 May 2010 (PlusNews) - Findings from a new study reveal that a man s risk of contracting HIV from an infected female partner doubles during pregnancy. Other studies have indicated that women are more susceptible to HIV infection during pregnancy, but this is the first to show that men are also at greate
- Kenya: Counsellors face burnout as national testing drive presses on
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - May 21, 2010
- NAIROBI, 21 May 2010 (PlusNews) - The Kenyan government has won praise for a national door-to-door HIV testing drive that aims to test 80 percent of the population for HIV/AIDS by the end of 2010, but once-enthusiastic counsellors are beginning to show signs of burnout. Weighed down by the heavy counsellor s kit , thou
- Southern Africa: HIV testing and treatment to prevent TB
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - May 19, 2010
- JOHANNESBURG, 19 May 2010 (PlusNews) - Diagnosing HIV early and starting antiretroviral (ARV) treatment could be the most important weapons in the battle against HIV-associated tuberculosis, but this would need a huge injection of resources in southern Africa, where the dual epidemics of TB and HIV claim the most lives
- Kenya: Growing self-esteem at farm schools
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - May 19, 2010
- BURNT FOREST, 19 May 2010 (PlusNews) - Rural Kenyans affected by the post-election violence in 2008 are among thousands of beneficiaries of a programme that aims to improve food security and incomes and reduce women s vulnerability to gender-based violence by teaching better farming techniques. Food insecurity and maln
- Haiti: NGO wins award but "still so much to do"
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - May 19, 2010
- NAIROBI, 19 May 2010 (PlusNews) - When the earthquake hit Port au Prince on 12 January, Bill Pape and the rest of the staff of GHESKIO, the country s largest HIV NGO, were unprepared. We were ready for political instability, hurricanes - the types of crises we were used to seeing in Haiti ; we were certainly not re
- Kenya: Buckling under the financial strain of living with HIV
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - May 17, 2010
- BONDO, 17 May 2010 (PlusNews) - Maria Obonyo walked 70km from her home to the nearest hospital in western Kenya s Bondo District to seek treatment for an uncomfortable rash but could not afford the US$2 for the ointment the doctor recommended. I know I need the drug, but I can t buy it now, Obonyo told IRIN/PlusNews.
- South Africa: Straight talk with South Africa's Health Minister
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - May 14, 2010
- JOHANNESBURG, 14 May 2010 (PlusNews) - Dr Aaron Motsoaledi, appointed South Africa s Health Minister about a year ago, is in charge of the world s largest antiretroviral (ARV) treatment programme. Many AIDS activists credit him with helping to usher in a new approach to HIV and AIDS, including changes to treatment guid
- South Africa: Children's healthcare missing the mark
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - May 13, 2010
- JOHANNESBURG, 13 May 2010 (PlusNews) - South Africa has achieved near universal access to health services for pregnant women and their children, but maternal and infant mortality rates have continued to rise making the chances of reaching the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) on maternal and child health increasingly
- South Africa: Government is first to join major patent pool
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - May 12, 2010
- JOHANNESBURG, 12 May 2010 (PlusNews) - A South African government agency has become the first to join the world s leading patent pool for neglected diseases, a move that could bolster home-grown innovations in the fight against diseases including tuberculosis (TB). The Technology Innovation Agency (TIA), a government b
- Kenya: HPV infection heightens HIV risk in men
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - May 12, 2010
- NAIROBI, 12 May 2010 (PlusNews) - The human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine could be a useful tool in HIV prevention, according to a study, which found that Kenyan men infected with HPV were more likely than uninfected men to contract the HI virus. Within [the study] population of young men at a high risk for HIV acquisit
- Uganda: Minister's turnaround on HIV bill raises concern
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - May 11, 2010
- KAMPALA, 11 May 2010 (PlusNews) - Ugandan AIDS activists have expressed concern over a decision by the Ministry of Health to back an HIV/AIDS bill that would criminalize the deliberate transmission of HIV. Last week, State Minister for Health in charge of General Duties, Richard Nduhura, appeared before the parliamenta
- Global: Grannies gather for AIDS summit
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - May 11, 2010
- MANZINI, 11 May 2010 (PlusNews) - Grandmothers from all over Africa have joined hands with grandmothers in Canada to call for greater support and recognition of their role in caring for grandchildren orphaned by AIDS. We are the backbone of our communities; with our love and commitment we protect and nurture our orphan
- Malawi: PMTCT battles missing drugs, missing moms
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - May 7, 2010
- LILONGWE, 7 May 2010 (PlusNews) - Services to prevent the mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) of HIV are gaining ground in Malawi but the country continues to battle drug shortages and mothers and infants that disappear to follow-up and treatment. In 2005 only three percent of HIV-positive mothers were using PMTCT ser
- Africa: AIDS activists ousted during World Economic Forum
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - May 7, 2010
- NAIROBI, 7 May 2010 (PlusNews) - The Tanzanian government has deported several AIDS activists and cancelled a demonstration to protest decreasing funding for HIV at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in the commercial capital, Dar es Salaam. We met with [South African singer and AIDS activist] Yvonne Chaka Chaka and gave h
- Global: Headaches for HIV-positive travellers
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - May 6, 2010
- NAIROBI, 6 May 2010 (PlusNews) - China recently became the latest country to lift travel restrictions on people living with HIV, following in the footsteps of the United States . Every individual should have equal access to freedom of movement, regardless of HIV status, UNAIDS Exec
- Southern Africa: Same problems, less funding
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - May 4, 2010
- JOHANNESBURG, 4 May 2010 (PlusNews) - Without adequate funding, barriers to HIV treatment are likely to remain unchanged in spite of growing demand, a new report has warned. A new report by the International Treatment Preparedness Coalition (ITPC) looked at national HIV programmes in Malawi and
- Ethiopia: In search of "made-to-measure" HIV prevention
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - May 3, 2010
- ADDIS ABABA, 3 May 2010 (PlusNews) - With more than half of all Ethiopian adults tested for HIV in the past five years and a campaign for behaviour change in place, specialists are now calling for a more targeted approach. Most-at-risk populations (MARPs) have to be targeted through better understanding of how the epid
- Africa: Leaders go public with the test
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - May 3, 2010
- NAIROBI/JOHANNESBURG, 3 May 2010 (PlusNews) - South African President Jacob Zuma recently launched one of the most ambitious voluntary counselling and testing (VCT) campaigns in history by disclosing his HIV-negative status. Ministers and provincial premiers have been following his example, but politicians in Africa ha
- Mortality data reveals HIV treatment progress
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - April 30, 2010
- JOHANNESBURG, 30 April 2010 (PlusNews) - A new study of adult mortality tells the tale of HIV over decades and across borders and how treatment may have helped to rewrite the ending. Published in The Lancet s 30 April early online edition, the study compares adult mortality between 1970 and 2010 in 187 countries. Us
- Zambia: Poor conditions mean double jeopardy for inmates
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - April 29, 2010
- JOHANNESBURG, 29 April 2010 (PlusNews) - Doing time in Zambia s prisons may be a death sentence, regardless of the crime or conviction, as conditions behind bars drive high rates of HIV and tuberculosis (TB) says a new report. The first independent review of correctional facilities by human rights organizations - Unjus
- Ethiopia: Racing to contain MDR-TB
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - April 28, 2010
- ADDIS ABABA, 28 April 2010 (IRIN) - At St Peter TB Specialized Hospital, high in the mountains of Entoto, north of the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, a masked Johannes* is suffering from multi-drug resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) and has spent the last month at the hospital. While the doctors are glad he is receiving
- South Africa: Less sex, more violence for teens
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - April 23, 2010
- JOHANNESBURG, 23 April 2010 (PlusNews) - Schoolchildren in South Africa are having less sex, and those that are, are doing it more safely, the second National Youth Risk Behaviour Survey by the Medical Research Council (MRC) has found. Over 10,000 students in their last three years of high school participated in the su
- Ethiopia: Feeding family unity
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - April 23, 2010
- ADDIS ABABA, 23 April 2010 (PlusNews) - Grandmother Anchilalo Ejigu was distraught when her daughter died from an HIV-related illness two years ago, leaving behind two children under five; the family s other relatives refused to take in the children, so at the age of 50, Anchilalo became a parent all over again. I was
- "I shout; I speak out on issues concerning women living with HIV"
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - April 22, 2010
- HARARE, Evelyn Mashamba is one of Zimbabwe s most outspoken gender and AIDS activists and has being living with HIV for the past 10 years. She told IRIN/PlusNews how being HIV-positive propelled her into the movement to fight for the rights of women living with the virus. I started my work as an activist 2005 in Masvin
- Afghanistan: Drug addiction - a growing burden
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - April 21, 2010
- KABUL, 21 April 2010 (IRIN) - Afghanistan s production of opiates and hashish is increasingly hurting its own people as well as damaging the health of millions across the world, officials and experts warn. Over the past five years the number of drug users has increased from 920,000 to over 1.5 million, the spokesman of
- Cote D'Ivoire: A dollar or less per trick
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - April 21, 2010
- ABIDJAN, 21 April 2010 (PlusNews) - A small group of nervous looking girls hang about in the bustling bus station in Adjamé, a working-class neighbourhood of Abidjan, Cote D Ivoire s commercial hub, carefully watched by their vieux pères - their protectors or pimps - who hold machetes or knives. A trick is often negoti
- Kenya: Bisexual male sex workers run big risks
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - April 20, 2010
- MOMBASA, 20 April 2010 (PlusNews) - At a nightclub in Mombasa, on the Kenyan coast, Tito Bakari* a local man, and Leonard Smithberger, a tourist, make out in a dark corner before the bouncer asks them to leave. Hand in hand they walk to another bar nearby, where they party through the night. My love from
- Global: Are fewer mothers dying?
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - April 16, 2010
- DAKAR, 16 April 2010 (IRIN) - Almost 200,000 fewer women die each year from pregnancy-related complications than previously thought, because new survey methodology and better maternal mortality data mean more accurate mortality estimates, says a global study by the US-based University of Washington. The most recent UN-
- Somalia: HIV education goes to school
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - April 15, 2010
- HARGEISA, 15 April 2010 (PlusNews) - A new programme is targeting about 800 primary and junior high school students in northwestern Somalia s self-declared republic of Somaliland with HIV/AIDS messages for the first time. The children s ages range from seven to 19. Of course, most of them are not sexually active now -
- Zimbabwe: Worrying rise in STIs among young people
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - April 14, 2010
- HARARE, 14 April 2010 (PlusNews) - A new report by Zimbabwe s National AIDS Council (NAC), showing a dramatic rise in sexually transmitted infections (STIs) among people aged 15 to 24 in the capital, Harare, has health experts worried that the country s success in reducing HIV could be unravelling. STIs heighten vulner
- Malawi: Clinics dispel male circumcision myths
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - April 13, 2010
- LILONGWE, 13 April 2010 (PlusNews) - Male circumcision (MC), which can reduce HIV among men by up to 60 percent, is controversial in Malawi and government has yet to implement mass male circumcision. But a chain of private clinics has rolled out the measure with some surprising results. Banja La Mtsogolo (BLM) - Fu
- Yemen: Making health care accessible for refugees in south
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - April 13, 2010
- ADEN, 13 April 2010 (IRIN) - Volunteers at some hospitals in Aden, southern Yemen , have started a new initiative to help African refugees, mainly Somalis, access health care. Omar Abdu, a Somali refugee living in Aden s Basateen area, is one of those who received help from the Health for All Association (HAA) NGO. He
- Rwanda: People with disabilities left out of condom campaign
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - April 9, 2010
- KIGALI, 9 April 2010 (PlusNews) - Rwanda s recent national condom awareness campaign failed to include messages designed for people with disabilities, something experts say is a mistake, as they are often equally at risk of HIV as the rest of the population. The fact that the mass mobilization campaign on condom use di
- Tanzania: Tackling drug abuse in the islands
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - April 9, 2010
- KWAMCHINA-MOMBASA, 9 April 2010 (IRIN) - From the outside, there is little that sets the three-bedroom house apart from its neighbours in this suburb of Stone Town. But inside, the building offers a rare lifeline to two dozen young men from across Zanzibar trying to kick their drug habits. While reliable figures are ha
- Indonesia: Fighting TB stigma
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - April 9, 2010
- JAKARTA, 9 April 2010 (IRIN) - When I was told I had TB, I felt ashamed, Dini Kusumawadini, 28, who makes a living growing ornamental plants, told IRIN. But after undergoing treatment, I wanted to share my experience and motivate people with TB so that they could recover. Dini was diagnosed with tuberculosis two years
- Gift Trapence, "People are targeted because of who they are, not what they are doing"
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - April 7, 2010
- LILONGWE, Gift Trapence is the executive director of the Centre for the Development of People (CEDEP), a human rights organization in Malawi - one of the few working with vulnerable groups like men who have sex with men (MSM), prisoners and sex workers. CEDEP raised money to pay for the legal defence of Steven Monjeza
- DRC: Funding crunch threatens ARV rollout
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - April 7, 2010
- NAIROBI, 7 April 2010 (PlusNews) - With large donor projects winding up and little bilateral support for HIV programmes in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the country is facing the possibility of ARV shortages and rising HIV mortality, say aid workers. The World Bank s Multi-Country HIV/AIDS Programme (MAP) is
- Malawi: Court case drives MSM deeper underground
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - April 6, 2010
- LILONGWE, 6 April 2010 (PlusNews) - An engagement ceremony has landed a same-sex Malawian couple in jail, propelled their country into international headlines, and pushed men who have sex with men (MSM) further towards society s risky margins. Steven Monjeza and Tiwonge Chimbalanga were arrested and charged with sodomy
- Liberia: "It is more scary not to get tested for HIV"
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - April 2, 2010
- MONROVIA, 2 April 2010 (IRIN) - Sexually transmitted diseases are among the top causes of morbidity in Liberia , and more young people are going for counselling and sexual disease tests, but most still fear an HIV test. Teenagers need to persuade each other to get tested for STDs [sexually transmitted diseases] and HIV
- Kenya: "R U OK 2day?" SMS check-up takes off
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - April 1, 2010
- NAIROBI/KAJIADO, 1 April 2010 (PlusNews) - Phoebe Mapelu s job as a community health worker in Kenya s Kajiado District always meant going from door to door - sometimes with long distances between homes - to check up on patients on life-prolonging antiretroviral therapy (ART). In a day, I can visit 15 people. It s hard
- South Africa: Traditional healers extend healthcare
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - April 1, 2010
- DURBAN, 1 April 2010 (PlusNews) - South Africa s traditional healing profession has often been mired in controversy over treating HIV/AIDS, with dodgy traditional remedies promoted as alternatives to antiretroviral (ARV) medication, and some groups of traditional healers being associated with AIDS denialists. But not a
- Kenya: HIV funding begins at home
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - March 31, 2010
- NAIROBI, 31 March 2010 (PlusNews) - Smarting from two consecutive Global Fund rejections and declining donor interest, the Kenyan government is considering ways to fund its own national treatment programme. Apart from the Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria rejecting Kenya s proposals for HIV funding in
- East Africa: One region, one HIV law
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - March 31, 2010
- KIGALI, 31 March 2010 (PlusNews) - As the East African Community (EAC) becomes more integrated, countries in the region are developing a common HIV Prevention and Management Bill that will establish minimum standards for HIV services in the five states - Burundi , Kenya ,
- East Africa: The military as "agents for change"
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - March 30, 2010
- KIGALI, 30 March 2010 (PlusNews) - East African armies should be used as a resource to fight HIV/AIDS in the general population, a workshop on HIV/AIDS in the peace and security sectors heard in the Rwandan capital, Kigali. Persons in uniform are an important part of the overall AIDS response in these countries; they c
- Zimbabwe: Men take a hands-on approach to pregnancy
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - March 30, 2010
- JOHANNESBURG, 30 March 2010 (PlusNews) - Men in rural Zimbabwean are taking a hands-on approach to pregnancy - and to preventing mother-to-child HIV transmission. The UNICEF-sponsored Male Champions programme is working to get men involved in their partners pregnancies in the rural district of Mberengwa, about 300 kilo
- Africa: Antibiotic plus ARVs could halve HIV mortality - study
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - March 29, 2010
- NAIROBI, 29 March 2010 (PlusNews) - A cheap, widely available antibiotic given to patients when they start taking life-prolonging antiretroviral (ARV) drugs could reduce HIV mortality in resource-limited settings by up to 50 percent says a new study published in the scientific journal, The Lancet. We studied patients w
- South Africa: Low HIV prevalence rates on campus
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - March 29, 2010
- JOHANNESBURG, 29 March 2010 (PlusNews) - HIV prevalence rates among South Africa s university students remain low, but risk is never far off according to one of the largest surveys ever conducted in the country. The study of almost 24,000 students and staff found a national HIV prevalence rate among college students of
- Somalia: High-risk truckers still unaware of HIV
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - March 26, 2010
- HARGEISA, 26 March 2010 (PlusNews) - The truck drivers who criss-cross Somalia are considered at high risk of HIV, but incomplete prevention messages mean they are ill-equipped to protect themselves against the virus. The highest risk of disease spreading can come from the drivers who are going from town to town, deep
- Uganda: "Side dishes" campaign gets people talking
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - March 24, 2010
- KAMPALA/NAIROBI, 24 March 2010 (PlusNews) - A national campaign to encourage sexual fidelity in Uganda has achieved something few recent campaigns have ever done - got the country talking. The nine-month-long One Love campaign is in the second of three phases, which uses television and radio ads that feature a young ch
- Kenya: TB clinics boost HIV testing for couples
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - March 24, 2010
- NAIROBI, 24 March 2010 (PlusNews) - The Kenyan government is using national tuberculosis screening programmes to persuade married couples - at high risk of HIV, according to research - to get tested for the virus. About half of all Kenyan TB patients are co-infected with HIV, so HIV testing has become routine in TB cli
- Tanzania: Education crucial to lowering prevalence
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - March 23, 2010
- NAIROBI, 23 March 2010 (PlusNews) - HIV prevalence among Tanzanians who attended secondary school fell sharply between 2004 and 2008, while remaining stable among the country s least educated people, a new study has revealed. National HIV prevalence has fallen recently in Tanzania. However, the improvements have not be
- Swaziland: Taxi drivers get tested
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - March 23, 2010
- MANZINI, 23 March 2010 (PlusNews) - Minibus-taxi drivers are regarded as a necessary evil in Swaziland . Although they provide a much needed service, their dangerous driving, rude and often violent behaviour has given them a bad reputation and made it difficult to reach them with HIV/AIDS services. Their long worki
- Kenya: Gaps in HIV prevention for pregnant women
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - March 22, 2010
- KISUMU/NAIROBI, 22 March 2010 (PlusNews) - Adhiambo*, 24, conscientiously followed her health worker s advice when she was pregnant with her third child. She attended antenatal visits, was tested for HIV and found negative, and delivered her baby at the local health centre. So she was stunned when an HIV test three mon
- Malawi: Ambitious plans to prolong lives
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - March 19, 2010
- LILONGWE, 19 March 2010 (PlusNews) - Malawi s government has set itself a major challenge this year, announcing plans to more than double the number of people receiving antiretroviral (ARV) drugs to half a million by the end of 2010. The country recently adopted new World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines that r
- Kenya: ARV woes push universal access off-track
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - March 18, 2010
- NAIROBI, 18 March 2010 (PlusNews) - Nicodemus Manyala knows he is HIV-positive and needs life-prolonging antiretroviral therapy (ART) to remain healthy, but fear of treatment interruptions has made him reluctant to start on the drugs. Every time you listen to the radio or even read a newspaper, you hear there are no dr
- South Africa: HIV testing and mental illness
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - March 17, 2010
- JOHANNESBURG, 17 March 2010 (PlusNews) - As more HIV-positive people access treatment and live longer, the number of people suffering from HIV-related mental disorders is growing, but mental health remains an ethical, legal and clinical minefield, where many doctors and nurses fear to tread - and fear to test. We re mo
- Kenya: The downside of door-to-door testing
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - March 17, 2010
- TESO, 17 March 2010 (PlusNews) - While the public response to Kenya s national HIV testing drive has been enormous, many women are not keen to be tested, knowing that a positive result could mean the breakdown of their marriages, loss of home and more. Isabella Omoto, who lives in western Kenya s Teso district, was rec
- Africa: Mapping truckers' route to the health centre
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - March 16, 2010
- NAIROBI/DAR ES SALAAM, 16 March 2010 (PlusNews) - New maps pin-pointing the exact location of wellness centres in sub-Saharan Africa are improving truck drivers access to treatment and care for HIV and other sexually transmitted infections (STIs). Oil giant Shell, with risk specialist Maplecroft and the North Star Alli
- South Africa: Between patients and prevention
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - March 15, 2010
- JOHANNESBURG, 15 March 2010 (PlusNews) - New research suggests that the poor knowledge and attitudes of doctors and healthcare workers in South Africa are limiting access to preventative tuberculosis (TB) therapy. The qualitative study by the health research non-profit, the Aurum Institute, found that many doctors and
- Global: Straight talk with Global Fund director Michel Kazatchkine
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - March 12, 2010
- JOHANNESBURG, 12 March 2010 (PlusNews) - The executive director of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, Michel Kazatchkine, sat down with IRIN/PlusNews at the launch of the organization s 2010 report, where he answered some hard questions on what may be a turning point in HIV/AIDS funding. QUESTION:
- Ethiopia: Real-life drama
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - March 12, 2010
- ADDIS ABABA, 12 March 2010 (PlusNews) - On stage in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, Mestihet Temane, 27, enacts the story of how, after the death of her parents, a young woman winds up alone on the streets with no money, no confidence and no support. Sometimes I cry when I m singing and so do a lot of the people li
- Uganda: One doctor for 16,200 refugees
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - March 11, 2010
- KYAKA II REFUGEE CAMP, 11 March 2010 (IRIN) - Inadequate healthcare is just one of many challenges facing the 16,200 refugees in this sprawling camp in western Uganda , which is served by a single doctor. Among those waiting in one of the camp s two health centres when IRIN visited was Mirian, 30, whose child was shive
- Haiti: Risk and treatment amid the rubble
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - March 10, 2010
- JOHANNESBURG, 10 March 2010 (PlusNews) - In the aftermath of Haiti s 7.0 magnitude quake, one of the Caribbean s largest antiretroviral (ARV) programmes is struggling to resurrect itself from the rubble. The Haitian government estimated that 24,000 Haitians were accessing ARVS before the quake, now, fewer than 40 perce
- Kenya: Hungry and HIV-positive in Nairobi's slums
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - March 10, 2010
- NAIROBI, 10 March 2010 (PlusNews) - Violet Tinah, 40, a resident of Korogocho slum in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, is living with HIV and was recently diagnosed with tuberculosis, but her biggest problem today is not disease - but hunger. When I went for the results that informed me that I had TB, I was very hungry; I
- Africa: Funding shortfalls foil new treatment guidelines
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - March 9, 2010
- NAIROBI, 9 March 2010 (PlusNews) - Global funding shortfalls for fighting AIDS could make it impossible for developing countries to implement new World Health Organization treatment guidelines, activists have said. WHO released new guidelines on antiretroviral therapy (ART) in December 2009, raising the CD4 count - a m
- Global: Fund gets results, but will it get funding?
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - March 8, 2010
- JOHANNESBURG, 8 March 2010 (PlusNews) - Achieving targets to eliminate mother-to-child transmission of HIV and halve tuberculosis rates hang in the balance as donor commitments to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria Fund come up for review. For the past seven years, the Geneva-based Global Fund has
- Swaziland: Tackling one crisis at a time does not solve all
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - March 8, 2010
- MBABANE, 8 March 2010 (IRIN) - The myriad crises afflicting Swaziland can only be solved with a holistic approach, not a piecemeal one, the World Food Programme (WFP) deputy executive director, Sheila Sisulu, said during a recent tour of the country. Swaziland, a small landlocked country with a population of about one
- Global: Sniffing out immunity
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - March 5, 2010
- DAKAR, 5 March 2010 (IRIN) - No more needles or special medical training to administer vaccines - that is the hope driving new research in Germany into vaccines that could be sniffed. The c-di-IMP molecule being tested on mice might one day be able to bring down vaccination costs, boost immunity, and be used in nasal v
- South Africa: Delayed drug registrations hard to swallow
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - March 4, 2010
- JOHANNESBURG, 4 March 2010 (PlusNews) - Delays in registering antiretroviral (ARV) medication may keep cheaper, more patient-friendly drugs out of reach as South Africa prepares to launch the world s largest tender for medicines. In a letter to Dr Aaron Motsoaledi, the Minister of Health, the South African HIV Clinicia
- Uganda: Online protest keeps spotlight on anti-gay bill
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - March 2, 2010
- KAMPALA, 2 March 2010 (PlusNews) - More than 450,000 people have signed an online petition urging Uganda s parliament to drop a bill that would impose the death sentence for the crime of aggravated homosexuality - when an HIV-positive person has sex with anyone who is disabled or under the age of 18. Presenting the pet
- Africa: Tracking the male circumcision rollout
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - March 2, 2010
- NAIROBI, 2 March 2010 (PlusNews) - Medical male circumcision is now widely recognized as an important HIV prevention tool, and several African countries have included it in their national HIV strategies. IRIN/PlusNews lists the progress of 13 nations in eastern and southern Africa identified as priority countries for m
- Southern Africa: Preparing for the worst
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - March 1, 2010
- JOHANNESBURG, 1 March 2010 (PlusNews) - When a crisis strikes, access to antiretroviral (ARV) drugs can be among the first casualties, particularly in countries where many people are on treatment. But experience in Southern Africa has shown that although preventing treatment disruptions may be wishful thinking, prepari
- Tanzania: Merging family planning and HIV services
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - March 1, 2010
- DAR ES SALAAM, 1 March 2010 (PlusNews) - A Tanzanian project is integrating family planning and HIV messages via community health workers who teach HIV-positive couples how to avoid unwanted pregnancies or infecting their unborn children. I talk to them and they tell me they are afraid, Margaret Mapunda, a trained comm
- Rwanda: Nurses to help speed up ART rollout
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - February 26, 2010
- KIGALI, 26 February 2010 (PlusNews) - Rwandan nurses will soon be authorized to start HIV-positive patients on life-prolonging antiretroviral treatment (ART), a move Ministry of Health officials say will speed up the rollout of ART in the East African nation. Task-shifting will reduce the number of cases requiring the
- Swaziland: Some women can now own property
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - February 25, 2010
- MBABANE, 25 February 2010 (IRIN) - The High Court of Swaziland ruled on 23 February 2010 that some married women will be allowed to register property in their own name. It has been five years since the new Constitution granted women equal status, after centuries of being classified and treated as minors. Gender act
- Kenya: "Flash blood" puts drug users at risk of HIV
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - February 24, 2010
- MOMBASA, 24 February 2010 (PlusNews) - Amina* and Rajab*, in their mid-twenties, spend most of their days getting high on heroin; when broke, Amina injects herself with Rajab s blood as soon as he has mainlined his heroin, for a second-hand hit. Rajab is the one who first introduced me to the idea of transfusing myself
- Tanzania: Pensioners step in to plug medical gaps
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - February 22, 2010
- DAR ES SALAAM/MOROGORO, 22 February 2010 (PlusNews) - Elias Sempindo, 72, thought he would spend his twilight years doting on his grandchildren; instead, the retired medical officer is back treating patients at a clinic in Morogoro, 190km west of Tanzania s commercial capital, Dar es Salaam. When I first served as a me
- South Africa: New research fuels "test and treat" debate
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - February 22, 2010
- JOHANNESBURG, 22 February 2010 (PlusNews) - New research could bolster arguments for a controversial approach that could eradicate HIV transmission in South Africa within five years, said Dr Brian Williams of the South African Centre for Epidemiological Modelling and Analysis (SACEMA). The test and treat approach
- Africa: Prompt start to ART essential - studies
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - February 19, 2010
- NAIROBI, 19 February 2010 (PlusNews) - Many HIV-positive African patients are starting treatment too late for it to be effective, new scientific studies have shown. Studies from South Africa , Uganda and Zimbabwe presented at the 17th Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections in San Fra
- Zimbabwe: "Small House, Big House" showing soon on TV
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - February 19, 2010
- HARARE, 19 February 2010 (PlusNews) - A new Zimbabwean short film on multiple concurrent sexual partnerships (MCPs) runs for just 24 minutes, but the producers are hoping that its message will last much longer. The film, Big House, Small House is the latest offering from the OneLove Campaign, which works to reduce HIV
- Zambia: Cervical cancer screening saves lives
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - February 18, 2010
- JOHANNESBURG, 18 February 2010 (PlusNews) - Cervical cancer is a leading killer among women living with HIV, but a low-cost screening programme developed in Zambia is proving that simple techniques can go a long way in saving lives. New research presented this week at the 17th Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunist
- Rwanda: New HIV awareness drive targets prisoners
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - February 18, 2010
- KIGALI, 18 February 2010 (PlusNews) - Rwandan health authorities have embarked on a campaign to sensitize the country s prisoners - considered high risk for HIV - on how to protect themselves from contracting and transmitting the virus. We have adopted new measures of sensitizing people in correctional facilities as hi
- Kenya: Condom conundrum puts prisoners at risk
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - February 16, 2010
- NAIROBI, 16 February 2010 (PlusNews) - The Kenya Prisons Service has won praise for its HIV programmes, including education, testing and the provision of anti-retroviral drugs to prisoners, but specialists say unless the issue of unprotected sex is addressed, HIV transmission will continue unchecked. The truth is
- South Africa: New treatment guidelines announced
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - February 16, 2010
- JOHANNESBURG, 16 February 2010 (PlusNews) - New national treatment guidelines are set to make the world s largest antiretroviral (ARV) programme even bigger as South Africa extends treatment to more HIV-positive infants, pregnant women and people battling HIV-tuberculosis (TB) co-infection. Dr Nono Simelela, CEO of
- Rwanda: Condom awareness campaign intensifies
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - February 16, 2010
- KIGALI, 16 February 2010 (PlusNews) - Doreen Uwimana, in her early 20s, carries condoms in her bag even when she goes to classes at a college in an upmarket suburb of the Rwandan capital, Kigali. You never know, she told IRIN/PlusNews. I carry them just in case I find myself in a difficult situation... I don t want to
- South Africa: Zuma leaves many wanting more
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - February 12, 2010
- JOHANESBURG, 12 February 2010 (PlusNews) - As South Africa marked the 20th anniversary of former President Nelson Mandela s release from prison, President Jacob Zuma reaffirmed his government s commitment to the fight against HIV and AIDS, but many activists said his second State of the Nation address on 11 February 20
- South Africa: 4play on the small screen
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - February 11, 2010
- JOHANNESBURG, 11 February 2010 (PlusNews) - A sexy new South African television drama is set to show people that love, life and the risk of HIV does not stop after they turn 30. 4play: sex tips for girls is the latest HIV awareness campaign created by Johns Hopkins Health and Education in South Africa (JHHESA), which r
- Africa: High hopes as new TB vaccine proves effective
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - February 11, 2010
- NAIROBI, 11 February 2010 (PlusNews) - Hope of an effective tuberculosis (TB) vaccine has been boosted by findings from the Tanzanian trial of a new TB vaccine showing that TB infection in HIV-positive patients was reduced by 39 percent. The TB vaccine mycobacterium vaccae was tested in a double-blind, randomised, cont
- Ethiopia: Condom creations grace the catwalk
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - February 9, 2010
- ADDIS ABABA, 9 February 2010 (PlusNews) - The whims of fashion collided with some of life s harsher realities when, during a recent fashion show in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, condoms were the fabric of choice on the catwalk. At the Condom Clothes Fashion Show - held in January and organized by social marketing
- Kenya: Poverty hinders the fight against Nyanza's fishy sex trade
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - February 9, 2010
- KISUMU, 9 February 2010 (PlusNews) - If you were a fishmonger in Kisumu, a city on Lake Victoria in western Kenya , you would have to sleep with the fishermen to get stock to sell so you could make a living. A year ago Lucy Agoya got fed up with the practice and rallied a few women to take a stand against it. So fa
- Ooko* and Pamela* - Snapshot of a jaboya relationship
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - February 9, 2010
- KISUMU, Ooko*, a fisherman in his mid-twenties operating mainly from Kisumu s Dunga beach, and Pamela*, a fish trader about 10 years older, have been in a sexual relationship for two years. He gives her the pick of his catch and she gives him companionship and sexual favours. The practice, known as jaboya , has long be
- Zimbabwe: HIV-positive people want constitutional rights
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - February 4, 2010
- HARARE, 4 February 2010 (PlusNews) - AIDS activists in Zimbabwe have launched a major drive to ensure that the rights of people living with HIV are enshrined in the new constitution. The Global Political Agreement signed in September 2008 between Zimbabwe s various political rivals, which gave rise to the coalition gov
- Sudan: Positive networks fight HIV in the south
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - February 4, 2010
- JUBA, 4 February 2010 (PlusNews) - Networks of people living with HIV in southern Sudan are trying to overcome deficiencies in the limping health system and broken infrastructure by spreading information about the pandemic and reducing stigma and denial. We have come to rely on these networks to do much of the educatio
- Sudan: Universal access still a long way off in the south
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - February 3, 2010
- JUBA, 3 February 2010 (PlusNews) - Southern Sudan s poor infrastructure, largely illiterate population and dearth of health facilities and workers mean that despite five years of peace, HIV programmes are still in their infancy. There are no national-level statistics on HIV prevalence or incidence, further hampering th
- Global: Breakthrough could create better ARVs
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - February 1, 2010
- NAIROBI, 1 February 2010 (PlusNews) - Scientists have finally discovered the structure of a key enzyme found in HIV and similar viruses, a breakthrough that has crucial implications for HIV treatment. Researchers from Imperial College London, in the UK, and Harvard University, in the US, developed a crystal that could
- Cambodia: Drug rehab facilities under fire
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - January 29, 2010
- PHNOM PENH, 29 January 2010 (IRIN) - A report by Human Rights Watch (HRW) released this week describes a climate of sadistic violence in government-run drug rehabilitation centres in Cambodia . The basic approach in these centres is the same and is flawed, Joe Amon, HRW director of health and human rights in New York,
- Sudan: Battling HIV in a post-conflict army
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - January 29, 2010
- JUBA, 29 January 2010 (PlusNews) - The evidence of five years of peace is everywhere in Juba, regional capital of Southern Sudan - in the brisk trade in the city s markets, its packed bars and nightclubs, and in the relaxed gait of the soldiers of the former rebel Sudan People s Liberation Army (SPLA). For the sold
- Kenya: Documenting Sexual Violence
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - January 28, 2010
- Susan Anyangu-Amu
- NAIROBI, Jan 28 (IPS) - The testimonies of women who survived sexual violence during post-election conflict in 2008 should be heard, say advocates. The magnitude of the crimes committed against women because of their gender must be recorded and prosecuted to prevent such violence from occurring again. We have realised
- Sudan: Vulnerable girls risk sexual exploitation on Juba's streets
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - January 28, 2010
- JUBA, 28 January 2010 (PlusNews) - In a large market in Juba, the regional capital of Southern Sudan , young women spend long afternoons lounging on beds in sweltering iron sheet rooms, waiting for men. One girl, no more than 17, wearing a tight tee-shirt with the words I love beer emblazoned on it, points us in the d
- Kenya: Gung-ho grannies learn self-defence
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - January 27, 2010
- NAIROBI, 27 January 2010 (PlusNews) - In a community hall in Korogocho, a slum in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, an instructor takes his students through their paces, but unlike the usual fitness fanatics, today s class is a group of elderly women learning self-defence techniques. I m Worth Defending (IWD), which conduct
- Uganda: Uganda Diaries
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - January 26, 2010
- NAIROBI, 26 January 2010 (IRIN) - Esther Lalam: schoolteacher, HIV counsellor I know how one can manage HIV in adults - it s pretty simple, follow the medical prescription, follow a balanced diet, good sanitation and seek medical care regularly... I tell the schoolchildren never to trade sex for gifts. The children und
- South Africa: Military gets new HIV policy
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - January 26, 2010
- JOHANNESBURG, 26 January 2010 (PlusNews) - The announcement in late 2009 that the government had approved a new HIV/AIDS policy in the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) was widely welcomed by AIDS and human rights lobbyists as long overdue. A November 2009 statement by the SANDF noted that the new policy mad
- Indonesia: Overcrowding fuels TB in prisons
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - January 25, 2010
- JAKARTA, 25 January 2010 (IRIN) - Serious overcrowding, a shortage of medical staff and a lack of funding are thwarting Indonesia s efforts to tackle tuberculosis (TB) in prisons, experts say. Indonesia s 422 prisons hold more than 140,000 inmates, even though they were designed for 80,000, according to the Justice Min
- Zimbabwe: Gov't to double number of people on HIV treatment
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - January 22, 2010
- HARARE, 22 January 2010 (PlusNews) - An ambitious state plan that will almost double the number of people on antiretroviral (ARV) treatment by the end of 2010 has drawn mixed reactions from AIDS activists, but increased donor funding has made the government quietly confident. The Minister of Health and Child Welfare, D
- South Africa: A day in the life of a sex worker
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - January 22, 2010
- JOHANNESBURG, 22 January 2010 (IRIN) - In the street below the brightly lit windows of multinational corporate headquarters and exclusive townhouses in Illovo, an upmarket suburb in Johannesburg, the trees cast dark shadows where some of the most vulnerable young women in South Africa do one of the riskiest jobs in
- Zimbabwe: Raising more money for HIV/AIDS
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - January 21, 2010
- HARARE, 21 January 2010 (PlusNews) - A plan to expand the three percent AIDS levy to include those in the informal sector could have a negative impact on the lives of Zimbabweans, analysts have warned. In July 2009, the consultants carrying out a mid-term review of the Zimbabwe 2006-2010 National HIV and AIDS Strategic
- Kenya: Special tribunal for HIV-related issues
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - January 21, 2010
- NAIROBI, 21 January 2010 (PlusNews) - The Kenyan government has created the first ever tribunal to handle legal issues relating to HIV, including discrimination against people living with HIV and protecting the confidentiality of medical records. The new tribunal, under the office of the Attorney General, has the statu
- Africa: Crackdowns on gays make the closet safer
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - January 19, 2010
- JOHANNESBURG, 19 January 2010 (PlusNews) - More than two-thirds of African countries have laws criminalizing homosexual acts, and despite accounting for a significant percentage of new infections in many countries, men who have sex with men tend to be left out of the HIV response. [They] are going underground; they are
- South Africa: Foreigners fare better on HIV treatment than citizens
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - January 14, 2010
- JOHANNESBURG, 14 January 2010 (PlusNews) - A study finding that foreigners are about half as likely to fail antiretroviral (ARV) treatment as South African citizens attending the same Johannesburg clinic has challenged widely held assumptions about migrants ability to adhere to HIV/AIDS drug regimens. South Africa host
- Uganda: Museveni distances himself from "cruel" anti-gay bill
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - January 14, 2010
- KAMPALA, 14 January 2010 (PlusNews) - Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni has indicated he will not back a bill that would impose the death sentence for the crime of aggravated homosexuality - when an HIV-positive person has sex with anyone who is disabled or under the age of 18. Museveni appears to have bowed to interna
- Kenya: New strategy targets most at-risk populations
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - January 13, 2010
- NAIROBI, 13 January 2010 (PlusNews) - Kenya has launched an ambitious strategy to fight HIV/AIDS that aims to reduce new infections by at least 50 percent over the next four years and focus more on most at-risk populations (MARPs). The third Kenya National AIDS Strategic Plan, which runs from 2009/2010 till 2012/2013 a
- Rwanda: New campaign to boost condom use
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - January 12, 2010
- KIGALI, 12 January 2010 (PlusNews) - A campaign by the Rwandan government aims to significantly increase the use of both male and female condoms in the country, where it is estimated that sexually active people use an average of just three condoms per year. We want to change people s attitudes to the use of condoms, A
- Africa: Task-shifting, new technology crucial to ending mother-to-child transmission
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - January 11, 2010
- NAIROBI, 11 January 2010 (PlusNews) - Unconventional health workers and new technologies will be a vital part of the ongoing effort to virtually eliminate mother-to-child transmission of HIV, says Michel Sidibe, executive director of UNAIDS . We cannot wait for the highest cadre of health professionals to be trained be
- Mozambique: Reaching the handicapped with HIV prevention
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - January 11, 2010
- TETE, 11 January 2010 (PlusNews) - Stefania*, 17, who has been wheelchair-bound since being involved in a traffic accident as a child, likes to go to Celso s, a popular bar in Matundo, a suburb of Tete city in northwestern Mozambique . From her vantage point at Celso s she can see the long line of trucks waiting to cro
- Kenya: The fringe benefits of male circumcision rollout
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - January 6, 2010
- KISUMU, 6 January 2010 (PlusNews) - James Nango discovered he had syphilis when he visited a clinic in his home town of Kisumu, in western Kenya s Nyanza Province, in 2009, hoping to be circumcised as a way of reducing his HIV risk. I used to have an itch on the tip of my penis but I did not know what it was... I thoug
- Zambia: HIV testing services missing the mark
- Integrated Regional Information Networks - January 5, 2010
- LUSAKA, 5 January 2010 (PlusNews) - New research has found that Voluntary Counselling and Testing (VCT) services in Zambia are squandering the opportunity to reach clients with information about how to reduce their HIV risk. The study, conducted by Private Sector Partnerships-One, (PSP-ONE), a USAID project aimed at in
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