South Africa's new five-year AIDS battle plan entered the final stage of a lengthy drafting and consultative process. Government officials and representatives from various sectors met in Johannesburg to debate a draft version of the National Strategic HIV and AIDS Plan for 2007 to 2011, with the goal of hammering out a final version by the end of March. South Africa's HIV/AIDS epidemic is one of the worst in the world and continues to grow by an estimated 1,500 new infections a day, according to a report published this week by the Human Sciences Research Council. Government's past efforts to address the problem have been criticised for lacking the necessary urgency.
Equity and HIV/AIDS
South Africa: Activists welcome ambitious new AIDS plan
Integrated Regional Information Networks (IRIN), 15 March 2007
What the rest of Africa could learn about AIDS
Reaves J: Chicago Tribune, 22 April 2007
The infection rate in Senegal is 0.9 percent; similar to the rate in the U.S. (0.6 percent), and far lower than the soaring tolls in African countries such as Namibia (19.6 percent), South Africa (18.8 percent) and Botswana (24.1 percent). What is Senegal doing right, and can those practices be replicated in other countries?
Children and AIDS: A stocktaking report
UNAIDS, Unicef, World Health Organization (WHO): January 2007
This report seeks to identify discernible trends through the measurement of new and existing data against a baseline used here for the first time in the areas of preventing mother-to-child transmission of HIV, providing paediatric treatment, preventing infection among adolescents and young people, and protecting and supporting children affected by HIV/AIDS – the ‘Four Ps’. Further, this report reviews progress towards support strategies identified as critical elements of a child-focused response. It seeks to illuminate some of the ways in which Unite for Children, Unite against AIDS has shown relevance and promise, as well as some of the ways it has failed to spur the global, regional and country mobilization required to address the problems facing children affected by AIDS. It will explore how Unite for Children, Unite against AIDS needs to move forward in the next year to achieve its ambitious goals.
Why not ‘front-load’ ODA for HIV/AIDS?
Serieux J, McKinley T: UNDP, February 2007
Global funds available to combat HIV/AIDS are estimated to reach about US$ 9 billion in 2007. Although this amount will be only about half of what is needed, it is, nevertheless, substantial. Used effectively, such donor financing could help stem the pandemic’s spread and mitigate its effects. In fact, disbursing the balance of such financing early on - ‘front-loading’ it - should be a priority. But there is considerable resistance to doing so. Why is this the case?
Exploring equity and inclusion in the responses to AIDS
Loewenson R: AIDS Care 19 (S1): 2-11, 2007
The HIV and AIDS epidemic feeds on, and worsens, unacceptable situations of poverty, gender inequity, social insecurity, limited access to healthcare and education, war, debt and macroeconomic and social instability. This paper introduces a series of eight papers from a programme of work reported in this supplement of AIDS Care with an analysis of background evidence of community responses to HIV and AIDS. It explores how interventions from state institutions and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) support and interact with these household, family and community responses. Through review of literature, this background paper sets out the questions that the studies reported in this supplement have, in various settings, sought to explore more deeply.
HIV program fails to decrease incidence of HIV-1 in Zimbabwe
Gregson S, Adamson S, Papaya S, et al: PLoS Medicine; 2 (5), e147, 27 March 2007
A trial in Zimbabwe has shown that a programme of integrated peer education, condom distribution, and management of sexually transmitted infections did not reduce the overall incidence of HIV-1. The study, published in PLoS Medicine, by Simon Gregson and colleagues from Imperial College London, randomised different communities in eastern Zimbabwe over a 3 year period. Six pairs of communities in Eastern Zimbabwe were compared, each of which had its own health center. Control communities received the standard government services for preventing HIV. According to the author, the results are disappointing given the urgent need for control measures for HIV-1 in sub-Saharan Africa. The authors conclude that they “emphasise the need for alternative strategies of behaviour change promotion.”
Human rights and AIDS organisations condemn rise of HIV denialism and quack cures in Zambia
Clayton M, Gonsalves G: AIDS and Rights Alliance for Southern Africa (ARASA), 7 March 2007
The AIDS and Rights Alliance for Southern Africa (ARASA), a partnership of human rights and HIV/AIDS organisations in the 14 countries of Southern Africa, denounced American charlatan, Boyd E. Graves, for peddling false AIDS cures in Zamiba, where his claims to be able to treat HIV infection are creating mass confusion across the country among people living with HIV/AIDS. "We are hearing reports from our partner organisations that people are stopping their AIDS medications now that they are being led to falsely believe that a cure for AIDS has been found," said Michaela Clayton, the Director of ARASA. The article claims that in fact, the Treatment Advocacy and Literacy Campaign in Zamiba is reporting that individuals are being told by agents of Mr Graves to stop taking their antiretroviral drugs, stop using condoms and stop immunizing their children against infectious diseases.
Learning from diverse contexts: Equity and inclusion in the responses to AIDS
Loewenson R: AIDS Care 19 (S1): 83-90, 2007
This paper situates the findings of the diverse studies reported in this journal supplement in a global context that both fuels the epidemic through inequality and poverty and also provides new opportunities for global commitments, solidarity and resources. The studies in this issue signal that, while information and awareness about HIV and AIDS is now high, there is still poor access to services for people to know their own risk and a deeper need to address the asymmetries of power and access to resources that influence the control people have over their sexual relationships and lives.
Namibia: Partners working hard to maintain treatment success
Integrated Regional Information Networks, 12 March 2007
Namibia is hailed as one of the front-runners in AIDS treatment rollout, yet there is growing fear that this success might be short-lived if services do not reach rural communities. The government has increased the number of sites offering antiretroviral (ARV) treatment from seven three years ago to 34 at present, but most of the clinics were set up in the densely populated northern regions, far from people living on farms and in rural villages.
Tanzania: Rising TB cases linked to HIV/AIDS
Integrated Regional Information Networks, 22 March 2007
The number of tuberculosis cases in Tanzania has risen from 39,000 a decade ago to 64,200 in 2005, a trend blamed on high HIV/AIDS prevalence, the Health Minister, David Mwakyusa, said on Thursday. "Research conducted in many parts of the country by the Ministry of Health between 2003 and 2004 established that HIV/AIDS contributes to increased TB cases by about 60 percent," the minister said.