The Zambian government has instituted criteria to determine which of the country's 200,000 HIV/AIDS patients will have access to free antiretroviral drug treatment, Xinhua News Agency reports. Under the new guidelines, HIV-positive people wishing to access the drugs must undergo voluntary HIV testing and counselling as well as a clinical test to determine their viral load.
Equity in Health
zambian GOVERNMENT IMPLEMENTS CRITERIA FOR DISTRIBUTION OF FREE ARV'S
zimbabwean AIDS PREVALENCE NOT DOWN, SAY EXPERTS
Figures released by the government last week showing a drop in the number of Zimbabweans infected by HIV/AIDS were only a correction of flawed estimates from previous surveys and did not mean the prevalence of the disease was declining in the country, HIV/AIDS experts said.
Aid agency to tackle disease in the developing world
The quest for drugs to fight the world's most neglected tropical infectious diseases gained fresh momentum with the formal launch of the "drugs for neglected diseases" initiative this week. Médecins Sans Frontières has teamed up with five international public organisations to promote affordable and effective drugs against leishmaniasis, human African trypanosomiasis, and Chagas' disease, among other infections that affect millions of people across Asia, Africa, and Latin America.
Aids protest poised to resume in South Africa
Aids activists are angry about the government's indecision over providing anti-Aids drugs and look set to resume their civil disobedience campaign. A final decision about returning to civil disobedience could be made at the Treatment Action Campaign's (TAC) national congress, which is to be held in Durban within the next two weeks. Provincial meetings ahead of the congress have already voted overwhelmingly in favour of a return to the disobedience campaign, which was suspended in April after a meeting between TAC representatives and Deputy President Jacob Zuma.
Applying an equity lens to child health and mortality: more of the same is not enough
Gaps in child mortality between rich and poor countries are unacceptably wide and in some areas are becoming wider, as are the gaps between wealthy and poor children within most countries. Poor children are more likely than their better-off peers to be exposed to health risks, and they have less resistance to disease because of undernutrition and other hazards typical in poor communities. Regular monitoring of inequities and use of the resulting information for education, advocacy, and increased accountability among the general public and decision makers is urgently needed, but will not be sufficient. Equity must be a priority in the design of child survival interventions and delivery strategies, and mechanisms to ensure accountability at national and international levels must be developed.
creative routes used to supply arv's
Not-for-profit groups and some individuals are using "creative routes" to provide antiretroviral drugs to HIV-positive people in developing countries, the New York Times reports. Some organisations channel unused medications from U.S. patients who have changed medications, taken a break from treatment or died to patients in developing countries, and other organisations purchase low-cost generic versions of the drugs in other countries and import them, sometimes illegally, into neighbouring countries.
Data collection an effective weapon in anti-HIV/AIDS arsenal in Swaziland
A new information gathering programme will soon provide an essential database of medical and other humanitarian needs in the agricultural heart of Swaziland to fill gaps in the national records and bring much needed insight into how to best counter the spread of HIV/AIDS.
Frustration over delay in namibian drug roll-out
Frustration is mounting among activists over the Namibian government's delay in providing anti-AIDS drugs to its HIV-positive citizens. The government announced in April this year that it had budgeted US $10.9 million for the purchase of antiretroviral (ARV) drugs for HIV-positive people. But while the health ministry has on numerous occasions indicated their intention to provide treatment, this had not been translated into action, activists told PlusNews.
GLOBAL AIDS FUND FACES SERIOUS SHORTFALL
The cash-strapped Global Fund to fight HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis (TB) and Malaria fell under the spotlight in July, when ministers from 14 countries met in Paris, France, to address the fund's financial woes. The fund, which has committed US $1.5 billion to programmes in 92 countries in the last 18 months, faces a lack of money for proposals waiting to be funded in October.
HIV/AIDS FUNDING STILL FALLS SHORT OF PROJECTED NEED, UNAIDS REPORT SAYS
Governments, international organisations, foundations and nongovernmental organisations in 2003 will spend an estimated $4.7 billion to address the AIDS epidemic in low- and middle-income countries, but that amount is less than half of the more than $10.5 billion that will be needed each year by 2005 to fight the epidemic in those countries, according to a new UNAIDS report.