The United Nations held a two-day conference in Johannesburg, South Africa, in November to discuss the relationship between Africa's severe food shortages and the HIV/AIDS pandemic, Xinhua News Agency reports. More than 50 people, including U.N. delegates and representatives from local and international non-governmental agencies, were scheduled to meet at the conference.
Equity in Health
CONFERENCE DISCUSSES POVERTY AND AIDS
IRIN WEBSPECIAL ON WORLD AIDS DAY
AIDS threatens our very raison d'etre; our ability to live and our instinct to create life. Little wonder, therefore, that HIV and AIDS are so feared. As the articles in this IRIN World AIDS Day web special(http://www.irinnews.org/webspecials/aids/) illustrates, fear is at the heart of much of the stigma and discrimination that surrounds HIV and AIDS: fear of death, fear of the unknown, fear of rejection, and, as Eric Nachibanga, an HIV-positive Zambian points out, "fear of helplessness".
MALAWI: HIV/AIDS project reaches out to prisoners
HIV/AIDS education and prevention campaigns often ignore prisoners but a project in Malawi is reaching out to educate them about the disease and treat those with sexually transmitted infections (STIs). Malawi prisons are considered fertile grounds for transmission of HIV/AIDS and yet little has been done to prevent the spread of the virus or treat patients already infected, Walker Jiyani, programme director for the Health in Prisons (HIP) project, told PlusNews.
Further details: /newsletter/id/29447
MOZAMBIQUE: Living positively
People living with HIV/AIDS (PWAs) in Mozambique are learning how to live longer and more productive lives under a new programme currently being rolled out in the country. The Vida Positiva/Positive Living programme is a "social education" project targeting those infected and affected by the disease, national coordinator for Vida Positiva, Nyeleti Mondlane, told PlusNews.
Further details: /newsletter/id/29448
mozambique: msf launches arv pilot plan
Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) plans to launch a five-year pilot programme in collaboration with the Mozambican government to provide free antiretrovirals (ARVs) to a selected group of HIV-positive people in the northern province of Tete and in the capital, Maputo. The programme, to be introduced before the end of December, would begin with 350 people in Maputo and 350 in Tete during the first year, and gradually increase to 1,500 people by the end of the second year. The MSF programme follows an announcement last month that an Indian manufacturing company, approved by the UN's World Health Organisation, would begin supplying Mozambican pharmacies with cheap generic ARVs.
Further details: /newsletter/id/29438
Rich Nations Not Doing Much to Help On Aids
Rich nations have done little to help fight HIV-AIDS, the United Nations's top adviser on AIDS in Africa says. Stephen Lewis, the UN Secretary General's Special Envoy for HIV-AIDS in Africa, said the rich nations were "not serious" when it came to contributions towards the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria.
Roche slammed for failing on aids drug price slash
The nongovernmental organisation Medecins Sans Frontieres has criticized Swiss drug maker Roche Holding for not "liv[ing] up to its promise" to reduce the price of its antiretroviral drugs for developing nations, the Wall Street Journal reports. The organisation said that of the five major drug makers that have announced plans to cut their prices of antiretroviral drugs in developing nations, Roche is the "lone holdout" in failing to follow through.
south africa: tac threatens civil disobedience campaign
The Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) will start a campaign of non-violent civil disobedience if Government has not adopted an HIV/AIDS treatment plan, that includes antiretroviral therapy in the public sector, by the end of February 2003. In a document circulated on the Internet, the TAC said it had initially planned the campaign for December, but had been told that government needed until February to implement a national treatment plan, leading to the decision to postpone the disobedience campaign until February.
Further details: /newsletter/id/29458
E.U. Officials Unveil Plan to Regulate Shipping of Discounted AIDS drugs
European Union officials have unveiled a plan to ensure that discounted antiretroviral drugs and other medicines earmarked for developing nations are not diverted back to wealthier nations to be sold at higher prices, the AP/Wall Street Journal reports. Under the proposal, pharmaceutical companies would have the option of registering and placing logos on shipments of discounted drugs slated for developing countries. The different packaging would help distinguish the cheaper drugs from higher-priced medicines destined for pharmacies in wealthier nations.
global fund needs billions more
After an initial burst of high-profile donations and pledges, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB, and Malaria is now running low on funds necessary to finance programmes against the epidemics which kill an estimated 16 000 people per day. A board meeting said the fund would need an additional US$2 billion next year, and an additional $4.6 billion in 2004 as a result of the growing capacity of countries to absorb the resources and expand effective programmes.