House International Relations Committee Chair Henry Hyde (R-Ill.) yesterday introduced a bill to authorize more than $1 billion to fight HIV/AIDS internationally and initiate a $50 million pilot program for AIDS treatment, part of "a comprehensive strategy to combat the global pandemic," the Washington Times reports.
Equity in Health
Hyde Proposes $1 Billion to Fight HIV/AIDS
Learning from local farmers and healers
The World Bank's Indigenous Knowledge for Development Program, the US National Institute of Health and representatives of African traditional healers have agreed to work together on validating herbal treatments of HIV/AIDS-related opportunistic infections. In a seminar hosted by the World Bank's indigenous knowledge program earlier this week, the Tanga AIDS Working Group (TAWG) of Tanzania and the Center for Indigenous Knowledge Systems and Agricultural Byproducts (CIKSAP) of Kenya presented their approaches to healthcare, based on indigenous knowledge.
Pfizer offers free drugs to poor countries
United States pharmaceutical giant Pfizer announced on Wednesday that it would provide unlimited supplies of the drug Diflucan free of charge to treat HIV/AIDS sufferers in 50 of the world's poorest countries. "This is a lifetime of work not just a one-day press release," Dr Henry McKinnell, Chairman and CEO of Pfizer, said at UN headquarters. "We will continue to work with the UN, the WHO and other international organisations on how public/private partnerships like the Diflucan programme can be most effective."
Research Work On HIV Jabs In Grave Jeopardy
Reports that Kenya's controversy-prone Aids vaccine trials recently hit a major snag with the resignation of the leading Kenyan researcher, Dr Ephantus Njagi, raise disturbing questions about the entire vaccine development programme.
The price of women's health: safe motherhood in low-income countries
Every day an estimated 1600 women die world-wide as a result of problems during pregnancy or childbirth. Many of these deaths are preventable. But which safe motherhood interventions are the most cost-effective in resource-poor settings?
2 women speak up for Aids victims
THE death of their loved ones from Aids, and the controversy and alienation that followed, has prompted two unemployed women in Kubusi village near Stutterheim to call upon parents and partners to stop discriminating and rejecting people with Aids.
AIDS Drugs Act Differently on African HIV Strains
Researchers report that genetic variations in the HIV (news - web sites) strains most common in Africa seem to make it harder for drugs called protease inhibitors to fight them. But the results do not mean that the drugs are powerless against these strains of HIV, according to the study's lead author, who noted that other factors are involved in determining the effectiveness of protease inhibitors.
Cholera epidemic slowing down, but not over yet -
KZN health dept
The daily number of new cholera cases continues to drop, and it appears the epidemic is tailing off, the KwaZulu-Natal health department said in a statement on Tuesday. But, it says, the epidemic can only be considered over if there are no new cases reported for 10 days in a row. The total of new cases in the last 24 hours is 231, a low number compared to January 30, which saw 1 010 new cholera infections in the beleaguered province, the highest figure recorded in one day since the outbreak of the disease in mid-August last year.
Mcgreed Refuses to Help Raped Employee
American fast food giant McDonald's has been dubbed "McGreed" in Mpumalanga after refusing to supply anti-Aids drugs to a staff member who was raped after working a late shift. The transnational corporation refuses to supply transport for staff who knock off between midnight and 2am, and who are regularly ambushed by criminals. A 29-year-old waitress who was gang-raped in February is so terrified of going home after work at the McDonald's Nelspruit branch that she spends her nights hiding in the local mall and only leaves after sunrise.
New cholera cases in KwaZulu-Natal
A total of 228 new cholera cases have been
reported in KwaZulu-Natal since Saturday, the provincial health department said on Sunday. No news deaths had been reported. The highest number of new cases had been reported in Lower Umfolozi District with 86, followed by Eshowe with 82. The lowest number of cases were reported on the South Coast and Pietermaritzburg with six each.