The life expectancy of Africans is set to reach one of its lowest levels ever, it was revealed on Monday. By the year 2005, most Africans will die before they reach their 48th birthday, the fourth general assembly of the African Population Commission (APC) heard.
Equity in Health
AFRICA: Life expectancy set to reach lowest levels ever
Could chloroquine have the answer? Malaria drug combats HIV
Researchers at the University of Turin have found that chloroquine and the related compound hydroxychloroquine appear to curb the HI virus in laboratory settings. Dr Andrea Savarino and his team say that chloroquine affects the production of the envelope around the virus. This means that although the virus may be able to hijack human cells to produce fresh viral genetic material, without the envelope it cannot complete the reproduction cycle.
SOUTH AFRICA: AIDS village causes "more harm than good" - NAPWA
The opening of South Africa's first "AIDS village" on Thursday was not what people living with HIV/AIDS needed, and would cause "more harm than good", the spokesperson for the National Association of PWAs (NAPWA) told PlusNews on Friday.
South Africa: Majority of Sex Workers in Gold Mining Community are HIV Positive
Health education programmes and free condom distribution have not stopped South African commercial sex workers from having unprotected sex. A study conducted by the London School of Economics found that 69% of local commercial sex workers (CSWs) in the South African gold mining community of Carletonville are HIV-positive.
South Africa: Mandela attacks Mbeki's Aids policy
Nelson Mandela is wading into the increasingly bitter dispute over the South African government's Aids policies by meeting the ruling African National Congress leadership to press for an end to prevarication over a catastrophe he likened to a war.
South Africa: Mbeki's State of the Nation address barely touches the country's HIV/AIDS
What was hoped to be key in President Thabo Mbeki changing the face of his government's stance on HIV/AIDS was a dismal disappointment. Though Mbeki acknowledged the fact that HIV/AIDS is a problem in South Africa, he still insisted that his government would not change its policy on administering antiretroviral drugs to reduce mother to child transmission of HIV/AIDS. Mbeki's speech came a day after his predecessor Mandela had rebuked the Mbeki administration's HIV policy.
South Africa: Virgin Myth Worries ANC Committee
An African National Congress-dominated (ANC-dominated) parliamentary committee has noted that 25% of young people believe child rape cures AIDS, and urgently called for anti-AIDS drugs to be used to prevent HIV infection by rape.
SWAZILAND: Focus on social impact of AIDS
"Panic breeding" is the inelegant term given to a response by some Swazis to an AIDS epidemic that is decimating the population of the small Southern Africa kingdom. The impulse to make-up for AIDS deaths by having more babies is exacerbating both the health crisis and the kingdom's ongoing problem with overpopulation.
Testimony to Senate on 'Halting the Global Spread of HIV/AIDS
Peter Piot, UNAIDS Executive Director
The AIDS epidemic is different from any other epidemic the world has faced, and as such, requires a response from the global community that is broader and deeper than has ever before been mobilized against a disease. Twenty years since the world first became aware of AIDS three things have become clear: that humanity is facing the most devastating epidemic in human history, the impact of which threatens development and prosperity in major regions of the world; that for all the devastation it has already caused, the AIDS epidemic is still in its early stages; and that we are in a position to bring the epidemic under control.
Woman-focused HIV prevention product may be ready 2007
A woman-focused method to prevent HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted infections can be available by 2007, according to a series of reports by the Rockefeller Foundation-funded Initia- tive on Microbicides. "We have the science and the road map, now we need the political will to fund this effort," said Geeta Rao Gupta, President of the International Center for Research on Women (ICRW), one of several groups participating in the Initiative.