India, Ethiopia, Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa each have at least 2 million adults suffering from AIDS or infected with the HIV virus, according to a new UN statistical analysis released on Thursday.
Equity in Health
AIDS Strikes Five Nations Hardest: UN Study
AIDS-drug cocktail to be given to poor South Africans
The French humanitarian group Medicines Sans Frontieres (MSF) has launched an independently run and financed programme in Khayelitsha township outside Cape Town, South Africa, that provides a small group of impoverished people with AIDS access to a cocktail of three antiretroviral drugs. The programme will assess the feasibility of providing the therapy in a poor township from primary health-care centers run by local government. "Given the heatedpolitical context, we will be monitoring the project carefully," said Toby Kasper, coordinator of MSF's Access to Essential Medicines Campaign.
Disease May Cause Zero Population Growth In Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe could face zero population growth next year due to the rising death rate caused by HIV/AIDS, state television reported Saturday."It is hitting us where it hurts most," said Health Minister Timothy Stamps, noting that AIDS is killing the country's skilled and productive youth. According to Stamps, 100,000 people died of AIDS last year in Zimbabwe. Official statistics put the weekly AIDS death toll at 2,000 in Zimbabwe, where one-fourth of the population is infected with HIV.
Fund to focus on Aids prevention
A proposed new multi-billion dollar global fund for health will concentrate on Aids prevention rather than the mass purchase of expensive anti-retroviral drugs, a United Nations conference in Geneva concluded on Monday. The proposed fund is likely to be formally launched later this month at a UN conference on Aids in New York or at the Group of Eight meeting in Genoa in July. Kofi Annan, the UN secretary-general, has said the fund needs $7bn-$10bn, but it seems likely to raise only around $1bn this year, with the US pledging $200m.
Glaxo Offers AIDS Drugs to More Countries
GlaxoSmithKline Plc (GSK.L) said on Monday it was extending its offer of cheap AIDS drugs to a total of 63 countries, following pressure from activists and charity groups. The medicines will be offered at the cost of production to governments, aid agencies and churches in all Least Developed Countries (LDCs) and any country in sub-Saharan Africa.
Hyde Proposes $1 Billion to Fight HIV/AIDS
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.
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?