Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) has been hardest hit by the AIDS pandemic. As the tragedy unfolds, there is growing evidence that HIV affects fertility and may influence fertility change across the sub-region. But what are the mechanisms underlying these changes and how should data be used to calculate more accurately the effect of HIV on fertility?
Equity in Health
Biology or behaviour? HIV reduces the fertility of African women
Epidemic May Lead To 40% GNP Drop In Some States
The global HIV/AIDS pandemic could cause gross national product in some hard-hit countries to shrink by 40% over the next 20 years, according to a report launched yesterday in New York by the UN Development Program. That development setback would jeopardize goals set at last year's UN Millennium Summit, including halving poverty by 2015.
HIV Test Kits to Be Given On Priority Basis
The high prevalence of HIV/AIDS in Zambia combined with the inconsistent and sometimes limited availability of HIV test kits has prompted the Churches Medical Association of Zambia (CMAZ) to recommend to its member institutions an HIV prioritisation scheme.
Living With AIDS - Mabeye's Story
The United Nations says Senegal leads Africa in combating AIDS on the continent and is one of only three nations worldwide to successfully contain the pandemic. AllAfrica.com's Ofeibea Quist-Arcton, focuses on Senegal with a series of special reports on the country's battle against HIV/AIDS.
Mango tree investigators fight sleeping sickness
Thousands of people in Sub Saharan Africa are dying and being damaged by a disease thought banished 30 years ago. Now in the war-scarred lands of the Democratic Republic of Congo, health workers are fighting back and hoping the outbreak of peace in the human war will let them do more.
Oral sex and sexually transmitted infections:
know about the risks!
For many years it has been known that unprotected oral sex carries a risk, albeit relatively small, of HIV transmission. Recent work in the USA and in the UK has suggested that this risk may contribute to 3-8% of HIV infections among men who have sex with men.
Reproducing national trends? Maasai fertility in Kenya and Tanzania
Do the fertility rates of the Maasai of Kenya and Tanzania reflect the national levels in those countries? Or is there an independent "Maasai fertility regime"? Research at the London School of Economics has examined fertility among the Maasai and compared it with national trends.
SA: Unions demand Aids drugs for civil servants
Civil service unions are demanding action from the government in what they term as a "life threatening crisis" by making anti-retroviral drugs available to civil servants who have contracted HIV/Aids as a result of their work.
TANZANIA: President confident of halting spread of HIV/AIDS
President Benjamin Mkapa of Tanzania, where two million people are infected with the HIV virus, has said he is confident the country should be able to reverse the spread of the disease in the next five years, given the current level of nationwide mobilisation against the epidemic. "We are now at a stage of all-round mobilisation that will result in the total reversal of the trend in the next five years," the UNDP quoted Mkapa as saying at a press conference in New York to coincide with the UN General Assembly's special session on HIV/AIDS.
Further details: /newsletter/id/28700
Timing of First Intercourse
Implications for Contraceptive Use
By Mouhamadou Gueye, Sarah Castle and Mamadou Kani Konaté
The social and economic context in which Malian adolescents begin sexual activity is different from that experienced by previous generations. Little is known about the forces that currently shape adolescents' sexuality and affect their reproductive health.