Useful Resources

20 years of AIDS:
CNN special week of programming

In June 5, 1981, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published a notice on page two of its Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report about a strange outbreak of killer pneumonia striking homosexual men. From that obscure beginning, AIDS grew into the public health disaster of our time, a global phenomenon that has tested social, cultural, religious and scientific beliefs. Twenty years later -- with expensive drug therapies but no cure or vaccine in sight -- AIDS continues to spread rapidly, especially in sub-Saharan Africa. Many researchers warn that the worst is yet to come.

Leprosy - learning from success

This document draws together the experiences of seven countries that have successfully eliminated leprosy as a public health problem, often under
extremely challenging conditions. A hard copy is available via email.

The Center for Disease Control
20 years of AIDS

The Center for Disease Control's National Center for HIV, STD and TB Prevention has developed a Web site to assist organisations and individuals wishing to mark 5 June as the 20th commemoration of AIDS. The site includes significant articles, streaming Web videos, a 20-year timeline and other significant information.

World Health Assembly, 2001

The World Health Assembly met in Geneva from 14 to 22 May. The Assembly charts the global course for the WHO and its 191 Member States in dealing with major public health threats. This year's event featured an address by the UN Secretary-General, Mr. Kofi Annan.

First international conference on access to HIV generic drugs

The conference was held in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso 3-7 May. Conference documentation is now available on-line.

HIV/AIDS and Rural Development: what can we do?

The Sector Network Rural Development (SNRD) is comprised of representatives from different GTZ-supported rural development projects in
Sub-Saharan Africa. At an SNRD annual meeting held in Mombasa in January 2000, participants agreed to form a working group (WG) on HIV/AIDS and its impact on rural development. The purpose of this WG is to further investigate the links between HIV/AIDS and rural development, with a view to making recommendations on how rural development projects can integrate the fight against HIV/AIDS in their range of activities. The focus should be both on reducing the spread of the epidemic, and, as far as possible, its negative impacts. The WG on HIV/AIDS decided to organise a workshop which brought together experiences on the integration of the subject of HIV/AIDS in RD activities, not only in GTZ supported projects, but also in projects supported by other multi-lateral and bilateral organisations, and in similar activities implemented by NGOs and government agencies. This workshop, titled "HIV/AIDS and Rural Development: what can we do?", took place in Harare, Zimbabwe, from 02 to 05 April, 2001. The Executive Summary (12 pages, Adobe PDF format, 62 kb) of the
workshop is available for downloading from the AFRO-NETS server.

Nature debate: Future e-access to the primary literature

The topic of this Nature forum — the impact of the Web on the publishing of the results of original research — has, since the emergence of the Internet, filled volumes in the reports of conference proceedings and reams of individual articles. The main aim of this forum is to bring some of the substance of this Brownian motion of Internet issues to a broader grassroots audience and debate the implications for the future dissemination of scientific information. We have invited leading representatives of the main groups of stakeholders and observers from the mainstream Internet industries to express their views in 1,000-word articles. We hope to help identify some of the best opportunities offered by the Internet, and explore what the best public and private strategies might be, in economic and other terms, to ensure that science reaps the most benefits.

New Journals from Nature

The Nature Publishing Group is pleased to announce the launch of three new review journals: Nature Reviews Immunology and Nature Reviews Cancer will launch in October 2001 and Nature Reviews Drug Discovery in January 2002 - ensuring that you receive high quality overviews whatever your discipline.

Reference guide to anti-retrovirals

Medscape HIV/AIDS has posted a new overview of prescribing information, drug-drug interactions, and resistance data.

The Global Directory of Health Information Resource Centres

This is the first edition of the largest global listing of health information resource centres, with data pertaining to about 1,000 centres. The focus is on their missions and objectives, with particular reference to their attitudes to technology, and their capabilities and requirements. You may consult or download the entire Directory at the site, or just pick out letters of the alphabet to select countries that are of interest. The Directory is an ongoing work, and will be updated. We aim to refine the data, and invite all readers to suggest improvements and provide better information. There are questionnaires available on the site in English, French, Russian, Spanish, Swahili.

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