This new website from the John Hopkins Centre for Communication Programmes is an update and expansion of the Condoms CD-ROM first published in 1999 by JHU/CCP's POPLINE Digital Services. The website has ideas on designing condom promotion campaigns and putting together condom counselling information. You will also find calendars, flipcharts, kits and manuals, novelties, pamphlets, posters, research abstracts, and audio-visual materials from around the world.
Useful Resources
Condoms website
International HIV/AIDS Alliance
The International HIV/AIDS Alliance is an international development non-governmental organisation which was established to respond to the need for a specialist, professional intermediary organisation which would work in effective partnership with non-governmental and community-based organisations in developing countries, as well as with governments, donors and the UN system. The Alliance's mission is to support communities in developing countries to play a full and effective role in the global response to AIDS. In some countries the Alliance supports linking organisations, in others the Alliance supports field partners. The Alliance currently has three field offices: in India, Ukraine and Zambia. The secretariat is based at Queensberry House, 104-106 Queens Road, Brighton BN1 3XF, United Kingdom, and the Alliance website has a number of useful links, updates and publications.
Contact: mail@aidsalliance.org
Internet and CD-ROM-based Minicourses on HIV/AIDS and Sexually Transmitted Infections
EngenderHealth, a nonprofit agency working to improve women's health worldwide, today (9 April, 2002) released two online minicourses to support the international network of family planning and sexual and reproductive health providers in their efforts to prevent the transmission of HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted infections (STIs). The two new courses, entitled Sexually Transmitted Infections and HIV and AIDS, are part of EngenderHealth's Web-based series Topics in Reproductive Health (the first course in the series, Sexuality and Sexual Health, was released last fall). They will provide health care providers, especially those in resource-poor settings, with knowledge and strategies for addressing HIV/AIDS and STI prevention, management, and counseling with their clients. Developed by EngenderHealth through a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the courses are now available online or on CD-ROM. For more information, contact Carrie Svingen, EngenderHealth, NY, at 212-561-8538 or by email.
Contact: csvingen@engenderhealth.org
New JECH online submission and review system
The Editors of the Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health are pleased to inform authors and reviewers of its new online submission and review system. Bench>Press is a fully integrated electronic system which uses the internet to allow rapid and efficient submission of manuscripts, as well as the entire peer review process to be conducted online. Authors can submit their manuscript in any standard word processing software. Graphic formats acceptable are: .jpg, .tiff, .gif, and eps. Text and graphic files are automatically converted to PDF for ease of distribution and reviewing purposes. Authors are asked to approve their submission before it formally enters the reviewing process. Full instructions can be found on Bench>Press, and JECH Online. Please contact Natalie Davies, Project Manager, for further information.
Further details: /newsletter/id/29108
Contact: ndavies@bmjgroup.com
New MASSIVE EFFORT CAMPAIGN website launched
The first phase of the new MASSIVE EFFORT CAMPAIGN website was recently launched. The site will soon be featuring: 1) World reports, photos and interviews from World TB Day activities around the world. 2) Opportunities to lobby decision makers about the importance of controlling TB. 3) A means to involve others in a global campaign against AIDS, TB, malaria
and other diseases of poverty. 4) Background on the new global campaign to mobilise society against diseases that keep people in poverty.
OSISA's ICT Program subsidises access to Electronic Journals for southern Africa
The Open Society Institute (OSI) teamed with EBSCO Publishing to launch the Electronic Information For Libraries Direct (EIFL Direct) project in october of 1993. With funding from the Soros Foundation, EIFL Direct provided a variety of the world's finest full text and bibliographic databases to Public and Academic libraries in 39 participating countries, including 10 countries in Southern Africa. But funding for continuation of this project was not made available for several Southern African countries in 2001. Recently, however, OSISA (Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa)'s ICT Program has provided the necessary funding to once again allow these libraries to enjoy access to these large collections. Moreover, the number of developing nations now accessing these databases is even larger than the original group that participated in EIFL Direct. For further details and enquiries on how your NGO can access Electronic journals, do contact Colleen Mills at EBSCO.
Further details: /newsletter/id/29112
Contact: colmills@ebsco.com
The Alliance of Mayors and Municipal Leaders on HIV/AIDS in Africa (AMICAALL) website launched
The Alliance of Mayors and Municipal Leaders on HIV/AIDS in Africa (AMICAALL) website was launched this month to facilitate information dissemination and the sharing of experiences. The website is available in French and English. It includes information on AMICAALL strategy, the UN/AMICAALL Partnership Programme, country activities, Alliance contacts, documents and publications. For more information, please contact Milica Tomasevic.
Further details: /newsletter/id/29144
Contact: milica.tomasevic@undp.org
The South African Health Review 2001
The South African Health Review 2001 was launched on the 26th of March 2002. It consists of 17 Chapters dealing with various aspects of the Health Care System. Also, the section on Health Indicators has been updated and is also available for searching purposes.
Further details: /newsletter/id/29107
HIV/AIDS: WHO Publishes First List of Recommended Drugs
Access to HIV/AIDS Drugs and Diagnostics of Acceptable Quality Pilot. Procurement Quality and Sourcing Project. Suppliers whose HIV-related medicines have been found acceptable, in principle, for procurement by UN agencies.
How do consumers search for and appraise health information on the world wide web?
Qualitative study using focus groups, usability tests, and in-depth interviews
Gunther Eysenbach, senior researcher, Christian Köhler, researcher, Unit for Cybermedicine and eHealth, Department of Clinical Social Medicine, University of Heidelberg, Germany BMJ 2002;324:573-577 ( 9 March, 2002 ) Little is known about how consumers retrieve and assess health information on the world wide web. Some surveys have elicited data by using semistructured questionnaires or focus groups, but little (if any) unobtrusive observational research has been done to explore how consumers are actually surfing the web. Although several criteria for quality of health websites have been proposed, including disclosure of site owners, authors, and update cycle little or nothing is known about whether and to what degree such markers are recognised or even looked at by consumers or what other credibility markers consumers are looking for. The authors aimed to obtain qualitative and semiquantitative data to generate some hypotheses on how consumers might search for and appraise health information.