Some HIV-positive people in Kenya are selling their antiretroviral drugs to buy food. Some people register at more than one treatment site so they can obtain extra drugs, which they then sell, Patricia Asero, a member of the Kenya Treatment Access Movement, said. She added that some HIV-positive people who get their antiretroviral drugs from a single treatment site sometimes sell their medications to buy food. These trends have raised concerns about drug-resistant strains of the virus developing in Kenya.
Equity and HIV/AIDS
HIV-Positive people in Kenya selling antiretroviral drugs to buy food
Inter Press Service, 7 June 2006
Parliamentary oversight, HIV and AIDS
IDASA, February 2006
From 22–24 February 2006 MPs from Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Zambia, Tanzania and Zimbabwe met in Johannesburg and deliberations at the meeting centred around three major themes related to parliamentary oversight of HIV and AIDS: the challenges and opportunities relating to the parliamentary structures and the environment within which MPs operate; the extra parliamentary partnerships that could strengthen parliamentary oversight of HIV and AIDS such as partnerships with civil society and the media; and the benefits of and practical suggestions for a network of African MPs at regional and Pan African level. These themes are discussed in this report.
UN taking stock of AIDS
Deef T: Third World Network, 13 June 2006
International organisations working on AIDS gave their assessment of the worldwide response to the disease, which is increasingly afflicting women and girls. This happened in advance of a UN special session on AIDS that took place on May 31-June 2. Despite the failures so far, there were important lessons that could be learnt.
2006 comprehensive review and high-level meeting on HIV/AIDS: New York, 31 May–2 June 2006
HIV/AIDS UNGASS review 3
The first draft of the political declaration was released on April 26, and is based on the outcomes of the regional consultations on Scaling Up for Universal Access. Amongst other important strengths, the draft declaration has quite a strong focus on women and girls, committing governments to increase women’s and girls’ capacity to protect themselves from the risk of HIV infection, to take measures that will promote women’s empowerment and to protect and promote women’s human rights. The text also calls for stronger policy and program linkages between sexual and reproductive health and HIV and AIDS.
A plague of inequality
Mail and Guardian, 19 May 2006: Marais H
The mainstays of South Africa’s efforts to fend off the impact of the HIV/AIDS epidemic are anti-retroviral (ARV) therapy provision and home based care. While vitally important, each in current form also expresses the kinds of prevailing inequalities that warp society. Today, of the estimated one million South Africans in need of ARVs, only about 200 000 are receiving such therapy -- half of them through the private health sector, which is accessible to a small minority of South Africans. This crisis demands nothing less than a new strategy (and struggle)for realising social rights.
Abuja AIDS Summit - promises, promises?
IRIN PlusNews
African leaders meeting at a special summit on HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria, in the Nigerian capital, Abuja, threw down a challenge to their governments by setting bold new targets to be achieved by 2010. At the end of the gathering to review progress in implementing the 2001 Abuja Declaration on AIDS, TB and Malaria, a major resolution was passed, declaring that at least 80 percent of those in need, especially women and children, should have access to HIV/AIDS treatment, including antiretroviral (ARV) drugs, care and support. Civil society organisations welcomed the ambitious continental targets, but it remains to be seen whether these will be met, particularly when considering how little progress has been made in implementing goals set in 2001. Of particular concern is that leaders reiterated their commitment to devote 15 percent of their national budgets to improving the health sector, while the African Union (AU) found that Nigeria, Burundi and Ethiopia scored worst in this respect, having set aside only four, three and two percent of their annual budgets respectively for health. Only a third of African countries spend 10 percent of their budget or more on health. African countries also pledged that at least 80 percent of pregnant women would have access to medication for preventing mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) by 2010, and at least 80 percent of target populations would have access to voluntary testing and counselling services.
African Civil Society position paper on HIV and AIDS in Africa: Moving to action
World AIDS Campaign, 1 May 2006
Civil society groups from across African met in Abuja, Nigeria on April 10 to 12 2006 to develop a consolidated position for use during the review processes of the Abuja Declaration and Framework Plan for action, and the United Nations General Assembly Special Session on AIDS (UNGASS) Declaration of Commitment (DoC), and to chart a way forward regarding access for all people requiring information and services related to HIV prevention, care, support and treatment. This statement reflects the outcomes of these deliberations, as well as the sentiments of the undersigned African Civil Society Organisations.
Antenatal HIV testing in rural eastern Uganda in 2003: Incomplete rollout of the prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV programme?
BMC International Health and Human Rights 6(6), 3 May 2006: Karamagi CAS , Tumwine JK, Tylleskar T and Heggenhougen KH
Uganda began to implement the prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) of HIV programme in 2000, and by the end of 2003 it had expanded to cover 38 of 56 districts including Mbale District. However, reports from Mbale Hospital showed that less than 10% of pregnant women accepted antenatal HIV testing. We therefore conducted a study to determine the proportion of pregnant women who tested for HIV and the gaps and barriers in PMTCT implementation.
Breaking the ties that bind us: A call for action against women’s vulnerability to HIV/AIDS
People\'s Health Movement, 20 May 2006
There are 17.5 million women living with HIV in the world, a majority of them in developing countries. Over 13 million women are living with HIV in sub-Saharan Africa, and almost two million in South and South East Asia. This article explains the people's health movement's positions on why action needs to be taken now.
Children who live in communities affected by AIDS
The Lancet 367 (9511), 25 February 2006: Foster G
This short article examines the impacts that HIV and AIDS in a community has on children living in that community. The author reviews the different impacts that these situations have on children. The author also discusses Article 26 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), in the context of children indirectly affected by HIV and AIDS, which states that children have a right to benefit from state-provided social security. Registration required (free).