The World Bank and International Monetary Fund, both financial organizations that aim to reduce poverty, are preventing foreign aid from reaching HIV/AIDS programs in developing countries, claims an article in this week’s issue of The Lancet. Ted Schrecker of the University of Ottawa and Gorik Ooms of Médecins Sans Frontières in Brussels, write expenditure ceilings for public health, created by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), stop countries from benefiting from outside investment in their health programmes.
Equity and HIV/AIDS
ARV fact sheet: HIV/AIDS and treatment
This International HIV/AIDS Alliance fact sheet provides an introduction to antiretroviral (ARV) treatment for HIV and AIDS. The fact sheet is meant to be used as a participatory tool to support community engagement in ARV treatment. It aims to provide non-governmental and community-based organisation (NGO/CBO) staff with tools and information to support people living with HIV and AIDS (PLHA) and their communities. The fact sheet initially describes HIV and AIDS, including how it is transmitted, initial signs and symptoms and the potential health risks. It then outlines what a person living with HIV needs and details what treatment options are available.
Human Resources for Health and the Global HIV/AIDS Pandemic
While the dearth of health workers is undermining the huge scale up of HIV/AIDS prevention, care, and treatment that Africa needs so desperately, conversely the emphasis on HIV/AIDS services is drawing resources away from other vital health services that are also in short supply, according to testimony by Holly J. Burkhalter of Physicians for Human Rights to the US House International Relations Committee. "For example, at the 970-bed the Lilongwe Central Hospital in Malawi, only 169 nurses were practicing in mid-2004, compared to the 520 nurses whom the hospital was authorized to employ. The hospital's former staff of 38 laboratory technicians had fallen to only six. The nurses and laboratory technicians were moving to HIV/AIDS programs sponsored by NGOs and overseas universities, precipitating a staffing crisis at this major national referral hospital."
Low marks on report card for global HIV/AIDS commitments
Four years after world leaders at the UN General Assembly Special Session (UNGASS) on AIDS pledged to scale up their fight against the disease, many countries are falling short of their targets, a new report has found. Under the Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS of July 2001, UN member governments set time-bound goals for reversing the spread of the pandemic by scaling up treatment, prevention and care in their countries. Much still has to be done before the people directly affected realise the benefits of these commitments.
New thinking needed to counter AIDS in rural communities
The link between HIV/AIDS and hunger in rural communities has received a great deal of attention over the past few years - particularly in Southern Africa, where HIV/AIDS has added a new dimension to the recent food crisis. But research emerging from the recent international conference on 'HIV/AIDS and Food and Nutrition Security' in Durban, South Africa, showed that very little is know about the actual impact of the pandemic on rural communities.
How can the real scale of the HIV/AIDS pandemic be measured?
Since 1997, The Joint United Nations Programme on AIDS (UNAIDS) and the World Health Organisation (WHO) have provided estimates for the number of people living with HIV in different countries every two years. As new methods are developed for calculating existing and future trends in the disease, figures can be startlingly different. How can accurate decisions be made on health spending if policy-makers are unclear about how many people are HIV positive? Researchers review the process, methods and procedures that have been used in the past and current round of estimates of HIV/AIDS burden.
How equitable is the scaling up of HIV service provision in South Africa?
A University of the Western Cape School of Public Health and Health Systems Trust study to assess the extent of inequalities in availability and utilisation of HIV services across South Africa found marked inequalities in service delivery between the three sites sampled. "Compared with two poorer sites, clinics at the urban site had greater availability of HIV services, including voluntary counselling and testing , better uptake of this service and greater distribution of condoms. Extra counsellors had also been employed at the urban site in contrast to the other 2 sites." The study concludes that the process of scaling up of HIV services seems to be accentuating inequalities.
Tenofovir trials to start soon in Botswana - despite controversy
Botswana will soon be embarking on the clinical trials of the anti-AIDS drug, tenofovir, despite concerns over how the tests were conducted in Cameroon, Nigeria and Cambodia. The antiretroviral drug, manufactured by US pharmaceutical company Gilead and sold under the brand name, 'Viread', will be tested as a possible prophylactic to prevent people becoming infected with the HI virus.
Zambia looks to SA for cheap AIDS drugs
Zambian Health Minister Brian Chituwo has lamented India's decision to stop manufacturing cheap anti-AIDS drugs, noting that the medicines were his country's "lifeline" against the HI virus. However, in an interview with the local 'Post' newspaper, Chituwo said Zambia was busy exploring ways of procuring affordable antiretrovirals from South Africa.
Ensuring equitable access to ARV treatment
This joint policy brief from the World Health Organization (WHO) and UNAIDS identifies key actions needed to address the gender dimensions of equity in access to antiretroviral therapy (ART). Gender-based inequalities put women and girls at increased risk of HIV infection. These inequalities also affect women's access to and interaction with health services, including HIV prevention and AIDS care. The brief argues that to address these inequalities in HIV treatment, care and prevention, it is essential to consider the different needs and constraints of women and men in different settings.