It is commonly asserted that the sub-Saharan African HIV/AIDS epidemic is predominantly due to heterosexual transmission. However, recent re examination of the available evidence strongly suggests that unsafe health care is the more likely vector. The present report adds to the evidence for health-care transmission by showing that Kenyan women who received prophylactic tetanus toxoid injections during pregnancy are 1.89 times (95% confidence interval [CI]:1.03-3.47) more likely to be HIV-1 seropositive than women who did not receive this vaccination. In contrast, recent sexual behaviour (condom use, number of partners) was not related to HIV status. The results are consistent with health care being a very important vector for HIV in sub-Saharan Africa.
Equity and HIV/AIDS
For an HIV/AIDS breakthrough to happen in Tanzania, a radical approach to tackling HIV/AIDS and its impact is needed, writes Salma Maoulidi, who asks “How can any progress be made in the HIV/AIDS battle if current strategies are superficial and isolated?"
A Zambian nongovernmental organisation (NGO) revealed this week that it records eight cases of rape of young girls every week at its centre in the capital, Lusaka. The statistics were released by the Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA) of Zambia to mark the start of the global campaign, '16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence', which runs from 25 November - International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women - until International Human Rights Day on 10 December.
The chronic shortage of health care workers is recognised as a major bottleneck to scaling up antiretroviral therapy (ART) , and this has the biggest impact in rural areas where the human resource crisis is most acute. There is a need to develop innovative, effective delivery models, particularly for rural areas with weak health systems. This document reports how the HIV/AIDS programme in Lusikisiki, a partnership between Médecins sans Frontières (MSF) and the Department of Health of the Eastern Cape, has managed to achieve universal ART access in one of the most under-resourced and disadvantaged areas of South Africa without compromising on quality.
Much has been achieved in just over a decade of democracy in South Africa by facilitating access of the poor to health and other services. However much more needs to be done if the constitutional rights of citizens to dignity is to become universal. Under the strain of an HIV onslaught the health systems serving the poor are being incredibly strained. Women in poor communities are having to fill the gap through self-devised homedbased care as the public health care system that most South Africans rely on is unable to cope.
The Swiss-based Basel giant pharmmaceutical company, Roche, said that it would supply free-of-charge three companies in Africa, with the technical ability to manufacture generic medicine for HIV, the virus that leads to AIDS. In an announcement on 22 September, Roche added that Aspen Pharmacare in South Africa and Cosmos Limited and Universal Corporation Limited in Kenya will receive the necessary technical expertise. The Basel based firm said another 25 companies from 14 countries, including Ghana, Zimbabwe and Nigeria were interested in the initiative. The agreements are the first in a series of planned technology transfers for sub-Saharan Africa and the world's Least Developed Countries, which were announced in January 2006.
This video clip from the Sixteenth International AIDS Conference held in Toronto in August 2006 shows an AIDS activist living with HIV presenting her views on the UNGASS political declaration. The video clip is found among others presented at that conference session.
What happens when there aren't enough doctors to administer treatments? What happens when patients sell their medications to buy food? What happens when people are afraid to get tested for a disease? The International Development Research Centre (IDRC) working with South African researchers are developing techniques to manage AIDS in resource constrained settings.
Throughout the 1990s, Uganda has successfully controlled its HIV epidemic, with falling prevalence and incidence rates. Recent evidence, however, indicates that this decline may not be continuing. Factors influencing recent epidemiological trends are still unclear, but may include increased risk behaviour, the natural epidemiologic cycle and others. To solidify Uganda’s success, the ongoing efforts in HIV prevention need to be re-emphasised.
The prevention of HIV/AIDS in the Armed Forces is a critical task in Central Africa. Since 2002 the US Department of Defense HIV/AIDS Prevention Program has been providing support through the Johns Hopkins Cameroon Program to assist these countries to improve surveillance and prevention of HIV/AIDS in Cameroon, Chad, Congo Brazzaville, Congo Kinshasa, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and Sao Tome. The study describes interventions whose innovative effort in the Armed Forces in Central Africa is the first integrated HIV/AIDS prevention program in this region and will allow effective implementation of long-term strategies to fight the disease in this population.