PRESIDENT Yoweri Museveni of Uganda has called for death penalty for people who knowingly spread HIV. He also called for the outlawing of primitive methods used by the Bagishu and Sebei in eastern Uganda of using knives for circumcision that are likely to spread the virus. Speaking at the commemoration of 25 years since the first case was identified at Kasensero landing site in Rakai District on Friday, the President lauded the parliamentary committee on HIV/AIDS for coming up with the draft Bill.
Equity and HIV/AIDS
Death penalty for knowingly spreading AIDS: Ugandan President
Musoke C: Sunday Vision, 20 March 2008
Global consultation led by people living with HIV on sexual and reproductive health
Global Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS, 14 March 2008
The first global consultation led by people living with HIV to address their sexual and reproductive health (SRH) and rights took place in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 5-7 December 2007. The international group of 65 HIV-positive women, men, young people, and transgender people articulated a vision statement to guide advocacy, policy, legal, programmatic and funding priorities that respect SRH and rights, and that underscores the need for health systems to do the same.
Predictors of mortality in patients initiating antiretroviral therapy in Durban, South Africa
Ojikutu BO, Zheng H, Walensky RP, Lu Z, Losina E, Giddy J and Freedburg KA: South African Medical Journal 98 (3): 204-208
Researchers conducted a retrospective cohort study analysing data on patients who presented to McCord Hospital, Durban, and started ART between 1 January 1999 and 29 February 2004. Univariate and multivariate analysis were performed and Kaplan-Meier curves were created to assess predictors. Simple clinical and laboratory data independently predict mortality and allow for risk stratification in patients initiating ART in South Africa. Interventions enabling patients to be identified before they develop these clinical markers and earlier initiation of ART will help to ensure maximum benefits of therapy.
Reducing Prevalence of HIV: The African and Asian Scenario
Osborne K: RITES Journal 10 (1), January 2008
There are the four pillars that will ensure that Africa and Asia are both able to respond to the challenges of HIV and also apply the painful lessons learned from this epidemic in cultures and societies that may – at first glance – seem so different. These are: Visionary leadership; people-centred policies; innovative evidence-informed programmes and passionate participation.
Report cards detail plans to strengthen HIV prevention strategies in 23 countries
International Planned Parenthood Federation , 2008
Under the Global Coalition on Women and AIDS (GCWA), the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF), together with the United Nations Populations Fund (UNFPA) and Young Positives are developing 23 country Report Cards with the aim to strengthen HIV Prevention strategies for girls and young women. Each Report Card provides a country profile, information on HIV prevention from the legal, policy, service availability and accessibility, rights and participation perspectives and includes quotes and issues raised by young women and girls of the country. They also discuss key social and cultural issues, including the role of men and boys in HIV prevention. These form the basis for a series of recommendations aimed at increasing and improving the programmatic, policy and funding actions taken on HIV prevention for young women and girls, targeting national, regional and international decision makers. Follow- up work from these report cards has also shown that facilitating dialogue between young women and girls and national stakeholders in an open forum, can have a direct and positive influence on both policy and programmes. It also helps to develop the leadership skills of the young women so that they can take their future into their own hands.
Rural women the losers in HIV response
Amnesty International, 18 March 2008
Rural women living with HIV in circumstances of poverty in South Africa face discrimination in relationships and in communities because of their gender, HIV status and economic marginalisation. A new Amnesty International report based on interviews with rural women, the majority of them living with HIV, exposes the overwhelming challenges they face in the midst of the severe HIV epidemic affecting the country. Despite gradual improvements in the government's response to the HIV epidemic and the adoption of a widely-welcomed five-year plan, five and a half million South Africans are HIV-infected – one of the highest numbers in any country in the world. Fifty-five percent of them are women. South African women under 25 are between three and four times more likely to be HIV-infected than men in the same age group.
‘What if they ask how I got it?’ Dilemmas of disclosing parental HIV status and testing children for HIV in Uganda
Rwemisisi J, Wolff B, Coutinho A, Grosskurth H, Whitworth J: Health Policy and Planning 23: 36-42, 2008
Limited research has been conducted outside Western settings on how HIV-positive parents decide to test and disclose their own HIV status to children. This qualitative study was conducted in 2001 and 2005 to assess parent attitudes and current counselling policy and practice regarding child testing and parental disclosure in Uganda prior to the roll-out of antiretroviral therapy. Concerns over disclosure to children of parent's HIV status and testing children for HIV represent a major psychological burden for HIV-positive parents. Further research is reported to be needed, but current counselling practice could be improved now by adapting lessons learned from existing research.
Living with AIDS in Uganda: Impacts on banana-farming households in two districts
Beraho MK: Wageningen Academic Publishers
The research in this book was carried out among banana-farming households in the districts of Masaka and Kabarole in Uganda. A gendered livelihood approach was used. The research focused on the identification of critical factors that need to be taken into consideration in the development of relevant policies for HIV/AIDS-affected agriculture-based households or those that are at risk. The book shows that HIV/AIDS causes significant negative effects on the lives of those affected. Their resources are affected due to HIV/AIDS-related labour loss and asset-eroding effects and disinvestment in production and child education. While in the overwhelming majority of the affected cases the effects of AIDS are negative and lead to increased impoverishment and vulnerability, for some households HIV/AIDS-related effects are manageable. It is concluded that a household's socio-economic status and demographic characteristics influence the magnitude of HIV/AIDS-related impacts experienced and capacity to cope. The book also highlights some historically specific social practices, policies, and ideologies that continue to maintain or reproduce distinct forms of inequality, with certain social groups being marginalized and others being privileged. Unless these are redressed, they will continue to aggravate people's vulnerability regardless of the type of shock that they are exposed to or experience.
Barriers to condom access: Setting an advocacy agenda
Drazin J, Torres MA, Daly K: International Council of AIDS Services Organsiations , 2007
The failure to remove barriers that determine whether a person can access and use a condom is one of the biggest impediments to preventing millions more HIV infections. This advocacy briefing from International Council of AIDS Service Organisations (ICASO) examines some of these barriers and addresses what can be done to overcome them. Information was sourced from a community-led monitoring project in 14 countries undertaken in 2005 and 2006 which collected and analysed data and information on the broad response to HIV and AIDS. The report states that to overcome prominent barriers, governments and donors around the world need to commit new resources and enact and reform legislation, policy and programming that will ensure condom access and availability. It argues that a mobilised community sector that can forcefully advocate for condom access is needed now more than ever.
Family caregivers' perspectives on providing care
Hunter N: School of Development Studies, University of Kwazulu-Natal, Durban, South Africa, 2007
This paper based on findings from the KwaZulu-Natal Income Dynamics Study (KIDS) describes caregivers’ perspectives on providing care for HIV positive family members. The paper focuses on understanding what care provision means to family caregivers and in turn why they provide care. More centrally it highlights various aspects of the experience of providing care and the effects of care on caregivers’ lives. Caregiver’s reported that caring is stressful and physically, emotionally and socially taxing. Moreover, in households in which care takes place there is in most cases a lack of resources to provide appropriate care. Almost all caregivers indicate that they do not always know what to do to provide care. The report recommends increased support for caregivers, namely training in how to provide the highest quality care possible such as delivering palliative care. This should be provided by home-based care organisations and health workers such as community health workers and nurses through home visits.