Expanding access to HIV testing is critical in the fight against AIDS, but new WHO/UNAIDS guidelines pay only lip service to the conditions that will make testing successful, Human Rights Watch said today. Human Rights Watch was responding to the release of new WHO/UNAIDS guidelines on provider-initiated HIV testing and counseling. The guidelines appropriately rule out mandatory or coercive testing and call for expanded, health facility-based testing in countries with an “enabling environment” in place and with “adequate resources” available for HIV prevention, treatment and care. But Human Rights Watch warned that few of the most affected countries have such resources and environments in place.
Equity and HIV/AIDS
WHO/UNAIDS: Expanded Testing Guidelines should recognise reality
Human Rights Watch, 30 May 2007
ARASA Regional HIV/AIDS and Human Rights Report
ARASA
2006 marks the tenth anniversary of the development of the International Guidelines on HIV/AIDS and Human Rights. To celebrate this occasion, the AIDS and Rights Alliance for Southern Africa (ARASA) has conducted research to evaluate the extent to which the International Guidelines have been used and implemented in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region. This report details the findings of that research. It focuses on the guidelines dealing with: • Structures and partnerships to support a multi-sectoral response; • A protective legal and policy framework; • Access to treatment; and • Access to legal services.
ART alone cannot halt the AIDS epidemic in Africa
id21 Health, October 2006
It has been hoped that antiretroviral therapy (ART) could be used to combat AIDS on a wide-scale in developing countries. However as treatment allows patients to live longer, healthier lives, they are likely to be sexually active for longer. This could allow the disease to spread more rapidly unless communities receive counselling and practise safe sex. ART has been very effective treatment in the developed world. The drugs not only improve health and prolong the life, but patients are also less likely to infect other people because the drugs decrease their viral load. If ART can prevent the transmission of AIDS it could be a useful tool for fighting the AIDS epidemic in Africa. Imperial College London, UK, carried out a study, using mathematical modelling, to determine the effect widespread ART could have in Africa.
Botswana: HIV/AIDS, gender issues get low media coverage
Mmegi/The Reporter, 12 March 2007
A Gender Baseline Study has revealed that gender is not well integrated into HIV/AIDS coverage. Speaking at the launch of the HIV/AIDS and Gender Baseline Study findings and Media Action Plan (MAP) at the Maharaja Conference Centre in Gaborone last week, Communications, Science and Technology minister, Pelonomi Venson-Moitoi, noted that cross generational sex, gender- based violence and gender power relations, which are significant drivers of the epidemic, received less than six percent each of the total coverage while cultural practices received no coverage during the study's monitoring period.
Breast has finally topped bottle-feeding – even for babies born to HIV positive mothers
Cullinan K: Health-e, 2 April 2007
For years, there has been a battle over the best way to protect babies born to HIV positive mothers living in poor areas from getting the virus which has essentially boiled down to a battle between those who advocate breast feeding and those who advocate bottle-feeding with milk formula. As breastmilk can transmit HIV, global policy was weighted in favour of bottle feeding and HIV positive mothers were discouraged from breastfeeding. But a big study from KwaZulu-Natal led by Professors Jerry Coovadia and Nigel Rollins and published on Friday (30 March) seems to have finally settled the debate in favour of the breast. They found that babies who were exclusively breastfed by their HIV positive mothers were at substantially less risk of becoming infected than babies given both breastmilk and formula milk or solids.
Discount price offered for Kaletra/Aluvia - What Abbott must do next
Medicins Sans Frontiers, 11 April 2007
Oxfam and Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) welcome Abbott’s decision to offer developing countries a further 55% reduction of its price for Kaletra/Aluvia, a key HIV medicine. However, Oxfam and MSF will continue to support the Thailand government in maintaining its compulsory licenses as an alternative channel for accessing affordable life-saving medicines. As a next step Abbott should publish a comprehensive list of all countries eligible for the price cut.
Open letter to WHO D-G on Universal Access
Public Health Exchange (PHA), April 2007
This letter adresses the World Health Organisation's Director General's meeting with representatives of the International Treatment Preparedness Coalition (ITPC) in March 2007. The letter, written by various representatives of the ITPC, expresses their concern that the world has lost the momentum of the 3 by 5 campaign and that WHO is on the brink of squandering its legacy of leadership role in the battle to bring universal treatment access to people living with HIV/AIDS. In this letter they outline five reasons for concern, make six specific demands to be met before the end of 2007 and give four commitments that ITPC will fulfill to do their part in this most critical global effort.
Further details: /newsletter/id/32222
Powerful research on the benefits of breastfeeding changes government policy
Cullinan K: Healthe-e, 2 April 2007
Food parcels are finally being offered to HIV positive mothers in KwaZulu Natal who want to exclusively breastfeed their babies as part of a new government policy. In the past, positive mothers were advised to either exclusively formula feed or, in cases where there was no supply of clean water, to exclusively breastfeed to protect their babies from getting HIV. But while free formula milk was dished out, no practical support was offered to those who wanted to breastfeed. The mothers, particularly those who were poor, tended to see the formula milk as an incentive. They then tended to opt to get the formula milk and feed their babies both breast and formula milk – the most risky feeding choice for passing on HIV. An exuberant Professor Nigel Rollins, head of the Centre for Maternal and Child Health at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, said he was “delighted” that government had chosen to help HIV positive breastfeeding women meet their increased nutritional needs (of breastfeeding) by offering six months’ worth of food parcels.
South Africa: Activists welcome ambitious new AIDS plan
Integrated Regional Information Networks (IRIN), 15 March 2007
South Africa's new five-year AIDS battle plan entered the final stage of a lengthy drafting and consultative process. Government officials and representatives from various sectors met in Johannesburg to debate a draft version of the National Strategic HIV and AIDS Plan for 2007 to 2011, with the goal of hammering out a final version by the end of March. South Africa's HIV/AIDS epidemic is one of the worst in the world and continues to grow by an estimated 1,500 new infections a day, according to a report published this week by the Human Sciences Research Council. Government's past efforts to address the problem have been criticised for lacking the necessary urgency.
What the rest of Africa could learn about AIDS
Reaves J: Chicago Tribune, 22 April 2007
The infection rate in Senegal is 0.9 percent; similar to the rate in the U.S. (0.6 percent), and far lower than the soaring tolls in African countries such as Namibia (19.6 percent), South Africa (18.8 percent) and Botswana (24.1 percent). What is Senegal doing right, and can those practices be replicated in other countries?