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.
Equity and HIV/AIDS
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.
Being an orphan is tough enough at the best of times, but in the working class district of Dagoretti Corner in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, it often means going without food as well as love. Felista Kibe tries to make sure that doesn't happen. She and a handful of volunteers have been providing food and comfort to children orphaned by AIDS in Dagoretti since 1996. Eighty kids depend on her for a daily meal, 30 of whom are HIV positive, but when word gets out that a donation has been received as many as 200 children can show up.
In Mozambique's Machava Central Prison, the largest jail in the country, sex between prisoners is an unavoidable reality, but little is being done to prevent it, according to inmates and medical staff. Overcrowding, violence and high-risk behaviour, such as sharing drug-use equipment and unprotected sex increase risk of HIV transmission in prisons. Lack of information on HIV and AIDS and inadequate health facilities also contribute to the spread of the disease. This article explores the limits to prevention activities such as condom distribution given the taboo on homosexuality in Mozambique.
The traditional role of care giving and support provided to orphans by paternal and maternal grandparents, uncles and aunts is slowly being eroded. More and more households are becoming nuclear family centred. Challenges facing Orphans and Vulnerable Children (OVC) include serious shortages of housing and exposure to abuse (including ill-treatment and sexual abuse). This study collected information on conditions of OVC in Kweneng West and Serowe/Palapye districts, Botswana, and the services in place that cater for OVC needs.
HIV/AIDS is sweeping through parts of South Africa's east-coast province of KwaZulu-Natal, where researchers are finding alarming HIV prevalence levels among women. 'The study might be considered somewhat biased, as only women were tested, but the figures do suggest a worrying upward trend which could be part of a bigger problem,' Medical Research Council (MRC) researcher Professor Gita Ramjee told PlusNews.
Data collected by the Tanzania Media Women Association (TAMWA) shows a strong correlation between HIV infection and early school exit, teenage marriage and pregnancy. Tanzanian law is reported in this report to allow girls aged as young as 15 to get married with parental consent.
Rural road construction in Tanzania is opening new markets and providing greater economic opportunities, but can also increase the risk of HIV transmission. "When roads and bridges are built they link low- and high-prevalence areas, such as villages where risk is lower and cities where the prevalence is higher," said a new report by the Tanzania Civil Engineering Contractors Association (TACECA) and the African Medical and Research Foundation (AMREF).