"We have the goal: universal access to prevention, care,treatment and support by 2010. We have the means: the United Nations review session on HIV/AIDS in June declared that the drugs and the resources exist. Do we have the will? The 16th International Conference on AIDS in Toronto, August 13–18, was a testing ground and the jury is very definitely still out. The Toronto conference was the largest and perhaps the best publicized of its kind. It had significant African, HIV-positive and youth participation, but remained predominantly Northern (and North American), professional and male. It needed much more extensive representation from countries facing growing threats in Eastern Europe, Central, Eastern and Southern Asia."
Equity and HIV/AIDS
Beyond Toronto: Prospects for universal access to HIV/AIDS care
Foster JW: The North-South Institute 2006 Winter Review, January 2007
End to HIV/AIDS a tall order in face of violence
Mulama J: Inter Press Service News Agency, 24 January 2007
The issue of violence exacerbating the spread of HIV/AIDS, particularly in women, has remained a hot one at the World Social Forum (WSF). From Africa to Asia, activists are reiterating that violence against women remains a threat to the HIV/AIDS fight, and that without governments addressing the matter, winning the war against the disease will be an uphill task.
Inequalities between woman and men drive the HIV/AIDS pandemic
Willan S: The North-South Institute 2006 Winter Review, 2007
It is the inequalities between women and men that are driving the global HIV/AIDS pandemic and in turn this pandemic is exacerbating existing gender inequalities. However, it is the women of Africa who are particularly vulnerable and bearing the burden of this pandemic. As Stephen Lewis, UN Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa, so often illustrates, HIV/AIDS in Africa has a female face, and this female face will be eradicated from Africa if we do not respond adequately. As a direct result of these gender inequalities, women and girls are the most vulnerable to infection — 57 per cent of persons who are HIV positive in sub-Saharan Africa are female, according to the AIDS Epidemic Update 2005 — and at the same time it is women and girls who carry the burden of caring for the sick and dying.
Madagascar: The future At stake
Integrated Regional Information Network, 26 January 2007
The island nation of Madagascar, off the coast of Southern Africa, has so far been spared an HIV/AIDS epidemic, unlike its continental neighbours, but health officials have warned that the country cannot afford to be complacent. The next decade presents a window of opportunity; a chance for the government to take action to prevent HIV prevalence from climbing. Madagascar's National Committee for the Fight Against AIDS (CNLS) has estimated that the country rate in 2005 was 0.95 percent, considerably lower than other countries in the region, where rates hover around 20 percent.
More children with HIV but more getting treatment
Sandrasagra M: Inter Press Service News Agency, 17 January 2007
Worldwide some 15.2 million children under 18 have lost one or both parents to AIDS. By 2010, more than 20 million children will have been orphaned by AIDS. The figures reflect the ‘tragically insufficient’ global response to protect and support HIV-infected and AIDS-affected children. However, this is set to change according to a report by UNICEF, the UN children’s agency.
Zambia: Shielding children from their HIV status does more harm than good
Integrated Regional Information Network, 25 January 2007
Zambia's attempts to promote paediatric antiretroviral (ARV) drug adherence are being undermined by families and communities who shield children in their care from knowing their HIV/AIDS status, health experts say. "Disclosing their status to an HIV-positive child is a difficult process and it requires specialised skills in paediatric counselling but, unfortunately, many affected communities and families are lacking such counsellors and skills," Canisius Banda, a spokesperson in the Zambian Ministry of Health told IRIN.
Angola: Enthusiastic caregivers and silent sufferers
The Integrated Regional Information Networks (IRIN), 13 December 2006
Fear of stigmatisation in Angola is keeping people living with HIV/AIDS in hiding. Caregivers are more than willing to help but are having a hard time finding patients to take care of. "People prefer to keep silent and to die in silence," Ambrósio Cabral, coordinator of Angola's Red Cross HIV/AIDS programme, told IRIN/PlusNews.
Awareness raising on HIV/AIDS and human rights
SAHRiNGON and Arasa, 28 July 2006
This draft meeting report is the result of a resolution taken by the AIDS and Rights Alliance for Southern Africa (ARASA). ARASA was tasked with drawing up a code that is similar to the SADC code on HIV and Employment, but focussed specifically on gender related issues within the Aids epidemic.
Changes in sexual behaviours to prevent HIV
de Irala J, Alonso A: Lancet 368 (9549), 1749-1750, 18-24 November 2006
This article refers to that by John Cleland and Mohamed Ali in the same issue of the Lancet. The authors offer interesting results on behaviours about HIV sexual transmission in women from different African countries. Cleland and Ali use information from all countries in sub-Saharan Africa that have had two or more Demographic and Health Surveys since 1990 to estimate behaviour trends.Their study is valuable for epidemiologists and public-health practitioners, and has important strengths.
Dealing with HIV and AIDS: Solutions in ordinary people's actions
id21 insights 64, November 2006
Twenty-five years of knowingly living with HIV, the global community is still falling behind the virus in its alarming, complex and often hidden progress. Despite many diverse and creative successes in committed peoples' responses and many lessons drawn along the way, few have been widely adopted. Civil society groups have often led the way. A passionate - sometimes desperate - drive to respond to HIV and AIDS, and their own diversity unites them. This issue of id21 insights features examples of such real-life responses and asks: how can we move forward to catch up with the virus?