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Newsletter Development | HIV/AIDS

South Africa: Serious About Fighting HIV And Aids
AllAfrica | HIV & STD 12 03 2010

Nigeria: HIV/Aids Test - Lawmakers Say It's Necessary for Long Life
AllAfrica | HIV & STD 12 03 2010

Papua New Guinea launch of the Commission on AIDS in the Pacific
UNAIDS | Feature stories 12 03 2010

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AllAfrica | HIV & STD

AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.

South Africa: Serious About Fighting HIV And Aids
12 03 2010 Increased measures aimed at reducing HIV transmission from mother to child by 2015 have been put in place throughout Sub-Saharan Africa and with bold and life changing policies set to come into effect in South Africa as of April this year, this target might very well be within reach.

Nigeria: HIV/Aids Test - Lawmakers Say It's Necessary for Long Life
12 03 2010 Their response seem to imply that their lives and survival depended on it. But unlike what obtains presently in Nigeria, members of the Lagos State House of Assembly surprisingly demonstrated the imperative of subjecting themselves to an HIV/AIDS test instead of shying away from it as many are wont.

Uganda: WHO Approves Luzira HIV Drug Factory
11 03 2010 The World Health Organisation (WHO) has finally approved the antiretroviral drugs manufactured in Kampala by Quality Chemicals Industries, a local pharmaceutical giant.

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Kaisernetwork | HIV/AIDS

Online resource for timely and in-depth coverage of health policy news, debates and discussions.

Legislation Needed To Boost HIV/AIDS Efforts in Solomon Islands, Health Official Says
09 03 2010 Isaac Muliloa -- national coordinator of the HIV and sexually transmitted infections unit at the Solomon Islands' Ministry of Health -- recently said that a lack of national HIV/AIDS laws is hindering efforts to address the disease, the Solomon Times reports. Recent World Health Organization estimates said that the number of HIV cases in the Solomon Islands could reach 350 by 2010.

Muliloa said that legislation is needed to address continued discrimination against HIV-positive employees in the workplace. He added that the HIV/AIDS and STI unit is relatively new in the health ministry, as is the Solomon Islands' National AIDS Council. According to Muliloa, officials are continuing to work toward implementing policies. The Times reports that the Solomon Islands does not have laws in place criminalizing the intentional transmission of HIV (Solomon Times, 5/27).

HIV Prevention Efforts in Five African Countries Not Reaching At-Risk Groups, Report Says
09 03 2010 National HIV prevention strategies in at least five African countries are not reaching the groups most at risk of infection, according to a report from UNAIDS and the World Bank conducted in conjunction with the national HIV/AIDS authorities of Kenya, Lesotho, Mozambique, Swaziland and Uganda, IRIN/PlusNews reports. The study was conducted between 2007 and 2008 to determine how and where most HIV cases were occurring in each country. It also aimed to examine whether prevention programs and spending aligned with those findings.

According to the report, most prevention initiatives are not based on evidence of the behaviors that spread HIV in the five surveyed countries. For example, most new infections in Lesotho occur because of concurrent sexual partnerships, both before and after marriage. However, the country does not have any prevention strategies aimed at concurrent partnerships, or couples who are married or in long-term relationships.

In addition, the report found that in Mozambique, an estimated 19% of new HIV infections were spread through commercial sex work, 3% from injection drug use and 5% among men who have sex with men. According to the report, few programs in the country target sex workers, while none are tailored to IDUs or MSM.

According to the report, spending on HIV prevention often is low in the surveyed countries. Lesotho spends 13% of its national HIV/AIDS budget on prevention, while Uganda spends 34%. Director of the World Bank's Global HIV/AIDS Unit Debrework Zewdie said that the economic downturn makes it important to maximize the impact of HIV prevention investments. "These syntheses use the growing amounts of data and information available to better understand each country's epidemic and response and identify how prevention might be more effective," she said.

The report includes recommendations on how the surveyed countries can better implement evidence-based prevention efforts. It said that Lesotho should revise its prevention messages to address multiple concurrent partnerships and integrate the subject into future initiatives. In addition, Mozambique should focus condom promotion on groups such as sex workers, the report said. According to IRIN/PlusNews, the five-country program aims to enhance capacity to ensure that the countries can conduct similar studies in the future (IRIN/PlusNews, 5/27).

The report is available online.

Researchers Plan To Target Immune Cells Responsible for Eluding Antiretroviral Treatment
09 03 2010 Certain human immune cells known as macrophages are composed of hybrid HIV strains that elude treatment and antiretroviral drugs, according to a new study by researchers from the University of Florida and other institutions, the Gainesville Sun reports.

For the study, researchers examined tissue from HIV-positive people and discovered that as much as half of the macrophages present were hybrids, made from genetic material from several HIV viruses that when combined formed new HIV strains. Marco Salemi -- assistant professor of pathology, immunology and laboratory medicine at the University of Florida's College of Medicine -- said that macrophages likely make HIV more aggressive over time, adding, "If we want to eradicate HIV, we need to find a way to actually target the virus specifically infecting the macrophages."

According to the Sun, current research and treatment target T-cells, and although antiretrovirals are effective at blocking infection from new cells and lowering viral loads, they are unable to reduce the viral level in an HIV-positive person to zero. The Sun notes that macrophages can be targeted by HIV multiple times, and once they are infected, they can live for months, unlike T-cells. The team of researchers, led by Michael McGrath of the University of California - San Francisco, is developing macrophage-targeting drugs through a grant from the National Institute of Mental Health, the Sun reports (Chun, Gainesville Sun, 5/28).

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New Scientist | HIV/AIDS | News

Fears over HIV vaccines laid to rest
05 03 2010 Concerns that HIV vaccines may actually increase the likelihood of infection have largely been laid to rest – possibly reviving the search for a vaccine

Brain cells have natural resistance to HIV
05 03 2010 Neurons produce a protein that appears to lock out the virus, raising the possibility of new treatments against the disease

Five myths about HIV and AIDS
05 03 2010 Despite the overwhelming evidence that HIV causes AIDS, a hardcore group still denies it. We explore five of the most common myths about AIDS

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UNAIDS | Feature stories

Joint United Nations programme on HIV/AIDS

Country driven goals towards universal access need to remain a priority
12 03 2010 AIDS is not over in any part of the world and country driven goals towards universal access need to remain a priority. This was a recurrent message told by more than 40 champions and leaders of the AIDS response who gathered for a meeting at the House of Lords organised by United Kingdom’s Department for International Development (DFID).

Call for urgent action to improve coverage of HIV services for injecting drug users
12 03 2010 The fifty-third session of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND)—the central policy-making body of the United Nations in drug related matters—is running in Vienna until 12 March 2010. A new report by the Reference Group to the UN system on HIV and Injecting Drug Use shows that the coverage of effective interventions remains far short of what is needed.

Papua New Guinea launch of the Commission on AIDS in the Pacific
12 03 2010 The first Pacific launch of the report “Turning the Tide: An OPEN strategy for a response to AIDS in the Pacific” took place in Papua New Guinea on Thursday 11 March 2010. The report is the first document to synthesize regional and country information on epidemiology, risks and vulnerabilities, and financing and coordination of the AIDS response. Issues of rights and civil society as well as the impact of AIDS on health are also highlighted.

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AIDSPortal | News

AIDSPortal is a joint initiative of the DFID Global AIDS Policy Team and the UK Consortium on AIDS and International Development.

Funding squeeze threatens HIV progress, AIDS leaders warn
11 03 2010 LONDON - Progress on tackling HIV and AIDS could go into reverse as the global economic downturn pinches poor countries' budgets and donors show signs of backing away from their promise to provide universal access to AIDS treatment, the British government and an aid group warned on Tuesday. At an "emergency meeting" in London to reinvigorate international efforts to fight the pandemic, the Brit...

UK calls for bold new plan to get poverty goals back on track
11 03 2010 The UK will press world leaders to agree to an ambitious action plan to get the Millennium Development Goals back on track to be achieved by 2015, Douglas Alexander said today. The International Development Secretary used a gathering of development experts to put forward bold proposals that will input into the international negotiations ahead of a key UN summit in September, including a doublin...

AIDS Care Gap between Europe and Southern Countries Risks Becoming a Chasm: Survival at risk for ten million waiting for AIDS treatment
11 03 2010 London – AIDS leaders gathering in London today face the daunting challenge of implementing new World Health Organization (WHO) recommendations for earlier treatment with better AIDS drug cocktails at a time when donors are backing away from the promise of “universal access”, warns Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF). The WHO recently released new treatment recommendations for people living with HIV...

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IPS | HIV/AIDS | News

Inter Press Service is a global news agenc producing independent news and analysis of events affecting the economic, social and political development of peoples and nations especially in the south

HEALTH-SOUTH AFRICA: More Funds Needed for HIV Prevention and Treatment
09 03 2010 CAPE TOWN, Mar 8 (IPS) - Decreasing or levelling HIV funding will destabilise developing countries’ health systems, a group of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) warned. They demand that governments worldwide own up to their promise of achieving universal access to HIV treatment.

HEALTH-SOUTH AFRICA: Five Years to Children Born Free of HIV
09 03 2010 JOHANNESBURG, Mar 8 (IPS) - A world where all children are born free of HIV infection is possible in only five years if donors continue to fund global efforts to combat the virus.

HEALTH: Neoliberalism not Liberal Enough for AIDS Investments
03 03 2010 WASHINGTON, Mar 2 (IPS) - Neoliberal economic ideas have grown increasingly dominant over the last 30 years. During that same time, the spread of HIV/AIDS has reached an epidemic crescendo.

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