NHLANGANO, Swaziland , Nov 16 (IPS) - Seven-year-old Ntombi* frowns after swallowing the tablets her grandmother has given her. The HIV positive child has contracted multi-drug-resistant (MDR) TB. So along with her antiretroviral therapy (ART) of eight tablets every morning at 7am, she also has to take an injection for
MBABANE, Nov 12 (IPS) - It is one of the world s oldest professions, dating so far back that it is even mentioned in the Bible. But in the deeply cultural and religious country of Swaziland , Senator Thuli Msane stirred a hornet s nest when she publicly challenged a new strict bill opposing prostitution. Msane spok
CAPE TOWN, Nov 11 (IPS) - The Anti-Homosexuality Bill under consideration in Uganda was sparked by a conference in Kampala earlier this year at which fundamentalist Christians from the U.S. identified homosexuality as a threat to family values . The draconian law will institute the death penalty for aggravated homosex
DAVAO CITY, Philippines , Nov 9 (IPS) - At 14, Ann is too young to be worrying about getting pregnant or acquiring AIDS. That is why she uses a condom whenever she has a customer. She has become so good at it that the latter does not even have to know that he has been sheathed, she says. We ve been taught how, s
KAMPALA, Nov 9 (IPS) - The Ugandan government will put to death gay citizens repeatedly caught having sex and throw into jail those who touch each other in a gay way, if a new proposed Bill becomes law. A new Bill, the Anti-Homosexuality Bill, seeks to legislate against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered (LGBT) p
MASERU, Nov 5 (IPS) - Fifteeen-year-old Ntsebeng Tlokotsi* sighs with relief as she is given 140 dollars. Along with it she receives a bag of maize meal and cooking oil. It is a government handout, and she qualifies for this only because both her parents are dead. Tlokotsi s mother died four years ago, and her father i
HANOI, Nov 5 (IPS) - Think of a world where rich nations did not fund what was popular but instead collaborated to solve the developing world s most pressing health needs. Lawrence Gostin, an Associate Dean and Professor of Global Health at the Georgetown University Law Center, dreams of such a world. He wants to see d
LIMBE, Malawi , Nov 4 (IPS) - Every morning 12-year-old Thomson Genti and his seven-year-old brother, Chifundo, emerge dirty and wretched from the squalor of their hideout behind the crowded shops in the commercial town of Limbe. It is the start of a day of begging, beatings from the older street boys and insults from
CARACAS, Nov 4 (IPS) - One Friday at around midnight, on Villaflor Street, a favourite spot for gays and lesbians in the Venezuelan capital, Yonatan Matheus and Omar Marques noticed two Caracas police patrol vans carrying about 20 detainees, most of them very young. When Marques and Matheus, who are gay leaders of the
COBUE, Mozambique , Oct 31 (IPS) - When Dorothy Kakongwe smiles, her creases tell stories no history book can recount. Now, as an elderly and humble nurse, she can reflect on the changes in the landscape and people around her. I ve worked for 18 years in Cobue, and I ve seen a lot of changes, said Kakongwe, who traine
WASHINGTON, Oct 30 (IPS) - Global health and U.S. AIDS activists are hailing President Barack Obama s announcement Friday that the government will end a 22-year-old ban on the entry into the United States of HIV-positive visitors. The termination of what has been called the HIV Travel Ban , which came during a White Ho
WASHINGTON, Oct 29 (IPS) - As the effort to achieve universal health coverage within the U.S. crawls forward in Washington, a new report by a coalition of global health organisations details how the U.S. can help lead the world to universal access to comprehensive health care in developing countries . Their recommendat
MOMBASA, Oct 22 (IPS) - The United Nation Office on Drug and Crime (UNODC) claims that Kenya has more drug users than any other East African country. UNODC estimates there are 100,000 cocaine users, 200,000 using opiates like heroin and four million who smoke cannabis. In the coastal city of Mombasa, Kenya s main port,
JOHANNESBURG, Oct 22 (IPS) - Eleven years ago, Raloke Odetoyinbo had been married for two years and a month when she found out she was HIV positive. In that moment she thought she had lost her chance of ever having children because, she said, she believed that her child would be born HIV positive. But she still wanted
PARIS, Oct 20 (IPS) - The possibility that a vaccine could soon be developed to fight the deadly HIV virus has the scientific community brimming with hope and excitement, but there is also disagreement about how effective it could be in the global war against AIDS. Michel Sidibe, executive director of the United Nation
LONDON, Oct 20 (IPS) - The European Union is intercepting big shipments of medicines on their way to poorer countries, according to a new report published Tuesday. The generic medicines, coming mostly from India and headed for Latin American countries, have been intercepted and blocked on the grounds of alleged infring
Daniela Estrada interviews MARCELA SUAZO, regional director of UNFPA
SANTIAGO, Oct 12 (IPS) - To fight inequality, Latin American countries must double the financial commitment they made at the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development in Cairo, Marcela Suazo, the regional director for the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), told IPS. At the Cairo Conference, it wa
LILONGWE, Oct 10 (IPS) - It was, Malawian police say, a routine sweep for criminals at one of the country s busiest border posts. They were looking for criminals. But when the police arrested 14 prostitutes as part of their search, and then allegedly forcefully tested them for HIV and charged them for deliberately trad
LUSAKA, Oct 4 (IPS) - For 70 minutes, the girls in the distinctive gold-and-green jersey of Brazil shut out the attacks by the visiting team. The bare feet of chubby-faced left back Njavwa Silungwe are lively in defence. The yellow-clad Chibolya Queens eventually lose the match. But their team s mere existence is a sma
NEW DELHI, Oct 2 (IPS) - At an age when most 20-year-olds dream of living a perfect life, Kousalya Periasamy found hers shaken by personal tragedies. Within a month of her marriage in 1996 to a truck driver in Namakkal, in India s southern state of Tamil Nadu, her spouse was diagnosed with AIDS. Six months later he die
NEW YORK, Oct 1 (IPS) - Pharmaceutical giants like Pfizer and GlaxoSmithKline hold the future welfare of poor people living with HIV/AIDS in their hands, argues the humanitarian group Doctors Without Borders, which is urging the companies to release their patents on specific HIV drugs into a collective pool that will i
Kristin Palitza interviews HENRY MALUMA, Oxfam Zambia essential services coordinator
CAPE TOWN, Sep 30 (IPS) - A United Nations mid-point review of Zambia s efforts towards reaching the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), released in September, has revealed that HIV/AIDS might prevent the southern African country from meeting the targets. The HIV pandemic has had devastating effects on all aspects of
KAMPALA, Sep 28 (IPS) - John Owor is a paid spokesperson for brides and grooms. His job is to represent one of the parties during traditional marriage negotiations, which involves the payment of a bride price. In Uganda bride price is traditionally the money given as a token of appreciation by grooms to the families of
PRETORIA, Sep 23 (IPS) - Shortages in supply of antiretroviral (ARV) drugs are caused by lack of political will and bad supply management, not by the global economic crisis, health experts say. Blaming drug shortages on the financial crisis is just an excuse, declared Dr Hugo Tempelman, chief executive officer of commu
RIO DE JANEIRO, Sep 22 (IPS) - Although Brazil has the reputation of being more sexually liberal than its Spanish-speaking neighbours, Brazilians suffer their own fears of stigma when it comes to sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) - the target of a new public health campaign. Infectious disease specialist Dr. Karla R
IPS Correspondent Zofeen Ebrahim interviews Muslim youth advocate IMANE KHACHANI
BERLIN, Sep 16 (IPS) - At least 1.5 billion people aged 10 to 25 - the largest generation of young people in history - will need sexual and reproductive health services, says the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). Globally, there are about 33 million people living with HIV, reports the Joint United Nations Program
Stanley Kwenda interviews ERIC GOOSBY, United States global AIDS coordinator for PEPFAR HARARE, Sep 12 (IPS) - The United States has embarked on a mission to restore Africa s trust in U.S. commitment to global AIDS relief. During the first months of his administration, president Barack Obama has made the fight against
CAPE TOWN, Sep 10 (IPS) - For Katriena Anthony, being four months pregnant comes with hazards particular to her living conditions. The 38-year-old resident of Mandela Square informal settlement in the rural town of Montague, three hours drive from Cape Town, she lives in a two-roomed shack made of wood and zinc sheets.
Zofeen Ebrahim talks to NAFIS SADIK, special adviser to the U.N. Secretary General and special envoy for HIV and AIDS in Asia BERLIN, Sep 10 (IPS) - As secretary-general of the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) in September 1994, Nafis Sadik had described as a quantum leap efforts to reinfor
KOLKATA, India , Sep 9 (IPS) - Muslim religious leaders may seem too conservative to promote the message of safe sex to combat the HIV/AIDS pandemic. But that image seems to be changing. Thanks to community-based organisations and young social entrepreneurs working quietly in villages. In Kolkata, the capital of th
TAMIL NADU, India , Sep 8 (IPS) - Till four months back, 33-year-old Mugil hardly ventured out of her parent s home, preferring to stay indoors and tend to the household chores. I had no idea how to cross the road and if I saw a bus coming, I was terrified , confesses the childless widow from Pambankulam village in Thi
BERLIN, Sep 3 (IPS) - Fifteen years after 179 nations agreed to implement a plan of action on sexual health, a woman still dies every minute because of inadequate pregnancy and birth services, according to the World Health Organisation. These alarming figures were under the spotlight at the opening of a forum on sexual
CAPE TOWN, Aug 31 (IPS) - Women are getting killed in the Western Cape, says Ndumie Funda, who runs LulekiSizwe in her cabin in the township of Gugulethu near Cape Town. The project is named after her late fiancee, Nosizwe Nomsa Bizana, who was gang-raped by five men and subsequently succumbed to crypto meningitis, and
MBABANE, Aug 28 (IPS) - Swazi men have very little involvement in caring for newborns and mothers, yet they are critical partners in ensuring their well being. Getting men involved in maternal and child health care is a serious challenge because of cultural dynamics and practices, said Rejoice Nkambule, the health depa
BUENOS AIRES, Aug 22 (IPS) - Keeping a hospital appointment in the Argentine capital is a far less fearsome ordeal for transgender persons, a sector of the population that according to doctors had dramatic statistics of illness, when they are accompanied by trained health promoters who, like them, have chosen a differe
BANGKOK, Aug 21 (IPS) - A behind-the-scenes tussle between the pro-business, free trade wing of the Thai government and the country s public health activists is raging over the fate of a national programme to supply cheaper generic drugs. Activists are worried that Bangkok s plans to strengthen the country s intellectu
WINDHOEK, Aug 20 (IPS) - A mammoth draft bill on child care and protection is nearing completion in Namibia . A gaggle of experts has made recommendations; a muster of officials will decide what goes in and what stays out. And all worry what the politicians will say. To table, or not to table before the elections in No
KARACHI, Pakistan , Aug 19 (IPS) - Dr Saleem Azam cannot get MN and FM off his mind. These two died recently in two of Karachi s government-run hospitals, unable to get timely medical treatment and denied the compassionate attention that they desperately needed. MN and FM, who were both under Azam s care, were injectin
CAPE TOWN, Aug 18 (IPS) - A study on men having sex with men (MSM) in Malawi shows that, as elsewhere in the developing world, this vulnerable group at greater risk of contracting HIV and AIDS than the general population. Moreover, their risk status is exacerbated as governments fail to target them for health services
BALI, Aug 14 (IPS) - Why is the popular drug Viagra so praised for its virtues, while the condom is vilified by conservative religious groups among others the world over? Both are external technological interventions that relate to sexual activity. They are among the most prominent tools in the area of reproductive hea
Johanna Son interviews GEETA RAO GUPTA* - TerraViva
BALI, Aug 14 (IPS) - Geeta Rao Gupta, president of the Washington-based International Center for Research on Women (ICRW), explains to TerraViva s Johanna Son why gender needs to be weaved in more tightly into the response against HIV and AIDS. The epidemic is just feeding on the fault lines of inequality and discrimin
BALI, Aug 13 (IPS) - The prescription that thousands of participants effectively issued at a just- ended AIDS conference here was clear: It is time to fight social and political inequities so that the medical gains in curbing HIV and AIDS can work with maximum efficacy. The recognition that it is time to look far beyon
BALI, Aug 13 (IPS) - Thank God for condoms! Donald Messer of the U.S.-based Centre of Church and Global AIDS declared during one of the many sessions at an AIDS conference for the Asia-Pacific, which ended here Thursday. Conservative religious leaders would frown at Messer s remarks, but many activists and health advoc
BALI, Aug 13 (IPS) - There has been so much confusion going around transgenders. We are not MSMs [men who have sex with men] and don t lump us under the transvestite [category either] because we have different needs, declared Kartini Slemeh at the 9th International Conference on AIDS in Asia and the Pacific (ICAAP) her
BALI, Aug 12 (IPS) - Pharmaceutical firms have developed drugs that have lengthened lives and cut death rates from HIV and AIDS, but their financial clout in no way overrides their social responsibility in fighting the pandemic, a key advocate argued at an Asian conference on AIDS Wednesday. At the 9th International Co
BALI, Aug 12 (IPS) - The scant presence of mainstream media organisations at the 9th International Conference on AIDS in Asia and the Pacific (ICAAP) was a sad reflection of how the press was overlooking the big story on HIV/AIDS, say some journalists and development analysts at Asia s largest meeting on the pandemic.
BALI, Aug 11 (IPS) - One can take anti-retroviral therapy to cope with HIV. But how does one remedy the deeply rooted social inequities that marginalises groups like men who have sex with men and drug users, as well as women, putting them out of the reach of efforts to address the pandemic? This question, at the core o
SAO TOME, Aug 11 (IPS) - Zinaldina dos Reus, Zizi for her friends, is washing clothes by a stream near the airport in Sao Tome . Her toddler plays nearby. Zizi, 21, can t remember the last time she or her husband had malaria, years ago. She credits the free bed nets and anti-mosquito home spraying regularly supplied co
MANAMA, Aug 6 (IPS) - Internet and mobile phones have spawned a new kind of marriage in the Gulf. Young couples are saying I do via email and text messages in the presence of two witnesses - a practice, which like the older informal marriages of Mut a and Misyar, has no legal approval. Muta a or pleasure in Arabic is a
CAPE TOWN, Aug 5 (IPS) - Every weekday morning, a stylish procession leaves the offices of MaAfrika Tikkun NGO in Delft, Cape Town; bumps and jolts through the gravel entry gates; then hits the tar and scatters into every corner of the township... Those people, they are mos kwaai jong (now very cool) - they drive a bic
CAPE TOWN, Aug 4 (IPS) - For the first time in eighty years, a new Tuberculosis (TB) vaccine has entered the efficacy stage of a clinical trial. While the developers are optimistic about the outcome, lung health and TB experts are warning against being overly excited. The bacteria that causes TB is a tricky one, as peo
NOUAKCHOTT, Aug 4 (IPS) - Campaigners against HIV/AIDS in Mauritania face an uphill task to put their messages across, especially those that deal with safer sex and condom use. Campaigners have to cut corners in order to avoid angering the country s powerful religious clerics. With a predominantly Muslim population
CAPE TOWN, Jul 31 (IPS) - A global call to put people living with HIV on antiretroviral therapy (ART) at an earlier stage of their illness is intensifying, but most developing countries, especially in Africa, are struggling to meet the current recommendations. Formulated by the World Health Organisation (WHO), the guid
CAPE TOWN, Jul 30 (IPS) - In Sierra Leone , a mother who transmits HIV to her child can be fined, jailed for up to seven years, or both. Human Rights Watch reports that in 2008, several men were arrested in Egypt simply for being HIV positive. New legislation is currently being discussed in
WINDHOEK, Jul 28 (IPS) - While paediatric HIV remains a growing concern throughout Southern Africa, Namibian doctors have managed to put high numbers of babies on the life-saving antiretroviral (ARV) treatment with the help of an early infant diagnosis (EID) programme based on dry blood sampling. Since the launch of th
WINDHOEK, Jul 24 (IPS) - New channels like sms messages and social-networking application Facebook are just some of the tools government and civil rights groups will be using to encourage input on the Child Care and Protection Bill will soon be tabled in Namibia s parliament. Like many laws in Africa, the old act is a
CAPE TOWN, Jul 22 (IPS) - Failure to sustain funding for HIV/AIDS treatment programmes could lead to a rising number of deaths, particularly in Africa. We need 17 to 18 billion dollars per year, or a total of 123 billion dollars over the next seven years (to fund HIV programmes worldwide), but all we have is $20 billio
CAPE TOWN, Jul 21 (IPS) - If developing countries want to succeed in improving their health systems, they urgently need to decentralise them and shift tasks from doctors to nurses and community health workers, said experts at the Fifth International AIDS Society (IAS) Conference on HIV Pathogenesis, Treatment and Preve
CAPE TOWN, Jul 20 (IPS) - Health experts and scientists have accused the world s wealthiest countries of abandoning the goal of universal access to HIV prevention, care and treatment by 2010. We must hold the G8 leaders accountable for their failure to deliver on their promises, said Julio Montaner, president of the In
MEXICO CITY, Jul 14 (IPS) - For the first time, Mexico is eligible for a grant from the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. But even if its application is successful, resources for HIV/AIDS prevention among high-risk sectors of the population will fall short. The Country Coordinating Mechanism (CCM), t
Ben Case interviews NAFISSATOU DIOP of the Population Council
UNITED NATIONS, Jul 9 (IPS) - Nafissatou Diop has worked for decades on issues of reproductive health, HIV/AIDS and development in West Africa, including designing and implementing many studies and programmes. An associate with the Dakar bureau of the Population Council, an international NGO, she holds a Ph.D. in demog
UNITED NATIONS, Jul 8 (IPS) - The world s population - already at least 6.7 billion people - will double in the next 40 years if current growth rates are left unchecked, warns the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). The effects of overpopulation are being felt across the globe, but the fastest growing regions are a
WASHINGTON, Jul 7 (IPS) - With women now comprising 61 percent of all people infected with HIV in Sub-Saharan Africa, international donors, governments and advocacy organisations are looking more closely at the connections between HIV/AIDS and gender inequality. A new report released last week by two Washington-based t
BRUSSELS, Jul 6 (IPS) - The developing world faces a triple crisis as global economics, food prices and the impact of climate change affect the world s most vulnerable people, a new UN report warns. The UN s annual Millennium Development Goals Report outlines the progress made since 189 countries signed up to a set of
KOLKATA, Jul 3 (IPS) - A day after the Delhi High Court s landmark judgment to overturn a colonial law that criminalised homosexuality, Indians expressed mixed reactions to the verdict. After almost 150 years of introduction of Section 377, a law of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) which describes same-sex relationships as
NEW DELHI, Jun 30 (IPS) - Not all females are women, reads a poster emblazoned in red. I am the pink sheep of my family! is the message on another, while a third, very cheekily proclaims, I don t give a f***, I am a greedy bisexual ! New Delhi s second Queer Pride parade was flamboyant, riveting and raucous - a medley
WINDHOEK, Jun 23 (IPS) - Anna Shikongo* wanted many more children, but five-month old Johannes, perched on her lap, will forever be her lastborn. She was sterilised by doctors at a government hospital. Now she is ready to take the government to court. My rights were violated and someone needs to be held accountable, s
Servaas van den Bosch interviews THOMAS WALSH, PEPFAR coordinator
WINDHOEK, Jun 22 (IPS) - What started as a multi-billion dollar tsunami against HIV/AIDS during the presidency of George W. Bush has trickled down to a carefully channelled stream of funding under president Barack Obama. Instead of the additional billion dollars a year promised for AIDS funding, Congress approved a mea
Inhambane, MOZAMBIQUE, Jun 15 (IPS) - Christina M.* looks worried as she cradles one of her sick twin babies. The mother of five already lost twins and another baby to illness soon after childbirth a few years ago. They are so weak. They are eight months old, and they cannot even sit up, she told IPS at a rural clinic
UNITED NATIONS, Jun 15 (IPS) - The global economic crisis, which has pushed millions more into extreme poverty, is threatening to have a devastating impact on the health of women and children. A new study, released Monday, says the most elusive of the U.N. s eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are the ones relati
KAMPALA, Jun 10 (IPS) - Mary Atimango left the war-ravaged Gulu district to come and live in Kampala during the peak of the northern Ugandan conflict over fifteen years ago. The 59-year-old now lives the small peri-urban village of Acholi Quarters on Kireka Hill, on the outskirts of the Ugandan capital. She and the oth
MBABANE, Jun 9 (IPS) - As the global economic downturn begins to take its toll on developing countries, Swaziland s health system - already strained by the burden of HIV/AIDS - has come under severe threat. The third of the national health budget which comes directly from donor agencies is abruptly drying up. The Swazi
CAPE TOWN, Jun 9 (IPS) - The 19th World Economic Forum (WEF) on Africa, which kicks off tomorrow, is a space for the rich and powerful elites who control the global economy and who seek to further open Africa s economy in collaboration with a tiny minority of corrupt elites in Africa. It is not about development, it s
CAPE TOWN, Jun 8 (IPS) - Although mental disorders, such as depression and dementia , are a commonly associated with HIV, they remain largely undiagnosed in South Africa . Lack of human and financial resources for mental health are the main reason for this, researchers say. A team of scientists at the University of
BRUSSELS, Jun 6 (IPS) - In 1994, the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) proposed a groundbreaking shift in the approach to reproductive health: women s reproductive capacity was to be transformed from an object of population control to a matter of women s empowerment to exercise personal auto
MASERU, May 21 (IPS) - A health centre in one of Lesotho s poorest districts has scored significant success in implementing a prevention of mother-to-child HIV transmission (PMTCT) programme, but health experts warn that a number of factors, including cultural beliefs and stigma, threaten to derail it. It was the most
CAPE TOWN, May 18 (IPS) - International donors and African governments are likely to cut health budgets due to the global financial crisis. Health experts fear that increasing unemployment and poverty will lead to less food security and quality of nutrition, which will in turn put more stress on already weak health sys
Mantoe Phakathi interviews THEMBA DLAMINI, Swaziland National TB programme manager
MBABANE, May 16 (IPS) - Swaziland saw a 5.6 percent increase in tuberculosis cases between 2008 and 2007. Out of a population of one million, 10,000 are infected with TB, one of the highest rates of TB infection in the world. Swaziland also has the highest HIV prevalence in the world, with 26 percent of the economicall
UNITED NATIONS, May 13 (IPS) - A handful of motivated doctors, HIV/AIDS and human rights activists held rallies Tuesday in New York City and 20 countries to protest the imprisonment of Iranian doctors Arash and Kamiar Aleai. The brothers Alaei, who treated AIDS patients in Iran and had spoken at medical conferences in
Busani Bafana interviews KEITH GODDARD, gay rights activist
BULAWAYO, May 13 (IPS) - Zimbabwe is trying to rebuild itself as a nation where rights to freedom of expression and association are protected. Amongst the chorus of voices raised in support of a new constitutional order are the country s gays and lesbians. Sexual acts between men are still illegal in Zimbabwe; the abse
WASHINGTON, May 12 (IPS) - Interest in reducing the harm caused by diarrheal diseases has waned among the global health and aid communities, said two new reports released Tuesday in Washington. The reduced attention is disproportionate to the great harm done by the illness, particularly in developing countries. Though
SANTO DOMINGO, May 7 (IPS) - When she went to the doctor, 25-year-old Francisca Barros received two pieces of earthbreaking news. The welcome news was that she was pregnant. The terrifying news: that she was HIV-positive. I didn t want to say anything to my husband because I was afraid of his violent reaction, and beca
WASHINGTON, May 5 (IPS) - Global health activists expressed disappointment Tuesday over U.S. President Barack Obama s plans to spend 63 billion dollars over the next six years to fight diseases in poor countries overseas. Calling the plan, a new comprehensive global health strategy, Obama said he would increase funding
MASERU, May 4 (IPS) - The Lesotho government - battling against the challenges presented by an ever-growing population of orphans whose parents have succumbed to the AIDS pandemic - has embarked on an ambitious programme aimed at alleviating the suffering of these vulnerable children, in partnership with the European U
KAMPALA, May 2 (IPS) - Increased cases of rape and sexual abuse of women and girls is closely associated with armed conflict and its aftermath in Africa. Rape has been used as a weapon of war by militia, and this hurts women forever, because even in peacetime you find little response in terms of repairing the effects a
Wambi Michael interviews CHRISTINE BUTEGWA, Akina Mama wa Afrika's regional programme coordinator
KAMPALA, May 2 (IPS) - Religion, cultural norms and tradition promote discrimination and unequal power relations between men and women in Africa. Akina Mama wa Afrika s Christine Butegwa doesn t hesitate when asked what explains the horrific levels of sexual violence against women in conflict-affected areas on the cont
WINDHOEK, Apr 30 (IPS) - Within the next twelve months, eight Southern African countries will synchronise their battles against malaria through cross-border collaboration. They hope to eliminate malaria in four of them by 2015. The Elimination Eight (E8) initiative will establish an early warning mechanism and a rapid
BANGKOK, Apr 25 (IPS) - Taiwan is emerging as a beacon of hope for countries across Asia grappling to stop the spread of the AIDS epidemic among injecting drug users (IDUs), a major risk group. The Asian island came in for praise at an international conference here for a successful public health initiative that saw an
DURBAN, Apr 24 (IPS) - Gender activists are calling on the new South African government to improve the country s gender legislation. Current gender policies focus on women, ignoring the rights, roles and responsibility of men and boys, they say. Not a single political party has made gender equality part of their manife
CAPE TOWN, Apr 24 (IPS) - As results of South Africa s fourth democratic elections held on Apr. 22 come in, the ruling African National Congress (ANC) is poised to return to power in the 400 seat National Assembly. The party is also on course to emerge as the governing party in all but one of the nine provinces. The ma
MBABANE, Apr 22 (IPS) - The Swazi government s slow response to a fast-growing tuberculosis epidemic has eroded the possibility of controlling it. Themba Dlamini, the National TB Control Programme manager, says there has been a nearly ten-fold increase in the last 20 years from about 1 000 TB cases per year in 1987 to
MBABANE, Apr 9 (IPS) - She is popularly known as sitjifiri (beautiful and well-kempt woman in SiSwati). Sylvia Khuzwayo travels across the Shiselweni region, in the southern part of the Kingdom of Swaziland , giving testimonials to communities on her experience of living with HIV. Khuzwayo, a mother of three who ha
HAVANA, Apr 8 (IPS) - Over 20 years after the diagnosis of the first cases of AIDS in Cuba , HIV-positive persons and those who work with them or are involved in the issue on the island are attempting to drop the use of terms like tolerance and acceptance, and speak instead of respect. When we speak of tolerance,
CAPE TOWN, Apr 7 (IPS) - It s a Wednesday afternoon at the Joe Gqabi bus terminus in Philippi, Cape Town, and ticket touts scramble to recruit passengers wanting to travel to the rural Eastern Cape, a 1,000 kilometre, 16-hour haul away. One of three long-distance ranks in Cape Town, tens of thousands of people pass thr
KAMPALA, Apr 7 (IPS) - There is no lunch break for the staff at the Kiswa Health Centre. With the closure of the nearby hospital Mbuya hospital for renovation earlier this year, the six-room centre is offering pre- and antenatal services, HIV/AIDS testing and general healthcare to 400 patients a day. Molly Busingye is
CAPE TOWN, Apr 6 (IPS) - In the ten months since the Tutu Tester s mobile clinic began touring Cape Town neighbourhoods offering quick, confidential tests for a number of chronic diseases including HIV/AIDS, more than 7,000 people have climbed into its colourful camper-van for testing and counselling. Of these, 45 perc
JOHANNESBURG, Apr 6 (IPS) - A new tool to accurately measure the vulnerability of rural households to the impact of shocks such as the illness or death of a household member from AIDS has been developed by a Southern Africa regional policy network, the Food Agriculture and Natural Resources Policy Analysis Network (FAN
DURBAN, Apr 4 (IPS) - The Fourth South African AIDS conference ended in Durban Friday with optimism over progress in research and policy on AIDS prevention but serious concerns over finding the resources to effectively implement the country s national strategic plan of action. According to the Treatment Action Campaign
DURBAN, Apr 2 (IPS) - Effectively scaling up South Africans access to antiretroviral (ARV) treatment will require decentralisation of health services from hospitals to clinics and allowing nurses to manage and eventually to initiate ARV treatment and care. Doctors, researchers and activists at the Fourth South African
UNITED NATIONS, Apr 1 (IPS) - The spreading global financial crisis is threatening to undermine another one of the U.N. s major development and health goals: family planning. United Nations officials are expressing fears that planned funding for reproductive health services may fall short of its target. According to th
DURBAN, Apr 1 (IPS) - Researchers are now investigating if antiretroviral (ARV) drugs can play a role in not just treating HIV, but in preventing infection. Mitchell Warren, executive director of the AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition (AVAC), called it a pivotal moment in HIV/AIDS research . We are at a time where prevent
DURBAN, Mar 31 (IPS) - The money to scale up HIV treatment is there, but implementation of programmes to curb the pandemic is a problem, health experts said at the opening of the Fourth South African AIDS Conference in Durban. Health scientists, activists, health workers and politicians from 52 countries have come toge
Kristin Palitza interviews MOTUMI RALEJOE, parliamentarian and member of Lesotho's All Basotho Convention (ABC) party
MASERU, Mar 31 (IPS) - The mountain kingdom of Lesotho faces a number of unique hurdles with regard to HIV and AIDS. The country is landlocked within South Africa , the epicentre of the pandemic, and because of limited job opportunities and high unemployment rates within Lesotho, many of its citizens work as migrant la
CAPE TOWN, Mar 26 (IPS) - Despite repeated calls for integrated HIV and tuberculosis (TB) health services from medical experts and AIDS activists, most of South Africa s public health facilities continue to treat the diseases independently. Co-infection presents a major risk to the lives of people living with HIV. At t
UNITED NATIONS, Mar 24 (IPS) - On World Tuberculosis Day Tuesday, the World Health Organisation (WHO) released a report showing that new surveillance techniques and more complete country reports reveal the incidence of tuberculosis (TB) co-infection with HIV to be almost double what was previously thought. Tuberculosis
Marwaan Macan Markar interviews MICHEL SIDIBE, chief of UNAIDS
BANGKOK, Mar 24 (IPS) - The global financial crisis has created a space for a vigorous debate on the life-prolonging drugs needed for people living with HIV, says Michel Sidibe, the new head of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS ( UNAIDS ). The global financial crisis has created a space for a vigorous deba
LILONGWE, Mar 24 (IPS) - Malawi does not have accurate statistics that define the extent of tuberculosis (TB) cases within its borders, and there are fears that only half of those infected with the disease are able to access testing and treatment. Technical advisor of the country s National TB Control Programme (NTCP),
LISBON, Mar 23 (IPS) - Political leaders, activists, scientists and even Catholic bishops all joined in the chorus of criticism against the stance taken by Pope Benedict with respect to the use of condoms to curb the impact of HIV/AIDS in Africa. AIDS is a tragedy that cannot be overcome by money alone, that cannot be
LUSAKA, MAR 23 (IPS) - Parliamentarians across the Southern African Development Community (SADC) have failed to put HIV on the political agenda. Considering SADC is at the epicentre of the HIV pandemic, not enough is being done to address it. HIV has a very negative impact on [the region s] development, lamented SADC P
BUENOS AIRES, Mar 23 (IPS) - The colourful new magazine of the International Community of Women Living with HIV/AIDS (ICW) in Latin America and the Caribbean has a modern look and provides not only information but articles on fashion and entertainment. It is also the perfect size to carry in a purse. Magazines in docto
UNITED NATIONS, Mar 18 (IPS) - When a high-level panel of former political leaders and senior government officials released a study in late 2006 on ways to eliminate duplication and strengthen coordination among the U.N. s myriad bodies, it also recommended the creation of a specialised agency for women aimed at consol
BANGKOK, Mar 13 (IPS) - Thousands of Asian women flock to the affluent sheikhdoms of the Middle East annually, seeking jobs as domestic workers. For many this quest for a livelihood comes to a humiliating end when they test positive for HIV. The women learn about their HIV status when they go and get tested before thei
UNITED NATIONS, Mar 12 (IPS) - After nearly a decade of an often tense and estranged relationship with the United Nations, Washington appears to be taking a much more conciliatory and multilateral approach to the world body. U.S. President Barack Obama formally restored funding for the U.N. Population Fund (UNFPA) Wedn
PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad , Mar 12 (IPS) - The fight against widespread sexual violence in the Caribbean has been joined by a high-profile new women s coalition that warns it could be a major reason for the spread of HIV among women and girls in the region. The Caribbean Coalition on Women, Girls and AIDS (CCWA) said
HARARE, Mar 3 (IPS) - Zimbabwe s crumbling health system makes it almost impossible to detect and treat tuberculosis (TB), doctors say. As a result, they suspect the country has large numbers of unidentified cases of multi-drug resistant (MDR) as well as extensively drug resistant (XDR) TB. International humanitarian r
Nergui Manalsuren interviews STEPHEN LEWIS, AIDS and gender expert
UNITED NATIONS, Mar 3 (IPS) - After being blind for years to the needs and rights of women, the United Nations is finally well on its way to create a fully-resourced women s agency, says Stephen Lewis, the former U.N. Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa. A long-time vocal advocate for women s rights, Lewis helped prom
UNITED NATIONS, Mar 3 (IPS) - The 1983 Hollywood comedy Mr. Mom portrayed the story of a laid-off auto-worker reluctantly forced to play the role of a housewife and homemaker after losing his job. But the tagline for the movie summed up the genesis of the male-female role-reversal on the homefront: When mom goes to wor
GABORONE, Feb 19 (IPS) - Despite significant financial investments in both prevention and treatment, Botswana has been experiencing only a modest decline in HIV prevalence, especially among women. Official estimates reveal that one in six Botswanians over 15 years lived with HIV and AIDS in 2008. This although Botswana
RIO DE JANEIRO, Feb 13 (IPS) - The HIV infection rate in women over 50 in Brazil has more than tripled since 1996, making this population group the prime target of the government s HIV/AIDS prevention campaign during the carnival festivities. A survey by the Health Ministry found that 55.3 percent of Brazilian women ag
UNITED NATIONS, Jan 29 (IPS) - The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis (TB) and Malaria is facing a critical funding gap of five billion dollars - an amount that could save nearly two million lives in the coming year, leading public health advocates said at a teleconference Thursday. It would be tempting to scale b
LUSAKA, Jan 27 (IPS) - There will be as many as one and a half million orphaned children in Zambia by 2010. Deprived of adult guardians by the AIDS pandemic, many of these children will end up living in the streets of the country s major towns and cities. The government disputes the size of the problem. According to fi
JOHANNESBURG, Jan 15 (IPS) - A new UNICEF report reveals there is still much to be done to reduce infant and maternal mortality in sub-Saharan Africa. Failure to improve care for pregnant women and newborns threatens to undermine progress on all health-related development goals. Newborn deaths account for up to 40 perc
JOHANNESBURG, Jan 10 (IPS) - The latest UNAIDS Report estimated that 33 million people around the globe are living with HIV; 22 million in Sub-Saharan Africa alone. Around 2.7 million new HIV infections occurred worldwide in 2007. However, encouraging new data suggests there have been significant gains in preventing ne
MBABANE, Jan 9 (IPS) - Every five minutes she gives a hacking cough. Ndlaleni Ndzinisa (70) says she has continuously suffered from tuberculosis for the past five years. Because she cannot afford to pay for transport to the nearest hospital, she has repeatedly failed to adhere to her tuberculosis (TB) treatment. Ndzini
KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 5 (IPS) - A raging debate over mandatory HIV screening has exposed fear and ignorance within government, despite years of awareness campaigns to eradicate prejudice against people living with the virus and the acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) it is said to cause. Some high officials have sug
NAIROBI, Jan 2 (IPS) - Significant new investments in the fight against the AIDS pandemic could have positive impacts on broader health systems in Africa if governments handle them right. A study of six countries -- Argentina , Brazil , Domi
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