Integrated Regional Information Network - December 2, 1999
ABIDJAN, 2 December 1999 (IRIN) - While 200,000 people died last year in Africa as a result of conflicts and natural disasters, two million died of AIDS, Peter Piot, Executive Director of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UN-AIDS), said on Wednesday. In a news conference at UN headquarters in New York on
Integrated Regional Information Network - September 17, 1999
LUSAKA, 17 September (IRIN) - Delegates to an international AIDS conference here demanded a shift from an almost exclusively preventive approach to the epidemic to one that mitigated its effects in the world s poorest countries. Parallel meetings at the International Conference on AIDS and STDs in Africa (ICASA) said s
Integrated Regional Information Network - September 15, 1999
LUSAKA, 15 September (IRIN) - An air of optimism dominated an international AIDS conference here as experts expressed growing confidence in the prospect of an early HIV vaccine. Hopes of an early vaccine were buoyed by the disclosure that production had started on the first HIV-vaccine to be developed in collaboration
Integrated Regional Information Network - September 14, 1999
LUSAKA, September 14 (IRIN) - Cash-strapped African governments unable to mitigate the effects of HIV/AIDS on their populations may need not wring their hands any longer. A World Bank initiative launched on Tuesday - and which could serve as a blueprint for future aid to the continent - will boost Africa s fight agains
Integrated Regional Information Network - September 14, 1999
JOHANNESBURG, 14 September (IRIN) - An international conference on HIV/AIDS began in the Zambian capital, Lusaka, at the weekend with AIDS activists calling for the disease to be declared a global disaster. Speaking at the opening of the conference the executive director of UNAIDS , Peter Piot, said that there were
The Integrated Regional Information Network - September 7, 1999
JOHANNESBURG, 7 September (IRIN) - A more aggressive hands-on campaign is needed in the fight against HIV/AIDS in Botswana , one of the worst hit countries in Africa, according to a mid-term review by the UN Development Programme (UNDP) and the government. The challenge right now is for Botswana to try to move from bui
Integrated Regional Information Network - August 17, 1999
NAIROBI, 17 August (IRIN) - A WHO study, the results of which were published on Monday, has shown that a substantial proportion of drugs donated to Tanzania and other developing countries by the United States fail to meet local medical needs or have a short shelf life. A study by the Harvard School of Public Health in
Integrated Regional Information Network - July 28, 1999
JOHANNESBURG, 28 July (IRIN) - Advances made by Namibia in reducing the nation s infant mortality rate during the past 10 years, are being offset by the impact of HIV/AIDS on the population, The Namibian said in an editorial on Wednesday. The latest United Nations Human Development Report on Namibia reveals some dismal
Integrated Regional Information Network - July 21, 1999
JOHANNESBURG, 21 July (IRIN) - Infectious diseases such as HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and diarrhoea are on the rise and now account for nearly 80 percent of medical problems in Zambia , The Post reported on Wednesday. The disclosure was made by Dr Francis Kasolo, head of the virology project at the University Teaching Hosp
Integrated Regional Information Network - July 16, 1999
NAIROBI, 16 July (IRIN) - A cheaper and more effective drug that reduces the rate of HIV transmission from mother to child by 50 per cent has been developed by Ugandan and American scientists, Ugandan radio reported. The drug, nevirapine (NVP), costs about US $3, unlike the existing drug
The Integrated Regional Information Network - July 1, 1999
MASERU, 1 July (IRIN) - The HIV virus is starting to take its toll in Lesotho , destroying the most valuable resource that the small mountain kingdom has, its people. Agnes Kalaka, at the UNICEF office in Lesotho, told IRIN on Thursday that for a long time the disease was surrounded in secrecy and was an extremely sens
Integrated Regional Information Network - June 17, 1999
ABIDJAN, 7 June (IRIN) - Religious leaders and medical experts from various African nations have formed a new body to help prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS in Africa, the Pan African News Agency (PANA) reported. The International Religious Alliance on HIV/AIDS for Africa, was formed on Friday, at the end of a three-day w
Integrated Regional Information Network - June 7, 1999
ABIDJAN, 7 June (IRIN) - Religious leaders and medical experts from various African nations have formed a new body to help prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS in Africa, the Pan African News Agency (PANA) reported. The International Religious Alliance on HIV/AIDS for Africa, was formed on Friday, at the end of a three-day w
Integrated Regional Information Network - June 7, 1999
JOHANNESBURG, 7 June (IRIN) - Community and civic groups in Zimbabwe , led by the country s labour movement, at the weekend criticised the government s declining spending on health care. The Working Group on Community Health, at a rally in Harare on Sunday to mark national health day, said health funding has decreased
Integrated Regional Information Network - June 4, 1999
About 1,500 teachers in Zambia died of AIDS in 1998, putting a strain on the country s socio-economic development, medical experts were reported as saying this week. The experts, who were attending a workshop in preparation for the International Conference on AIDS and Sexually Transmitted Diseases in Africa (ICASA), to
Integrated Regional Information Network - May 26, 1999
Kenya has more than 500,000 children in need of special protection, and that number is rising steadily as the effects of HIV/AIDS become increasingly evident, according to figures from UNICEF and the Kenyan government. The figures have multiplied to an unimaginable degree in recent years, a spokeswoman for the Kenyan
Integrated Regional Information Network - May 18, 1999
JOHANNESBURG, 18 May (IRIN) - The Namibian health ministry has refused to participate in a US $100 million AIDS prevention programme funded by a multinational pharmaceutical company, according to news reports. The programme, Secure The Future: Care and Support for Women and Children With AIDS , aims to expand medical r
Integrated Regional Information Network - April 29, 1999
NAIROBI, 29 April (IRIN) - Health ministers from the Great Lakes have been issuing dire warnings about the spread of HIV/AIDS in the region. A two-day conference held in Kigali to launch the Great Lakes Initiative against AIDS (GLIA) ended on Wednesday, with an announcement by the director of Rwanda s National AIDS Con
Integrated Regional Information Network - April 26, 1999
JOHANNESBURG, 26 April (IRIN) - Plans to make HIV/AIDS a notifiable illness in South Africa has ignited fears that the disease will fall under a renewed veil of secrecy and an increase in discrimination against sufferers of the disease, an activist of the National Association of People Living with HIV/AIDS told IRIN o
Integrated Regional Information Network - April 22, 1999
JOHANNESBURG, 22 April (IRIN) - President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe , in his first public acknowledgement of the AIDS crisis, has said that an estimated 1,200 people are dying in Zimbabwe each week from HIV/AIDS-related illnesses. Mugabe announced the casualty figures in a speech marking the country s 19th independence
Integrated Regional Information Network - April 21, 1999
JOHANNESBURG, 21 April (IRIN) - With a population of just over one million people, Swaziland now has one of the fastest rates of HIV infection in the world. A recent report by UNICEF said that because of the small size of the Swazi population the epidemic could create very high dependency ratios. The report said th
Integrated Regional Information Network - April 14, 1999
NAIROBI, 14 April (IRIN) - African health ministers and a variety of medical officials are meeting in Nairobi to discuss ways of creating viable healthcare systems on the continent. The workshop, convened by the NGO International Medical Exchange (IME), began on Tuesday and will run until Saturday. One of its themes is
Integrated Regional Information Network - March 3, 1999
The UN has called for intensified efforts to help women living in the shadow of violence and AIDS . A report by UNAIDS entitled HIV/AIDS and violence against women says domestic violence, rape and other forms of sexual abuse are gross violations of human rights but are also linked to the spread of HIV. Many women and g
Integrated Regional Information Network - September 15, 1999
JOHANNESBURG, 15 September (IRIN) - Highlights of a new study by UNAIDS were released at the International AIDS conference in Lusaka this week, showing the strongest evidence yet that the high HIV levels in teenage girls is linked to sexual contact with older men. The study found HIV infection rates of 15-23 percent am
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