UN Integrated Regional Information Network - December 15, 2000
1. News AFRICA: Red Cross looks to its own on HIV/AIDS issue The International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) has made a frank admission that it needs to do more in view of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Africa, but also to tackle the disease and its effects within its own organisation and in t
UN Integrated Regional Information Network - December 9, 2000
Johannesburg - African leaders are to assemble in the Nigerian capital Abuja in April next year as the next step in a process of building continent-wide political commitment to action against HIV/AIDS. The Organisation of African Unity (OAU) summit, to be organised by Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, follows on fr
Integrated Regional Information Network - December 8, 2000
JOHANNESBURG, 8 December (IRIN) - Secretary of State Madeleine Albright on Friday praised the role South African women have played in transforming the country since apartheid ended, but she said more work needed to be done to empower women, the Associated Press (AP) reported. Albright arrived in South Africa on Thursda
Integrated Regional Information Network - December 8, 2000
The innovative Talking Hands Puppet Theatre Company is using short plays to teach children and teenagers fundamental life skills and to break the barrier of silence surrounding HIV/AIDS, Eastern Cape News said this week. There s an incredible culture of silence in this country and apathy, said Talking Hands organiser E
Integrated Regional Information Network - December 8, 2000
UNAIDS has praised Uganda for its efforts in turning around the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the country. Uganda was one of the first countries in Africa to recognize the threat posed by AIDS to development. It understood early on the importance of long-term efforts in both prevention and care, said Dr Peter Piot, Executive
Integrated Regional Information Network - December 8, 2000
Although Zambia s school enrolment has continued to grow at an annual rate of 2.3 percent, the rising prevalence of HIV/AIDS continues to deplete the population of teachers at an alarming rate, news reports said this week. In 1998, the Zambian ministry of education reported that 1,331 teachers died as a result of AIDS.
Integrated Regional Information Network - December 8, 2000
A new pocket-sized HIV/AIDS Charter of Rights was launched on 1 December, International AIDS Day, in the Namibian capital Windhoek. The booklet provides guidelines with regard to confidentiality and privacy of those who are HIV-positive. According to the Charter, people living with HIV-AIDS have the right to confidenti
Integrated Regional Information Network - December 8, 2000
After years of ambivalence on the issue of traditional medicine, Nigeria s federal government said it would accord traditional medicine practice formal status in the national health system, the news agency PANA reported. Health Minister Tim Menakaya said in particular the government was interested in the use of traditi
Integrated Regional Information Network - December 6, 2000
[This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations] ADDIS ABABA, 6 December (IRIN) - In the doom and gloom surrounding the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Africa, what can be overlooked is that there are examples of what works in combating its spread, experts at the Africa Development Forum (ADF-2000) on AI
Integrated Regional Information Network - December 5, 2000
ADDIS ABABA, 5 December (IRIN) - Accused of not doing enough, African leaders were urged this week to take up the challenge of combating the scourge of HIV/AIDS across the continent. The analogy repeatedly used at this year s Africa Development Forum on leadership and AIDS, organised by the UN Economic Commission for A
Integrated Regional Information Network - November 30, 2000
JOHANNESBURG, 30 November (IRIN) - Engaging men as partners in fighting HIV/AIDS is one of the surest ways to change the course of the epidemic, UNAIDS has said in a new report, and this year has chosen Men Make a Difference as the title of its global campaign. Why men? HIV/AIDS affects both men and women. Worldwide, t
Integrated Regional Information Network - November 29, 2000
KEBRE DEHAR, Ethiopia , 29 November (IRIN) - Lying on a raffia mat on the floor, staring listlessly at a passing nurse, a young boy finds it too much effort to move his limbs, or his head. Only his huge sunken eyes move, slowly. Tuberculosis I think, says the senior nurse, Abdullahi Bedel Teken. Most of the patient
Integrated Regional Information Network - November 29, 2000
JOHANNESBURG, 29 November (IRIN) - For the first time, there are signs that new HIV/AIDS infections may have stabilised in some parts of sub-Saharan Africa, UNAIDS said in its annual epidemic update released on Tuesday. New infections in 2000 totalled an estimated 3.8 million compared with 4 million in 1999, the AIDS
Integrated Regional Information Network - November 24, 2000
JOHANNESBURG, 24 November (IRIN) - Namibia said it would make some HIV-AIDS drugs available to patients from next year. Health Minister Dr Libertina Amathila told a one-day national AIDS conference in Windhoek on Wednesday that the government was negotiating for cost reductions because Namibia was not ready to take loa
Integrated Regional Information Network - November 22, 2000
JOHANNESBURG, 22 November (IRIN) - Zambian President Frederick Chiluba said on Wednesday the AIDS pandemic was so overwhelming that his government was unable to cope with its human cost, Reuters reported. In a rare statement on AIDS on the Day of Affirmation for people living with AIDS, Chiluba spoke of the personal pa
Integrated Regional Information Network - October 26, 2000
SOUTH AFRICA: Trade Unions lobby for cheaper AIDS drugs South Africa s giant labour federation the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) is to lobby foreign pharmaceutical firms to cut prices of anti-AIDS drugs and will push government to import the drugs more cheaply. We cannot allow pharmaceutical companies
Integrated Regional Information Network - October 26, 2000
The South African government this week announced new guidelines for treating people living with HIV/AIDS. Speaking at the launch of the guidelines, Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang said that although the government was still considering the possibility of procuring cheaper HIV/AIDS drugs through parallel import
Integrated Regional Information Network - October 17, 2000
NAIROBI, 17 October (IRIN) - President Negaso Gidada said on Monday that Ethiopia had secured more than US $60 million dollars in credits from international financial institutions, including the World Bank to fight the spread of HIV/AIDS. He said the credit was in addition to budgetary allocations made by the governmen
Integrated Regional Information Network - October 12, 2000
[This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations] MBABANE, 17 October (IRIN) - Anti-retroviral drugs can prolong the lives of people living with AIDS, but poverty, bureaucratic lapses and misinformation are limiting the life-saving potential of drug therapy in Africa s worst-hit countries, anal
Integrated Regional Information Network - October 9, 2000
NAIROBI, 9 October (IRIN) - In a bid to effect an AIDS control programme initiated by the Rwandan government for the army, more than 50 army officers attended a three-day workshop on the modalities of controlling the disease and counselling techniques. The Rwanda News Agency (RNA) quoted the country s defence minister,
Integrated Regional Information Network - October 2, 2000
JOHANNESBURG, 2 October (IRIN) - Angolan Health Minister Albertina Hamukuaya said in the city of Huambo last week that about 470,000 HIV-positive cases have been recorded in the country between 1985 and 1999, the official news agency Angop reported. Hamukuaya said that the national health system has helped over 45,000
Integrated Regional Information Network - September 12, 2000
ABIDJAN, 25 September (IRIN) - The heads of African Red Cross and Red Crescent societies vowed on Monday to work harder to beat the diseases and food shortages that have been killing millions of people each year in Africa. They also called for a massive increase in resources to address public health and food security i
Integrated Regional Information Network - September 21, 2000
JOHANNESBURG, 21 September (IRIN) - President Thabo Mbeki has made his clearest statement yet on HIV/AIDS, saying that the South African government s response to the epidemic was based on the thesis that HIV causes AIDS and that an effective response to the epidemic demanded that all the factors contributing to the spr
Integrated Regional Information Network - September 12, 2000
ABIDJAN, 21 September (IRIN) - Health issues, including HIV/AIDS and its impact on African societies, and food security top the agenda of the Fifth Pan African Conference of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies that began on Thursday in Ouagadougou. The President of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Cre
Integrated Regional Information Network - September 19, 2000
JOHANNESBURG, 19 September (IRIN) - Botswana President Festus Mogae has announced plans for southern Africa s first clinic for children with HIV/AIDS. Mogae was quoted in news reports on Tuesday as saying that the clinic, the Baylor Children s Clinical Centre for Excellence, was a US $10 million public- private sector
Integrated Regional Information Network - September 15, 2000
JOHANNESBURG, 15 September (IRIN) - Zimbabwean parliamentarians, under pressure from human rights groups, on Thursday rejected a bill that would have subjected all prison inmates in the country to compulsory HIV/AIDS test, news reports said. The government in July proposed the compulsory testing for all communicable di
Integrated Regional Information Network - September 12, 2000
JOHANNESBURG, 12 September (IRIN) - The Zambian Health Ministry has launched a research programme that will unite the country s traditional and Western-trained doctors in the country s fight against HIV/AIDS, Zambian news reports said on Tuesday. The Ministry of health was quoted as saying that traditional healers were
Integrated Regional Information Network - August 28, 2000
ABIDJAN, 28 August (IRIN) - The Benin AIDS Foundation has launched a campaign aimed at raising money to help people living with HIV, PANA reported. The money collected through the campaign, during which people are being asked to donate coins, will go toward paying for basic drugs to treat opportunistic diseases, promot
Integrated Regional Information Network - August 28, 2000
ABIDJAN, 28 August (IRIN) - The Benin AIDS Foundation has launched a campaign aimed at raising money to help people living with HIV, PANA reported. The money collected through the campaign, during which people are being asked to donate coins, will go toward paying for basic drugs to treat opportunistic diseases, promo
Integrated Regional Information Network - August 23, 2000
JOHANNESBURG, 23 August (IRIN) - South Africa and Namibia have rejected an offer by the United States of US $1 billion each year in loans to sub-Saharan African nations for the purchase of US-manufactured HIV/AIDS drugs, The New York Times reported on Wednesday. Namibia and South Africa rejected the of
Integrated Regional Information Network - August 18, 2000
JOHANNESBURG, 18 August (IRIN) - The South African government said on Thursday it would investigate accusations by the Mozambican government that some South African mining companies were terminating contracts of HIV positive Mozambican workers. South African Labour Minister Membathisi Mdladlana was quoted in news repor
Integrated Regional Information Network - August 16, 2000
JOHANNESBURG, 16 August (IRIN) - A raft of youth-targeted television and radio programmes tackling sex education have hit South Africa s airwaves as part of an in-your-face civic campaign on AIDS awareness. Brash, candid and explicit, in a culture where children and youths may find it difficult to talk to their parents
Integrated Regional Information Network - August 11, 2000
JOHANNESBURG, 10 August (IRIN) - President Festus Mogae of Botswana has said that his government would provide free HIV/AIDS drugs at public health facilities for people living with the disease. Addressing the women s wing of the ruling Botswana Democratic Party, Mogae said that with the financial support of internati
Integrated Regional Information Network - August 11, 2000
JOHANNESBURG, 11 August (IRIN) - The Botswana government says that it plans to introduce an HIV disclosure law which would compel HIV positive people to disclose their status to their sexual partners, news reports said on Friday. Health Minister Joy Phumpahi was quoted as saying: We only want legislation to compel a
Integrated Regional Information Network - August 10, 2000
JOHANNESBURG, 10 August (IRIN) - Angola requires about US $12 million to finance the activities of the country s national AIDS control programme, media reports said on Thursday. Quoting the deputy health minister, Natalia do Espirito, the reports said there was a need for improved education campaigns to prevent the fur
Integrated Regional Information Network - July 24, 2000
NAIROBI, 24 July (IRIN) - Nearly 50,000 people have died of HIV/AIDS in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, in the past 16 years, AFP reported at the weekend quoting the Ethiopian Health and Nutrition Research institute. According to projections in a study released by the institute on Friday, a further 500,000 people w
Integrated Regional Information Network - July 20, 2000
ABIDJAN, 20 July (IRIN) - Ghana s parliament has urged politicians to make the subject of HIV/AIDS into a campaign issue during the run-up to presidential and parliamentary polls, the Daily Graphic reported on Wednesday. If politicians include HIV/AIDS prevention messages in their campaigns it would help other efforts
Integrated Regional Information Network - July 19, 2000
JOHANNESBURG, 19 July (IRIN) - South African Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang said on Wednesday that the AIDS drug nevirapine will not yet be made available for the prevention of mother-to-child transmission (MTCT) of HIV/AIDS because some things still have to be cleared up in order to make informed policy deci
Integrated Regional Information Network - July 10, 2000
DURBAN, 10 July (IRIN) - With calls from the audience of what about HIV? , South African President Thabo Mbeki opened the 13th International AIDS Conference in Durban on Sunday night by saying that poverty was the main killer in Africa and the main reason for ill-health across the continent. We cannot blame everything
Integrated Regional Information Network - June 15, 2000
ABIDJAN, 15 June (IRIN) - About 400,000 Ghanaians have contracted the deadly HIV virus and another 37,296 have developed AIDS, the country s AIDS control co-ordinator, Dr. Kweku Yeboah, said. Indications were that an estimated 120,000 children in Ghana have been orphaned by the pandemic, The Chronicle , an Accra daily,
Integrated Regional Information Network - June 6, 2000
JOHANNESBURG, 6 June (IRIN) - The spread of HIV/AIDS is growing so rapidly in Mozambique that at least one million children are expected to be orphaned by the disease in the next five years. Ian MacLeod, a spokesman for UNICEF, told IRIN on Tuesday that an estimated 350,000 Mozambican children have already been orphane
Integrated Regional Information Network - June 6, 2000
ABIDJAN, 6 June (IRIN) - A Ghana-based Canadian AIDS project manager, Thomas Agyarko-Poku, has called for a law that would compel religious and other identifiable bodies to contribute effectively to creating awareness of HIV/AIDS, The Chronicle of Accra reported on Monday. Agyarko-Poku said given the scope of the AIDS
NAIROBI, 14 April (IRIN) - The recorded incidence of HIV-AIDS had stabilised in urban areas of Burundi in the past few years but a significant increase had been noted in cases in rural areas, apparently due to the state of crisis combined with traditional practices, Agence Burundi Presse (ABP) reported on Thursday.
Integrated Regional Information Network - April 6, 2000
A joint UNAIDS /WHO statement said experts had agreed to recommend the use of cotrimoxazole in sub-Saharan Africa NEW YORK, 6 April (IRIN) - The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) and the World Health Organisation (WHO) have welcomed the recommendation of an anti-infection drug for use among HIV-positi
Integrated Regional Information Network - April 4, 2000
JOHANNESBURG, 4 April (IRIN) - Pfizer , the international pharmaceutical company, says that it has made an offer to the South African government to provide free drugs to poor AIDS/HIV patients. Thabi Nyide, associate director for corporate affairs of Pfizer-South Africa told IRIN on Tuesday that the offer involved one
Integrated Regional Information Network - February 9, 2000
ABIDJAN, 9 February 2000 (IRIN) - The National AIDS Control Programme (NACP) in Accra says it expects that by 2014 AIDS will account for 35 percent of all deaths, PANA reported on Monday. The report, released at the weekend ahead of a national crusade to be launched on Thursday, said: The epidemic is so pervasive and s
Integrated Regional Information Network - January 17, 2000
JOHANNESBURG, 17 January (IRIN) - In the welter of grim estimates outlining the depth of Africa s AIDS crisis, one nagging question remains: How reliable are the figures? According to UNAIDS , the estimates are provisional and updated as improved knowledge becomes available. This improved knowledge along with methodolo
Integrated Regional Information Network - January 6, 2000
NAIROBI, 6 January (IRIN) - Some 60 percent of patients in Rwandan hospitals had AIDS-related illness and over 400 000 people in the country had been infected by HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, Rwanda News Agency (RNA) reported on Wednesday, quoting the Director of the National AIDS Control Programme, Dr Ntaganira Inn
JOHANNESBURG, 13 November (IRIN) - Zambia, one of the sub-Saharan
African countries worst hit by the deadly AIDS pandemic, is to put thousands of pregnant women on the drug AZT , agencies reported on Monday. Dr Moses Sichone, director of the government s national secretariat on HIV and AIDS said that the government would test about 10,000 pregnant women. Those who tested HIV-posi
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