2008

Mozambique: Love, or the next best thing, for sale: UN Integrated Regional Information System - October 13, 2008; MAPUTO, 13 October 2008 (PlusNews) - When classes finish at Francisco Manyanga Secondary School in Maputo, capital of Mozambique , most teachers and students head for the bus while others walk home. Julia*, 16, a 10th-grade student, gets into a luxury car, where a man who looks to be in his 40s waits for her. The man i
Zimbabwe: How do you rein in 231 million percent inflation?: UN Integrated Regional Information System - October 10, 2008; JOHANNESBURG, 10 October 2008 (IRIN) - Zimbabwe s official annual inflation rate reached 231 million percent in early October, from the July estimate of 11.2 million percent, and the deadlock in talks between the ruling ZANU-PF and opposition parties is likely to push hyperinflation higher. The state-run daily newspape
Uganda: New centre to boost paediatric HIV care: UN Integrated Regional Information System - October 10, 2008; KAMPALA, 10 October 2008 (PlusNews) - Children living with HIV in Uganda have been given greater access to treatment with a new paediatric HIV care centre opened at the main referral hospital in the capital, Kampala. More than 20,000 children are infected with HIV every year, and 50 percent of them die before their sec
Kenya: Rising demand for male circumcision: UN Integrated Regional Information System - October 9, 2008; KISUMU, 9 October 2008 (PlusNews) - Health facilities in Nyanza Province in western Kenya are struggling to meet the demand for medical male circumcisions since politicians threw their weight behind efforts to promote the procedure as a way of reducing HIV infections. The campaign initially faced opposition by communit
Christine Auma: "Life is meaningless when you are sick": UN Integrated Regional Information System - October 8, 2008; AMURU, Christine Auma has lived in a camp for internally displaced persons in northern Uganda s Amuru district for more than 20 years. Relative peace has returned to the region over the past two years, and she has watched neighbours and friends move out of the camp into resettlement camps closer to their villages. But
Zimbabwe: Activists shout from the sidelines: UN Integrated Regional Information System - October 8, 2008; HARARE, 8 October 2008 (PlusNews) - The new board of Zimbabwe s National AIDS Council (NAC) has a glaring omission: not one member is living openly with the HI-virus. AIDS activists have slammed the move, describing it as discriminatory and a step backwards in the fight against the epidemic. The NAC was established in
Malawi: AIDS organisations face funding interruptions: UN Integrated Regional Information System - October 7, 2008; JOHANNESBURG, 7 October 2008 (PlusNews) - Grassroots AIDS organisations in Malawi are facing uncertainty as the National AIDS Commission (NAC) ends its dependence on international non-governmental organisations (NGOs) for dispersing grants. The responsibility for channelling funds to more than 3,000 AIDS organisations
Uganda: Going home is a mixed blessing: UN Integrated Regional Information System - October 6, 2008; GULU, 6 October 2008 (PlusNews) - As calm returns to northern Uganda , tens of thousands of people previously living in camps for internally displaced persons (IDP) camps are now in satellite camps mid-way between the IDP camps and their villages. The new camps are less crowded and people can cultivate their land, but
South Africa: Rapid HIV tests not infallible: UN Integrated Regional Information System - October 6, 2008; JOHANNESBURG, 6 October 2008 (PlusNews) - The reliability of HIV diagnoses obtained from finger prick tests has come into question with the recall of a brand of rapid HIV test kits used at public testing sites in two South African provinces. A local newspaper reported on 28 September that more than half a million Wondf
Emily Ajwang': "When you have children, you will do anything to feed them": UN Integrated Regional Information System - October 3, 2008; MIGORI, Thirty-three year-old Emily Ajwan g, a resident of Nyatike village in western Kenya s Migori district, lost her husband to an HIV-related illness two years ago. She now works in the district s gold mines to support her five children. Diagnosed with HIV after the death of her husband, she told IRIN/PlusNews abou
Uganda: Disabled in the north missing out on HIV services: UN Integrated Regional Information System - October 3, 2008; GULU, 3 October 2008 (PlusNews) - Disabled people in northern Uganda - many of whom were injured in the long conflict between the government and the rebel Lord s Resistance Army (LRA) - are calling on the government to provide a more targeted HIV response. Although there have been no rebel attacks in the region for ove
South Africa: New health minister to champion AIDS treatment: UN Integrated Regional Information System - October 2, 2008; JOHANNESBURG, 2 October 2008 (PlusNews) - South Africa s new health minister, Barbara Hogan, has listed the twin epidemics of HIV and TB as among the most serious health challenges facing the country. Addressing journalists on Thursday, 2 October, she promised to involve all sections of our society in the government s
Kenya: Gold mining in the west loses its lustre: UN Integrated Regional Information System - October 2, 2008; MIGORI, 2 October 2008 (PlusNews) - The sleepy town of Nyatike, in western Kenya s Migori district, has relied on gold mining since foreign prospectors discovered the precious metal in the 1930s; men do most of the mining, while women and girls come to the mines to sell food. I come here to make tea or at times porridg
Angola: Government pledges to provide better health care: UN Integrated Regional Information System - October 1, 2008; JOHANNESBURG, 1 October 2008 (IRIN) - Angola s new government is promising better health facilities at both primary and secondary care levels, as well as to reduce the prevalence of HIV/AIDS over the next four years. The oil- and diamond-rich nation went to the polls earlier last month and returned the ruling MPLA part
Malawi: Jackson Edward: "I may live longer than the people who talk ill about me": UN Integrated Regional Information System - October 1, 2008; BALAKA, 1 October 2008 (PlusNews) - Jackson Edward, 37, is an HIV-positive father of three who lives in Balaka, a small town in southern Malawi . He dedicates his time to educating communities about living positively with HIV and distributing condoms in local bars. He talked to IRIN/PlusNews about how discovering his s
Malawi: Solving health worker shortages: UN Integrated Regional Information System - October 1, 2008; LILONGWE, 1 October 2008 (PlusNews) - A chronic lack of healthcare workers in Malawi has crippled the health system, but a different way of doing things has alleviated the shortages, bringing new players to the field. Many Malawian doctors and nurses head to wealthier countries in search of greener pastures, so the gov
Southern Africa: Skipping class, skipping treatment: UN Integrated Regional Information System - September 30, 2008; JOHANNESBURG, 30 September 2008 (PlusNews) - Adjusting to college or university life can be rough - moving into residence, living with roommates, balancing academic demands with those of social life. Now try taking your antiretroviral (ARV) medication without the whole world knowing you re positive, and things get even
Mozambique: Winning small victories against HIV and TB: UN Integrated Regional Information System - September 29, 2008; TETE, 29 September 2008 (PlusNews) - Ines Muterua, 29, lies on a frayed straw mat between two mud huts and places an old tin can full of sand by her side. I usually spit my phlegm into this can to keep from spitting just anywhere and contaminating others, like what happened with me. Muterua contracted tuberculosis (TB)
Zimbabwe: New government gives HIV-positive people hope: UN Integrated Regional Information System - September 29, 2008; HARARE, 29 September 2008 (PlusNews) - AIDS activists are hoping that the country s new administration will make good on promises to urgently improve access to affordable HIV/AIDS treatment and services at state hospitals. The country s three political parties - ZANU-PF and the two factions of the majority Movement for
Gift Mangwende: "I resolved to create relationships that were not that strong": UN Integrated Regional Information System - September 26, 2008; PRETORIA, Gift Mangwende was diagnosed with HIV less than a year before starting his first year at the University of Zimbabwe in 2004. Antiretroviral (ARV) treatment brought him back from what he described as a point of no return , but trying to take the drugs without his new classmates and lecturers noticing put his n
South Africa: New health minister has work cut out for her: UN Integrated Regional Information System - September 26, 2008; JOHANNESBURG, 26 September 2008 (PlusNews) - South Africa s newly appointed health minister, Barbara Hogan, has inherited an unenviable to-do list from outgoing minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, but AIDS activists are optimistic that she is up to the job. Hogan has no background in health, but has been a member of the
Uganda: Post-conflict HIV programmes needed in the north: UN Integrated Regional Information System - September 25, 2008; GULU, 25 September 2008 (PlusNews) - By day the northern Ugandan town of Gulu is a busy municipality, but at night it really comes alive, when its pubs, powered by generators and fuelled by the local spirit, Waragi, fill up with boisterous patrons looking for a good time. In the Buganda bar, named after a kingdom in ce
Global: Leadership determines AIDS performance: UN Integrated Regional Information System - September 25, 2008; JOHANNESBURG, 25 September 2008 (PlusNews) - As South Africa prepared to swear in a new president on 25 September after the dramatic ousting of Thabo Mbeki four days before, attempts by commentators to summarise the former president s mixed legacy have not failed to mention his controversial stance on AIDS. AIDS ac
Kenya: Gigolos and tourists take chances at the Coast: UN Integrated Regional Information System - September 24, 2008; MOMBASA, 24 September 2008 (PlusNews) - A couple strolling hand-in-hand along a sandy beach in Kenya s coastal city of Mombasa could have jumped straight off the pages of a cheesy romance novel, except for one major difference: the man is local and in his early twenties, while the woman, a tourist, is middle-aged. The
HIV among injecting drug users on the rise: UN Integrated Regional Information System - September 24, 2008; JOHANNESBURG, 24 September 2008 (PlusNews) - An estimated three million injecting drug users in 120 countries around the world are HIV positive, according to new research, but a lack of data from Africa, the Middle East and Latin America could be obscuring an even larger global health problem. The study, published in B
Uganda: WFP cuts off nutritional support to HIV-positive people: UN Integrated Regional Information System - September 23, 2008; KAMPALA, 23 September 2008 (PlusNews) - The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has been forced to withdraw food aid to HIV-positive people as part of broader cutbacks to its Ugandan programmes caused by a funding shortfall. For the past six months we have had hardly any funding for HIV/AIDS activities, and as a
Maureen: "When I reported my rape to the police, they arrested me": UN Integrated Regional Information System - September 23, 2008; MOMBASA, Seventeen year-old Maureen* is a sex worker in Kenya s coastal city of Mombasa. She moved to Mombasa six months ago from her native home of Kisii, in western Kenya. Still deeply affected by her parents divorce, she told IRIN PlusNews how she ended up making a living selling sex. Growing up, my parents used to
Zimbabwe: Tortured, raped and forgotten: UN Integrated Regional Information System - September 23, 2008; MUTARE, 23 September 2008 (IRIN) - During the bitterly contested Zimbabwe elections between President Robert Mugabe s ruling ZANU-PF and Morgan Tsvangirai s Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), the country s rural areas became effective no-go areas. There were numerous reports of politically motivated killings and wid
Zimbabwe: Hunger begins to take its toll: UN Integrated Regional Information System - September 22, 2008; BONDOLFI MISSION, 22 September 2008 (IRIN) - Five children have died in Zimbabwe s southern drought-prone Masvingo province from severe malnutrition-related illnesses, according to members of a faith-based mission. The children died of starvation last week, said a member of the Catholic-run Bondolfi Mission, a member o
South Africa: ARV and TB drugs taken together halve deaths: UN Integrated Regional Information System - September 19, 2008; JOHANNESBURG, 19 September 2008 (PlusNews) - Combining antiretroviral (ARV) therapy with treatment for tuberculosis (TB) could more than halve the current mortality rate among patients co-infected with HIV and TB, saving an estimated 10,000 lives a year in South Africa . These are the findings of a clinical trial by th
Sudan: Crafting prevention messages for the south: UN Integrated Regional Information System - September 19, 2008; JUBA, 19 September 2008 (PlusNews) - In Lokony, a suburb of Juba, capital of South Sudan , educational messages about HIV are plastered on the outer walls of a local school, but passers-by barely glance at the posters. This is not surprising as most people cannot read. Just 24 percent of southern Sudanese can read and
Uganda: Stigma, discrimination holding back HIV fight: UN Integrated Regional Information System - September 18, 2008; GULU, 18 September 2008 (PlusNews) - The recent slaying of a woman in western Uganda by her husband after he tested positive for HIV has highlighted the need for the government to tackle HIV-related human rights abuses. The man is reported to have hacked his wife to death in August, after accusing her of infecting him
Swaziland: Treatment programme woes: UN Integrated Regional Information System - September 18, 2008; JOHANNESBURG, 18 September 2008 (PlusNews) - Shortages of antiretroviral (ARV) and other drugs in public health facilities in Swaziland have been among a long list of grievances cited by protesters during several weeks of unprecedented political unrest ahead of parliamentary polls on Friday. Health department offic
Kenya: A triple-whammy approach to disease prevention: UN Integrated Regional Information System - September 17, 2008; LURAMBI, 17 September 2008 (IRIN) - Violet Aburuti sat cradling her three-week-old baby as she waited to see the nurse at Eshikhuyu local clinic in Lurambi division, Kakamega District, western Kenya . This is a routine clinic visit for my new baby, Aburuti told IRIN. But I visit the clinic quite often because of my oth
West Africa: A life-changing highway: UN Integrated Regional Information System - September 17, 2008; COTONOU, 17 September 2008 (PlusNews) - If you live along the main highway linking Abidjan, Cote d Ivoire s economic hub, with Lagos in Nigeria , it is almost impossible to ignore the many AIDS awareness messages along the route, travelled by 47 million people each year. A few years ago I would never have believed it w
Indonesia: NGOs in Bali no longer distribute needles: UN Integrated Regional Information System - September 17, 2008; DENPASAR, 17 September 2008 (PlusNews) - Indonesia s Bali Province is phasing out the role of local HIV/AIDS non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in distributing needles and syringes to injecting drug users (IDUs). The move is mainly in response to a recent revision of the country s narcotics legislation, which design
Namibia: Strategies to keep patients on ARVs: UN Integrated Regional Information System - September 16, 2008; JOHANNESBURG, 16 September 2008 (PlusNews) - Just over 50 percent of HIV-positive Namibians thought to be in need of life-prolonging antiretroviral (ARV) treatment are accessing the drugs, but the country is struggling to keep track of patients. Namibia is one of the least densely populated countries in the world. With
Lesotho: A village tries new ideas to beat climate change: UN Integrated Regional Information System - September 15, 2008; HA TSIU, 15 September 2008 (IRIN) - Chief Paulosi Lebakeng is a troubled man. Food production has dipped in his village of Ha Tsiu, perched about 2,500m above sea level on the Thaba Putsoa mountains, about 100km east of Lesotho s capital, Maseru. Rainfall has become less frequent every year, as has snowfall; both impor
Motlomelo Thakali, "There were days on which I lived on water, but still had my ARVs": UN Integrated Regional Information System - September 15, 2008; MASERU, Motlomelo Thakali lives with his family of five in Motloang, a village 70km east of Maseru, capital of Lesotho . He is HIV positive and unemployed, and depends on casual work to help feed his family, comprising his daughter, daughter-in-law and three grandchildren. Lesotho s HIV/AIDS prevalence rate of 23.2 per
Global: "The thing that made me stop [taking drugs] was finding out I was pregnant and HIV positive": UN Integrated Regional Information System - September 15, 2008; MEXICO CITY, 15 September 2008 (PlusNews) - It has been ten years since Svitlana Moroz, from Donetsk in Ukraine , stopped regularly injecting herself with drugs, a decision she made after learning that she was pregnant and HIV positive. Now 30 with two children, she campaigns for injecting drug users (IDUs) to be given
Kenya: Young girls the new bait for fishermen: UN Integrated Regional Information System - September 12, 2008; KISUMU, 12 September 2008 (PlusNews) - Dunga Beach, along the shores of Lake Victoria in Kenya s western city of Kisumu, erupts into activity when the boats bring in their catch. Female fishmongers scramble along the beach to buy fish, shouting themselves hoarse to get the attention of the fishermen and middlemen, who
Ethiopia: More parents saying no to FGM: UN Integrated Regional Information System - September 11, 2008; ADDIS ABABA, 11 September 2008 (IRIN) - Fewer Ethiopian parents are subjecting their daughters to female genital mutilation and cutting (FGM), according to an NGO campaigning to eradicate the practice. The knowledge [that FGM is harmful] is increasing, said Abate Gudunfa, head of the Ethiopian National Committee on Tra
Kenya: Male circumcision sparks controversy: UN Integrated Regional Information System - September 11, 2008; KISUMU, 11 September 2008 (PlusNews) - Peter Otieno*, a 25-year-old taxi driver in Kisumu City, the capital of Kenya s western Nyanza Province, is considering getting circumcised. I have heard about male circumcision as a way of reducing one s chances of getting infected [with HIV], he told IRIN/PlusNews. His only conc
Global: "I never thought I would be refused a visa because of HIV": UN Integrated Regional Information System - September 11, 2008; MEXICO CITY, 11 September 2008 (PlusNews) - Three years ago Gurmit Singh s future looked bright: he had received a scholarship to study in Australia and fulfil his life s dream of becoming a researcher. But his hopes were dashed when he was refused a visa. Singh, now 36, told his story during the recent International A
Uganda: Genocide by Denial: UN Integrated Regional Information System - September 10, 2008; KAMPALA, 10 September 2008 (PlusNews) - Uganda has been called the birthplace of AIDS; some of the earliest known cases can be traced to the central district of Rakai, where long-distance truckers started dying from a mysterious illness in the mid-1980s. That small demographic soon mushroomed into a global pandemic, wi
Mozambique: Buried treasure, hidden risks: UN Integrated Regional Information System - September 10, 2008; MAR�VIA, 10 September 2008 (PlusNews) - Gidion Mutata, 37, rolls up his shirt sleeves, picks up his tools and makes his barefoot way to his gold claim in the mining region of Mar�via in Mozambique s northwestern Tete province. Most afternoons are spent trying to sell what he finds, but his daily routine is usually not
South Africa: Questions about new prevalence survey: UN Integrated Regional Information System - September 9, 2008; JOHANNESBURG, 9 September 2008 (PlusNews) - Several prominent demographers and scientists have vigorously refuted Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang s claim that South Africa s HIV epidemic is declining and that the country may be making some real progress in its response to the HIV epidemic . Tshabalala-Msimang
Global: The hidden costs of being a child bride: UN Integrated Regional Information System - September 8, 2008; JOHANNESBURG, 8 September 2008 (PlusNews) - Around the world an estimated 3,500 girls under the age of 15 become child brides every day, while another 21,000 get married before reaching the age of 18. The consequences of such early marriages, according to a new report by the Christian humanitarian organisation, World V
Kenya: Sex workers offer hope for HIV prevention: UN Integrated Regional Information System - September 8, 2008; NAIROBI, 8 September 2008 (PlusNews) - A study of Kenyan sex workers who appear to be immune to HIV could provide important clues to the development of an effective AIDS vaccine. A team of researchers from Canada s University of Manitoba and Kenya s University of Nairobi, who have been studying a group of Kenyan sex wo
Uganda: Using mobile phones to fight HIV: UN Integrated Regional Information System - September 4, 2008; KAMPALA, 4 September 2008 (PlusNews) - Uganda s rising HIV prevalence is forcing policy makers to look for inventive ways of educating people about the virus. Their latest tool is mobile phone technology, whose rapid growth has provided an avenue that could potentially reach millions with messages. Text to Change (TTC)
Zimbabwe: Union provides free ARVs to journalists: UN Integrated Regional Information System - September 4, 2008; HARARE, 4 September 2008 (PlusNews) - The Zimbabwe Union of Journalists (ZUJ), which represents journalists in the country, has launched a programme to provide life-prolonging antiretroviral (ARV) drugs to its HIV-positive members. Chakanyuka Bosha, the ZUJ s national co-ordinator, told IRIN/PlusNews that the union had
Uganda: Drug supply chain problems trigger shortages: UN Integrated Regional Information System - September 3, 2008; KAMPALA, 3 September 2008 (PlusNews) - Uganda s health ministry has been scrambling to stave off a nationwide shortage of antiretroviral drugs (ARVs) that could jeopardise the lives of tens of thousands of HIV-positive people. Health officials said an inefficient drug procurement system, sporadic drug donations and a s
Africa: Make circumcision safer, say researchers: UN Integrated Regional Information System - September 2, 2008; JOHANNESBURG, 2 September 2008 (PlusNews) - The HIV prevention benefits of rolling out large-scale male circumcision programmes could be lost due to a lack of training and resources to carry out the procedure safely. The World Health Organisation and UNAIDS recommended male circumcision as a HIV prevention strategy in
Africa-United Kingdom: HIV prevention not reaching UK Africans: UN Integrated Regional Information System - September 2, 2008; NAIROBI, 2 September 2008 (PlusNews) - Africans comprise up to 70 percent of all new heterosexual HIV cases in the United Kingdom each year, but they struggle to access prevention information and services, advocacy groups have said. A 2007 report by the UK parliamentary office for science and technology found that of a
MALAWI: ARVs, good nutrition perform wonders: UN Integrated Regional Information System - September 1, 2008; LILONGWE (PLUSNEWS) - AIDS-related deaths in Malawi have dropped by 75 percent over the last four years, thanks to the availability of free antiretroviral (ARV) drugs, but better nutrition for people living with HIV would further lower the figure, officials have said. Mc Anthony Ajabu is seven years old and one of 159,
Kyrgyzstan: Rare case of child-to-mother HIV transmission: UN Integrated Regional Information Network - August 28, 2008; YANGI-NOOKAT, 28 August 2008 (PlusNews) - The story of how Nasiba, 32, and her 2-year-old son, Akram, both became infected with HIV is not the familiar one of an unfaithful husband and a mother unwittingly infecting her child. Nasiba and Akram live in Yangi-Nookat village, in southwestern Kyrgyzstan s Nookat District,
Uganda: Faith: "My greatest birthday present was my CD4 count reaching 500": UN Integrated Regional Information Network - August 27, 2008; KAMPALA, 27 August 2008 (PlusNews) - Faith is a member of the Ariel Children s Club, a group for HIV-positive children supported by the Elizabeth Glaser Paediatric AIDS Foundation (EGPAF). She talked to IRIN/PlusNews about the challenges of growing up with HIV. Before I knew about my HIV status I used to be very sick w
South Africa: The less shiny side of platinum: UN Integrated Regional Information Network - August 27, 2008; RUSTENBERG, 27 August 2008 (PlusNews) - South Africa s mining houses have received kudos for being among the earliest industries to adopt workplace policies and corporate social responsibility programmes mitigating the impacts of HIV/AIDS. Besides the bottom-line benefits of HIV testing and treatment programmes that ke
Uganda: Home births hamper PMTCT programme: UN Integrated Regional Information Network - August 26, 2008; KAMPALA, 26 August 2008 (PlusNews) - The number of Ugandan children becoming infected with HIV during pregnancy, childbirth and breastfeeding remains high despite the government s ongoing rollout of services to prevent mother-to-child HIV transmission (PMTCT). The provision of antiretroviral (ARV) drugs to pregnant wom
Bwenge Kana: "People from the community were asking me why I was not breastfeeding": UN Integrated Regional Information Network - August 26, 2008; KAMPALA, Bwenge Kana is a member of The Aids Support Organisation (TASO) in Mbale district, eastern Uganda . She has been taking antiretroviral (ARV) medication since 2005, when she enrolled in TASO s prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) programme after she became pregnant with her second child. She told
Ethiopia: A little money gets big results: UN Integrated Regional Information Network - August 25, 2008; ADDIS ABABA, 25 August 2008 (PlusNews) - Birkay Gadenah is not any bank s idea of a good credit risk. The 36-year-old mother of five lives in the tin-roof shantytown of Burayu, 12km west of the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa. But eight months ago, she and nine other women from the neighbourhood funeral society, or edir
South Africa: Thembi Maboyana: "Most people were dying alone in the shacks": UN Integrated Regional Information Network - August 25, 2008; RUSTENBERG, 25 August 2008 (PlusNews) - Thembi Maboyana is a home-based caregiver who works for a community-based HIV/AIDS programme called Tapologo in Rustenberg, in South Africa s North West Province. She talked to IRIN/PlusNews about life in Freedom Park, an informal settlement that has sprung up next to one of the
South Africa: Hope in a shipping container clinic: UN Integrated Regional Information Network - August 25, 2008; RUSTENBERG, 25 August 2008 (PlusNews) - When Margaret Ndinisa came to Freedom Park, the inappropriately named squatter camp that surrounds Impala Platinum mine in South Africa s North West Province, the settlement consisted of little more than a few shacks which the police regularly dismantled. That time, eish, it was
Swaziland: "We are dying, they are flying!": UN Integrated Regional Information Network - August 22, 2008; MBABANE, 22 August 2008 (PlusNews) - Several hundred Swazis, including people living with HIV, marched on 21 August to highlight the need for government to prioritise funding to alleviate the humanitarian crises in the country. The protestors had been spurred by reports that eight of King Mswati s 13 wives had taken a
Kenya: The lure of dodgy herbal "cures" for HIV: UN Integrated Regional Information Network - August 21, 2008; MOMBASA, 21 August 2008 (PlusNews) - People in Kenya s Coast Province, believed not to be genuine herbalists, are selling concoctions purported to treat HIV and persuading many patients on life-prolonging antiretroviral (ARV) drugs to abandon their medication. Omari Mwanjama, of the National AIDS Control Council in Coa
Kenya: High levels of stigma persist in the north: UN Integrated Regional Information Network - August 21, 2008; IJARA, 21 August 2008 (PlusNews) - For the past ten months, health workers at Ijara District Hospital in Kenya s North Eastern Province have been caring for two children, aged six and seven, who were abandoned by their father after he discovered he was HIV-positive. Nurses say the children were weak, malnourished and s
Bishop Kevin Dowling: "The best available means we have to protect life is the condom": UN Integrated Regional Information Network - August 21, 2008; RUSTENBERG, Kevin Dowling is the Catholic Bishop of Rustenberg, a mining town in South Africa s North West Province surrounded by informal settlements, where as many as 50 percent of pregnant women test positive for HIV. In 1998, he and members of his diocese started Tapologo ( peace and rest in Setswana), a community-
Blog: It's always wise to condomise: UN Integrated Regional Information Network - August 21, 2008; NAIROBI, 21 August 2008 (PlusNews) - During a recent trip to report on a pilot male circumcision programme in Kisumu, a part of Kenya where male circumcision is not traditionally practiced, I was allowed to sit in on a pre-op counselling session. The counsellor gave information on hygiene and the signs of infection, an
Ethiopia: Cappuccino with condom: UN Integrated Regional Information Network - August 20, 2008; ADDIS ABABA, 20 August 2008 (PlusNews) - Bellissima, on bustling Gabon Street in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, could be just another upmarket cafe, except that each order comes with a packet of Sensation condoms, and is served in Sensation cups by staff wearing Sensation T-shirts. I wanted to link business w
Africa: Many children still miss out on treatment: UN Integrated Regional Information Network - August 19, 2008; MEXICO CITY, 19 August 2008 (PlusNews) - Experience has shown that it is possible to run successful paediatric HIV programmes in rural African settings, yet less than 10 percent of patients on life-prolonging antiretroviral (ARV) drugs are children, field officers of the international medical NGO, Medecins Sans Frontie
Winile Mngometulu:"They are all gone, I am the one survivor": UN Integrated Regional Information Network - August 18, 2008; MBABANE, One of two wives, Winile Mngometulu, 32, was tested for HIV in 2002 after her husband s death. Mngometulu now works for the Swaziland AIDS Support (AIS) organisation, helping HIV-positive people come to terms with their status. She told IRIN/PlusNews of her experience. The people I counsel to test for HIV,
Nigeria: Underground sex in the conservative north: UN Integrated Regional Information Network - August 15, 2008; KANO, 15 August 2008 (PlusNews) - Idris is a pimp and makes no bones about it. Because of the way the sex industry works in Nigeria s northern city of Kano, he and the women he pimps have a co-dependant relationship - they exploit each other. Kano s history dates back 1,400 years as an iron-working centre that adopted
Africa: Donor AIDS money weakening health systems: UN Integrated Regional Information Network - August 15, 2008; JOHANNESBURG (PLUSNEWS) - More international aid has been dedicated to fighting HIV/AIDS than any other disease, but what impact have all those donor dollars had in countries where HIV/AIDS funding often exceeds total domestic health budgets? The three largest HIV/AIDS donors - the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculos
Nigeria: Rising risk in the delta: UN Integrated Regional Information Network - August 14, 2008; PORT HARCOURT, 14 August 2008 (PlusNews) - The deployment of additional troops to Nigeria s restive, oil-soaked delta has managed to improve security, but not even their commanders believe there can be a military solution to the armed young men in the creeks, willing to back their demands for a greater share of the wea
Mozambique: Long road to successful PMTCT: UN Integrated Regional Information Network - August 14, 2008; BEIRA (PLUSNEWS) - More and more HIV-positive pregnant women are testing for the virus and seeking out prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) services in Sofala Province, in central Mozambique , but local health officials say much work remains to be done. During the first three months of 2008, HIV tests wer
Nigeria: Gays hesitate at the closet door: UN Integrated Regional Information Network - August 14, 2008; ABUJA (PLUSNEWS) - There is no explicit gay scene in Nigeria , but in the Ibiza bar in the capital, Abuja, the action on the packed dance floor seems a little more exclusively guy-on-guy, a little bit raunchier than may be considered normal . According to Oliver Okem*, a smart and trendily bespectacled AIDS activist, w
Nigeria: Sex, trucks and HIV: UN Integrated Regional Information Network - August 13, 2008; ELEME, 13 August 2008 (PLUSNEWS) - Petrol tankers parked nose-to-tail line the five-kilometre stretch of road from the southern Nigerian town of Eleme to its refinery, waiting to fuel up and begin their long journey home. If the trip runs smoothly, a tanker leaving the big cities of the north at dawn should arrive at E
Kenya: Ruth Wangechi:"Flashbacks of his philandering after the birth of our first child rang alarm bells": UN Integrated Regional Information Network - August 12, 2008; NYERI (PLUSNEWS) - Ruth Wangechi, 32, married soon after dropping out of school. Although her husband had contracted HIV, he and his family kept the information under wraps. When she became aware of her HIV-positive status, she decided to openly speak about it and shared her experiences with IRIN/PlusNews. For several
South Africa: Alarm over drug recalls: UN Integrated Regional Information Network - August 12, 2008; JOHANNESBURG, 12 August 2008 (PlusNews) - A packaging error by a factory worker a year ago has led to a nationwide recall of two types of antiretroviral (ARV) drugs manufactured by Adcock Ingram, a major supplier of ARV medicines to the private and public sectors. The error occurred when the worker put blister packs of
Mozambique: Living with HIV and an empty stomach: UN Integrated Regional Information Network - August 11, 2008; MAPUTO, 11 August 2008 (IRIN) - Antiretroviral (ARV) drugs are free in Mozambique , and access to them is relatively easy, but for many HIV-positive Mozambicans the real challenge is a far more basic problem of finding enough food. ARVs are powerful drugs that need to be taken with nourishment. Regular and nutritious m
Global: High food prices put pressure on HIV programmes: UN Integrated Regional Information Network - August 11, 2008; MEXICO CITY, 11 August 2008 (PlusNews) - Steadily increasing prices could lead to a lack of affordable and nourishing food, endangering the lives of people living with HIV in the developing world, experts have said. As prices continue to rise, people will start to buy cheaper, less nutritious food and may begin to skip
AFRICA: TB failures threaten HIV treatment gains: UN Integrated Regional Information Network - August 8, 2008; MEXICO CITY (PLUSNEWS) - Tuberculosis (TB) is the biggest killer of people living with HIV in Africa, but only one percent of HIV-positive people accessing treatment were screened for TB in 2006, an oversight that activists say threatens to roll back the gains made in placing more than three million people on life-prol
KENYA: Lucy Chesire: "The three big scars in my life are because of TB-HIV co-infection": UN Integrated Regional Information Network - August 8, 2008; MEXICO CITY (PLUSNEWS) - Lucy Chesire is the coordinator of the Kenyan chapter of the non-governmental organisation, Advocacy to Control TB Internationally. After being diagnosed with HIV in 1992, she contracted TB and had to undergo a series of painful surgeries due to poor diagnostics. She told IRIN/PlusNews about he
GLOBAL: Male circumcision - a gamble for women?: UN Integrated Regional Information Network - August 8, 2008; MEXICO CITY, 8 August 2008 (PLUSNEWS) - While researchers and advocates at the International AIDS Conference this week urged donors and governments to rapidly scale up male circumcision programmes, others raised concerns about what this would mean for women. In March 2007, the World Health Organisation and
PAPUA NEW GUINEA: Maura Elaripe: "I was forced to go through sterilisation and up to now I regret it": UN Integrated Regional Information Network - August 7, 2008; MEXICO CITY, 7 August 2008 (PLUSNEWS) - Maura Elaripe is at the International AIDS Conference in Mexico City this week, closely following sessions on the sexual and reproductive rights of HIV-positive women. As the first woman to publicly disclose her HIV status in Papua New Guinea , the
AFRICA: "Terrifying" new HIV/AIDS laws could undermine AIDS fight: UN Integrated Regional Information Network - August 7, 2008; MEXICO CITY (PLUSNEWS) - In an attempt to stem the spread of the virus, African countries are increasingly passing legislation that criminalises HIV exposure and transmission. But these laws could do more harm than good, delegates attending the International AIDS Conference in Mexico , heard on Wednesday. Africa
GLOBAL: ARVs as prevention tool sparks debate: UN Integrated Regional Information Newtork - August 7, 2008; MEXICO CITY, 7 August 2008 (PLUSNEWS) - The recent controversial statement by Swiss researchers that HIV-positive people on treatment with an undetectable viral load could not infect their sexual partners was a hotly debated issue at the International AIDS Conference this week. Delivering a presentation on the first da
GLOBAL: Children short-changed by AIDS response: UN Integrated Regional Information Network - August 7, 2008; MEXICO CITY (PLUSNEWS) - Huge strides have been made in the provision of antiretroviral (ARV) treatment, and HIV prevention is receiving more attention than ever before, but the global AIDS response has neglected children, said experts at the International AIDS Conference in Mexico City this week. Children have been sh
United States: Black Americans left behind in AIDS battle: UN Integrated Regional Information Network - August 6, 2008; MEXICO CITY (PLUSNEWS) - If black America were a country, it would rank 16th in the world in terms of the number of people living with HIV, yet activists say black Americans lack many of the HIV services their government has provided to other nations through the President s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). A re
GLOBAL: Treatment as prevention: the next frontier: UN Integrated Regional Information Network - August 6, 2008; MEXICO CITY (PLUSNEWS) - As the search for an effective HIV prevention strategy intensifies, scientists are hoping that antiretroviral (ARV) drugs, normally associated with HIV treatment, may provide part of the answer. We are in a desperate race against time in pursuit of prevention that works, former UN Special Envoy
GLOBAL: Sex education failing young people: UN Integrated Regional Information Network - August 6, 2008; MEXICO CITY (PLUSNEWS) - Most sex and HIV education programmes for young people focus on the risks of unsafe sex, leaving them ill-equipped to deal with their sexuality and unable to lead sexually fulfilling lives, experts have said. Teaching about the risk of HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases is necessary, b
Blog: Sexing up safer sex: UN Integrated Regional Information Network - August 5, 2008; MEXICO CITY, 5 August 2008 (PlusNews) - It s a truth universally acknowledged that sex sells. But safer sex? Talking about sex at an AIDS conference usually involves highly technical diagrams and scientific explanations that strip away the layers of desire, intimacy and emotion, reducing the act to a cold, clinical aff
Global: Is there still hope for an HIV vaccine?: UN Integrated Regional Information Network - August 5, 2008; MEXICO CITY, 5 August 2008 (PlusNews) - The road to finding an effective HIV vaccine has recently been marked by a string of disappointing setbacks, and researchers have warned that a breakthrough in this field is still a long way off. Should we give up hope? Delegates at the International AIDS Conference in Mexico Cit
Global: Religion - a double-edged sword in HIV fight: UN Integrated Regional Information Network - August 5, 2008; MEXICO CITY, 5 August 2008 (PlusNews) - The contribution of faith-based organisations to the treatment and care of people living with HIV and AIDS is well known, but it is less clear whether religion is an aid or a barrier when it comes to HIV prevention efforts. According to UNAIDS , 70 percent of the world s popul
Papua New Guinea: Tackling HIV/AIDS and relocation issues: UN Integrated Regional Information Network - August 4, 2008; PORT MORESBY, 4 August 2008 (IRIN) - The UN Population Fund (UNFPA) and the National Aids Council (NACS) last month took their HIV/AIDS awareness programme to the inhabitants of the world s fast-sinking atoll, Carteret Islands, to prepare them for relocation to the main Bougainville Island. The Port Moresby-based team,
Global: AIDS funding is justified, say activists: UN Integrated Regional Information Network - August 4, 2008; MEXICO CITY, 4 August 2008 (PlusNews) - Calls for less spending on HIV and AIDS are unwarranted, because the pandemic remains an emergency that needs continued effort and funding, speakers at the 17th International AIDS Conference in Mexico City have said. The epidemic is not over anywhere in the world, said Peter Piot
Africa: Sex by the side of the road: UN Integrated Regional Information Network - August 4, 2008; MEXICO CITY, 4 August 2008 (PlusNews) - Roadside bars, truckers and sex workers have long been seen as one of the most dangerous combinations for the transmission of HIV, with truckers often blamed for spreading the virus. But research presented at the International AIDS Conference held in Mexico City this week, sugges
Kenya: Breast is best, even for mothers with HIV: UN Integrated Regional Information Network - August 4, 2008; NAIROBI, 4 August 2008 (PlusNews) - The risk of an HIV-positive mother infecting her child through breastfeeding can be significantly reduced by antiretroviral treatment (ART), say health officials in Kenya . HIV-positive mothers on ART lower the risk of transmission through breastfeeding from 20 [percent] to five perc
South Africa: How safe is traditional circumcision?: UN Integrated Regional Information Network - August 4, 2008; TZANEEN, 4 August 2008 (PlusNews) - When Steve Matlhabela, 16, left his home on a chilly June morning to visit some relatives in a village not far from his in the rolling hills outside the town of Tzaneen, in South Africa s Limpopo Province, he didn t expect that it would be a month before he returned. At his relative
Uganda: Marriage, the new frontier in HIV prevention: UN Integrated Regional Information Network - August 1, 2008; KAMPALA, 1 August 2008 (PlusNews) - In Uganda you have a higher risk of contracting HIV if you are married and over 30 than if you are single and in your twenties, according to the UNAIDS 2008 global epidemic report. The report notes that although HIV prevalence in Uganda has stabilised at 5.4 percent, there are signs
Swaziland: Circumcision gives men an excuse not to use condoms: UN Integrated Regional Information Network - July 31, 2008; MBABANE, 31 July 2008 (IRIN) - There is a growing belief among men in Swaziland that circumcision provides complete protection against HIV, a perception that worries non-governmental organisations (NGOs) battling the highest HIV prevalence rate in the world. In recent years circumcision has been lauded by Swazi public
Somalia: Fighting AIDS in a war zone: UN Integrated Regional Information Network - July 31, 2008; NAIROBI, 31 July 2008 (PlusNews) - Aid agencies working in a climate of heightened insecurity in Somalia have been forced to come up with inventive ways to keep their HIV programmes, and their staff, alive following the recent kidnappings of several foreign and local aid workers. The security situation has deterior
Blog: The last taboo?: UN Integrated Regional Information Network - July 31, 2008; JOHANNESBURG, 31 July 2008 (PlusNews) - When is a particular practice cultural and when is it just something that people have got used to? Does culture justify male promiscuity? Domestic violence? Female genital mutilation? Is culture the last taboo? Although we ve long known that some cultural practices increase peopl
Blog: Politics, prevention and party dresses: UN Integrated Regional Information Network - July 31, 2008; JOHANNESBURG, 31 July 2008 (PlusNews) - The 1980s pop icon Pat Benatar once said, Love is a battleground. If you re a woman, so is your wardrobe. In 2006, a prominent South African AIDS activist accused the country s former deputy president and chairperson of the South African National AIDS Council, Jacob Zuma, of rape
Tanzania: Modernisation of labs to boost HIV/AIDS campaign: UN Integrated Regional Information Network - July 30, 2008; DAR ES SALAAM, 30 July 2008 (PlusNews) - Tanzania is undertaking a US$10 million programme to modernise medical laboratories in regional hospitals to improve HIV/AIDS monitoring, Minister of Health David Mwakyusa has said. The programme was launched on Monday 28 July in Tanzania s commercial capital, Dar es Salaam, and
Benin: Power cuts and risky sex: UN Integrated Regional Information Network - July 30, 2008; COTONOU, 30 July 2008 (PlusNews) - With selective power cuts regularly plunging Benin s largest city, Cotonou, into darkness, Alain*, a young taxi driver, no longer has to worry about paying for a hotel room to have casual sex - a quiet corner on a dark street will do. The soaring price of petrol has led to a renewed o
South Africa-Zimbabwe: Sex for soap, salt and sugar: UN Integrated Regional Information Network - July 29, 2008; MUSINA, 29 July 2008 (IRIN) - The border between South Africa and Zimbabwe is more than an international boundary; it also determines the method of payment for sex workers, because on one side cash is taken, while on the other, goods are bartered. The South African frontier town of Musina is a regional trucking hub
Kenya: HIV services are scarce on the street: UN Integrated Regional Information Network - July 29, 2008; MOMBASA, 29 July 2008 (PlusNews) - In the next four months, Rashid Mwaneno Dona will become the father of a baby that he and his girlfriend, Fatma Chelimo, conceived while living on the streets of Mombasa, on the Kenyan coast. The excited couple have already chosen names: if it is a boy, he will be named DJ, in honour
Malawi: High hopes for female condom: UN Integrated Regional Information Network - July 29, 2008; BLANTYRE, 29 July 2008 (PlusNews) - Malawian women have little say when it comes to condom use, but the government hopes that the recent launch of the female condom in the country could go some way in solving this age-old dilemma. Sandra Mapemba, national condom programme coordinator at the Reproductive Health Unit (RH
Global: It's not over yet, says UNAIDS: UN Integrated Regional Information Network - July 29, 2008; JOHANNESBURG, 29 July 2008 (PlusNews) - The rate of new HIV infections is slowing in a number of countries, but the AIDS epidemic is not over in any part of the world, and is gaining pace in some. This was the message UNAIDS officials drove home as the agency released new data, giving the most up-to-date snapshot of th
Mozambique: HIV-positive children still not getting treated: UN Integrated Regional Information Network - July 28, 2008; BEIRA, 28 July 2008 (PlusNews) - In the AIDS unit of the paediatric ward in Beira Central Hospital, Mozambique , four-year-old Jacinto Cruz is glued to the television while he waits his turn to be treated. His mother has brought him to the hospital after a persistent bout of diarrhoea, the most common opportunistic inf
Kenya: More education equals less teen pregnancy and HIV: UN Integrated Regional Information Network - July 25, 2008; NAIROBI, 25 July 2008 (PlusNews) - Keeping Kenyan girls in school and ensuring they have access to HIV and sex education has a dramatic effect on lowering future levels of HIV, according to experts. Young people do not have the information they need, and the dropout rate, particularly for girls, is still too high, sai
Kenya: PMTCT services not reaching rural women: UN Integrated Regional Information Network - July 24, 2008; ISIOLO, 24 July 2008 (PlusNews) - The government s campaign to prevent HIV transmission from mother to child is failing pregnant HIV-positive women in Kenya s remote rural areas. A shortage of testing sites and trained medical staff in rural areas means many of these women are unaware of their status and that their bab
Sao Tome And Principe: Condoms catching on: UN Integrated Regional Information Network - July 23, 2008; S�O TOM�, 23 July 2008 (PlusNews) - No one expected that the reaction to empty condom dispensers on S�o Tom� and Pr�ncipe would be so angry. I thought the country had run out of condoms - you people are fouling up too much, Palmira Torres, the owner of Alfa Restaurant, complained to Almerindo Ferreira and Desinela Barr
Africa: Homophobia fuelling the spread of HIV: UN Integrated Regional Information Network - July 23, 2008; LIMB�, 23 July 2008 (IRIN) - The persistent and increasing outbreaks of violence against members of the gay community in Africa are jeopardising efforts undertaken to combat HIV, both within this group and across the population as a whole, AIDS activists warned at a recent meeting in Limb�, Cameroon . The
Zimbabwe: Humanitarian organisations remain out in the cold: UN Integrated Regional Information Network - July 23, 2008; JOHANNESBURG , 23 July 2008 (IRIN) - The expectation that the ban on humanitarian organisations operating in Zimbabwe would be lifted after an agreement between rival political parties was signed, was misplaced, the country director of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, George Tadonki, told IRIN.
Afghanistan: New campaign to tackle stigma and misconceptions: UN Integrated Regional Information Network - July 23, 2008; KABUL, 23 July 2008 (PlusNews) - The Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, US, and Constella Futures, a US-based research organisation, have been awarded contracts to implement Afghanistan s first major HIV/AIDS projects in four cities, the Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) told IRIN/PlusNews. The two projects, costing
Mozambique: Tourism, beaches and sex - a recipe for HIV: UN Integrated Regional Information Network - July 22, 2008; BEIRA, 22 July 2008 (PlusNews) - With its white sand, sunny blue skies and cashew nut trees, Miramar Beach in the port city of Beira, Mozambique , has all the right ingredients to draw tourists from all over the world. But that is not all this idyllic coastline attracts. The beach is fertile ground for the spread of th
Global: US lifts travel ban on HIV-positive people: UN Integrated Regional Information Network - July 21, 2008; JOHANNESBURG, 21 July 2008 (PlusNews) - A move by the United States Senate to repeal legislation prohibiting HIV-positive visitors and immigrants has been hailed as an important step in the fight against stigma and discrimination. On 16 July, the Senate passed the re-authorisation of the President s Emergency Plan For
Uganda: Poverty driving child sex abuse in the north: UN Integrated Regional Information Network - July 21, 2008; GULU, 21 July 2008 (PlusNews) - Acute poverty is forcing girls as young as 14 into early marriage and sex work in parts of northern Uganda affected by the war, says a new report by local NGOs. A combination of extreme poverty, a large number of child-headed households, and the high mobility of internally displaced fami
Global: Is AIDS still an emergency?: UN Integrated Regional Information Network - July 18, 2008; JOHANNESBURG, 18 July 2008 (PlusNews) - The rate of new HIV infections, which has fuelled the global HIV/AIDS epidemic since the 1980s, has peaked throughout the world and is now declining. But population growth and the life-prolonging effects of antiretroviral (ARV) treatment mean that the total global number of HIV-i
Global: ARVs extending life, but not improving it: UN Integrated Regional Information Network - July 18, 2008; NAIROBI, 18 July 2008 (PlusNews) - HIV-positive people are living longer on antiretroviral (ARV) medication, but many of them remain poor and hungry, highlighting the need to create incomes for them, says a new report. The long-term sustainability of people on ART [antiretroviral therapy] and the [treatment] programmes
Swaziland: Pregnant women still struggle to prevent HIV: UN Integrated Regional Information Network - July 17, 2008; MBABANE, 17 July 2008 (PlusNews) - Larger numbers of pregnant women living with HIV in Swaziland can now access services to prevent mother-to-child transmission of the virus, but activists and health officials say more emphasis should have been placed on quality rather than quantity. The programmes are going well,
Indonesia: Trying to solve ARV supply woes: UN Integrated Regional Information Network - July 16, 2008; JAKARTA, 16 July 2008 (PlusNews) - From the day Lenny (not her real name) was diagnosed HIV positive, she opted to get her life-prolonging antiretroviral (ARV) drugs from overseas - a vote of no-confidence in Indonesia s sclerotic supply system. I heard from my friends that hospitals often ran out of ARVs, so I became
Kenya: There's no substitute for support when taking ARVs: UN Integrated Regional Information Network - July 16, 2008; MERU, 16 July 2008 (PlusNews) - We [people living with HIV] must eat well, must keep off stress - it is not good for you ... if you can, please walk out on anything annoying and go and watch Vitimbi [a popular TV sitcom] or sing your favourite song ... be happy and positive. This is part of a message Dorothy Kendi* giv
Afghanistan: Food prices fuelling sex work in north?: UN Integrated Regional Information Network - July 16, 2008; MAZAR-I-SHARRIF, 16 July 2008 (IRIN) - High food prices, drought, unemployment and lack of socio-economic opportunities are pushing some women and young girls in northern Afghanistan into commercial sex work, women s rights activists and several affected women told IRIN. I have no way of feeding my children other than
South Africa: "Is there a virus in the house?": UN Integrated Regional Information Network - July 15, 2008; JOHANNESBURG, 15 July 2008 (PlusNews) - Hidden behind the high walls that surround most middle-class suburban homes in South Africa is one of the largest and most marginalised black, female workforces in the country. Domestic workers are still a standard feature of many households. Their labour is cheap and in plentifu
Bev White: "They have looked after us and it's our duty to look after them": UN Integrated Regional Information Network - July 15, 2008; JOHANNESBURG, Bev White, a business owner and mother of one, started a support group called Living Positively at Home for employers of HIV-positive domestic workers after her child s nanny, Thandi, was diagnosed positive three years ago. She talked to IRIN/PlusNews about her experiences. My initial response was: keep T
Swaziland: Siphiwe Hlope, "Today women are so courageous": UN Integrated Regional Information Network - July 14, 2008; MBABANE, 14 July 2008 (PlusNews) - Siphiwe Hlope is a pioneer. She was one of the first Swazi women to publicly declare her HIV status, in 2001, at a time when stigma against people living with the virus was intense. She went on to form Swaziland Positive Living (SWAPOL) to advocate awareness and the rights of HIV-posi
South Africa: New improved PMTCT brings challenges: UN Integrated Regional Information Network - July 11, 2008; DURBAN, 11 July 2008 (PlusNews) - Prince Mshiyeni Memorial Hospital, just outside the port city of Durban, in KwaZulu-Natal Province, has one of South Africa s busiest maternity wards. About 1,200 women a month give birth here, of which about 40 percent are HIV-positive, according to figures from the antenatal clinic.
Mozambique: Attitudes to HIV are changing in jail: UN Integrated Regional Information Network - July 11, 2008; CHIMOIO, 11 July 2008 (PlusNews) - Sex between prison inmates is a reality at Manica Provincial Prison, in central Mozambique , but because same-sex relations are taboo, and conjugal visits are not allowed, many HIV-positive inmates say they were infected before they were sent to the largest prison in Manica Province.
Israel-OPT: Low infection rates but condoms still needed: UN Integrated Regional Information Network - July 10, 2008; JERUSALEM, 10 July 2008 (PlusNews) - In spite of the blockade imposed on the Gaza Strip , Israeli officials said they were still allowing condoms into the enclave as part of efforts by UN agencies and Palestinian organisations to keep family planning and disease prevention programmes going. While some were concerne
Zambia: Wanted - more people for HIV testing: UN Integrated Regional Information Network - July 9, 2008; LUSAKA, 9 July 2008 (PlusNews) - The drugs to manage HIV are available, and so is knowledge about how to prevent it, but far too few people in Zambia are coming forward to be tested. I would rather die than go for VCT [voluntary counselling and testing], Joseph Mwewa, 28, a resident of the capital, Lusaka, told IRIN/Pl
Kenya: Post-violence sex work boom: UN Integrated Regional Information Network - July 9, 2008; MOMBASA, 9 July 2008 (PlusNews) - Like thousands of other Kenyans, Susan Wairimu, 17, was displaced from her home in the Rift Valley Province s Molo district during the violence that followed a disputed presidential election in December 2007 and sought shelter in the nearby town of Nakuru. A cousin living in the coasta
Zimbabwe: Political violence surges after Mugabe assumes presidency: UN Integrated Regional Information Network - July 9, 2008; HARARE, 9 July 2008 (IRIN) - The already high levels of politically motivated violence in Zimbabwe s rural areas are escalating, the opposition Movement for Democratic Change told IRIN. Violence surged in the aftermath of the 29 March elections, in which ZANU-PF lost it majority in parliament for the first time since i
Global: AIDS spending breaks records, but needs more focus: UN Integrated Regional Information Network - July 8, 2008; NAIROBI, 8 July 2008 (PlusNews) - HIV/AIDS funding to low- and middle-income countries reached a record level in 2007, according to a new report by UNAIDS . AIDS spending by the G8 group of wealthly nations, the European Commission and other donors hit US$ 6.6 billion last year, up from US$ 5.6 billion in 2006. However
Uganda: Joanna: "Dating is hectic, so I put a personal ad in the paper": UN Integrated Regional Information Network - July 7, 2008; KAMPALA, 7 July 2008 (PlusNews) - Joanna*, 25, an HIV-positive schoolteacher who lives in the Ugandan capital, Kampala, decided to take a chance on love by putting a personal advertisement in the newspaper. She spoke to IRIN/PlusNews before her first date with a man who responded. I ve only dated one person who doesn t
Haiti: High risk and underground: UN Integrated Regional Information Network - July 7, 2008; JOHANNESBURG, 7 July 2008 (PlusNews) - If you inject heroin into yourself, you probably know about the risk of becoming infected with Hepatitis C or HIV, but if you re one of the thousands across the world who visit informal healers for a jab of vitamin B you may be getting more than a shot of vitamins and not know it.
Israel: More awareness needed as HIV infection rises: UN Integrated Regional Information Network - July 7, 2008; TEL AVIV, 7 July 2008 (PlusNews) - HIV may be a relatively small problem in Israel , but the soaring rate of new infections among vulnerable populations has forced health officials to take action. According to the Israel AIDS Task Force (IATF), a non-governmental organisation (NGO) providing HIV/AIDS education and supp
Uganda: Overcrowded prisons heighten TB risk: UN Integrated Regional Information Network - July 4, 2008; KAMPALA, 4 July 2008 (PlusNews) - Dr Michael Kyomya is responsible for the health of almost 5,000 inmates in Uganda s Luzira Prison, but his caseload is not the biggest challenge - the architecture is. The high walls just outside his office in the prison s medical facility not only keep the prisoners in, but also infec
South Africa: TB treatment programmes failing: UN Integrated Regional Information Network - July 4, 2008; DURBAN, 4 July 2008 (PlusNews) - TB cure rates in South Africa have remained stubbornly low - about 60 percent nationally, but less than 50 percent in many districts. A number of studies presented at the national TB conference in Durban this week looked at some of the reasons why South Africa s programme is failing.
South Africa: TB plan has a gap between talk and action: UN Integrated Regional Information Network - July 3, 2008; DURBAN, 3 July 2008 (PlusNews) - Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang opened South Africa s first national tuberculosis (TB) conference this week with some welcome good news: her department is to acquire technology that will reduce the time it takes to diagnose drug-resistant TB from as long as four months to less
Rwanda: Military to lead the way in male circumcision: UN Integrated Regional Information Network - July 3, 2008; KIGALI, 3 July 2008 (PlusNews) - The soldiers in the Rwanda Defence Force (RDF) will be the first men to benefit from a government policy to use male circumcision as a tool in the fight against HIV/AIDS, according to senior health officials. Early in 2008, the Rwandan Ministry of Health declared its intention to includ
South Africa: Drug-resistant TB demands new approaches: UN Integrated Regional Information Network - July 3, 2008; DURBAN, 3 July 2008 (PlusNews) - The increasing number of South Africans contracting drug-resistant tuberculosis (TB) demands a radically different approach than the current policy of isolating patients in specialised facilities for long periods. This was the message of several presentations at the first national TB co
South Africa: Is there a better way to say "opportunistic infection"?: UN Integrated Regional Information Network - July 2, 2008; CAPE TOWN, 2 July 2008 (PlusNews) - After more than a quarter of a century of the AIDS pandemic, there is an extensive lexicon of jargon associated with HIV infection, but this has not made it any easier for doctors to communicate with their patients. Linguists at South Africa s University of Stellenbosch are beginning
Ethiopia: Amarat Mebrie: "My biggest worry is trying to feed my grandchildren everyday": UN Integrated Regional Information Network - July 1, 2008; AWASSA, 1 July 2008 (PlusNews) - Like much of Ethiopia , the south, where Amarat Mebrie lives, is experiencing severe food shortages. She told IRIN/PlusNews how she has coped since her son died two years ago, leaving her the sole guardian and caregiver of his three children. I am 66 years old and a widow. After my husb
South Africa: Three-Letter Plague: UN Integrated Regional Information Network - July 1, 2008; JOHANNESBURG, 1 July 2008 (PlusNews) - Everyone knows the story of how HIV/AIDS treatment finally became available to ordinary South Africans. It is a tale of science and reason pitted against denial and superstition, of a long struggle in which AIDS activists eventually prevailed over politicians. By now, the life-pro
Rwanda: Taking care of the business of public health: UN Integrated Regional Information Network - July 1, 2008; KIGALI, 1 July 2008 (PlusNews) - Ensuring that health systems reach the people who need them goes beyond equipping hospitals: investment in the efficient management of finances, drug distribution and data management is vital to the success of the public health sector. Donors have focused on providing drugs and equipmen
Chad: Weapons instead of ARVs: UN Integrated Regional Information Network - June 30, 2008; DAKAR, 30 June 2008 (PlusNews) - The global rise in petrol prices favours oil-producing countries like Chad , but the funds allocated to the fight against AIDS in the government s 2008 budget have decreased compared to 2007 because of a need for increased expenditure on security in this unstable country. Boosted by
AIDS in Chad � the neglected crisis: UN Integrated Regional Information Network - June 27, 2008; JOHANNESBURG, 27 June 2008 (PlusNews) - Chad has experienced decades of armed rebellions and weak governments, so a looming AIDS crisis is the last thing it needs. The West African country that sprawls across the Sahel is among the world s poorest; its development indicators, especially regarding women, are abysmal. It
Lesotho: Food prices aggravate crisis: UN Integrated Regional Information Network - June 27, 2008; JOHANNESBURG, 27 June 2008 (IRIN) - Already heavily dependent on food handouts, Lesotho is buckling under chronic food insecurity, poverty and one of the highest HIV rates in the world. Now, rising food prices are adding to the crisis, and the most vulnerable, often children, are paying the price. The increase in
Yemen: New law to guarantee rights of people living with HIV: UN Integrated Regional Information Network - June 27, 2008; SANAA, 27 June 2008 (PlusNews) - A Yemeni non-governmental organisation, made up of members of parliament, has prepared a draft law aimed at guaranteeing the rights of people living with HIV and preventing the spread of the virus. If approved, Yemen would be the third Middle Eastern state to pass such a law, after
South Africa: Government awards ARV tender: UN Integrated Regional Information Network - June 27, 2008; JOHANNESBURG, 27 June 2008 (PlusNews) - The awarding of a new tender for antiretroviral (ARV) drugs by South Africa s health department will mean important savings for the state s treatment programme, already the largest in the world and still growing. The health department has chosen six companies to supply ARV drugs
Zimbabwe: AIDS organisations still grounded: UN Integrated Regional Information Network - June 26, 2008; JOHANNESBURG, 26 June 2008 (PlusNews) - As Zimbabwe s political crisis deepens ahead of the presidential run-off election on Friday 27 June, and the status of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) remains uncertain, the situation for HIV-positive Zimbabweans is more precarious than ever. Nicholas Goche, the social welf
When is HIV/AIDS a disaster?: UN Integrated Regional Information Network - June 26, 2008; JOHANNESBURG, 26 June 2008 (PlusNews) - Providing HIV/AIDS services to people on the run from armed conflict or natural disaster seems, on the face of it, too complicated when trying to meet the pressing immediate demands of an emergency. By failing to address people affected by HIV in such situations, however, aid org
Cameroon: In search of a positive soul mate: UN Integrated Regional Information Network - June 25, 2008; DOUALA, 25 June 2008 (PlusNews) - When Cl�mentine Banzoat, 41, a mother of two, learnt she was HIV positive nine years ago, she not only lost her partner, the father of her second child, but also her job. After several failed relationships with HIV-negative men, she decided to look for an HIV-positive partner to form a
Kenya: The cutting edge (multimedia): UN Integrated Regional Information Network - June 24, 2008; KISUMU, 24 June 2008 (PlusNews) - The reproductive health NGO, Marie Stopes Kenya (MSK), has started a mobile circumcision pilot project in the western, largely non-circumcising province of Nyanza. IRIN/PlusNews recently visited one MSK mobile clinic in a suburb of Kisumu, the capital of Nyanza, where a large number of
Thailand: Condom use not catching on among youth: UN Integrated Regional Information Network - June 23, 2008; BANGKOK, 23 June 2008 (IRIN) - In spite of massive spending on efforts to counter HIV/AIDS, experts warn that many young Thais are still having unsafe sex. The problem, according to Sittichok Chaisupasin, a 16-year-old peer educator, is not a lack of knowledge about HIV, but a lack of interest among young people in act
Ethiopia: Rising food prices hit HIV-positive people: UN Integrated Regional Information Network - June 23, 2008; ADDIS ABABA, 23 June 2008 (PlusNews) - Whenever Bellatu Bakane goes to her local market in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, she can t help but feel frustrated. I get angry because every time I go food prices are higher, said the 38-year old mother of three. Because food prices are increasing, we are eating less.
Mozambique: ARVs slowly play catch up with HIV caseload: UN Integrated Regional Information Network - June 20, 2008; MAPUTO, 20 June 2008 (PlusNews) - The number of children orphaned by AIDS has doubled since 2003, and the high rate of HIV prevalence has dented Mozambique s growth rates, a new report has found. The 2008 HIV and Nutrition Status Report on Mozambique, funded by the World Bank, said an estimated 441,000 children younger
Angola: Invisible and vulnerable: UN Integrated Regional Information Network - June 19, 2008; LUANDA, 19 June 2008 (PlusNews) - It was a wedding that pulled out all the stops, including a party at the Marine Club on the island of Luanda and a five-star nuptial night at the Hotel Presidente Meridien. The ceremony didn t go unnoticed by Angola s newspapers. Shameless, screamed the cover of one of the country s we
Thailand: Condom use not catching on among youth: UN Integrated Regional Information Network - June 19, 2008; BANGKOK, 19 June 2008 (PlusNews) - In spite of massive spending on efforts to counter HIV/AIDS, experts warn that many young Thais are still having unsafe sex. The problem, according to Sittichok Chaisupasin, a 16-year-old peer educator, is not a lack of knowledge about HIV, but a lack of interest among young people in
Africa: Mind your language - a short guide to HIV/AIDS slang: UN Integrated Regional Information Network - June 18, 2008; JOHANNESBURG, 18 June 2008 (PlusNews) - HIV has hit our lives, our families, our economies; it also shapes the way we talk. IRIN/PlusNews looks at how the virus and its impact translates into everyday speech from the streets of Lagos to the townships of Johannesburg, and finds that despite the billions of dollars spent
South Africa: Care-givers also need shoulder to lean on: UN Integrated Regional Information Network - June 18, 2008; HEILBRON, 18 June 2008 (PlusNews) - About 100 home-based care workers were expected at a recent one-day workshop by the South African Depression and Anxiety Group (SADAG) in the small farming town of Heilbron in Free State Province. On the day only about 30 participants, mostly middle-aged women wearing the sturdy shoe
Margaret Awoi, Uganda, "Falling into rebel hands five times within eight months was the easier part": UN Integrated Regional Information Network - June 18, 2008; PATONGO, Widow and mother of four, Margaret Awoi, 48, has been abducted five times by Joseph Kony s Lord s Resistance Army (LRA) rebels. She told IRIN why falling into rebel hands was easier than living with HIV, which was diagnosed in 2004 after her deceased husband succumbed to it. Many people in northern
Uganda: Ray: "The government is only looking after straight people": UN Integrated Regional Information Network - June 17, 2008; KAMPALA, 17 June 2008 (PlusNews) - The arrest of three people protesting the lack of HIV/AIDS programming for men who have sex with men at the recent HIV/AIDS Implementers Meeting in Kampala, capital of Uganda , has drawn criticism from HIV activists around the world. IRIN/PlusNews spoke to one activist about growing u
Uganda: Change brings new risk for the Karimojong: UN Integrated Regional Information Network - June 16, 2008; KOTIDO, 16 June 2008 (PlusNews) - Karamoja, in the northeastern corner of Uganda , is a remote and highly traditional society where the writ of successive governments has had only limited impact. The Karomajong, fierce and nomadic cattle herders, had managed to hold onto a way of life that seemed to basically ignore th
Global: Civil society demands more partnership with governments: UN Integrated Regional Information Network - June 13, 2008; NEW YORK, 13 June 2008 (PlusNews) - After going into an unscheduled third day, the United Nations High-Level meeting on HIV/AIDS ended on 12 June with civil society groups complaining over the lack of true partnership with governments in the fight against the pandemic. Greater involvement of civil society has been iden
Zimbabwe: AIDS service NGOs allowed to resume operations: UN Integrated Regional Information Network - June 13, 2008; HARARE, 13 June 2008 (PlusNews) - The Zimbabwe government has exempted AIDS relief organisations from a ban on NGOs operating in the country, but advocacy groups have reacted cautiously to the news. Nicholas Goche, the social welfare minister who regulates NGO activity, said on 13 June that more than 400 organisations
South Africa: TAC prevails over Rath: UN Integrated Regional Information Network - June 13, 2008; CAPE TOWN, 13 June 2008 (IRIN) - Comrades, we won! shouted Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) founder and long-time HIV/AIDS activist, Zackie Achmat, outside the Cape High Court in Cape Town on Friday. In a landmark judgment, the Court ruled that clinical trials of multivitamins in the treatment of HIV/AIDS by controversi
Africa: Human rights high on UNGASS agenda: UN Integrated Regional Information Network - June 12, 2008; NEW YORK, 12 June 2008 (PlusNews) - With the encouragement of United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, civil society organisations are pressuring government representatives gathered at the UN High-Level meeting on HIV/AIDS in New York this week to step up their efforts in the global HIV/AIDS battle. The meeting, a
Zambia: Government fails to break the street kid addiction: UN Integrated Regional Information Network - June 12, 2008; LUSAKA, 12 June 2008 (PlusNews) - A pilot project to rehabilitate thousands of children living on the streets of the Zambian capital of Lusaka is failing because government is excluding civil society from the programme, civic leaders are claiming. Two years ago, the government began recruiting Lusaka s street kids and
Uganda: Routine HIV testing boosts uptake: UN Integrated Regional Information Network - June 11, 2008; KAMPALA, 11 June 2008 (PlusNews) - Routinely counselling and testing patients for HIV during regular clinic visits is proving effective in increasing testing numbers in several Ugandan districts. The Research Triangle Institute (RTI), an independent research organisation with headquarters in North Carolina, has been ro
Swaziland: Compelling communities to end child abuse: UN Integrated Regional Information Network - June 10, 2008; MBABANE, 10 June 2008 (IRIN) - New statistics revealing the alarming number of female children that are victims of abuse is seeing child welfare and anti-abuse groups turning to Swazi tradition in the hope of reviving a sense of community responsibility towards the wellbeing of Swaziland s children. The findings from a
South Africa: HIV and depression - something to talk about: UN Integrated Regional Information Network - June 10, 2008; JOHANNESBURG, 10 June 2008 (PlusNews) - Temba* had watched a string of friends and family die from AIDS-related illnesses before he himself tested positive for HIV in 2004. Convinced he was next, he kept his status to himself and lay awake at night contemplating suicide. I thought about shooting myself, he told IRIN/Pl
Thokozile Mdaki: "If you talk, you feel healed": UN Integrated Regional Information Network - June 10, 2008; JOHANNESBURG, Thokozile Mdaki, 43, has been going to Ekupholeni Mental Health, a South African nongovernmental organisation with a centre in Katorus, a Johannesburg township, since 1996. She relies on the counselling and support group meetings she attends there to deal, not only with being HIV-positive, but with the tr
South Africa: Suicide scam to scare authorities into action: UN Integrated Regional Information Network - June 9, 2008; JOHANNESBURG, 9 June 2008 (IRIN) - Foreign nationals displaced by xenophobic violence and sheltering in a temporary camp near Cape Town, South Africa , have threatened mass suicide to draw attention to their plight. Soetwater camp, 30 km south of Cape Town, has become home to over 4,000 foreign nationals displaced by t
Christian Nachan: "They told me I had to leave because my family was dying": UN Integrated Regional Information Network - June 9, 2008; KOTIDO, Christian Nachan was forced to leave her manyatta, a small group of mud huts that make up a homestead in the remote region of Karamoja in northeastern Ugandan, when her husband, his second wife and two of her children died. After discovering she was HIV-positive, she started a new life in the town of Kotido.
Zambia: Gov't fine tunes treatment programme: UN Integrated Regional Information Network - June 9, 2008; LUSAKA, 9 June 2008 (PlusNews) - The Zambian government has begun treating people living with HIV earlier, a move intended to reduce deaths and medical complications resulting from the disease. According to national antiretroviral (ARV) treatment coordinator Dr Albert Mwanga, the state was now making ARVs available whe
Mauritius: No longer forbidden love: UN Integrated Regional Information Network - June 9, 2008; PORT LOUIS, 9 June 2008 (PlusNews) - Last year, Camille Liu s* future was looking good. He had met a woman - a perfect match � while working in Mozambique as an electrician. They fell in love, decided to move to his home country, Mauritius , get married and have children. But when Anna Magurra* arrived on the tro
Congo: You, me and the condom: UN Integrated Regional Information Network - June 6, 2008; BRAZZAVILLE, 6 June 2008 (PlusNews) - After a long day s work at a printing office in Brazzaville, capital of the Republic of Congo (RoC), Andr� Mikangou* usually buys a bottle of beer at the local petrol station shop and gets some locally produced Ami-3 condoms from the vending machine. I slipped my 100 CFA franc (US$
Denis Matwa: "HIV was something of gay, white men...not for myself": UN Integrated Regional Information Network - June 6, 2008; CAPE TOWN, Denis Matwa, 36, has turned his life around since he discovered he was HIV-positive eight years ago. At one time a heavy drinker and womaniser, he became an AIDS activist and is now involved in an intervention by South Africa s Medical Research Council targeting sugar daddies - men who are at least five year
Burkina Faso: Young, positive and sexually active: UN Integrated Regional Information Network - June 5, 2008; BOBO-DIOULASSO/OUAGADOUGOU, 5 June 2008 (PlusNews) - That teenagers, and even pre-teens, become sexually active is usually kept under the blanket, especially in conservative societies, but when these young people are HIV positive the issue becomes even harder to acknowledge, and has been largely ignored. As life-prolon
Africa: Armies grapple with HIV among troops: UN Integrated Regional Information Network - June 5, 2008; KAMPALA, 5 June 2008 (PlusNews) - After years of dragging their feet over HIV/AIDS in their ranks, African armies are slowly making strides in curbing the spread of the pandemic, senior military officers at the fourth HIV Implementer s meeting in Kampala, Uganda , admitted this week. Since its formation in the mid-
Southern Africa: Understanding infidelity: UN Integrated Regional Information Network - June 5, 2008; CAPE TOWN, 5 June 2008 (PlusNews) - Multiple, concurrent partnerships has become the latest catchphrase in the HIV/AIDS lexicon. It refers to the practice of having more than one sexual partner at the same time, which experts say is a key driver of Southern Africa s devastating HIV/AIDS epidemic. In a South African pop
Philippines: Tuberculosis remains a major killer: UN Integrated Regional Information Network - June 4, 2008; MANILA, 4 June 2008 (IRIN) - Each of the dozen or so beds in an airy ward in Quezon Institute, in Metro Manila, a private hospital dedicated to fighting tuberculosis, has a story to tell. Rosalinda Dunton, 71, wonders when she can go back home to Capiz Province. She has been confined for three weeks now, suffering from
South Africa: HIV a factor behind obesity?: UN Integrated Regional Information Network - June 4, 2008; CAPE TOWN, 4 June 2008 (PlusNews) - While public health experts in South Africa spent much of the last decade focusing on controlling infectious diseases such as HIV/AIDS and eradicating malnutrition, the growth of another public health crisis has gone almost unnoticed. High obesity levels, which have given rise to a v
Uganda: Tailoring the HIV response to fit the epidemic: UN Integrated Regional Information Network - June 4, 2008; KAMPALA, 4 June 2008 (PlusNews) - One-size-fits-all HIV programmes are leaving huge gaps in the global response, and a better understanding of each country s unique epidemic is central to successful management of the pandemic. Emerging information shows varied epidemics between countries, and varied epidemics within co
Burundi: Grappling with widespread sexual abuse: UN Integrated Regional Information Network - June 4, 2008; BUJUMBURA, 4 June 2008 (IRIN) - Lost in their thoughts, the women sit patiently on benches as they wait for assistance at the offices of the League Iteka, a Burundian human rights group. Among the 10 or so women at the offices are two young girls. One of them was raped by a close family friend - and she is only 13, an
Uganda: Insecurity affecting HIV funding in Karamoja: UN Integrated Regional Information Network - June 3, 2008; KOTIDO, 3 June 2008 (PlusNews) - Frances Otim, living in Kotido, an urban centre in Uganda s northeastern Karamoja region, doesn t use condoms because he doesn t know how, and doesn t use a mosquito net because the one he has is ripped. For most adults, malaria isn t life threatening, but for people living with HIV, ac
South Africa: Current HIV treatment models not good enough: UN Integrated Regional Information Network - June 3, 2008; CAPE TOWN, 3 June 2008 (PlusNews) - More than 400,000 HIV-positive South Africans have begun antiretroviral treatment (ART) since the government launched its programme in 2004. But this impressive-sounding figure still only represents one third of the estimated number of people in need of treatment, and that number is
Sri Lanka: Low HIV prevalence but high risk: UN Integrated Regional Information Network - June 3, 2008; COLOMBO, 3 June 2008 (PlusNews) - Living with the HIV virus can be extremely frustrating in Sri Lanka , just ask those infected by it. You are totally shunned, Princy Mangalika, an HIV-positive Sri Lankan, told IRIN/PlusNews. You can t attend family functions, work or live in your own village; your children can t even
Global: Greater access to ARVs, but much more to be done: UN Integrated Regional Information Network - June 2, 2008; JOHANNESBURG, 2 June 2008 (PlusNews) - First, the good news: in 2007 about a million more people in poorer countries across the globe began taking antiretroviral (ARV) drugs, bringing the total number to almost three million. The pace of providing the life-prolonging treatment has also accelerated, and an increasing nu
Malawi: Success in reducing HIV rate: UN Integrated Regional Information Network - May 30, 2008; LILONGWE, 30 May 2008 (PlusNews) - When Pastor Gilbert Momola told the audience at Civo Stadium in Malawi s capital, Lilongwe, that he was HIV positive, he touched the hearts of many, including that of retired Zambian president Kenneth Kaunda. Such openness is one of the tools with which to reduce the prevalence rate a
South Africa: Links between HIV and mental illness overlooked: UN Integrated Regional Information Network - May 29, 2008; JOHANNESBURG, 29 May 2008 (PLUSNEWS) - The links between HIV and mental illness are so multi-layered, and little understood, that doctors often struggle to determine which came first. Mental healthcare professionals in South Africa sometimes battle to understand the causes of a patient s psychosis or
South Africa: A day in the life of a community's response: UN Integrated Regional Information Network - May 29, 2008; JOHANNESBURG (PLUSNEWS) - It is 5 a.m., but the winter night sky is yet to lighten over Johannesburg, South Africa ; M�decins Sans Fronti�res (MSF), the international medical and humanitarian aid organisation, says the persistent drizzle and near freezing temperatures are contributing to respiratory infections and diar
South Africa: Public response to xenophobia highlights government failings: UN Integrated Regional Information Network - May 28, 2008; JOHANNESBURG, 28 May 2008 (IRIN) - Before 11 May, Zimbabwean national Samuel Zona used to work as a gardener. Now, in the wake of violent xenophobic attacks that have swept across South Africa and left at least 56 people dead, he prepares thousands of meals for hundreds of displaced foreign nationals seeking refuge and
Kenya: Boy's suicide reveals gaps in HIV education: UN Integrated Regional Information Network - May 28, 2008; GARISSA (PLUSNEWS) - The recent suicide of a secondary school student in Kenya s North Eastern Province after he was diagnosed as HIV positive has highlighted the shortage of qualified counsellors in the region, and the urgent need to address the misinformation and stigma attached to the virus. Serious awareness-raisin
Myanmar: Remembering HIV in cyclone response: UN Integrated Regional Information Network - May 27, 2008; JOHANNESBURG, 27 May 2008 (PlusNews) - While most of the local and international aid workers in Myanmar are scrambling to meet the immediate needs of 2.4 million people left stranded by Cyclone Nargis, several organisations are working to ensure that survivors living with HIV are included in the response. According
Namoe Aisha: "I'm ready for the medicine, me myself, I'm ready for it": UN Integrated Regional Information Network - May 27, 2008; MATANY, Namoe Aisha, an HIV-positive widow with four children, is currently undergoing treatment for tuberculosis at the Matany Hospital in Moroto district, a remote region of Karamoja in northeastern Uganda . She told IRIN/PlusNews about the difficulties she has encountered since being diagnosed with the virus two yea
Lucia Ngobeni: "Before, it was difficult for old people to talk about sex": UN Integrated Regional Information Network - May 26, 2008; JOHANNESBURG, When loveLife, a non-governmental organisation that targets South Africa s youth with HIV awareness programmes, started assembling a network of grandmothers across the country to help prevent HIV among children, they approached Lucia Ngobeni, 56. She had already been taking abandoned and orphaned children
Angola: Should intentional infection be a crime?: UN Integrated Regional Information Network - May 26, 2008; LUANDA, 26 May 2008 (PlusNews) - Proposed reforms to Angola s Penal Code have divided opinion in the country about whether HIV-positive people who intentionally infect others with the virus should be punished. The law under discussion calls for a sentence of between three and 10 years in prison for those who knowingly
Kenya: Janet Kithika: "At least my grandchildren won't become maids or marry too early": UN Integrated Regional Information Network - May 23, 2008; KITUI, 23 May 2008 (PlusNews) - Janet Kithika, 59, is the youngest of 29 grandmothers or shoshos in Nyumbani village in eastern Kenya , which is home to children orphaned by AIDS and the grandparents who care for them. A former teacher and court typist, Kithaka separated from her husband in 1995 and raised her two daug
Cote D'Ivoire: "I didn't think the war would last so long": UN Integrated Regional Information Network - May 23, 2008; BOUAKE, 23 May 2008 (PlusNews) - When the New Forces rebels launched an armed insurrection against Cote D Ivoire s government five years ago, Princess*, 41, who had tested positive for HIV the previous year, fled Bouake, the rebel stronghold, to seek refuge in her home village in the bush, about 30km away. In 2000, aft
Kenya: The little village that could: UN Integrated Regional Information Network - May 22, 2008; KITUI, 22 May 2008 (PlusNews) - The word nyumbani means home in Swahili, and that is exactly what a pilot village in the eastern Kenyan district of Kitui is trying to provide for two generations devastated by the AIDS pandemic. More than 250 orphans and 29 elderly people, all of whom have lost parents and children to A
South Africa: Sex education - the ugly stepchild in teacher training: UN Integrated Regional Information Network - May 22, 2008; JOHANNESBURG, 22 May 2008 (PlusNews) - It s almost noon in Zola, one of the rougher neighbourhoods in Soweto, Johannesburg s biggest township. Kids grow up fast and hard here in the midst of poverty - ambition for some is merely to die with something more than what they were born with. Role models are kwaito stars, per
Niger-Nigeria: Porous border aids human trafficking: UN Integrated Regional Information Network - May 21, 2008; KANO, 21 May 2008 (IRIN) - Nigeria s porous border with its northern neighbour Niger is being exploited by traffickers smuggling teenage girls to Europe where they will work as prostitutes, immigration officials told IRIN. Our 910 kilometre boundary with Niger is too much for us to police which provides human trafficke
Swaziland: Tackling low condom use dramatically: UN Integrated Regional Information Network - May 20, 2008; MANZINI, 20 May 2008 (PlusNews) - Why are condoms so unpopular? This question has baffled and discouraged health experts for a decade, but in Swaziland the mystery of why men and women refuse to use condoms is slowly being unravelled by a project that is getting Swazi men to open up about their condom use, or lack ther
South Africa: Saving lives is not always easy: UN Integrated Regional Information Network - May 20, 2008; JOHANNESBURG, 20 May 2008 (PlusNews) - To be a nurse at Sizwe Hospital, a special facility for treating patients infected with drug-resistant strains of tuberculosis (TB), requires a thick skin and a forgiving nature. Cecelia Mngomezulu, the hospital s head matron, has been verbally abused, spat on, assaulted and held
Hannie Dlamini: "You need to trust your loved ones": UN Integrated Regional Information Network - May 19, 2008; MANZINI, Hannie Thulasiwe Dlamini is approaching 40 years of age, a feat most people in Swaziland considered impossible when he became the first person in the country to publicly declare his HIV-positive status in 1995. By profession I am a builder. I graduated from school in 1990 and started working in 1991. I was sic
South Africa: Military's HIV ban unlawful: UN Integrated Regional Information Network - May 16, 2008; JOHANNESBURG, 16 May 2008 (PlusNews) - South Africa s High Court in Pretoria has ruled that the military s exclusion of HIV-positive people from recruitment, promotion and foreign deployment is unconstitutional. This case is not about the relevance of HIV in a military context, argued senior advocate Gilbert Marcus. T
Burundi: Campaign gives drivers a licence to have safe sex: UN Integrated Regional Information Network - May 16, 2008; BUJUMBURA, 16 May 2008 (PlusNews) - A new HIV prevention campaign targeting drivers of commercial vehicles and their passengers is causing a stir in Burundi , with some locals praising it as a much-needed tool in the fight against HIV, while others are branding it crude and out of step with the country s culture. I
CAR: "Our daughters have no future": UN Integrated Regional Information Network - May 15, 2008; BANGUI, 15 May 2008 (IRIN) - Women in Ndele, a remote town in northern Central African Republic , are making a stand for their rights. The local chapter of the national women s organisation, OFCA, has launched a campaign to alert women to their rights on issues such as female genital mutilation/cutting, early marriages
South Africa: High food prices cripple orphan feeding programmes: UN Integrated Regional Information Network - May 15, 2008; JOHANNESBURG, 15 May 2008 (PlusNews) - Elizabeth Kineelwe, the cook at a drop-in centre that provides meals and support to orphans and impoverished families in Soweto, Johannesburg s largest township, is on the frontlines of a nationwide struggle to cope with rising food prices. Lately, she has been cooking a lot of ca
People think because I can't see, I can't hear either: UN Integrated Regional Information Network - May 14, 2008; NAIROBI, Catherine Wanjiku is a visually impaired teacher from Thika District in central Kenya who was diagnosed with HIV in 2001. She told a recent media briefing on HIV and the disabled about her difficulties in accessing HIV services. I am a mother of six young men, and a widow - my husband died in 1996. When I fell
Cote D'Ivoire: Victims of war still paying the price: UN Integrated Regional Information Network - May 14, 2008; BOUAKE, 14 May 2008 (PlusNews) - Josette* remembers the black day on 19 September 2002, when the New Forces rebels, based in Bouake, Cote D Ivoire, launched an insurrection against President Laurent Gbagbo s government, forcing thousands of people to flee the city. The people of Bouake are still suffering the consequen
Kenya: HIV-positive people feeling the pinch of high food prices: UN Integrated Regional Information Network - May 13, 2008; GARISSA, 13 May 2008 (PlusNews) - Soaring food prices are beginning to affect the health of HIV-positive people in Kenya . Health workers say the situation is especially dire in the remote and chronically food insecure northern parts of the country. The success of ARV drugs is no more; many patients are suffering serio
Sudan: People with HIV demand safe drinking water: UN Integrated Regional Information Network - May 12, 2008; JUBA, 12 May 2008 (PlusNews) - For years, Lole Laila Lole had to drink, cook with, and bathe in the dirty, contaminated water he fetched from the River Nile. There was no other way, he told IRIN/PlusNews. Lole, chairperson of an association for people living with HIV/AIDS in southern Sudan , discovered he was HIV
Kenya: Muslim clerics declare war on condoms: UN Integrated Regional Information Network - May 12, 2008; GARISSA, 12 May 2008 (PlusNews) - Muslim leaders in Kenya s North Eastern Province have resolved to campaign against the promotion of condoms as a means of preventing HIV. The decision was made after a recent meeting on the theme of Islam and Health , attended by more than 60 Muslim scholars and teachers in the provinc
Africa: Getting old on ARVs: UN Integrated Regional Information Network - May 9, 2008; JOHANNESBURG, 9 May 2008 (PlusNews) - Eish, with ARVs [antiretrovirals], you get fat and you get old, a patient at Johannesburg Hospital recently told her doctor. A few years ago, when people infected with HIV in the developing world were wasting away and dying in devastating numbers, her complaint would have been caus
Cote D'Ivoire: Centre offers children health and hope: UN Integrated Regional Information Network - May 8, 2008; BOUAKE, 8 May 2008 (PlusNews) - A straw hut in the courtyard of the Ariel Glaser Paediatric Centre in Bouake is filled with children of all ages playing or eating meals prepared by the centre s cook, all under the watchful eye of relatives. This special space for children infected or affected by HIV was set up in 2007
Burundi: HIV policy ignores the disabled: UN Integrated Regional Information Network - May 7, 2008; BUJUMBURA, 7 May 2008 (PlusNews) - Fabien Hamisi can neither hear nor speak, but don t call him dumb just because he speaks a language not understood by everybody. Hamisi is the executive director of Burundi s National Association for the Deaf, which aims to facilitate communication for the hearing-impaired by teaching
Afghanistan: Can condoms fulfil multiple expectations?: UN Integrated Regional Information Network - May 6, 2008; KABUL, 6 May 2008 (IRIN) - Millions of condoms will be distributed across Afghanistan in 2008 in a new drive to prevent sexually transmitted diseases, reduce maternal mortality and improve family planning, aid agencies and the Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) said. Millions of condoms have been purchased and imported i
Marie: "My one night stand could change my life forever": UN Integrated Regional Information Network - May 6, 2008; NAIROBI, Marie*, 25, comes from France but works for an international non-governmental organisation that often requires her to travel around Asia and Africa. While on one such trip she made a decision that could change her life forever. I met a colleague from one of our other offices; he seemed really nice and almost a
South Africa: Government urged to raise treatment standards: UN Integrated Regional Information Network - May 6, 2008; JOHANNESBURG, 6 May 2008 (PlusNews) - HIV/AIDS treatment guidelines for South Africa s public health sector are out of sync not only with those of many other countries in the region, but also with the latest research on how to most effectively treat people living with HIV. Various studies indicating that patients who s
Thembi Ngubane: "I said no way, this is not anonymous; this is Thembi and everyone has to hear it.": UN Integrated Regional Information Network - May 5, 2008; JOHANNESBURG, Thembi Ngubane, from Khayelitsha, a township in Cape Town, South Africa , discovered she was HIV positive when she was 16 years old. Six years later, while attending a support group, she was approached by a United States-based radio producer interested in making a documentary about a year in the life of a
Africa: Reality TV takes on HIV: UN Integrated Regional Information Network - May 5, 2008; JOHANNESBURG, 5 May 2008 (PlusNews) - The reality TV show Imagine Afrika , about to begin its second season, pits 12 young Africans against some of the most serious problems facing their continent, including how to tackle the HIV/AIDS epidemic. The show first hit the airwaves in October 2007 as part of a campaign by th
Uganda: Hard labour for HIV-positive IDPs: UN Integrated Regional Information Network - May 1, 2008; KIREKA, 1 May 2008 (PlusNews) - Melia Alanyo, 46, left northern Uganda for the capital city, Kampala, in the late 1980s when the rebel Lord s Resistance Army (LRA) started abducting, attacking and killing people in her village. She has spent the last 20 years in Kireka, a low-income suburb on the city s outskirts, coll
Carmela Acen: "I tell everyone I'm positive because it's no secret": UN Integrated Regional Information Network - May 1, 2008; KIREKA, Carmela Acen fled her home in northern Uganda when the rebel Lord s Resistance Army (LRA) began its insurgency campaign in 1986. She told IRIN/PlusNews about her life in Kireka, a poor township in the capital, Kampala. I couldn t stay longer in Kitgum [district in northern Uganda]. Two uncles and two relatives
Zimbabwe: Children not spared post-election violence: UN Integrated Regional Information Network - April 30, 2008; HARARE, 30 April 2008 (IRIN) - Children are not being spared the impact of Zimbabwe s post-election violence. The UN Children s Fund (UNICEF) in Zimbabwe told IRIN its work was being hampered by the countrywide violence, which, according to widespread reports, was being carried out by soldiers, war veterans and militia
Kenya: Clergy urged to ditch sanctimony in HIV fight: UN Integrated Regional Information Network - April 30, 2008; NAIROBI, 30 April 2008 (PlusNews) - When Bishop James Otieno Okombo revealed he was HIV-positive in 1996, his archbishop summarily dismissed him, calling him a sinner and a disgrace to his church. He [the archbishop] called me before a church leaders conference and told me to repent; to denounce the sins that led to me
Kenya: Camp conditions harsh for HIV-positive displaced people: UN Integrated Regional Information Network - April 29, 2008; NAKURU, 29 April 2008 (PlusNews) - Harsh living conditions and the onset of the cold rainy season in Kenya are making it increasingly difficult for HIV-positive people displaced in the recent post-election violence to stay healthy, according to health workers in the camps. The main difficulty is getting a good balanced
Kenya: ARV programmes slowly recovering from post-election crisis: UN Integrated Regional Information Network - April 28, 2008; ELDORET, 28 April 2008 (PlusNews) - Thousands of Kenyans who dropped out of HIV treatment programmes in January as a result of the country s post-election violence are gradually returning to clinics and the antiretroviral (ARV) drugs that help prolong their lives. Initially more than 90 percent of our patients failed t
Henry Mwitirere, Kenya, "I'm displaced but at least I can help other HIV-positive people": UN Integrated Regional Information Network - April 28, 2008; NAKURU, Henry Kamau Mwiterere works with the Academic Model for the Prevention and Treatment of HIV (AMPATH) as a facilitator for HIV support groups in Kenya s western Rift Valley Province. Made homeless by the country s post-election violence in January, he told PlusNews how he has managed to make a difference to disp
Cote D'Ivoire: AIDS services still suspended by conflict: UN Integrated Regional Information Network - April 28, 2008; BOUAKE, 28 April 2008 (PlusNews) - War has left its mark on Bouake, Cote d Ivoire s second largest town and the stronghold of the New Forces rebels, about 300km north of the port city of Abidjan. Many public buildings are empty and dilapidated, roads are in disrepair and carry few vehicles. The university hospital cent
Africa: Epidemic outpacing response says UNAIDS: UN Integrated Regional Information Network - April 24, 2008; JOHANNESBURG, 24 April 2008 (PlusNews) - In less than two months, government officials and AIDS activists from around the world will convene in New York to review the global HIV/AIDS response. National progress reports, submitted earlier this year, will be compared to targets adopted by the United Nations General Assem
Yemen: Project helps boost awareness of HIV/AIDS: UN Integrated Regional Information Network - April 24, 2008; SANAA, 24 April 2008 (PlusNews) - Samah Riyadh, 20, has been educating people about HIV/AIDS and ways to prevent it since 2005. In the beginning, people had very limited knowledge about HIV/AIDS, and dealt with this issue insensitively...People are now beginning to understand what HIV/AIDS is and how it is transmitted,
Sri Lanka: On track to eliminate malaria: UN Integrated Regional Information Network - April 24, 2008; COLOMBO, 24 April 2008 (IRIN) - Sri Lanka , once among Asia s worst affected nations for malaria, is now close to eliminating it. The sharp drop in the number of reported cases to 196 in 2007 - with no deaths - demonstrates that the national malaria control programme has been effective even in the traditionally disease
Zimbabwe: NGOs withering under foreign currency shortages: UN Integrated Regional Information Network - April 23, 2008; HARARE , 23 April 2008 (IRIN) - Scores of nongovernmental (NGO) and humanitarian organisations are threatened with collapse after Zimbabwe s central bank failed to release money required for their operational costs. Cephas Zinhumwe, chief executive officer of the National Association of Nongovernmental Organisations (N
Thailand: Helping HIV/AIDS children: UN Integrated Regional Information Network - April 23, 2008; BANGKOK, 23 April 2008 (IRIN) - As a child, Poel wondered why she fell sick so often, why she was always breaking out in lesions, why she constantly felt tired. The answer seems obvious now - her parents died of HIV/AIDS when she was very young. But the aunt who looked after her never sent her for tests and her status
Albertina Nyatsi: "You don't have to suffer in silence; you don't have to suffer at all": UN Integrated Regional Information Network - April 22, 2008; MBABANE, I grew up in the north. My father died when I was two years old and I was raised by my mother. I have two brothers and five sisters. Two things I really like to do are teach and communicate with people about HIV. This is a big job in Swaziland : the most conservative survey showed that over a quarter of the ad
South Africa: Chakras and children: UN Integrated Regional Information Network - April 18, 2008; JOHANNESBURG, 18 April 2008 (PlusNews) - Twenty years into the pandemic, people are looking for new ways to live with HIV, and for some alternative medicine has become part of the answer. The TsaBotsogo Community Development and Training Centre, based in Dobsonville, Soweto, a sprawling township south of Johannesburg,
Sudan: The art of HIV education in the south: UN Integrated Regional Information Network - April 17, 2008; JUBA, 17 April 2008 (PlusNews) - In a tiny recording studio in the southern Sudanese capital, Juba, Patrick Taban s phone rings off the hook, but he pays it no attention - he s too wrapped up in his preparations for a big production later that evening. Taban heads The Heavens, a drama and musical group of 14 members wh
Namibia: Have wheels, will travel - Revolutionising ARV access in Namibia: UN Integrated Regional Information Network - April 16, 2008; KEHEMU, 16 April 2008 (PlusNews) - Home-based caregiver Salome Vendura knows firsthand that in Namibia s far-flung rural areas, one of the biggest determinants of HIV/AIDS treatment adherence is access to affordable and reliable transportation. In Vendura s community of Kehemu, in northern Namibia, the nearest hospital
Indonesia: Because you're worth it - HIV and the hairdressers: UN Integrated Regional Information Network - April 16, 2008; JAKARTA, 16 April 2008 (PlusNews) - A visit to the barber s shop or hairdressing salon in Indonesia could entail far more than a shave or a trim - a lesson in HIV/AIDS and how to prevent it. The French-based international company L Oreal, with the support of the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNE
Kenya: When there's no excuse not to use a condom: UN Integrated Regional Information Network - April 15, 2008; NAIROBI, 15 April 2008 (PlusNews) - When the music s pumping, drinks are flowing and hormones are raging, condoms don t often spring to mind, until it s too late. By then, the shops are closed and a packet of three is hard to come by. That s where enterprising vendors outside the busy bars and nightclubs in Nairobi, th
Africa: Overview - At the Cutting edge - male circumcision and HIV: UN Integrated Regional Information Network - April 11, 2008; Is mass male circumcision the new big thing in HIV prevention, or is it a risky social experiment that threatens to divert funding from tried and tested interventions? UNAIDS is careful in its assessment: Without question, we absolutely have to ensure that men and women are aware that male circumcision is not a magic
Angola: Sex work in separatist Cabinda: UN Integrated Regional Information Network - April 11, 2008; The bar is vibrant, despite its seedy and stale appearance CABINDA, 11 April 2008 (PlusNews) - Money and men are in no short supply in the petroleum-rich Angolan enclave of Cabinda. Workers from the petroleum industry, truck drivers, merchants and some 60,000 soldiers and police are based in the area; and sex workers f
Kenya: Government to roll out male circumcision: UN Integrated Regional Information Network - April 10, 2008; NAIROBI, 10 April 2008 (PlusNews) - The Kenyan government has embarked on an ambitious national programme to fast track the national rollout of male circumcision as a means of preventing HIV. Results from three randomised controlled trials in South Africa , Kenya and Uganda , in 2006 showed tha
Uganda: The cost of keeping children from knowing their HIV status: UN Integrated Regional Information Network - April 8, 2008; KAMPALA, 8 April 2008 (PlusNews) - Throughout his childhood, Gordon Turibamwe, 20, was sickly, suffering from frequent bouts of malaria and chest infections, but his father only told him he was HIV-positive when he was aged 16, something Gordon says caused him serious trauma. I was so shocked and so angry with my dad f
Chad: HIV/AIDS is not the only threat to life: UN Integrated Regional Information Network - April 7, 2008; N DJAMENA, 7 April 2008 (PlusNews) - If someone living with HIV in the southern Danamadji region of Chad needs to go to hospital, and they are not too weak, the best way of getting there is usually by ox-cart, but it can take up to a day and a half to get there - unless they are attacked by elephants on the way. De
Nigeria: No condoms for Anambra State: UN Integrated Regional Information Network - April 7, 2008; LAGOS, 7 April 2008 (IRIN) - It is now illegal to encourage the use of condoms in southeast Nigeria s Anambra State. The state government has also banned the advocacy and distribution of other forms of contraceptives including IUDs (intrauterine device) and any other un-natural birth control. Instead of teaching childr
Swaziland: Underpaid and undervalued - caregivers go hungry: UN Integrated Regional Information Network - April 4, 2008; MBABANE, 4 April 2008 (PlusNews) - Overworked and poorly paid, volunteer caregivers in Swaziland struggling to cope with the growing numbers of bedridden patients with HIV, are faced with a hard choice: to quit or go hungry. I love helping people. It is the first time I have done anything out of the home. I do not do t
Global: More mothers and children on ARVs: UN Integrated Regional Information Network - April 3, 2008; JOHANNESBURG, 3 April 2008 (PlusNews) - More mothers and children in developing countries are receiving treatment than ever before, according to a new report by the United Nations. But stigma, limited information and fragile health systems still pose hurdles to achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Coverag
Looking in the mirror at HIV: UN Integrated Regional Information Network - April 2, 2008; JOHANNESBURG, 2 April 2008 (PlusNews) - It s house music. It s dinner, drinks and a movie. It s first dates, first loves and first heart breaks. It s being young - and it s also about HIV, as a new global campaign against stigma aims to redefine the face of the virus. Does HIV look like me? is run by a US-bas