In-depth: Countdown to Universal Access
Will countries meet their targets?
Is universal access the responsibility of government rather than donors?
As donors tighten their belts in the global recession, health experts in Uganda worry that the national antiretroviral (ARV) programme, which is almost entirely dependent on foreign aid, will be unable to keep providing the life-prolonging drugs.
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AFRICA: The universal access hit parade
JOHANNESBURG, 30 November 2009 (PlusNews) - The theme for World AIDS Day 2009 is 'Universal Access and Human Rights', and the efforts of the continent's developing countries to reach some of the key indicators of universal access are under closer scrutiny than ever. Will they do it?
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NAMIBIA: A long walk to universal access
WINDHOEK, 30 October 2009 (PlusNews) - In Onamutenya village, northern Namibia, the Shigwedha household leaves their homestead at the crack of dawn to make the monthly four-hour walk to fetch antiretroviral (ARV) medication from the local clinic.
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GLOBAL: Inching towards universal access to PMTCT services
NAIROBI, 1 October 2009 (PlusNews) - More than half of HIV-positive pregnant women in low- and middle-income countries continue to go without life-saving anti-retroviral medication that could prevent transmission of the virus to their unborn children, according to a new report, Towards Universal Access.
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GLOBAL: The bumpy road to universal ARV access
JOHANNESBURG, 30 September 2009 (PlusNews) - More than four million people globally are now on antiretroviral (ARV) treatment - a 10-fold jump in five years - but this is still less than half the people living with HIV who need it.
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SWAZILAND: No easy fixes for world's highest infection rate
MBABANE, 15 September 2009 (PlusNews) - Average life expectancy in Swaziland has plummeted from around 60 years in the 1990s to just over 30 years today. Few would deny that HIV/AIDS is largely to blame, but the reasons why the epidemic has devastated this tiny, southern African country more than any other are less clear.
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ETHIOPIA: Government empowers nurses to boost ARV treatment
ADDIS ABABA, 7 August 2009 (PlusNews) - Simay Muluneh, 32, who lives in Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia, will always wonder what might have been. Her husband died of AIDS-related complications 10 years ago, but a year after his death discovered that she, too, was HIV-positive after applying for a visa to work in Lebanon.
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