IRIN PlusNews HIV/AIDS News and information service | Southern Africa | AFRICA: IRIN PlusNews Weekly Issue 246, 12 August 2005 | Other | Weekly
Tuesday 1 November 2005
Home About PlusNews Country Profiles News Briefs Special Reports Subscribe Archive IRINnews
 

Regions

Africa
East Africa
Great Lakes
Horn of Africa
Southern Africa
·Angola
·Botswana
·Comoros
·Lesotho
·Madagascar
·Malawi
·Mauritus
·Mozambique
·Namibia
·South Africa
·Swaziland
·Zambia
·Zimbabwe
West Africa
RSSyndication
RSS - News Briefs

Features

PlusNews E-mail Subscription
 

IRIN PlusNews Weekly Issue 246, 12 August 2005


[This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]


NEWS:

SOUTHERN AFRICA: Farm workers neglected in HIV/AIDS prevention
SOUTH AFRICA: Govt to consider routine testing
SOUTH AFRICA: HIV/AIDS to take heavy toll on health services
CAMEROON: FHI ends clinical trial of ARV drug Tenofovir

CONFERENCES/ EVENTS/ RESEARCH/ RESOURCES:

JOB OPPORTUNITIES:



SOUTHERN AFRICA: Farm workers neglected in HIV/AIDS prevention efforts

Constantly moving, keeping an ear open for fresh opportunities, migrant farm workers in Southern Africa are often a forgotten population, for whom little is done to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS in an already high-risk environment.

A study conducted by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) in the region along the border between South Africa and Mozambique brings into sharp focus how living and working on farms makes workers more vulnerable to HIV/AIDS.

Researchers noted that high-risk sexual behaviour between men and women working on farms was common, and the "incidence of concurrent sexual relationships was unexpectedly high".

More details



SOUTH AFRICA: Govt to consider routine testing

The South African government is considering whether to make HIV tests routinely available at public health facilities.

Individuals wishing to know their HIV status currently undergo voluntary counselling and testing (VCT) but only 850,000 South Africans - in a population of around 45 million - have been tested in the past four years.

Views on testing have begun to shift: last year Botswana became the first African country to introduce routine testing in its health sector, with Malawi and Lesotho following suit.

More details



SOUTH AFRICA: HIV/AIDS to take heavy toll on health services

The cost of health services in South Africa will increase sharply in the next few years as a result of HIV/AIDS, researchers have found.

By 2007, large numbers of HIV-positive South Africans would start falling ill from AIDS-related diseases, placing a heavy burden on the country's public healthcare sector, according to the Health Economics and HIV/AIDS Research Division (HEARD) of the University of KwaZulu-Natal.

Rising HIV-prevalence rates in South Africa would aggravate the situation - the rate for pregnant women attending antenatal clinics grew from 27.9 percent in 2003 to 29.5 percent in 2004.

More details



CAMEROON: FHI ends clinical trial of ARV drug Tenofovir

A US-based research organisation has announced that it will end the controversial testing of the anti-AIDS drug, Tenofovir, on sex workers in Cameroon.

In a statement Family Health International (FHI) said, "Over the next month, women will return to the clinic for their final visits. By the end of September 2005, the site will be closed."

Tenofovir is an antiretroviral (ARV) drug manufactured by US pharmaceutical company Gilead, and sold under the brand name 'Viread' for the past three years.

More details

[ENDS]




 
Recent AFRICA Reports
AIDS-prevention policies promote stigma - expert,  28/Oct/05
IRIN PlusNews Weekly Issue 257, 28 October 2005,  28/Oct/05
IRIN PlusNews Weekly Issue 256, 21 October 2005,  21/Oct/05
NAPWA partners with controversial Rath Foundation,  20/Oct/05
IRIN PlusNews Weekly Issue 255, 14 October 2005,  14/Oct/05
Links
Le portail d'informations générales de la Côte d’Ivoire
Sida Info Services
Le Fonds mondial de lutte contre le SIDA, la tuberculose et le paludisme
Le Réseau Afrique 2000

PlusNews does not take responsibility for info in links supplied.


[Back] [Home Page]

Click here to send any feedback, comments or questions you have about PlusNews Website or if you prefer you can send an Email to Webmaster

Copyright © IRIN 2005
The material contained on www.PlusNews.org comes to you via IRIN, a UN humanitarian news and information service, but may not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations or its agencies.
All PlusNews material may be reposted or reprinted free-of-charge; refer to the IRIN copyright page for conditions of use. IRIN is a project of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.