|
|
|
IRIN PlusNews Weekly Issue 285, 26 May 2006
[This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]
SPECIAL REPORTS ON UNGASS PROGRESS:
SOUTHERN AFRICA: Expecting poor marks for AIDS prevention on the UNGASS report card
KENYA: Progress on HIV parent-to-baby transmission, but UNGASS target still elusive
UGANDA: UNGASS scorecard: good HIV/AIDS information but too little prevention
NEWS:
SOUTH AFRICA: 'In the Continuum' gives HIV/AIDS a human face
DJIBOUTI: The weight of silence - overcoming the stigma of HIV/AIDS
KENYA: Treating little people with big problems at Gertrude's
KENYA: Caring for an HIV-positive child - one mother's story
UGANDA: Politicians implicated in Global Fund scam excluded from gov't
UGANDA: Men's union encourages men to be more open about HIV
COTE D'IVOIRE: Civil war all but wiped out healthcare, HIV/AIDS facilities in north
NAMIBIA: Vulnerable children receive food and an allowance
EVENTS:
SPECIAL REPORTS ON UNGASS PROGRESS:
SOUTHERN AFRICA: Expecting poor marks for AIDS prevention on the UNGASS report card
African countries have failed to meet prevention targets agreed upon in 2001 at the United Nations General Assembly's Special Session on HIV/AIDS (UNGASS), according to a statement issued recently by over 80 representatives of African civil society.
The statement noted that no African country has met the UNGASS goals of reducing HIV prevalence among young people by 25 percent or ensuring 90 percent access to HIV/AIDS information and education. These failures are likely to come under scrutiny as government representatives converge on New York at the end of this month to review progress on their 2001 commitments to combating HIV and AIDS.
Figures in official reports submitted ahead of the meeting indicate that in Southern Africa, the region worst hit by the epidemic, condom uptake and knowledge about how to prevent transmission are still disturbingly low.
More details
KENYA: Progress on HIV parent-to-baby transmission, but UNGASS target still elusive
The comprehensive HIV/AIDS care clinic at Kenya's Machakos District Hospital buzzes with activity as nurses call out the names of the tens of women waiting - proof, according to the hospital's staff, that their efforts to reduce the number of children born with the virus are paying off.
"As you can see, the clinic is full of people - uptake of VCT [voluntary counselling and testing], ARVs [antiretroviral treatment] and PMTCT [prevention of mother-to-child HIV transmission] are all on the rise," said Dr Simon Mueke, the hospital's medical superintendent.
At the United Nations General Assembly Special Session (UNGASS) on HIV/AIDS five years ago, world leaders committed to ensuring that 80 percent of pregnant women would have access to HIV prevention services. Although Kenya has not met the 2001 target, the government feels they have improved access to PMTCT services.
More details
UGANDA: UNGASS scorecard: good HIV/AIDS information but too little prevention
Uganda has failed to meet two of the three HIV prevention targets set by the United Nations General Assembly Special Session (UNGASS) on HIV in 2001, according to a UN World Health Organization (WHO) official in the Ugandan capital, Kampala.
"The only one Uganda is hitting is access to information on ways of preventing the transmission of the HIV," said Dr Abdikamal Alisalad, an HIV medical officer with WHO. "According to last year's nationwide sero-status survey, more than 90 percent of Ugandans could identify one or two ways of preventing the sexual transmission of the virus.
More details
SOUTH AFRICA: 'In the Continuum' gives HIV/AIDS a human face
A powerful play about the devastating impact of an HIV diagnosis on two black women has helped audiences in the United States, Zimbabwe and now South Africa give the epidemic a human face.
'In the Continuum' tells the stories of Abigail (Danai Gurira), a middle-class Zimbabwean woman who is a wife and mother working as a newsreader for Zimbabwe's government-owned television station, and Nia (Nikkole Slater), a young amateur poet from the impoverished, crime-ridden African American neighbourhood of South Central Los Angeles. The two women are worlds apart but become unknowingly linked after both test positive for HIV.
They experience a similar cycle of bewildering emotions, from shock and disbelief to anger at their male partners for infecting them, followed by the fear that their men will blame and reject them.
More details
DJIBOUTI: The weight of silence - overcoming the stigma of HIV/AIDS
In the deeply conservative Muslim society of the Red Sea state of Djibouti, HIV-positive people wear their status as a cloak of shame.
"Being HIV positive is like having death glued to your skin - it's difficult to forget," said Kadidja Mohamed, 28, whose husband divorced her when he discovered she was HIV-positive, leaving her and her three-year-old child to fend for themselves.
Djibouti has a population of some 700,000 people and a prevalence rate of around three percent, but only 480 of the estimated 10,000 people living with HIV are accessing life-prolonging antiretroviral therapy, according to the government.
More details
KENYA: Treating little people with big problems at Gertrude's
Gertrude's Garden Children's Hospital, in the plush Nairobi suburb of Muthaiga, is the Kenyan capital's only facility dedicated to paediatrics and, until recently, the only one of its kind in East Africa, a region with hundreds of thousands of HIV-positive children.
Built in 1947, Gertrude's original structure was a modest cottage, now barely visible amid the modern laboratories, examination rooms and wards. Today, the Gertrude's Children's Hospital's non-profit trust, supported by the United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef) and other donors, treats 130 HIV-positive children, aged between two and 14.
One of the toughest challenges the staff face is telling children they are HIV positive. "As they grow older, children get concerned and ask, 'Why am I taking medication? Why am I not going to school? Why can't I play with the other kids, why am I always in hospital?'" said chief paediatrician Dr Renson Mukhwana.
More details
KENYA: Caring for an HIV-positive child - one mother's story
When HIV-positive Brenda* had her first child in 1998, he lived for just five months, his immune system overwhelmed by illness.
Abandoned by the baby's father, Brenda wallowed in misery for a while, but then met Mark, who supported her through her grief and became her partner. He and his infant son, Paul, who were both HIV-positive, became Brenda's family.
"When I met Paul he seemed very sick. I had been doing some reading and thought he had to be taken to a hospital, where he was diagnosed with the virus," she said. "At that point, we thought he was finished ... he was so thin ... he never used to eat."
More details
UGANDA: Politicians implicated in Global Fund scam excluded from gov't
Uganda's former health minister and his two deputies - all of whom are accused of mismanagement of foreign grants to fight HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria - have been left out of President Yoweri Museveni's new cabinet.
A list of proposed cabinet members submitted to the Ugandan parliament for approval on Tuesday did not include the names of former minister Jim Muhwezi, Mike Mukula and Alex Kamugisha. The president, who won a third term of office in a February poll, gave no reason for their exclusion. Observers, however, said the move was linked to Uganda's Global Fund scandal.
The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria temporarily suspended all grants to Uganda in August 2005, citing "serious mismanagement" of funds. It lifted the suspension in November 2005, following assurances by the government that it would look into management of the money.
More details
UGANDA: Men's union encourages men to be more open about HIV
A pioneering support group in Uganda is urging men living with HIV/AIDS to own up to their condition rather than putting themselves and their families at risk by staying in denial.
The Positive Men's Union (POMU) promotes the involvement of men living with HIV/AIDS in efforts to curb the spread of the pandemic, encouraging them to seek treatment and counselling to deal with the psychological difficulties of living with the virus.
Richard Serunkuuma, 34, POMU's national coordinator, says men suffer inside, unable to admit their status to their families. "AIDS used to be like a big sin, and I didn't want to be regarded as a sinner. Not knowing who to turn to was the cause of a lot of pain," he recalled.
More details
COTE D IVOIRE: Civil war all but wiped out health care, HIV/AIDS facilities in north
Cote d'Ivoire's civil war all but wiped out the health sector in the rebel-held north, dramatically reducing the number of available doctors and significantly harming HIV/AIDS care and prevention, a new study shows.
The departure of health staff and the decline of functioning clinics and hospitals in urban rebel-held areas after war broke out in September 2002 is likely to lead to an increase in HIV infections and sexually transmitted diseases (STIs), Swiss and Ivorian researchers warned in a report released on Friday.
The study, financed by the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, compared health facilities and human resources in the public and private health sectors in March 2004, 19 months after rebels took control of the northern half of Cote d'Ivoire, to the pre-war situation.
More details
NAMIBIA: Vulnerable children receive food and an allowance
Registering and feeding over 100,000 orphans and vulnerable children in the rural areas of northern Namibia is underway, bringing much needed relief to many of these often-neglected youngsters.
"They [the children] are very excited about the help that is being provided and that they will be registered," said Linius Kuume, coordinator at a feeding point in the north run by the Catholic AIDS Action (CAA), a WFP implementing partner. "Feeding rations consist of maizemeal, vegetable oil, CSB [corn-soya blend] and beans," he added.
Namibia has a growing number of orphans and vulnerable children, mainly as a result of HIV/AIDS - around 23 percent of people aged 15 to 49 are HIV positive. Caprivi is the worst affected region, with an alarming 43 percent prevalence rate.
More details
[ENDS]
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Links |
· AIDS Media Center
|
· The Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis & Malaria
|
· International Community of Women Living with HIV/AIDS
|
· AEGIS
|
· International HIV/AIDS Alliance
|
PlusNews does not take responsibility for info in links supplied.
|
|
|
|
|
