SOUTH AFRICA: Mother-to-child HIV transmission still falling
23 July 2012 (PlusNews ), South Africa has charted a significant decline in mother-to-child HIV transmission for the second consecutive year, with new data showing that just 2.7 percent of babies born to HIV-positive mums contracted the virus at six weeks of age, compared to 8 percent in 2008.
http://www.plusnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=95929
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AFRICA: Domestic investment in HIV up but uneven
19 July 2012 (PlusNews ), Many sub-Saharan African nations - traditionally the beneficiaries of international HIV funding - are gradually increasing their financial contributions to the fight against the virus, boosting the number of people on treatment to record highs according to a new UNAIDS report, Together We Will End AIDS, released on 18 July.
http://www.plusnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=95904
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SOUTH AFRICA: Activists protest as Novartis ruling approaches
12 July 2012 (PlusNews ), At least a hundred protesters arrived at South Africa's parliament on 11 July to demonstrate their disapproval of the ongoing court case by Swiss pharmaceutical company Novartis against the Indian government over its patent laws. As the case draws to a close, health organizations say a win for the pharmaceutical company will be a loss to the developing world, which sources the bulk of its generic medicines from India.
http://www.plusnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=95854
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SOUTH AFRICA: National Health Insurance falls short on health workers
11 July 2012 (PlusNews ), As South Africa moves towards universal healthcare, health policy experts warn that the country has grossly underestimated the number of health workers it will need to ensure access to health services for everyone.
http://www.plusnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=95840
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SOUTH AFRICA: First nurses trained to initiate MDR-TB treatment
19 June 2012 (PlusNews ), South Africa will increasingly move towards nurse-initiated treatment for multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) in the next five years, and a programme in KwaZulu-Natal Province, which has a high HIV/TB burden, is already training nurses to manage MDR-TB patients.
http://www.plusnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=95681
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SOUTH AFRICA: Overcrowding fuels TB in prisons
19 June 2012 (PlusNews ), Tuberculosis (TB) rates in South Africa's prisons could be cut by up to 94 percent if the country reduced overcrowded conditions in cells and implemented active TB case finding, according to research presented at the recent South African TB Conference.
http://www.plusnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=95684
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SOUTH AFRICA: Busisiwe Beko, "I'm pregnant, I've got HIV and also TB"
15 June 2012 (PlusNews ), In 2005, Busisiwe Beko realized she was pregnant. She also found out she was HIV-positive, and that she had active tuberculosis (TB). Then she developed multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB) and for the next year struggled to get proper, timely treatment for her and her baby daughter, who contracted MDR-TB.
http://www.plusnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=95653
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HEALTH: The TB activist agenda
14 June 2012 (PlusNews ), TB activists have a lot on their plates - whether it’s affordable access to the latest tuberculosis (TB) diagnostics, or pushing for more paediatric formulations. IRIN/PlusNews takes a look at the top three issues.
http://www.plusnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=95650
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SOUTH AFRICA: Decentralizing care and treatment for drug-resistant TB
14 June 2012 (PlusNews ), South Africa’s move to decentralize the treatment of drug-resistant tuberculosis (TB) has given rise to a crop of nurses equipped not only to initiate patients on HIV treatment, but also to prescribe for and monitor drug-resistant TB (DR-TB) patients. However, experts and government officials say the need for specialist physicians and hospitals will continue, based on research presented at the South African TB conference in the port city of Durban.
http://www.plusnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=95643
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SOUTH AFRICA: Dr Elizabeth Serogo "Ausi" Nkhi, "TB did not leave me as it found me”
13 June 2012 (PlusNews ), Dr Elizabeth Serogo is a medical doctor with a master’s degree in business leadership. She is also CEO of her own consultancy, where she trains NGOs and government departments on capacity building and tuberculosis (TB) management. And she runs her own private practice east of South Africa's capital, Pretoria.
http://www.plusnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=95639
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SOUTH AFRICA: No HIV and TB workplace policy, no mining licence
26 March 2012 (PlusNews ), Regulators are increasingly scrutinizing HIV and TB responses in South Africa’s mining sector, which could lead to the industry being hit where it hurts - the bottom line.
http://www.plusnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=95169
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SOUTH AFRICA: Children with TB below the health radar
23 March 2012 (PlusNews ), To a casual observer the two dozen children running round in the grassy schoolyard look like ordinary kids playing, but the surrounding buildings are the wards of the Brooklyn Chest Hospital (BCH), which specializes in treating severe cases of tuberculosis (TB), a disease rarely associated with children.
http://www.plusnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=95132
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SOUTHERN AFRICA: TB preventative therapy scorecard
23 March 2012 (PlusNews ), Tuberculosis (TB) is the leading killer of HIV-positive people globally. Almost 15 years ago the World Health Organization (WHO) and UNAIDS recommended that people living with HIV be given isoniazid preventative TB therapy (IPT), to prevent active TB, but national implementation of IPT has been slow.
http://www.plusnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=95141
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SOUTH AFRICA: What the world's largest preventative TB study taught us
13 March 2012 (PlusNews ), Even though the world's largest study of preventative tuberculosis therapy indicated that community-wide isoniazid preventative TB therapy (IPT) failed to lower community TB levels among 27,000 South African gold miners, that was not Thibela’s only result. We review some of the others over its seven years:
http://www.plusnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=95064
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SOUTH AFRICA: Preventative TB trial disappoints
9 March 2012 (PlusNews ), After seven years of research, the world's largest study of preventative tuberculosis (TB) therapy has found that untargeted, community-wide distribution of TB prevention drugs did not improve TB control on South African gold mines.
http://www.plusnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=95042
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SOUTH AFRICA: New reports chart progress - and costs - in HIV fight
27 February 2012 (PlusNews ), Mothers, babies and newly diagnosed HIV patients are receiving more of the services they need but progress comes at a cost, according to a new report that predicts a funding shortfall for HIV treatment in South Africa.
http://www.plusnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=94968
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SOUTH AFRICA: Global Fund monies finally released
22 February 2012 (PlusNews ), More than seven months overdue, the Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria grant will finally be released to key South African AIDS organizations that have been struggling to survive. Some were on the verge of shutting down.
http://www.plusnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=94927
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SOUTH AFRICA: Outrage over HIV-positive journalist's dismissal and deportation
20 February 2012 (PlusNews ), Allegedly tested for HIV without consent, found positive and subsequently dismissed, detained and deported, a South African journalist is attempting to take his case against Qatar to the International Labour Organization (ILO) to change the country's HIV travel and employment laws.
http://www.plusnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=94906
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AFRICA: Snake oil salesmen and dodgy HIV "cures"
19 January 2012 (PlusNews ), Uganda's National Drug Authority recently arrested sales representatives of a company selling a drug that purports to cure HIV; the firm's owners are not licensed to sell medicine and are being sought by the police.
http://www.plusnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=94679
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HIV/AIDS: Feeling the pinch
1 December 2011 (PlusNews ), Faced with the global economic downturn and less money from donors, national HIV programmes in East and Southern Africa - the region hardest hit by HIV/AIDS - are struggling to stay afloat. IRIN/PlusNews brings you a wrap of countries feeling the biggest pinch.
http://www.plusnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=94363
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