ZIMBABWE: "I shout; I speak out on issues concerning women living with HIV"
22 April 2010 (PlusNews ), Evelyn Mashamba is one of Zimbabwe's most outspoken gender and AIDS activists and has being living with HIV for the past 10 years. She told IRIN/PlusNews how being HIV-positive propelled her into the movement to fight for the rights of women living with the virus.
http://www.plusnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=88893
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COTE D'IVOIRE: A dollar or less per trick
21 April 2010 (PlusNews ), A small group of nervous looking girls hang about in the bustling bus station in Adjamé, a working-class neighbourhood of Abidjan, Cote D'Ivoire's commercial hub, carefully watched by their 'vieux pères' – their protectors or pimps – who hold machetes or knives. A trick is often negotiated for barely a dollar, and generally without a condom.
http://www.plusnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=88880
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KENYA: Bisexual male sex workers run big risks
20 April 2010 (PlusNews ), At a nightclub in Mombasa, on the Kenyan coast, Tito Bakari* a local man, and Leonard Smithberger, a tourist, make out in a dark corner before the bouncer asks them to leave. Hand in hand they walk to another bar nearby, where they party through the night.
http://www.plusnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=88867
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SOMALIA: HIV education goes to school
15 April 2010 (PlusNews ), A new programme is targeting about 800 primary and junior high school students in northwestern Somalia's self-declared republic of Somaliland with HIV/AIDS messages for the first time.
http://www.plusnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=88829
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ZIMBABWE: Worrying rise in STIs among young people
14 April 2010 (PlusNews ), A new report by Zimbabwe's National AIDS Council (NAC), showing a dramatic rise in sexually transmitted infections (STIs) among people aged 15 to 24 in the capital, Harare, has health experts worried that the country's success in reducing HIV could be unravelling.
http://www.plusnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=88810
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MALAWI: Clinics dispel male circumcision myths
13 April 2010 (PlusNews ), Male circumcision (MC), which can reduce HIV among men by up to 60 percent, is controversial in Malawi and government has yet to implement mass male circumcision. But a chain of private clinics has rolled out the measure with some surprising results.
http://www.plusnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=88790
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MALAWI: Lazzar Phiri,* "It's a thing that we needed to discuss."
12 April 2010 (PlusNews ), Lazzar Phiri*, a health worker in the Malawian capital, Lilongwe, doesn't only preach the benefits of male circumcision - he knows them first hand. Almost a year ago he went for the minor operation at a clinic run by the family planning organization, Banja La Mtsogolo (BLM) - Future Family in the Chichewa language. In a country where "the cut" remains controversial, Phiri sat down with IRIN/PlusNews to talk about it.
http://www.plusnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=88787
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RWANDA: People with disabilities left out of condom campaign
9 April 2010 (PlusNews ), Rwanda's recent national condom awareness campaign failed to include messages designed for people with disabilities, something experts say is a mistake, as they are often equally at risk of HIV as the rest of the population.
http://www.plusnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=88761
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KENYA: Illegal refugees miss out on HIV services
8 April 2010 (PlusNews ), Salma* is HIV-positive and knows she needs life-prolonging antiretroviral drugs, but visiting a doctor could expose her illegal refugee status in Kenya and risk her being sent to a refugee camp, or worse, back to Somalia.
http://www.plusnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=88739
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DRC: Funding crunch threatens ARV rollout
7 April 2010 (PlusNews ), With large donor projects winding up and little bilateral support for HIV programmes in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the country is facing the possibility of ARV shortages and rising HIV mortality, say aid workers.
http://www.plusnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=88718
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MALAWI: Gift Trapence, "People are targeted because of who they are, not what they are doing"
7 April 2010 (PlusNews ), Gift Trapence is the executive director of the Centre for the Development of People (CEDEP), a human rights organization in Malawi - one of the few working with vulnerable groups like men who have sex with men (MSM), prisoners and sex workers.
http://www.plusnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=88725
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MALAWI: Court case drives MSM deeper underground
6 April 2010 (PlusNews ), An engagement ceremony has landed a same-sex Malawian couple in jail, propelled their country into international headlines, and pushed men who have sex with men (MSM) further towards society's risky margins.
http://www.plusnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=88663
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KENYA: "R U OK 2day?" SMS check-up takes off
1 April 2010 (PlusNews ), Phoebe Mapelu's job as a community health worker in Kenya's Kajiado District always meant going from door to door - sometimes with long distances between homes - to check up on patients on life-prolonging antiretroviral therapy.
http://www.plusnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=88653
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SOUTH AFRICA: Traditional healers extend healthcare
1 April 2010 (PlusNews ), South Africa's traditional healing profession has often been mired in controversy over treating HIV/AIDS, with dodgy traditional remedies promoted as alternatives to antiretroviral (ARV) medication, and some groups of traditional healers being associated with AIDS denialists.
http://www.plusnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=88655
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KENYA: HIV funding begins at home
31 March 2010 (PlusNews ), Smarting from two consecutive Global Fund rejections and declining donor interest, the Kenyan government is considering ways to fund its own national treatment programme.
http://www.plusnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=88632
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EAST AFRICA: One region, one HIV law
31 March 2010 (PlusNews ), As the East African Community (EAC) becomes more integrated, countries in the region are developing a common HIV Prevention and Management Bill that will establish minimum standards for HIV services in the five states - Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda.
http://www.plusnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=88635
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DRC-UGANDA: Florence Karungi*, "I would probably let myself die, but I have to do this for my children"
30 March 2010 (PlusNews ), Florence Karungi, 30, fled rebel violence near her home in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in 2006 and has lived with her three children at Kyaka II Refugee Camp in southwestern Uganda ever since. When she became pregnant in 2009, she found out she was HIV-positive. Her husband abandoned her and the children upon learning of her status. She spoke to IRIN about her experience:
http://www.plusnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=88613
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EAST AFRICA: The military as "agents for change"
30 March 2010 (PlusNews ), East African armies should be used as a resource to fight HIV/AIDS in the general population, a workshop on HIV/AIDS in the peace and security sectors heard in the Rwandan capital, Kigali.
http://www.plusnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=88616
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ZIMBABWE: Men take a hands-on approach to pregnancy
30 March 2010 (PlusNews ), Men in rural Zimbabwe are taking a hands-on approach to pregnancy - and to preventing mother-to-child HIV transmission.
http://www.plusnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=88624
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AFRICA: Antibiotic plus ARVs could halve HIV mortality - study
29 March 2010 (PlusNews ), A cheap, widely available antibiotic given to patients when they start taking life-prolonging antiretroviral (ARV) drugs could reduce HIV mortality in resource-limited settings by up to 50 percent says a new study published in the scientific journal, The Lancet.
http://www.plusnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=88609
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