AFRICA: IRIN PlusNews Weekly Issue 287, 9 June 2006
JOHANNESBURG, 9 June 2006 (PlusNews) - NEWS:
BOTSWANA: Care for caregivers at new centre
INDIA: UN report spotlights HIV/AIDS rates in children
KYRGYZSTAN: World Bank and government pledge to battle HIV/AIDS
THAILAND: Increased HIV/AIDS awareness needed - UNAIDS
LESOTHO: Govt intensifies efforts to help rape survivors
LAOS: TV and radio dramas boost HIV/AIDS awareness among migrants
KENYA: My brother's keeper - community care saves lives
LINKS:
1. African Regional Youth Initiative- New Website
2. AIDS
3. Johns Hopkins AIDS Service
JOBS:
BOTSWANA: Care for caregivers at new centre
A new centre in Botswana is piloting some innovate strategies to address the emotional and medical needs of HIV/AIDS healthcare providers.
The Tshedisa Institute in the capital, Gaborone, is the brainchild of several doctors working in the local private and public health sectors, who recognised the need to provide healthcare workers, exhausted and overworked by the country's HIV/AIDS epidemic, with more support.
More details
INDIA: UN report spotlights HIV/AIDS rates in children
The total number of HIV/AIDS cases in India has reached an estimated 5.7 million, surpassing South Africa’s 5.5 million cases, the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) said in its 2006 report, released last week.
The UNAIDS 2006 Report on the Global AIDS Epidemic counted children under 15 years and adults over 49 when assessing infection rates.
More details
KYRGYZSTAN: World Bank and government pledge to battle HIV/AIDS
The World Bank’s regional project to control HIV/AIDS in Central Asia and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has signed an agreement to fight the epidemic in the Central Asian country.
"We need to strengthen national coordination mechanisms on fighting AIDS and this agreement will help us to do so," Tilek Meimanaliev, head of the World Bank's Central Asia Regional AIDS Control Project, said last week in the Kyrgyz capital, Bishkek.
More details
THAILAND: Increased HIV/AIDS awareness needed - UNAIDS
An overwhelming majority - 85 percent - of Thai youth do not consider HIV an issue they need to be personally concerned with, after nearly a decade without any mass public awareness campaigns on HIV/AIDS, according to a UN official.
"Public information, which was once ubiquitous, has dropped off the radar screen," Patrick Brenny, Country Coordinator of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) in Thailand, said on Wednesday at the launch of the UNAIDS 2006 report in the Thai capital, Bangkok. "There is a strong recognition that prevention programming needs to be ramped up," he added.
More details
LESOTHO: Govt intensifies efforts to help rape survivors
The Lesotho government is to improve medical care provided to sexual violence survivors after rape cases reported in the first three months of this year climbed to almost the total number for 2005.
According to Motselisi Mosotho, a member of the Child and Gender Protection Unit (CGPU), 484 rape cases were registered by the police in the tiny land-locked kingdom between January and March this year, compared to 501 cases in the whole of 2005.
More details
LAOS: TV and radio dramas boost HIV/AIDS awareness among migrants
Naive and unfamiliar with the world beyond their isolated, tight-knit communities, young job seekers from Communist-ruled Laos are at high risk of being trafficked into the booming sex industry in neighbouring Thailand, officials fear.
As a result, the government has made a film to raise awareness of the potential dangers of crossing the border to seek work, including the possibility of contracting HIV/AIDS, and is also involved in using radio to educate job seekers.
More details
KENYA: My brother's keeper - community care saves lives
Rural communities in desperately poor western Kenya, tired of waiting for help that never comes, are bringing hope to families that would otherwise starve or die of health problems.
"Many of our neighbours have seen their parents, children and other relatives perish from HIV/AIDS, so we have decided to step in and help where we can," said Steven Walele, a member of the Bungoma Orphans, HIV/AIDS and Poverty Organisation (BOHAPO), a community-based association in the village of Kabula.
More details
LINKS:
1. African Regional Youth Initiative- New website - The African Regional Youth Initiative is has launched a new website, that boasts interactive features including blogs, the addition of content by registered users, and much more.
2. AIDS - The website of 'AIDS', the official journal of the International AIDS Society, which publishes the latest research on the pandemic. Of all AIDS-related journals, 'AIDS' has the highest impact and is read by top international clinicians and researchers.
3. Johns Hopkins AIDS Service - This website serves as a resource for physicians and other healthcare professionals providing care and treatment to patients living with HIV/AIDS.
|
Theme(s): (IRIN) Other
[ENDS] |
[This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations] |
|
|
|
|
|