IRIN HIV/AIDS Weekly - 46
Africa
28 September 2001


NEWS:

LESOTHO: Red Cross launches HIV/AIDS orphan's care pilot project
NAMIBIA: Government agrees to national MTCT programme
SOUTH AFRICA: Law Commission says no to laws on deliberate HIV infection

LINKS:

1. Speakout - rape and post exposure HIV prophylaxis
2. Health Economics and HIV/AIDS Research Division
3. The NGO Network Alliance Project

CONFERENCES/RESEARCH/ARTICLES:

1. Osteopenia, Osteoporosis, and other bone problems in HIV-infected
individuals
2. Safety and metabolic effects of switching antiretrovirals
3. Youth in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Chartbook on Sexual Experience and
Reproductive Health
4. Sixth International Congress on AIDS in Asia and the Pacific.


LESOTHO: Red Cross launches HIV/AIDS orphan's care pilot project

The Lesotho Red Cross Society announced this week that they had embarked
on a two-phased project of prevention and care for orphans living with
HIV/AIDS. The first phase includes prevention and has already been piloted
in the districts of Mafeteng and Mohale's Hoek, while the second phase
will focus on care for HIV/AIDS orphans and will start in Teyateyaneng and
Leribe.

The secretary-general of the Lesotho Red Cross Society, Ntharetso Lieta,
told PlusNews on Friday that the society was presently conducting a
baseline survey to determine the needs of orphans in the area, as the
project would also benefit orphans affected by HIV/AIDS. The society has
already received US $320,000 from the Norwegian Red Cross.

The money will cover both prevention and care projects and is intended to
span a period of five years. Lieta said that the American Red Cross had
expressed interest in partnering the project and the society would seek to
form partnerships with other non-governmental organisations dealing with
HIV/AIDS and government-sponsored initiatives in the fight against the
pandemic.

She said the group's focus would not be on building an orphanage but
rather on working with foster parents, relatives of orphans and community
based organisations. This would help in integrating the orphans into the
community and protect them from further stigmatisation.

The prevention phase of the project targets young pupils in primary
schools. Its aim is to provide the young people with education and prepare
them for the challenges of adolescence. The society is also targeting
parents and teachers to break the silence on sexual education by carrying
out an education programme to sensitise teachers and parents on the
importance of frankness and freedom when discussing sex. "We wanted to
encourage parents to talk to their children about sexuality, even though
our culture considers this a taboo subject," Lieta said.

NAMIBIA: Government agrees to national MTCT programme

The Namibian government this week approved the introduction of a national
programme for the prevention of mother-to-child HIV transmission and
approved that budgetary provision be made for the implementation of the
programme.

According to a 'Namibian Economist' report, a statement from the cabinet
said that the objectives of the national programme for prevention of HIV
from mother to child included the launching of a pilot programme for the
prevention of mother to child HIV transmission through using Nevirapine.

The statement said the baby would be released from the programme after 100
days while the mother and father would continue to receive antiretroviral
drugs. The programme also hopes to establish the baseline data for
measuring the effectiveness of intervention for the prevention of mother
to child HIV transmission.

The introduction of the programme will cost in excess of US $1.1 million
over two years, the report said. The ministry would only require US
$78,900 from the state, since donors have already indicated their
willingness to provide funding for the project.

About 500 HIV-positive mothers as well as their babies and partners from
the capital Windhoek and the northern town of Oshakati, close to the
border with Angola, will receive drugs in an attempt to cut the infection
rate in the country. The Namibian health ministry has already begun
training personnel in monitoring the progress of each patient through the
pilot project.

SOUTH AFRICA: Law Commission says no to laws on deliberate HIV infection

The South African Law Commission has advised against laws to prosecute
those who intentionally expose others to the HIV virus, saying this would
be impossible to implement and regulate. The Commission said that the
state should instead focus on using existing laws to punish HIV positive
people who have unprotected sex while failing to reveal their status.

Judge Edwin Cameron, head of the Law Commission committee focusing on the
issue, said that existing common laws could effectively be used against
people who fail to have disclose their status while having unprotected
sex, the 'Mail and Guardian' reported. "Part of our reasoning is: why
create an additional statute that will stigmatise people further but will
be ineffective?", he was reported as saying.

He added that it was likely that consensual sex in those circumstances
could eventually be regarded as rape by the South African courts,
following a Canadian ruling that the failure of a man to tell his female
partner that he was HIV-positive, negated her consent to unprotected sex.
He was quoted as saying the Canadian judgement "is likely to be followed
in South Africa. When you have sexual intercourse with someone and put
them at risk of transmitting something without disclosing that risk to
them, then it voids their consent."

Under existing common law, knowingly exposing a person to HIV could be
classified as assault, and infection of a sexual partner could be
prosecuted as culpable homicide if the person dies or attempted murder if
they do not, the report said.


LINKS:

1. Speakout. A South African site with information on rape and post
exposure HIV prophylaxis
http://www.speakout.org.za

2. Health Economics and HIV/AIDS Research Division (HEARD)
http://www.und.ac.za/und/heard

3.  The NGO Network Alliance Project has launched a new web site,
Kubatana, this site brings together a number of Zimbabwean NGOs, CSOs and
social justice organisations.  http://www.kubatana.net.


CONFERENCES/RESEARCH/ARTICLES:

1. Osteopenia, Osteoporosis, and other bone problems in HIV-infected
individuals
http://www.prn.org/prn_nb_cntnt/vol6/num3/tebas_frm.htm

2. Safety and metabolic effects of switching antiretrovirals
http://www.prn.org/prn_nb_cntnt/vol6/num3/powderly_frm.htm

3. Youth in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Chartbook on Sexual Experience and
Reproductive Health
This chartbook examines factors that are important to a healthy
transition, including education and exposure to information, sexual
experience and marriage, HIV/AIDS, childbearing, contraception, and
maternal health. PDF: 1.1 MB. (April 2001)
Document code: PRBIYSSAENG
To obtain, put document code in the body of an e-mail to:
documents@prbdocs.org

4. 6th International Congress on AIDS in Asia and the Pacific. October 05,
2001 - October 10, 2001 The Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre,
Melbourne, Australia
Contact:  Secretariat E-mail: 6icaap@icms.com.au Web site:
http://www.icaap.conf.au


IRIN-SA
Tel: +27 11 880-4633
Fax: +27 11 447-5472
Email: IRIN-SA@irin.org.za

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