IRIN HIV/AIDS Weekly - 234
Africa
20 May 2005


NEWS:

AFRICA: World AIDS Vaccine Day - still major challenges in search for a
   vaccine
COTE D'IVOIRE: Muslims seek to break down prejudice by speaking out on
   HIV/AIDS
GHANA: Single battle plan to hit both TB and HIV/AIDS
SOUTH AFRICA: AIDS named as leading cause of death
SOUTH AFRICA: New ways of combating HIV/AIDS bear fruit
SWAZILAND: Art for development's sake
ZAMBIA: Community project mitigates impact of HIV/AIDS, job losses


CONFERENCES/ EVENTS/ RESEARCH/ RESOURCES

1. TASO in-service training
2. HEARD HIV/AIDS Planning Course
3. Navigating the ICASA2005 website
4. AIDS Vaccine Handbook

VACANCIES

1. Head of Team - International HIV/AIDS Alliance


NEWS

AFRICA: World AIDS Vaccine Day - still major challenges in search for a
vaccine

The search for an HIV/AIDS vaccine has been "much more difficult than
anyone expected", the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI)
admitted on Thursday, World AIDS Vaccine Day.

Despite recent progress, "major challenges remain", IAVI said in a
statement.

These challenges were even more pronounced in Africa, where vaccine
candidates were being tested in Botswana, Kenya, South Africa, Uganda
and Malawi, Dr Pontiano Kaleebu, a leading researcher with the Uganda
Virus Research Institute, told PlusNews.

More details:
http://www.plusnews.org/AIDSreport.asp?ReportID=4816


COTE D'IVOIRE: Muslims seek to break down prejudice by speaking out on
HIV/AIDS

In a town hall meeting room in the Ivorian capital earlier this month,
women assembled on one side and men on the other, joined together in a
prayer to Allah "to remove AIDS from humanity".

The crowd of around 100 Muslim men and women had turned out at the
Treichville town hall in Cote d'Ivoire's economic capital, Abidjan, for
one of a series of conferences aimed at discussing Islam's position on
HIV/AIDS.

"Many of you believe HIV/AIDS doesn't exist, others think that talking
about it is taboo because it concerns - excuse me - sex," said Mufutahu
Saka, one of the organisers of the talks that began 10 April and will
end 21 May.

More details:
http://www.plusnews.org/AIDSreport.asp?ReportID=4811


GHANA: Single battle-plan to hit both TB and HIV/AIDS

With tuberculosis (TB) sharply on the rise in Ghana, the local health
authorities believe joint programmes to stamp out HIV/AIDS and TB may be
the answer.

"TB infections have been on the increase over the past decade and
certainly HIV/AIDS is making an already bad situation worse," Frank
Bonsu, Ghana's National TB Control Programme Manager, told PlusNews.

Last year the country's public hospitals registered 11,750 new cases of
TB, up from 11,000 in 2003, according to Ghana Health Service
statistics. The number of TB-related deaths rose to 633 from 491
previously.

But officials believe the real picture may be far bleaker.

More details:
http://www.plusnews.org/AIDSreport.asp?ReportID=4821


SOUTH AFRICA: AIDS named as leading cause of death

HIV/AIDS is the leading cause of death in South Africa, according to a
new Medical Research Council (MRC) report on cause-specific death rates
for each of the country's nine provinces.

Findings from the report, 'Estimates of Provincial Mortality', show that
while overall rates and causes of death differed, AIDS was the number
one cause of death in all provinces except the Western Cape, which has
the lowest HIV prevalence figures in the country.

In Gauteng, for instance, the pandemic accounted for 33 percent of all
deaths in 2000, compared with 30 percent of all deaths nationally, while
KwaZulu-Natal was the hardest-hit province, with about 42 percent of all
deaths attributed to HIV/AIDS.

More details:
http://www.plusnews.org/AIDSreport.asp?ReportID=4810


SOUTH AFRICA: New ways of combating HIV/AIDS bear fruit

As young people continue to bear the brunt of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, a
pilot project in South Africa's province of KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) is
working with families to teach children how to reduce risky behaviour
before they reach puberty.

The initiative, 'Collaborative HIV/AIDS and Adolescent Mental Health
Project (CHAMP)', is being led by the Human Science Research Council
(HSRC) and focuses on strengthening communication and HIV/AIDS education
between parents and youth.

"We need to reach children early, when they are still under parental
influence, to prevent them from becoming a risk group," Prof Arvin
Bhana, director of the HSRC Child, Youth and Family Development unit and
one of the project leaders, told PlusNews during an interview.

More details:
http://www.plusnews.org/AIDSreport.asp?ReportID=4822


SWAZILAND: Art for development's sake

Swazi theatre groups are increasingly finding themselves cast in a new
role - promoting advocacy rather than art.

Theatrical troupes are regularly commissioned to write and perform
dramas pushing developmental messages - from AIDS prevention to the
rights of women and children - rather than the independent work of local
playwrights.

The requests often come from United Nations agencies, such as UNAIDS and
the UN Children's Fund, or NGOs like the Swaziland Action Group Against
Abuse, as well as government ministries

More details:
http://www.plusnews.org/AIDSreport.asp?ReportID=4817


ZAMBIA: Community project mitigates impact of HIV/AIDS, job losses

A community-based project is mitigating the combined impact of
widespread job losses and the HIV/AIDS epidemic on a former mining
community in the central town of Kabwe, about 150 km north of the
capital, Lusaka.

The Chowa Railway Home-Based Care Project helps people living with
HIV/AIDS adopt positive and healthy lifestyles in a township ravaged by
the pandemic, while empowering the broader community.

Chowa is a former mining community adjacent to a Zambia Railways
township, both of which have suffered since the closure of the mine at
the dawn of privatisation in the early 1990s. The community's plight was
worsened by the job losses that followed the concessioning of Zambia
railways in a public-private sector partnership last year.

More details:
http://www.plusnews.org/AIDSreport.asp?ReportID=4806



CONFERENCES/ EVENTS/ RESEARCH/ RESOURCES

1. Uganda's TASO (The AIDS Support Organisation) is currently
undertaking a project (TEACH - TASO Experimental Attachment to Combat
HIV/AIDS) aimed at enhancing HIV/AIDS service provider competence
through a process of in-service attachment to a TASO Centre for one
month, where trainees will have practical experience in TASO work.

The information and application forms can be obtained from TASO's
website: www.tasouganda.org/advocacy

For more information:
Winnie Kyaligonza
Project Coordinator - TEACH
Email: kyaligonzaw@tasouganda.org


2. One of a series of International Policy Research Workshops held over
the last eleven years in the UK, East Asia and Africa, the 8th Health
Economics and HIV/AIDS Research Division (HEARD) HIV/AIDS Course focuses
on the need to anticipate the medium- and long-term social and economic
consequences of HIV/AIDS. The course will offer participants an
opportunity to exchange ideas, review their experiences of strategies
and tactics, and identify interventions appropriate to their local
situation.

The 2005 course will include an optional third week, which aims to
provide participants with the tools to project the impact of HIV/AIDS
using computer modelling.

The course is designed for senior professionals concerned with planning
for the economic, social, demographic and human resource implications of
the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Previous workshop participants have included
economists and planners from government ministries; AIDS programme
managers; donor staff; NGO workers; private sector staff; local
government officers; military officers; academics and others.

The course will be facilitated by Prof Alan Whiteside and Samuel Braimah
of ActionAid in Burundi.

A maximum of 50 places are available. The course runs from 11 to 29th
July 2005. The closing date for applications is 24 June 2005.

For further information please contact Sohana:
Tel: +27(0)31 309 1106
Fax: +27 (0)31 309 1117
Email: info@progressivepr.co.za
www.heard.org.za


3. In response to enquiries received from some members of the public and
their expression of difficulty in locating the abstract guidelines,
submission form and other conference-related information from the ICASA
2005 [International Conference on AIDS and STIs in Africa, Abuja,
Nigeria, 4 - 9 December 2005 website, the conference organisers have
provided the following tips:

ABSTRACT SUBMISSION GUIDELINES/INSTRUCTIONS:

Log on to www.icasa2005.org.ng

On your extreme left side, while facing the computer, locate and click
on 'conference programme' in the column close to the photograph of the
ICASA President. Click on 'abstract driven session' in red font. The
last past of the 'Call for Abstracts' has the following: 'Submission
guidelines are available here' and 'Submission instructions are
available here'. In each case, click on 'here'.

In this part of the website you can also view submission forms and
explore other aspects of the programme including Satellite Meetings,
Plenary Sessions, Tracks, Non-Abstract Driven Sessions, Abstract Driven
Sessions, Cultural Programme, Skills Building Workshop, Community Forum,
Leadership Forum and Q & A Session.


4. The AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition (AVAC) this week released the new
'AIDS Vaccine Handbook: Global Perspectives'. This new edition of the
AIDS Vaccine Handbook is a collection of easy-to-read, lively essays
written by people involved in research and advocacy from around the
globe. The publication provides an overview of the key scientific,
policy, social, ethical and economic challenges, and diverse experiences
gained around the world during the past two decades.

The AIDS Vaccine Handbook aims to address such critical questions as:

- How can I understand the science behind experimental AIDS vaccines?
- Is it safe to volunteer for an AIDS vaccine clinical trial?
- Are clinical trials that take place in developing countries ethical?
- What can communities do to help foster and encourage AIDS vaccine
   development?
- Where can I go for information, and what at can I do to help?

The Handbook is available electronically at www.avac.org/handbook, and
individual copies are available free of charge to community
organisations by sending an email request to handbook@avac.org. For bulk
copies, please contact avac@avac.org



VACANCIES:

1. Head of Africa Team - The International HIV/AIDS Alliance Brighton,
United Kingdom. =A345,000 - =A350,000 plus attractive benefits.

The Head of Team will lead the Africa team in the broader Field
Programmes Department. The team currently consists of ten staff based in
the UK and an extended team in field offices in Madagascar, Mozambique,
Zambia, and other field based staff in Burkina Faso, Cote d'Ivoire,
Senegal and Uganda.

The Alliance currently also supports programmes and other field based
staff in Cote d'Ivoire, Burkina Faso, Madagascar, Morocco, Mozambique,
Nigeria, Senegal, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe, as well as two regional
programmes of work. With the support of the Director: Field Programmes,
the Head of Team will further improve and expand our programme work in
the region, oversee the implementation and development of our regional
programmes, as well as manage and further build the capacity of the team
and its members.

Candidates must have strong leadership and management skills, as well as
technical skills in community-based reproductive health or HIV/AIDS
programming, considerable working experience in a broad range of
countries in the region, excellent English and proven management skills.
Previous applicants need not apply.

For further details about the position:
http://www.aidsalliance.org/sw22776.asp


IRIN-SA
Tel: +27 11 895-1900
Fax: +27 11 784-6759
Email: IRIN-SA@irin.org.za

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Copyright (c) UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
2005


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