IRIN HIV/AIDS Weekly - 277
Africa
31 March 2006


NEWS:

AFRICA: ARVs missing pregnant women - WHO
KENYA: Drought, poverty forcing young women into risky commercial sex
KENYA: Hungry for help - HIV-positive people struggle to survive in
   drought-hit east
NIGERIA: Condom ads stir passionate debate
SOUTH AFRICA: HIV-positive inmates hungry for ARVs
UGANDA: HIV-positive women stigmatised by major hospital - report
GUINEA-BISSAU: Traditional healing to get its place in the sun


EVENTS

1. AIDS Vaccine 2006
2. MEASURE DHS Redesigns its Website

VACANCIES

1. Programme Coordinator - National eForums Team, Health and Development
Networks (HDN)



NEWS

AFRICA: ARVs missing pregnant women - WHO

Fewer than 10 percent of HIV-positive women in developing countries
received antiretrovirals (ARVs) during pregnancy and childbirth between
2003 and 2005, according to a new report.

In a report admitting that it has failed to achieve its '3 by 5' goal of
getting 3 million people on ARVs by 2005, the World Health Organisation
(WHO) noted that 1,800 children per day were born with HIV.

"Each year, over 570,000 children under the age of 15 die of AIDS, most
having acquired HIV from their mothers," the report observed.

More details:
http://www.plusnews.org/AIDSreport.asp?ReportID=5816


KENYA: Drought, poverty forcing young women into risky commercial sex

As night falls in Makindu, a truck stop on the highway between the
capital, Nairobi, and the port city of Mombasa, the fluorescent lights
and blaring music of the bars and lodges signal the start of yet another
evening of brisk business.

"Every week I drive from Tororo [eastern Uganda] to Mombasa and back. I
stay in about four towns each way - I have a regular lodge in each one,"
said Masaba [not his real name], sipping his beer.

Towns along the Nairobi-Mombasa highway, like Makindu in the Makueni
district of eastern Kenya, have experienced a mini-boom, while their
rural surroundings languish in poverty.

More details:
http://www.plusnews.org/AIDSreport.asp?ReportID=5815


KENYA: Hungry for help - HIV-positive people struggle to survive in
drought-hit east

As the unrelenting sun sears the hard, red earth of eastern Kenya's
Makueni district, dust devils carry balls of dry grass across the land
where some 3.5 million Kenyans face severe food shortages after several
consecutive failed rainy seasons.

Communities in eastern Kenya, which traditionally depend on agriculture
and livestock to make a living, have watched crop after crop fail, while
their animals die as pasture and water dry up.

The drought has hit the area's HIV-positive population much harder.

More details:
http://www.plusnews.org/AIDSreport.asp?ReportID=5810


NIGERIA: Condom ads stir passionate debate

Efforts to promote condom use in Nigeria could be threatened when the
Nigerian Code of Advertising Practice starts being more strictly
enforced on 1 July this year.

Unhappy with current condom awareness campaigns, the Advertising
Practitioners Council of Nigeria (APCON), the statutory body charged
with vetting and approving advertisements, has begun cracking down on
advertisers.

Citing the code, Panel Chairman Emmanuel Ekuno warned against condom
advertisements that might encourage indecency, or which in any way
dramatised, depicted or insinuated a sexual act by use of word,
graphics, sound or action.

All condom advertisements are required to carry health warnings, may not
be aired on children's programmes, before 8.00 pm on radio and
television, or displayed on billboards near places of worship, schools
and hospitals.

More details:
http://www.plusnews.org/AIDSreport.asp?ReportID=5807


SOUTH AFRICA: HIV-positive inmates hungry for ARVs

HIV-positive prisoners are literally starving for antiretroviral (ARV)
drugs at South Africa's Westville Prison, in the east coast city of
Durban.

Some 242 inmates embarked on a hunger strike early on Monday, citing a
failure by the department of correctional services and the health
ministry to provide them with the life-prolonging drugs.

Mark Heywood, director of the Johannesburg-based AIDS Law Project (ALP),
told PlusNews that his organisation had been trying for the past five
months to obtain ARVs for 15 inmates in urgent need of the medication.

More details:
http://www.plusnews.org/AIDSreport.asp?ReportID=5809


UGANDA: HIV-positive women stigmatised by major hospital - report

HIV-positive pregnant women are experiencing discrimination and abuse at
Mulago Hospital, Uganda's largest referral facility, according to a
report published by a local human rights NGO, Foundation for Human
Rights Initiative (FHRI).

Researchers documented the testimonies of women who alleged that nurses
and midwives in the labour ward at Mulago had refused to provide medical
assistance to expectant mothers and had verbally abused them on the
grounds of their HIV status.

The women are members of a psychosocial support group known as the 'Mama
Club', established by The Aids Support Organisation (TASO), a local NGO,
to bring together women living with the stigma of being infected with
the HI virus.

More details:
http://www.plusnews.org/AIDSreport.asp?ReportID=5818


GUINEA-BISSAU: Traditional healing to get its place in the sun

Guinean traditional healers have been sidelined by health officials and
received little support for researching their remedies, but this is set
to change.

Earlier this month, Paulo Mendes, coordinator of the National
Secretariat to Fight HIV/AIDS (SNLS), revealed at the first-ever meeting
between traditional herbalists and AIDS authorities, in Bafata in the
eastern region of the country, that SNLS was looking to finance
traditional medicine research projects.

Traditional healers had been waiting for their profession to be
recognised and included in the national response to HIV/AIDS since the
association of traditional doctors was formed in 1995, said renowned
herbal practitioner Aquilino da Costa.

More details:
http://www.plusnews.org/AIDSreport.asp?ReportID=5821



EVENTS

1. The AIDS Vaccine 2006 Conference, will be held from 29 August - 1
September 2006, in Amsterdam, Netherlands.

AIDS Vaccine 2006 Conference deadlines:

- Submission of scholarship applications  1 April 2006
- Submission of travel grant applications 7 April 2006
- Submission of abstracts  =09=09=097 April 2006
- Early registration fee =09=09=0922 May 2006

Visit the conference website for information on registration, housing,
abstract submission, scholarships and travel grants
www.aidsvaccine06.org


2. MEASURE DHS' new website displays international population and health
data for more than 75 countries with just one click of the mouse. Users
can create maps in seconds, download tables, display country profiles,
and explore data from all parts of the world.  Now, with the new
STATmapper and other enhanced features, the redesigned MEASURE DHS
website makes finding worldwide health and population information faster
and simpler than ever.

STATmapper, an interactive mapping application, allows users to create
maps in seconds from a database of Demographic and Health Survey (DHS)
findings from more than 75 countries. A variety of information can be
mapped, ranging from fertility rates to infant mortality to household
characteristics like running water and possession of durable goods.
Additional mapping elements such as road networks and population density
will be added in the future.

Website users can download data tables to integrate into their own GIS.
Maps can also be saved as pictures for use in PowerPoint presentations
or reports.

The redesigned MEASURE DHS website includes more information on newer
types of surveys focusing on health care delivery systems and malaria as
well as on ground-breaking new approaches for estimating national HIV
prevalence.  In addition, users can now search for information on four
special topic areas:  HIV, Biomarkers, GIS and Gender. For researchers,
the updated Data section includes more guidance on use of datasets,
expanded definitions of indicators and variables, and the rationale for
DHS methodology.

Visit the new website at:  www.measuredhs.com

The Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) project is a global data
collection effort funded by USAID and carried out by ORC Macro and
in-country implementing organizations. The nationally representative DHS
surveys collect data on demographic patterns, fertility, health, and
nutrition for policy and program planning.  MEASURE DHS disseminates
data free of charge.


VACANCIES

1. HDN Programme Coordinator - National eForums Team, Health and
Development Networks (HDN)

Location: Chiang Mai, Thailand
Application deadline: 20 April 2006
Duration: 1 year with the possibility of an extension


For a full job description: http://www.hdnet.org/careers.asp

HDN is currently seeking an experienced Programme Coordinator to support
and strengthen the National eForums as part of the Global ePartners in
Development & Health (GePAIDH) project. This project aims at
strengthening and supporting national-level coordination in HIV/AIDS and
other issues in various countries across Asia, Africa and Eastern
Europe. This is a one-year assignment initially, with an option to
extend.

The Programme Coordinator would work as part of a dynamic and growing
team to support, strengthen, improve and develop national level eForums.

For more information about the eForums go to: www.healthdev.org/eforums


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


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