IRIN HIV/AIDS Weekly - 303
Africa
29 September 2006


NEWS:

ZIMBABWE: HIV prevalence decline - will it last?
SWAZILAND: Drug shortage brings resurgence of folk remedies
SOUTH AFRICA: Global effort to fight deadly TB strain
SOUTH AFRICA: Authorities rush to control illegal medicines boom
CENTRAL ASIA: Regional HIV/AIDS conference kicks off
CONGO: Slim resources to counter rising HIV/AIDS rate
CONGO: Isolated Sangha region falls off the map

RESOURCES

1. HIV Prevention for Girls and Young Women (Report Cards)
2. Youth reproductive health and HIV prevention

CONFERENCES

1. HIV/AIDS and its Impact on Business in Africa - 22 to 25 January 2007

VACANCIES

1. Humanitarian Support Personnel HIV Coordinator - DRC



NEWS

ZIMBABWE: HIV prevalence decline - will it last?

News of Zimbabwe's declining HIV prevalence rates have been met with
scepticism and confusion, particularly in view of the country's economic
and political climate. Can this good news be attributed to behavioural
change or skewed statistics?

Earlier this month, findings from the Zimbabwe Demographic Health Survey
(ZDHS) for 2005-06 revealed that the prevalence rate had declined from
20.1 percent to 18.1 percent among adults. But women are still the
hardest hit, with prevalence figures reaching 21.1 percent, while 14.5
percent of all men were HIV-positive.

Zimbabwe, which has one of the world's highest rates of HIV infection,
is going through a severe economic crisis. There are shortages of food
and fuel, and inflation has topped 1,200 percent.

More details:
http://www.plusnews.org/aidsreport.asp?reportid=6410


SWAZILAND: Drug shortage brings resurgence of folk remedies

The unavailability of pharmaceutical drugs is forcing Swazis to rely on
traditional medicines to alleviate their ailments.

The government, which created the shortages by its failure to issue drug
tenders to companies supplying clinics and hospitals, is publicising
traditional and herbal treatments as a remedy for its negligence.

"The inability of people to purchase even the simplest drugs, like
over-the-counter painkillers, has made us examine the traditional ways,"
said Nellie Dlamini, a health worker in the central commercial town,
Manzini.

More details:
http://www.plusnews.org/aidsreport.asp?reportid=6415


SOUTH AFRICA: Global effort to fight deadly TB strain

The World Health Organisation (WHO) will convene a "global task force"
in Geneva in October to thrash out a battle plan against extremely
drug-resistant tuberculosis (XDR TB), a deadly, drug-resistant disease
that has already killed 60 people in South Africa and is threatening to
spread across the region.

Experts fear that South Africa's high rates of HIV/AIDS - about one in
nine of the country's 45 million people are HIV positive, making them
acutely susceptible to tuberculosis - could fast-track XDR-TB into
becoming a global epidemic. HIV infection rates are similarly high in
the neighbouring countries of Botswana, Lesotho, Mozambique, Swaziland
and Zimbabwe, which have yet to report any XDR TB cases.

The particularly virulent strain, resistant to drugs used to treat both
tuberculosis and multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR TB), has already
surfaced in two South African provinces and is suspected in a third,
with Gauteng province, the country's economic hub, recently reporting a
batch of new cases.

More details:
http://www.plusnews.org/AIDSreport.asp?ReportID=6417


SOUTH AFRICA: Authorities rush to control illegal medicines boom

Illegal medicines might be stealing their way onto the South African
market while health and Medicines Control Council (MCC) officials try to
fast-track monitoring the safety and efficacy of these drugs.

The MCC estimated that about 30,000 medicines were registered with it,
of which only a few were natural or homeopathic remedies, also known as
complementary medicines. Unregistered products claiming to cure
HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and various forms of cancer were readily obtained
from street vendors, traditional healers and many other outlets.

Doctor Francois Venter, an HIV specialist with the University of
Witwatersrand's Reproductive Health and HIV Research Unit, based in
Johannesburg, said the illegal drug boom had much to do with moneymaking
and little to do with public welfare.

More details:
http://www.plusnews.org/AIDSreport.asp?ReportID=6413



CENTRAL ASIA: Regional HIV/AIDS conference kicks off

Participants at an international conference on combating the spread of
HIV/AIDS in Central Asia and Eastern Europe, which opened in the Kyrgyz
capital, Bishkek, on Monday, are calling for greater regional
cooperation to tackle the disease.

"No country in the world is protected against the HIV/AIDS epidemic,
therefore the fight against this dreadful disease should be conducted on
a regional level," said Erkinbek Alymbekov, deputy speaker of the Kyrgyz
parliament, where the event was held.

Representatives of parliaments and health ministries from Central Asian
countries, Russia, Ukraine and leading international agencies and NGOs
were among participants at the conference.

More details:
http://www.plusnews.org/AIDSreport.asp?ReportID=6411


CONGO: Slim resources to counter rising HIV/AIDS level

The Republic of Congo's official independence celebrations were held in
the southwest town of Dolisie this year, highlighting an area hard-hit
by the pandemic but struggling to provide HIV/AIDS services.

According to Congolese officials, the HIV prevalence rate in the town
was 9.4 percent in 2003, the second highest in the nation; the national
average is 4.2 percent.

"The rate in Dolisie reflects the reality on the ground. The people are
very vulnerable due to the strategic geographic location of the town,"
said Prospere Diakabana, social director of the HIV/AIDS Support Forum
for local development initiatives (FAILD).

More details:
http://www.plusnews.org/AIDSreport.asp?ReportID=6414


CONGO: Isolated Sangha region falls off the map

Isolated and hard to reach, rural areas in the Sangha region in the
north of the Republic of Congo have fallen off the map in HIV/AIDS
prevention efforts.

About a decade ago, the Pikounda region along the Sangha River, a
tributary of the Congo River, was visited regularly by shuttles
chartered by Agence Transcongolaise des Communications (ATC), a
parastatal transport company. But since the bankruptcy of the river
transport section of the ATC, traffic using the river port is irregular,
while much of the region's road network is often unusable.

This has hampered initiatives to curb the spread of the pandemic, and
although the HIV prevalence rate for the region is estimated at 3.9
percent, experts fear it could climb.

More details:
http://www.plusnews.org/aidsreport.asp?reportid=6421


RESOURCES

1. HIV Prevention for Girls and Young Women (Report Cards)

The Report Cards are advocacy tools aimed at increasing and improving
the programmatic, policy and funding actions taken on HIV prevention for
girls and young women.

They build on global policy commitments, particularly those outlined in
the 'Political Declaration on HIV/AIDS' from the UN General Assembly
Special Session on AIDS (UNGASS).

Their key audiences are national, regional and international policy and
decision-makers, and service providers.

Access the resource:
http://www.unfpa.org/publications/detail.cfm?ID=315&filterListType

2. Youth reproductive health and HIV prevention

The latest 'Youth InfoNet issue No.27', which features 23 programme
resources, as well as 13 research summaries on youth reproductive health
and HIV prevention from Brazil, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Malaysia, the
Philippines, South Africa, and Tanzania can accessed at:
http://www.fhi.org/en/Youth/YouthNet/Publications/YouthInfoNet/YIN27.htm



CONFERENCES

1. HIV/AIDS and its Impact on Business in Africa - 22 to 25 January 2007

One of the major challenges facing the continent is to gather resources
and translate knowledge and experience into treatment and prevention
programmes.

This conference at the Sandton Convention Centre, in Johannesburg, South
Africa, seeks to address the consequences if business continues to
ignore current warnings and statistics.

Register at http://www.aidsafricaconference.com, as well as nominate a
company you feel deserves an award for their course of action.



VACANCIES

1. The international humanitarian organisation, Oxfam, seeks a suitably
trained individual to assist in developing and implementing strategies
on HIV/AIDS awareness for humanitarian staff in the Democratic Republic
of Congo.

The successful applicant would also be expected to assist country
advisors with the analysis of HIV risk and vulnerability as part of the
needs assessment in future emergencies.

A postgraduate qualification in public health, food security, social
sciences or other related disciplines, with substantial field programme
experience, is expected.

To find apply for this position, please visit www.oxfam.org.uk/jobs
quoting ref: INT1865.


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


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