IRIN HIV/AIDS Weekly - 309
Africa
10 November 2006


NEWS and FEATURES

SOUTHERN AFRICA: HIV/AIDS threatening life expectancy - UN report
NAMIBIA: Walvis Bay harbour gives HIV an international passport
ZIMBABWE: Until death us do part - love, marriage and the virus
ZIMBABWE: Undertakers report booming business
ANGOLA-ZAMBIA: Refugees return home armed with the knowledge of HIV/AIDS prevention
SUDAN: Coping with stigma in the conservative north
SOUTH AFRICA: Radio, TV and print have positive impact on AIDS - study
KENYA: Muslim women in the north defy custom to fight AIDS
UGANDA: Funding shortfall to affect health programmes
TANZANIA: Insurance for HIV-positive employees inspires confidence
MOZAMBIQUE: New bridge puts children at risk
TOGO: End of grant causes concern

EVENTS/RESOURCES

1. AIDS Impact 2007
2. Preventing HIV/AIDS in young people: evidence from developing 
countries on what works

VACANCIES

1. Regional HIV/TB Specialist - Mozambique




NEWS and FEATURES

SOUTHERN AFRICA: HIV/AIDS threatening life expectancy - UN report

Falling life expectancy is one of the most visible effects of HIV/AIDS 
in many nations and has reversed human development across a large part 
of Southern Africa, according to a new UN report.

In sub-Saharan Africa, life expectancy today is lower than it was three 
decades ago. "Several countries in Southern Africa have suffered 
catastrophic reversals: 20 years in Botswana, 16 in Swaziland and 13 in 
Lesotho and Zambia," the report said.

More details:
http://www.plusnews.org/aidsreport.asp?reportid=6533


NAMIBIA: Walvis Bay harbour gives HIV an international passport

When fishermen arrive in the port city of Walvis Bay in Namibia, flush 
with money after months at sea, they don't have to go far to spend it. 
The small town's harbour area is littered with discos and nightclubs 
catering to the foreign trawler men who sustain the entertainment and 
commercial sex industries.

Strategically located halfway down the coast of Namibia, with direct 
access to principal shipping routes, the deep-sea port of Walvis Bay is 
dominated by the fishing industry. Commercial fishing and fish 
processing is one of the fastest-growing sectors in the Namibian 
economy.

The Trans-Caprivi and Trans-Kalahari highways also link Botswana, South 
Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe - countries with HIV infection rates that 
are among the world's highest - to Walvis Bay, which has an estimated 
HIV prevalence rate of between 25 percent and 30 percent, making 
fishermen and truck drivers particularly vulnerable to HIV/AIDS.

October is a quiet month in Walvis Bay: the government has declared it a 
'no fishing' month - or 'downtime' as the locals call it - so that fish 
stocks can recover. Fewer vessels arrive in the harbour, and trucks do 
not pull up to the gates as frequently.

More details:
http://www.plusnews.org/aidsreport.asp?reportid=6529


ZIMBABWE: Until death us do part - love, marriage and the virus

When Nomvula Mnkandlha, 29, met Skhumbuzo Muvhinjeva, 39, at a support 
group meeting for HIV positive people, in Zimbabwe's second city, 
Bulawayo, she was not looking for a romantic relationship.

The soft-spoken, recently divorced young woman was still coming to grips 
with her ex-husband's rejection after she had told him she was living 
with the virus. Their two-year-old little girl had fallen ill and her 
mother had decided they should both be tested, but it took her another 
month to come to terms with her infection and find the courage to tell 
her husband.

He accepted her status on condition that she would not ask him to go for 
an HIV test, but a month later he sent her and her daughter back to her 
parents' home and began divorce proceedings, claiming that his wife 
would also bewitch and infect him. "I felt angry and betrayed," she 
recalled.

More details:
http://www.plusnews.org/AIDSreport.asp?ReportID=6519


ZIMBABWE: Undertakers report booming business

One sector of Zimbabwe's depressed economy is experiencing boom times. 
For those providing services for the dead, business is very healthy.

An area on the western fringes of the central business district in the 
capital, Harare, has been dubbed 'Death Valley' in recognition of the 
concentration of businesses like undertakers, coffin manufacturers and 
funeral insurance companies.

Although the capital has six registered funeral parlours, a further 21 
unregistered parlours have sprouted up as a result of high demand for 
funeral services. Attempts by the authorities to shut them down merely 
drove them underground and they have reappeared as backyard businesses 
across the city.

More details:
http://www.plusnews.org/aidsreport.asp?reportid=6530


ANGOLA-ZAMBIA: Refugees return home armed with the knowledge of HIV/AIDS 
prevention

Four years after a ceasefire ended decades of civil war in neighbouring 
Angola, Zambia is still home to more than 25,000 Angolan refugees 
awaiting repatriation. Zambia's HIV/AIDS prevalence rate is about 18 
percent; in Angola it is around 4 percent. The challenge is how to keep 
Angola's relatively low rates of HIV/AIDS in check.

About 170,000 refugees have already gone home, some having fled the 
fighting in the 1970s. They are returning to a country where war-induced 
isolation has helped dampen HIV infection.

The situation poses an acute problem: Will peace and the reopening of 
the country mean a jump in prevalence levels? The problem is aggravated 
by Angola's low rates of knowledge about HIV/AIDS - what the disease is 
and how to avoid it.

More details:
http://www.plusnews.org/aidsreport.asp?reportid=6528


SUDAN: Coping with stigma in the conservative north

Nine years ago, while working in Libya, Sudanese Prof Jalal Mohamed was 
diagnosed with a severe case of nostalgia. He was listless and had no 
appetite, but because he had passed all his physicals to work overseas, 
doctors attributed his malaise to homesickness.

When he returned to his native Sudan, Mohamed was diagnosed with HIV. 
His wife stood by him after he was able to prove that he had been 
infected during a surgical procedure.

Today, at the age of 69, he is a spry, gaunt fellow who delights in his 
own erudition on his condition. "I am Mr HIV," Mohamed told 
IRIN/PlusNews. "The infected are professionals [when it comes to] AIDS; 
you can't tell us what we don't already know."

More details:
http://www.plusnews.org/AIDSReport.ASP?ReportID=6520


SOUTH AFRICA: Radio, TV and print have positive impact on AIDS - study

A new survey in South Africa has proved the positive effect of media 
campaigns in raising HIV/AIDS awareness.

The study by four organisations, including the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg 
School of Public Health's Centre for Communication Programmes, covered 
more than 8,000 people across the country and examined how exposure to 
more than 20 media initiatives had shaped their behaviour.

"It [the survey] shows for the first time that interventions through 
radio, TV and print have had a profound effect on increased condom use 
and HIV testing," Dr Warren Parker, executive director of the youth 
drama series Tsha Tsha, told IRIN/PlusNews.

More details:
http://www.plusnews.org/aidsreport.asp?reportid=6527


KENYA: Muslim women in the north defy custom to fight AIDS

A group of Muslim women in the dusty town of Lodwar, northern Kenya, are 
breaking with tradition to speak openly about HIV/AIDS and other 
sexually transmitted diseases.

As in many Muslim societies, the people of Lodwar, in the district of 
Turkana, have a deep-seated aversion to discussing sexual matters, but 
the reality of the epidemic has forced them to educate themselves about 
it.

More details:
http://www.plusnews.org/aidsreport.asp?reportid=6531


UGANDA: Funding shortfall to affect health programmes

Health programmes in Uganda could be disrupted following a decision by 
the Global Fund to exclude the country from its list of beneficiaries, a 
senior government official said on Tuesday.

The decision by the Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria 
would exclude Uganda from the list of countries due to receive part of 
its sixth round of grants.

More details:
http://www.plusnews.org/AIDSreport.asp?ReportID=6523


TANZANIA: Insurance for HIV-positive employees inspires confidence

The availability of affordable antiretroviral (ARV) drugs in Tanzania is 
restoring employers' confidence in the productivity of their 
HIV-positive staff and gaining the employees more credibility at work.

Health sector workers said in the past employers had summarily laid off 
staff diagnosed with HIV to limit overheads, but access to ARVs had 
restored some measure of confidence in the health of their HIV-positive 
staff.

More details:
http://www.plusnews.org/AIDSreport.asp?ReportID=6526


MOZAMBIQUE: New bridge puts children at risk

Fears of HIV/AIDS and child prostitution have gripped the towns of Caia 
and Chimuara on opposite sides of the Zambezi River in central 
Mozambique as construction of a new bridge draws in hundreds of mostly 
male migrant workers.

The towns have waited long for a bridge connecting their communities, 
but health and social workers have become increasingly concerned over 
the impact the project will have on vulnerable women and children in the 
area as construction gets underway.


TOGO: End of grant causes concern

Togolese nongovernmental organisations (NGOs) have warned that the end 
of a grant by the Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria 
could put at least 24,000 HIV-infected people at risk.

"It's a complete disaster - we're distraught," said Augustin Dokla, 
president of the main network of NGOs for HIV-positive people in Togo. 
"Some 18,000 people are waiting for drugs and 6,000 patients will be at 
risk within two years. No ... treatments [for new patients] are 
available as of today."

More details:
http://www.plusnews.org/AIDSreport.asp?ReportID=6532



EVENTS/RESOURCES

1. Registration and abstract submission is now open for AIDS Impact 
2007, the international conference taking place from 1 to 4 July 2007 in 
Marseille France.

The AIDS Impact conference is specifically devoted to Human and Social 
Sciences in the field of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. The last conference, 
held in 2005 in Cape Town, South Africa, attracted more than 700 
participants from all over the world. It was also a unique opportunity 
to give more space to research in social sciences dealing with the HIV 
epidemic in developing countries.

Abstract Submission

Abstract Deadline: 22 January 2007

Late Breaker: 1 April 2007

Abstracts are to be submitted in English only and must not have been 
previously published or presented. They should be no longer than 300 
words.

For more information please visit 
http://www.aidsimpact.com/2007/abstracts.asp


2. Preventing HIV/AIDS in young people: evidence from developing 
countries on what works

This report summarises the WHO publication, 'Preventing HIV/AIDS in 
young people: a systematic review of the evidence from developing 
countries'. It offers evidence-based recommendations for policy-makers, 
programme managers and researchers to guide efforts towards meeting the 
UN goals on HIV/AIDS and young people. These goals aim to decrease 
prevalence and vulnerability; and to increase access to information, 
skills and services.

Recommendations are based on a review of 80 studies of interventions 
delivered through the major settings that reach young people - schools, 
health services, mass media, geographically defined communities - as 
well as strategies to reach young people who are most at risk (e.g. 
young sex workers, drug users, and men who have sex with men).

To access the report:
http://www.unfpa.org/upload/lib_pub_file/638_filename_preventing1_eng.pdf



VACANCIES

1. Regional HIV/TB Specialist - Project HOPE

Location: Mozambique (Maputo)
Closing date: 18 Nov 2006


Project HOPE, an international, non-profit health education 
organisation, is looking for a Regional HIV-TB Specialist to be based in 
Mozambique. This key position will be responsible for the technical 
content, quality, and evaluation of HIV/AIDS education and training 
programmes in the Orphans and Vulnerable Children (OVC) programme, as 
well as technical support for TB-HIV health worker training, treatment, 
and prevention programmes in the Africa region.


RESPONSIBILITIES:

- Develop or improve existing TB and HIV educational work plans, 
curricula and methodologies, in collaboration with the Project HOPE team 
and partners.

- Develop new approaches, tools and practices in programme design, 
management and evaluation.

- Responsible for quality and evaluation of education and training 
programmes.

- Conduct field visits to assess, develop, conduct, and monitor 
programmes.

- Contribute to fundraising efforts by identifying potential partners 
and donors, preparing concept papers, and completing grant applications.

- Liase with local government, NGO representatives and other partners, 
and provide technical advice and assistance to project stakeholders and 
other partners.


REQUIREMENTS:

- Advanced degree in both a clinical field (MD, RN, NP, PA) and public 
health (MPH) preferred.

- Knowledge and experience of the region in HIV and TB public health and 
psychosocial programmes, education, prevention, training and care, and 
with aspects and training and education methodologies, including trainer 
of trainers.

- Experience of computer software programmes (Word, Excel, etc.). 
Knowledge of statistical software preferred.

- Minimum of 3-5 years at university, national or international levels 
in HIV programme implementation development and education.

- Knowledge of or willingness to learn advanced clinical and educational 
technologies.

- Fluency in English and Portuguese required.

- Knowledge of the health and education systems in Mozambique and 
Namibia.

- Ability to travel internationally and within Africa, and live in 
Mozambique.


To apply: Complete online application at www.projecthope.org. Reference 
Code: RW_6UQR5E-89


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


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