Prometheus 6   

PAMBAZUKA NEWS 120: HEALTH

AFRICA: AMBITIOUS PLAN TO TACKLE AIDS
AIDS treatment in Southern Africa is about to explode with seven countries in the region accelerating access to antiretroviral drugs. "Very poor countries have shown they are capable of doing effective treatment in the public sector and that they would be ready to scale up rapidly," said the UN special envoy for HIV/Aids in Africa, Stephen Lewis. Speaking after last week's international Aids research conference in Paris, the executive director of the UN Global Fund for the Treatment of Aids, Malaria and Tuberculosis, Richard Feachem, said that Africa was on the threshold of an explosion in treatment.

AFRICA: NEW WHO DG PLEDGES TO BOOST AIDS FIGHT
Dr. Jong-Wook Lee has assumed the position of World Health Organisation director general, saying that he will boost the organisation's commitment to combating HIV/AIDS by providing antiretroviral drugs to three million HIV-positive people in developing countries by 2005, Agence France-Presse reports. Lee, a South Korean physician who has worked at WHO for 19 years, succeeds Gro Harlem Brundtland.

AFRICA: RICH COUNTRIES STALL ON NEW AIDS FUNDING
The U.S$200 million Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria contribution proposed by President George W. Bush for one year amounts to little more than 32 hours of war expenses in Iraq. And at a recent meeting in Paris to consider additional funding for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria, donors added a few additional promises and little new funding to meet an expected shortfall of $500 million to $800 million this year, with an additional $3 billion needed to cover grants in 2004. This posting from Africa Action contains a press release from the Global Fund putting as positive a spin as possible on new promises, a June 17 letter from the White House explicitly urging Congress not to provide more money than the President's request of only $200 million for the Global Fund and $2 billion total for 2004 funding, a brief note from Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS reports on the status on congressional action as of Friday, and excerpts from an opinion piece by Jeffrey Sachs commenting on the default by both Europe and the U.S.

AFRICA: U.S. ANTI-AIDS FUNDING DWINDLES; BUSH BLAMED
Two efforts by Democratic lawmakers to boost next year's U.S. contribution to the global fight against AIDS were narrowly defeated in a key Congressional committee Wednesday, spurring charges that President George W. Bush, who just returned from a five-day trip to Africa last weekend, had betrayed the expectations he created while there.

AFRICA: UK STILL POACHING AFRICAN NURSES
Nurses are still being 'poached' from Africa to work in Britain - even though there is a ban on recruitment from developing countries, unions have warned. The head of Kenya's nursing union told the BBC it was the most experienced nurses who were leaving.

AFRICA: WHEN MR. BUSH 'CAME SHOPPING' IN AFRICA
Rolake Nwagwu, from the Treatment Action Movement (TAM) Nigeria, writes that if America says she is committed to fighting AIDS in Africa, then the right things should be done at the right time in the right way. "Don't claim to commit to PMTCT if you won't make ARVs available. Don't claim to support Africans using generic drugs if you go on to try enforcing the same laws that will make getting generic drugs almost impossible. Don't claim to be against stigma and discrimination of PLWHA (People Living with HIV/AIDS) if your staff members still screen their domestic workers for HIV and visa lottery winners are compelled to take HIV tests without their informed knowledge or consent, without voluntary and confidential counselling."

KENYA: FREE MEDICINE FOR MOTHERS WITH AIDS
Mothers infected with HIV/AIDS will receive free medicine from the Kenyan Government. The Health ministry has developed a programme to provide the anti-retroviral drugs to minimize mother-to-child transmission. Health minister Charity Ngilu said children had been neglected in anti-AIDS campaigns despite their vulnerability.

KENYA: GOVERNMENT TO HIRE 2,000 NURSES
Two thousand nurses are to be hired for public hospitals this year. Director of Medical Services Richard Muga said this was expected to ease staff shortages and improve public service.

MALAWI: QUEST FOR CHEAP AIDS TREATMENT FUELS FAKE DRUGS BOOM
Many Malawians living with HIV/AIDS are forced to rely on illegal drugs in a bid to treat opportunistic illnesses, ease suffering and prolong their lives. Some of the fake drugs have flooded the country's parallel market with a potentially disastrous health impact.

SOUTH AFRICA: WORLD BANK WARNS ON IMPACT OF AIDS
South Africa could face economic collapse within a few generations unless it adopts a more urgent response to its HIV/AIDS epidemic, a new World Bank research report warned on Wednesday. According to the report "The Long-run Economic Costs of AIDS: Theory and an Application to South Africa", most studies on the macroeconomic costs of AIDS had overlooked the long-term damage of the disease.

ZAMBIA: 'LACK OF HIV INFECTION AWARENESS MAY MASK PREVALENCE LEVELS'
Lack of awareness of the disease and supplies for detecting HIV infection may mask prevalence levels in some areas of the country, UNICEF resident representative Dr. Stella Goings has said. Speaking at the regional workshop for peer educators held at Mulungushi International Conference Centre, Dr. Goings noted that most countries represented at the workshop were among those heavily affected by the HIV/AIDS infections.

posted by Prometheus 6 at 7/29/2003 06:19:30 AM |