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AIDS Burden Highest in Southern Africa

Johannesburg, 29 July 2008 - The global AIDS burden is still harshest in Southern Africa with nine countries accounting for 35 per cent of all HIV infections and 38 per cent of AIDS deaths in 2007, according to new data from the UNAIDS 2008 Report on the Global AIDS epidemic.

South Africa continues to have the largest epidemic of any country with an estimated 5.7 million people living with HIV. Among 15-24 year olds in South Africa women and girls account for more than 90 per cent of new infections. However compared to previous years the South African epidemic does appear to have stabilized as have the epidemics in Malawi and Zambia. [more]


The 2008 United Nations High-level Meeting on AIDS came to a close on Wednesday evening, 11 June 2008. During the two day meeting representatives from member states reviewed progress made in the response to the AIDS epidemic and highlighted challenges still to overcome.

[read more]
[closing press release]
[concluding remarks]
[summary of High Level Meeting]


Pharmaceutical manufacturer Adcock Ingram has issued a recall of certain batches of Adco-Nevirapine and Adco-Zidovudine (what is commonly known as AZT) due to a packaging error. It was discovered by Adcock Ingram that blister packs of Adco-Nevirapine had been packed into nine packs of Adco-Zidovudine. The Nevirapine blister packs were labelled correctly but they had been inserted into AZT boxes. [more]


UNAIDS Regional Support Team for Eastern and Southern Africa, in partnership with the Reproductive Health and HIV Research Unit of the University of the Witswatersrand, convened a technical meeting on young women and girls’ vulnerability to HIV infection in Southern Africa. The meeting, which was held on 17 – 19 June 2008 in Johannesburg, brought together experts from the UN, World Bank, SADC, government representatives from southern Africa, civil society and academia, to share emerging evidence and interventions on specific areas that contribute to the vulnerability to HIV infection of young women and girls in Southern Africa. [more]


Zimbabwean journalist Hopewell Rugoho-Chin’ono was named the 2008 recipient of The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation Award for Excellence in HIV/AIDS Reporting in Africa and overall winner of the 2008 CNN MultiChoice African Journalist Awards at a July 19 gala event in Accra, Ghana. The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation Award for Excellence in HIV/AIDS Reporting in Africa recognizes substantive reporting on the broader social and economic impact of the epidemic, as well as reporting that breaks new grounds in public education on the epidemic.

[more]


A Joint Position Paper on HIV/AIDS and Climate Change was commissioned by UNEP and UNAIDS. The draft Paper prepared by three consultants from the Australian National University, Professor Tony McMichael, Dr. Colin Butler and Dr Haylee Weaver, was reviewed in a technical meeting held in Nyon, Geneva, on 20 May, 2008. Several UN agencies, research institutes from Switzerland, India, South Africa and Canada as well as the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies were represented at the meeting.

[more]

'Scaling Up Through Partnerships: Overcoming Obstacles to Implementation' was the theme of the 2008 HIV/AIDS Implementers' Meeting which concluded successfully on 7 June in Kampala, Uganda. The meeting, hosted by the Government of Uganda and the US President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), drew more than 1,700 HIV programme managers, researchers and stakeholders from around the world. Cosponsors included the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, UNAIDS, UNICEF, the World Bank, the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the Global Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS (GNP+).

[more]

Despite signs that gay and other men who have sex with men (MSM) are better organized and more visible than ever, the words 'overlooked' and 'sidelined' are currently being used to describe the HIV epidemics that are thriving unchecked among MSM across sub Saharan Africa.

[more]





The progress of national efforts to tackle AIDS is regularly reported in Eastern and Southern Africa. As AIDS responses mature, the quality and depth of monitoring and evaluation continually improves, leading to a better understanding of the various epidemics and an increased appreciation of the strengths and the weaknesses of the national responses to AIDS.

Many AIDS programmes report against both targets developed nationally and against targets developed internationally. Countries that signed the 2001 Declaration of Commitment are required to report against 25 indicators (see Fact sheets 2). Some of these indicators are also used to track progress towards the Millennium Development Goals and progress towards achieving universal access by 2010.

This advocacy and information pack brings together key data submitted to UNAIDS in national progress reports in Eastern and Southern Africa in early 2008.



Elizabeth Mataka

OPEN LETTER TO GOVERNMENTS IN SOUTHERN AFRICA









World Bank lays out new AIDS strategy for 2007-2011

In a new report launched 14 May 2008, the World Bank reaffirms its commitment to a long-term engagement to the AIDS response in Africa.

The new publication, The World Bank's commitment to HIV/AIDS in Africa: Our agenda for action, 2007-2011, reports that AIDS remains the leading cause of premature death and is a major threat to development in Africa. It also states that the disease has disproportionately hit women and young girls, who need the legal, social, and economic power to protect themselves, access treatment and care, reverse infection, and stem stigmatization.



Dhamiri Mustapha

Dhamiri Mustapha, a young Tanzanian woman living with HIV, was one of the 80 dignitaries who carried the Olympic flame during the five-kilometre torch relay in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania, on 13 April.





AIDS responses in Eastern and Southern Africa reach a number of important milestones this year as progress, strengths and ongoing challenges are assessed against a number of agreed international targets and promises.

In 2001 UN member states signed a Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS which included a series of ambitious targets and reports on progress against these targets are submitted every two years.




Male circumcision is increasingly being incorporated into national HIV prevention programmes - especially in settings where HIV prevalence is high and the prevalence of circumcision is low. Effective communications is a vital component of any scale-up strategy. A number of partners have developed a guidance document for programme managers and policymakers describing how to plan and manage communications to support the scale-up of male circumcision in Eastern and Southern Africa.

Strong communications support is vital to ensure clarity about the relationship between male circumcision and HIV prevention. Misinformation about male circumcision and strong opinions, both for and against the procedure, present challenges that should be acknowledged and addressed in scale-up plans.

For further information and a copy of the guidance click here.

UNAIDS Occasional Papers

This section contains papers and briefs around emerging issues important to the Southern and Eastern African Region. <Enter Section>


Reports and publications

Towards Universal Access. Scaling up priority HIV/AIDS interventions in the health sector. Progress Report. June 2008

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According to this report issued by WHO, UNAIDS and UNICEF, some 3 million people now have access to antiretroviral therapy. The report notes that one million people started on treatment last year alone, which represents an increase of around 46.5% from the previous year. Its findings also show that 2007 saw improved access to drugs to prevent mother to child transmission of HIV, expanded testing and counselling, and greater commitment to male circumcision in some of the more heavily affected regions of sub-Saharan Africa.

Download the full report

Report on the Regional Workshop on HIV in the Road Transport Sector in Southern Africa, 26-27 September 2007

picutre of reports front page

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) in conjunction with the World Food Programme (WFP), the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC), North Star Foundation (NSF) and the United Nations Joint Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), organized a Regional Workshop on HIV in the Road Transport Sector for Southern Africa on 26-28 September, 2007 in Piggs Peak, Swaziland.

Download the full report

Responding to AIDS: Assessing Progress in Eastern and Southern Africa

This report summarizes progress and trends in Eastern and Southern Africa in implementing the actions described in the 2001 Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS and the 2006 Political Declaration on HIV/AIDS. The report draws on data presented in national progress reports that were submitted to UNAIDS for publication in early 2008. This report intends to complement the national reports and act as a further tool to support national scale-up efforts across the region.

Download the full report


HIV Prevention call for Southern Africa

Ban Ki

The present report reviews progress in implementing the 2001 Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS and the 2006 Political Declaration on HIV/AIDS. Its findings are based primarily on the reports of 147 Member States on national progress in the response to HIV, which together represent the most comprehensive body of evidence ever assembled regarding the response to HIV in low-, middle- and high-income countries.

Download the full report


Sub-Saharan Africa: AIDS epidemic update - Regional Summary

The annual AIDS epidemic update reports on the latest developments in the global AIDS epidemic. This 2007 Regional summary provides the most recent estimates of the epidemic's scope and human toll and explores new trends in the epidemic's evolution in sub-Saharan Africa.

Download it here.



The AIDS epidemic update reports on the latest developments in the global AIDS epidemic. The 2007 edition provides the most recent estimates of the AIDS epidemic and explores new findings and trends in the epidemic's evolution.

Read press release
Download full report


3-8 Aug
Mexico City,
Mexico
International AIDS conference
14-15 Aug
Johannesburg,
South Africa
SADC Framework prevention strategies
18-20 Aug
Johannesburg,
South Africa
CCM Strengthening for Eastern and Southern Africa – Regional high level workshop
10-12 Sep
Johannesburg,
South Africa
Orientation for Regional Consultants on male Circumcision
16 Sep
Nairobi,
Kenya
East Africa Partnership Forum
22-26 Sep
Nairobi,
Kenya
MAINSTREAMING GENDER AND RIGHTS IN HIV&AIDS PROGRAMMES
29 Sep - 1 Oct
Dar Es Salaam,
Tanzania
Getting it right for children. Moving toward universal access, prevention, care, treatment for children affected by HIV/AIDS

[see more Events]


SWAZILAND: Winile Mngometulu:"They are all gone, I am the one survivor"
MBABANE, 18 August 2008 (PLUSNEWS) - One of two wives, Winile Mngometulu, 32, was tested for HIV in 2002 after her husband's death. Mngometulu now works for the Swaziland AIDS Support (AIS) organisation, helping HIV-positive people come to terms with their status. She told IRIN/PlusNews of her experience. [more]
 

ETHIOPIA: Cappuccino with condom
ADDIS ABABA, 20 August 2008 (PLUSNEWS) - Bellissima, on bustling Gabon Street in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, could be just another upmarket café, except that each order comes with a packet of 'Sensation' condoms, and is served in 'Sensation' cups by staff wearing 'Sensation' T-shirts. [more]
 

KENYA: The lure of dodgy herbal "cures" for HIV
MOMBASA, 21 August 2008 (PLUSNEWS) - People in Kenya's Coast Province, believed not to be genuine herbalists, are selling concoctions purported to treat HIV and persuading many patients on life-prolonging antiretroviral (ARV) drugs to abandon their medication. [more]
 

KENYA: High levels of stigma persist in the north
IJARA, 21 August 2008 (PLUSNEWS) - For the past ten months, health workers at Ijara District Hospital in Kenya's North Eastern Province have been caring for two children, aged six and seven, who were abandoned by their father after he discovered he was HIV-positive. Nurses say the children were weak, malnourished and suffering from tuberculosis when they arrived. [more]
 

SOUTH AFRICA: Bishop Kevin Dowling: "The best available means we have to protect life is the condom"
RUSTENBERG, 21 August 2008 (PLUSNEWS) - Kevin Dowling is the Catholic Bishop of Rustenberg, a mining town in South Africa's North West Province surrounded by informal settlements, where as many as 50 percent of pregnant women test positive for HIV. [more]
 

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