A report released at the Barcelona International AIDS conference says that if current trends continue, the number of young people living with HIV/AIDS could rise from the present estimate of 12,4 million to 21,5 million by the end of this decade. This has particular implications for sub-Saharan Africa where large proportions of many country's populations are under 18 years of age.
Combining prevention of mother to child transmission (MTCT) programmes with the treatment of the mothers and their family members (MTCT Plus) could provide a critical link between prevention and treatment, according to Dr Wafaa El-Sadr of Columbia University in the United States.
US Health Secretary Tommy Thompson was shouted down by AIDS activists and prevented from addressing the World AIDS conference in Barcelona yesterday (Tuesday). Kerry Cullinan reports.
Pressure is mounting against the South African government for continuing to delay a $72-million grant to KwaZulu-Natal from the Global Fund to Fight HIV, TB and Malaria. Speaking at the World AIDS conference in Barcelona yesterday (wed), Global Fund director Dr Richard Feachem said the fund was "concerned" by the delay.
An international group of AIDS specialists are in the final stages of setting up a clinic in Sharpeville that will offer services such as the prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT), treatment of opportunistic infections and anti-retroviral therapy.
Based on existing resources, South Africa can 'easily afford' to provide anti-retroviral therapy to between 60 000 and 70 000 people in the next five years. This was the conclusion from a study by Dr Chris Kenyon of the Health Systems Trust and Dr Andrew Boulle, a registrar in the School of Public Health at the University of Cape Town, presented at the 14th World Conference on AIDS in Barcelona yesterday (Tuesday).
South African AIDS activist Zackie Achmat has urged the world to immediately lay to rest the counterproductive debate between AIDS prevention and treatment.
The impact of the epidemic on young people is expected to grow, particularly in hard hit countries that already have young populations. This is according to a report by the Henry J Kaiser Family Foundation: 'The Tip of the Iceberg ' the Global Impact of HIV/AIDS on Youth' released at the World AIDS Conference.
Giving pregnant HIV positive women two anti-AIDS drugs rather than one substantially reduces the chances of them passing the virus on to their babies, delegates to the 14th world AIDS conference in Barcelona were told yesterday (Monday).
The fact that South Africa's HIV prevalence rate stands at well over 20% and that of Thailand at less than three percent, illustrates the choices the two nations made about 10 years ago, according to William Makgoba, president of the Medical Research Council.
A new drug called Tenofovir is being researched to see whether it can prevent HIV infection if it is taken before a person is exposed to the virus. Kerry Cullinan reports.
In the depressing statistics frenzy that often characterises world AIDS conferences, there is one shining success story that defies the stereotype. Uganda is poor, rural and in sub-Saharan Africa. Those three factors alone should condemn it to being a helpless case in the eyes of the developed world.
Competition between drug companies and generic producers has been far more effective in ensuring cheaper anti-AIDS drugs than negotiations with drug companies. This is despite a massive humanitarian initiative launched two years at the 13th world AIDS conference by the Joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) and five of the world's biggest pharmaceutical companies aimed at ensuring that developing countries had access to cheaper drugs. KERRY CULLINAN reports.
The impact the AIDS epidemic is having now, will be worse in the years ahead and the way to change it's course is to try and see where the epidemic is going rather than relying on crystal ball modeling. Speaking at the 14th World AIDS Conference, Professor Alan Whiteside, Director of Natal University's HIV/AIDS Research Division said it was clear from the agenda that the scientists knew a great deal, but little was known on the social science (impact) of the epidemic.
There is no longer any reason to believe that it should not be possible to get anti-retrovirals to poorer nations, the World Health Organisation said today (Monday). Addressing the first session of the 14th International Conference on HIV/AIDS, Dr Bernhard Schwartlander, director of HIV/AIDS at the WHO said Brazil had shown the way in that it actually cost less money to give people anti-retrovirals that to just let them die.
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