More than a month ago Canada announced, to great applause from the developing world and tireless AIDS activists, that it was willing to change its laws and allow generic drug manufacturers to export cheaper anti-retrovirals to poorer countries. Health-e looks at how the announcement came about and when it is likely to start delivering the desperately needed drugs.
As Nepad's efforts to coordinate African development
creates jobs and opportunities, those who benefit may
become more vulnerable to HIV/AIDS, an AIDS conference in Maputo hears.
MAPUTO: Despite being one of Africa's poorest nations, Mozambique has started an ambitious HIV/AIDS treatment plan which has already been treating patients
with antiretroviral drugs for 300 days.
People living with HIV/AIDS around the country are anxiously waiting to see whether Cabinet will approve an operational plan to introduce anti-retroviral drugs into the public health sector.
Projections in the Africa Journal of AIDS Research show that HIV incidence rates in the 15 to 49 years age group have decreased from 4.2 % in 1997 to 1.7 % in 2003. Health-e spoke to researchers who believe that new sexual practices among the youth are at the core of this change.
Every district in the country will be compelled to offer anti-retroviral drugs to citizens if Cabinet approves the drug rollout plan that is expected to be presented to it in the near future.
Children with AIDS can take antiretroviral medicines but caregivers need to know how to monitor these young patients. Health-e talks to Dr Mark Cotton, a children's specialist at Tygerberg Children's Hospital.
In this third and final feature, we travel with Goitsemang to the doctor as he learns more about HIV and AIDS in an effort to assist his sister, Dibuseng, who was diagnosed with HIV three months ago.
In 1990 the World Bank predicted that within ten years there would be 1,2 million HIV infections in Brazil. Thirteen years later, this scenario has yet to materialise. Health-e News Service looks at the Brazilian response to HIV/AIDS.
The hopes of many people sick with AIDS rest on the technical report that has been delivered to government. Until a public sector treatment programme becomes available, these life-prolonging drugs will remain a luxury only accessible to those who can afford them. Justice Edwin Cameron is one of the fortunate minority.
Many people equate an HIV diagnosis with imminent death. Not only is this false, but more important, early diagnosis of HIV improves one's chances of survival. Goitsemang Nnetlane (not his real name) from the Northern Cape recently heard that his sister, Dibuseng (also not her real name) had been diagnosed with HIV. His first thought was that he had to secure anti-retrovirals for her immediately. But, he was wrong.
In the last Living with AIDS feature, we heard how Goitsemang, a young man from Britstown, in the Northern Cape, has been on a quest to learn more about HIV and AIDS after hearing that his sister, Dibuseng, is HIV positive. Khopotso Bodibe of Health-e News Service, accompanied him to a doctor to have some of his questions answered.
Part 2 of an interview with Justice Edwin Cameron who describes his past six years on antiretroviral therapy as a "miracle" that has given him back his life.
Whether it's an alarm clock or the local rooster, people in poor communities can find ways to remember to take their antiretroviral therapy at the same time every morning and evening. Nyameka Ndhashe lost her mother to AIDS because she could not get antiretroviral therapy. Now she's a monitor for the Treatment Access Campaign helping others who are getting drugs to enjoy a new lease on life.
An important pre-condition for anyone on antiretroviral therapy under the Treatment Action Campaign's treatment project is to have the support of a friend. Buyiswa Gcwabe is desperately ill and has chosen her 16-year old daughter Zanele as her official 'treatment supporter'.
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