AIDSPortal News

Kenya: PMTCT services not reaching rural women

ISIOLO - The government's campaign to prevent HIV transmission from mother to child is failing pregnant HIV-positive women in Kenya's remote rural areas. A shortage of testing sites and trained medical staff in rural areas means many of these women are unaware of their status and that their babies are at risk of contracting the virus. "You have been blessed with a baby; as part of the Gove...

Global medicine trade rules pit rich nations against poor

It's not for nothing that pharmaceutical companies are among the largest contributors to presidential campaigns. Situated within the regulation-riddled world of healthcare, these companies rely on national governments for the favours they need to make shareholders happy. They also have to rely on international treaties and agreements, as well as bilateral and multilateral deals, to gain an edge..., The National AIDS Trust has today released the report ‘Primary HIV Infection’. The report finds conclusive evidence that symptoms of early-stage HIV infection (clinically known as ‘primary HIV infection’) are being commonly missed by people who are infected, by doctors and by other healthcare professionals. Failure to diagnose at this early stage is fuelling HIV in the UK. The National AIDS T...

IFRC launches 21 million Swiss francs HIV/AIDS programme for five countries in West and Central Africa

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) is appealing for 21 million Swiss francs (US$ 20.6 million / € 13 million, 8.5 billion CFA francs) to finance a new three-year programme to boost the HIV work of Red Cross societies in Burkina-Faso, Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Guinea and Nigeria. The new community-based programme, which ...

US lifts travel ban on HIV-positive people

JOHANNESBURG - A move by the United States Senate to repeal legislation prohibiting HIV-positive visitors and immigrants has been hailed as an important step in the fight against stigma and discrimination. On 16 July, the Senate passed the re-authorisation of the President's Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), which also amends the Immigration Act to lift the ban on travel and immigration ...

Uganda: Poverty driving child sex abuse in the north

GULU - Acute poverty is forcing girls as young as 14 into early marriage and sex work in parts of northern Uganda affected by the war, says a new report by local NGOs. A combination of extreme poverty, a large number of child-headed households, and the high mobility of internally displaced families are among the factors that have led to girls being subjected to sexual abuse or engaging in sex w...

Is AIDS still an emergency?

JOHANNESBURG - The rate of new HIV infections, which has fuelled the global HIV/AIDS epidemic since the 1980s, has peaked throughout the world and is now declining. But population growth and the life-prolonging effects of antiretroviral (ARV) treatment mean that the total global number of HIV-infected people is likely to remain about the same for another two decades and will continue to increas...

US ban on visitors with HIV could end soon

WASHINGTON — A two-decade ban on people with HIV visiting or immigrating to the United States may end soon through a Senate bill aimed at fighting AIDS and other diseases in Africa and other poor areas of the world. The U.S. is one of a dozen countries — including Sudan, Saudi Arabia, Libya and Russia — that ban travel and immigration for HIV-positive people. Under current U.S. law, HIV is the ..., National AIDS Trust calls for urgent review of sex and relationships education for young gay men The National AIDS Trust is calling for sex and relationships education in schools to deal with same sex relationships, after figures released today from the Health Protection Agency show the number of young men diagnosed with HIV has more than doubled in the last decade. Last year 281 young men wer...

Swaziland: Siphiwe Hlope, "Today women are so courageous"

MBABANE - Siphiwe Hlope is a pioneer. She was one of the first Swazi women to publicly declare her HIV status, in 2001, at a time when stigma against people living with the virus was intense. She went on to form Swaziland Positive Living (SWAPOL) to advocate awareness and the rights of HIV-positive people in a country with an adult HIV-prevalence rate of 26 percent, the world's highest. "The w...