Funds and affordable drugs needed to turn target into treatment NEW YORK, 9 June 2011 – Governments meeting at a UN Summit on AIDS have taken a critical step by committing to reach 15 million people with HIV treatment by 2015 – but they must take immediate concrete action to make this treatment target a reality, the international medical humanitarian organisation Médecins Sans Frontières MSF (Doctors Without Borders) said today. “By agreeing to expand HIV treatment to 15 million people in four years, governments are committing to take the latest science that treatment is prevention and turn it into policies... Continue Reading
DAKAR, 7 June 2011 (IRIN) – The post-election violence in Côte d’Ivoire delayed by several months a distribution of mosquito nets – a pillar of the country’s strategy to combat malaria, a leading killer of children. Some communities must wait even longer as hundreds of thousands of nets were looted during the unrest. This is just one example of how the recent conflict has disrupted health services, which were already fragile after nine years of a north-south split. “This sets us back in our malaria prevention efforts. We were supposed to have done this distribution in December,” said San Koffi... Continue Reading
Latest Research Shows Expanded Treatment Could Turn AIDS Tide NEW YORK, June 6, 2011 – At a time when HIV treatment has proven to reduce HIV transmission by 96 percent, governments meeting for the UN Summit on AIDS must agree today to put nine million people on treatment over the next four years, despite strong opposition from several key funders, the international medical humanitarian organisation Médecins Sans Frontières MSF (Doctors Without Borders) said today. “After weeks of contentious negotiations, will governments today sign up to a proposed target to have 15 million people on HIV/AIDS treatment by 2015?” asked Sharonann... Continue Reading
BLANTYRE, 2 June 2011 (IRIN) – After several years of fragile gains, Malawi’s healthcare sector is facing major setbacks following a decision by its largest international donor, the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID), to freeze its aid to the impoverished nation. The UK provided about US$122 million annually to Malawi, of which $49 million went to funding Malawi’s public health sector, but DFID made its final aid disbursement in March and has decided not to renew a six-year funding commitment which ends in June. “We have already started feeling the pinch,” said Martha Kwataine, a policy analyst with... Continue Reading
HARARE, 31 May 2011 (PlusNews) – Orphans and vulnerable children in 10 of Zimbabwe’s poorest districts will start benefiting from a government scheme to help them go to school, have enough to eat and access medical care. There are about 100,000 child-headed households in Zimbabwe and a quarter of all children in the country, about 1.6 million, have lost one or both parents to HIV and other causes. HIV prevalence in Zimbabwe is one of the world’s highest, at 13 percent. The government has started rolling out a cash transfer programme with the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), under... Continue Reading
