| ZIMBABWE’S PUBLIC HEALTH SYSTEM HITS ROCK BOTTOM |
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| Harare, Zimbabwe (2010 Features): Even though the country was applauded at the recently concluded XVII International AIDS Conference in Mexico for its success in reducing its HIV and TB prevalence and incidence, Zimbabwe’s HIV and TB programmes are suffering as donors pull out. Development assistance to Zimbabwe has been declining steadily in the last five years, and it comes at a time of economic decline. ...More» |
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| CORRUPTION THREATENS TO CRIPPLE UGANDA’S PUBLIC HEALTH SYSTEM |
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| Kampala, Uganda (2010 Features): Corruption and mismanagement of public funds is threatening to
put Uganda’s public health system in jeopardy. Corruption is largely responsible
for drug shortages, including stock–outs of ARVs. A national commission report
reveals that Uganda loses US$300 million (about UGX 510 billion), or a lion’s
share of its entire health budget, to corruption, annually. ...More» |
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| SRI LANKA RETURNS WORLD BANK’S HIV AND AIDS PREVENTION FUNDS |
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| Colombo, Sri Lanka, 2010 Features: Unlike many countries that received World Bank assistance to curtail the impact of HIV, Sri Lanka was fortunate to receive a grant rather than a loan. The island nation’s usage of the World Bank funds has been sluggish from the beginning. A few months ago, the grant ran into troubled waters. The World Bank funding period came to an end and they requested the Health Ministry to return a colossal sum of money – US$5.6 million or 45 per cent of the total funding granted under the project....More» |
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| MIGRATION MATTERS IN CARIBBEAN HIV RESPONSE |
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| The Caribbean community is to become a single market this year, making it easier for citizens to move about between the 29 member-countries. Migration is an essential ingredient in the tourism-dependent economies of these countries, but it also fuels HIV and AIDS. With HIV the leading cause of death among adults in the region, authorities know time is running out for them to put together a better system of health that will make treatment easier to access for migrants with HIV and AIDS. ...More» |
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| BRAIN DRAIN, MIGRATION AND AN INTERFERING CHURCH |
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| Filipino health professionals are known around the world – and found everywhere from Southeast Asia to Latin America. Attracted by high salaries abroad, they are leaving home in droves – at the rate of 7,000 a year at last count. The implications for the treatment of people with HIV and AIDS are enormous. But prevention suffers as well, because a powerful Church frowns upon condom use and the government appears only too happy to oblige. ...More» |
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| ZIMBABWEANS FIGHT OVER EXPIRED DRUGS AS HEALTH SYSTEM COLLAPSES |
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| There is utter confusion in Zimbabwe over a batch of life-enhancing anti-retroviral drugs being rolled out under a government programme. The intended beneficiaries say the drugs are long past their expiry date but that they continue to take them because there is nothing else available for free. Many of them blame any new infection on these drugs. But government doctors say the drugs, though past their ‘official’ use-by-date, are useable. Either way, the fact is that the public health system in Zimbabwe is on the brink of collapse. ...More» |
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| SHORTAGE OF AIDS DRUGS BLIGHTS LIVES OF UGANDAN CHILDREN |
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| Just two years ago international donors stopped funding AIDS programmes in Uganda citing widespread corruption. The funds have since been restored but a sudden disappearance of children’s AIDS drugs in parts of the country is worrying both doctors and nongovernment agencies that the bad old days are here again. The director general of Uganda’s health services tells 2010 Features it’s all down to administrative lapses – the drugs are there, he says, but clinics don’t file their returns on time. ...More» |
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| PAKISTAN TARGETS MIGRANTS’ WIVES IN FIGHT ON AIDS |
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| Poverty at home and the easy lure of petro-dollars in a border region of Pakistan is prompting thousands of young men to migrate to the Middle East. Once there – lonely and away from home – many contract the HIV virus, which they then pass on to their wives back home. In a region bordering Afghanistan where women are held in low social esteem, these women can find themselves driven away from home or even killed. This feature from the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) examines a growing problem that has received little attention from the authorities. ...More» |
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| IF ONLY WE HAD AIDS PILLS THAT TASTED SWEET |
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| Across the developing world, more and more children are contracting the HIV virus. But when it comes to drugs specifically meant for children, these are either priced too high, or simply non-existent. In Jamaica, this means mothers of children with HIV or AIDS have to break adult tablets in exactly a half, as anything else can mean over- or under-dose. Campaigners are incensed more is not being done for some of the world’s most disadvantaged children. ...More» |
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| WHY ESNAT PHITI DOESN’T USE CONDOMS |
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| The government of Malawi has a programme to distribute condoms among sex workers and other high-risk groups. On the face of it, the programme works just fine – however, many sex workers, it turns out, don’t bother with condoms because their clients will pay much more for unprotected sex. Campaigners say it’s a classic case of a problem requiring government intervention at several levels. ...More» |
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| WE ARE NOT PRETENDING, SAY MSM IN A CORNER OF INDIA |
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| Men who have sex with men, or MSM, are people that a lot of Indians would rather like to brush under the carpet – and they have a Victorian-era law to help them do so (it criminalises gay sex). MSM are not only gay – they are found among heterosexual men, including those who are married. In the northeastern state of Manipur deeply entrenched social attitudes combine with the law to drive MSMs underground. Now, MSM groups say they are organising to help themselves, although decriminalising sex among consenting adults could help. ...More» |
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