HIV/AIDS // Current

GLOBAL: Male circumcision - a gamble for women?

MEXICO CITY, 8 August 2008 (PlusNews) - While researchers and advocates at the International AIDS Conference this week urged... more

wlwatkins
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Actress to become UN peace envoy

Actress Charlize Theron has been made a messenger of peace by the United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon. The South... more

BuddyP
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AIDS vaccine nears human trials

An experimental vaccine aimed at combating the HIV/AIDS virus has been developed by a researcher at the University of Western... more

arcticspirit
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Claims that there is a Cure for HIV but the risk may be to great

Scientist are seceptical of news that states a man who under went a bone marrow transplant to treat an unrelated acute myeloid... more

TimothyF
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are bone marrow transplants a cure for AIDS

Doctors for an American man afflicted with aids said that the man appeared to have been cured of the disease after a bonemarrow... more

daledrops
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DEATH BY HEROIN

A LOOK AT HEROIN ABUSE IN THE UNITED STATES. http://www.ChokeonThisVideo.com

ChokeonThis
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Living with HIV.

Three HIV-positive citizens from Eugene, Oregon, share their personal stories about what it is like to live with HIV. They... more

jubal
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1Minuto de No Silencio por...

This pod made for the 60 aniversary of the Declaration of Human Wright. It won the third prize to the first contest " 1minuto... more

Wilfrid
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Fear of HIV testing keeps pregnant women at home

HIV testing is routine in programmes for the prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) of HIV, and most hospitals offer... more

PlusNews
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Village Mentors - NAM

How grassroots advocates are leading the fight against AIDS in Kenya

pokesmot
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Canada: Column: Insite Revelation Proves RCMP Needs Watching

Those heading up our national police force must be so glad people have other things on their minds these days. Otherwise,... more

pokesmot
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Hope for South Africa! “HIV causes AIDS,” Health Minister Barbara Hogan states

This week, South Africa’s new Health Minister, Barbara Hogan, said it was unquestionable that HIV causes AIDS. Her discourse... more

bonemachine
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Long haul trucking, long distance love

Said*, a long-distance trucker from the Democratic Republic of Congo, is married with six children. His work keeps him on the road... more

PlusNews
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"Where was your daughter while you were with someone else's?"

When classes finish at Francisco Manyanga Secondary School in Maputo, capital of Mozambique, most teachers and students head for... more

PlusNews
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MADAGASCAR: No welcome for sex tourism

The warning posters start at the airport in the capital, Antananarivo, informing visitors that Madagascar says "NO to sex... more

PlusNews
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Cancer Causing Poppers Still on Sale

QueerNews.org.uk has discovered "poppers" continue to be sold in sex shops and in bars, clubs and saunas on the gay... more

QueerNews
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How to say I Luv U in Nigeria

Your mobile phone beeps, you have received a text message. It begins: "I swear, I will make sure I give you HIV..." ... more

TravG73
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Brain drain reaches alarming point: Malawi in AIDS treatment conundrum

Malawi is facing an acute shortage of medical personnel, the Medecins Sans Frontieres conference report revealed. It said tremendous progress has been made in the fight against HIV/AIDS but there is still limited access to Anti-retroviral therapy (ART).

The report indicated many persons living with HIV have been left out in the free ART programmes due to shortage of doctors at health facilities. It observed that the current staffing levels of health workers in Malawi remains far below the recommended World Health Organization (WHO) medium level standards to ensure reasonable level of care. It noted that it is so low as compared to other African countries.

While the situation has reached an alarming state as the country is loosing most of its skilled heath staff to the West, the Malawi government has since 2004 implemented an Emergency Human Resources Plan (EHRP) to meet the health sector demands that have come with the scale up of ART.

"We are coming to the end of the honeymoon period with ART scale up, and can not continue to focus so strongly on initiation alone. Lets see ART as a marathon, not just a spirit, for the health sector as well as the patient," said Matt Boxshall of the Lighthouse which offers ART services in Malawi.

While it is forecasted that with over one million people living with HIV, the need for ART would increase the health sector in Malawi continues to face a critical Human Resource shortfall with the 2004 Ministry of Health report describing it as 'dangerously close to collapse'.

"The ART programme is an enormous national commitment and within the sector we have to make well considered choices, where to put most resources," said Timothy Gilbo head of the World Bank delegation to Malawi.

Malawi’s national HIV and AIDS action plan calls for universal access; 385,000 patients to be initiated on ART and 262,000 to be alive by 2012. However these targets do not cover all people in need as there is currently a treatment deficit of 69 percent and as the ART programme progresses the country is expected to face more challenges, mostly coming in from human resource problems.

"We realize that the cost will continue to go up significantly. HR is a sort of mortgage payment, therefore requiring long term commitment," Dr Austin Derby of the Centres for Disease Control (CDC) in Malawi said.Malawi is facing an acute shortage of medical personnel, the Medecins Sans Frontieres conference report revealed. It said... more