An STDs and Hiv/Aids Volunteer Counselling and Testing Centre was inaugurated Monday in Viana district by Luanda's deputy governor for social affairs, Francisca do Espírito Santo.
According to the official, Viana district has thus won one more hospital that has the potential to start the institution, following an effort that is part of the government's strategy of prevention and struggle against the disease.
The works have cost Usd 1,5 million and lasted about nine months. It comprises a consultation ward, a laboratory, a waiting lounge and will be served by eight health technicians to cater for about 20 patients a day.
In his turn, Medicus Mundi Catalunha representative, Ivan Zahinas, underlined that from the epidemiological point of view, Viana district is in a privileged position, as the rate of prevalence of Hiv is one of the lowest in Luanda.
According to him, health authorities are implementing a strong strategy of primary prevention based on awareness and education campaigns on the disease.
Meanwhile, the Volunteer Counselling and Testing Centre is a relevant element in the strengthening of the strategy of secondary prevention, taking into account that it will enable the knowledge of the state of health of the beneficiaries of the treatment as the National Institute of Struggle Against Aids has already started to prescribed anti-retroviral drugs.
Until December 2006, 26,698 cases of Hiv/Aids were notified by the Health Ministry that has up to now 89 volunteer counselling and testing centres, 18 of which in Luanda province.
May 1, 2007
Angola: STDs, HIV/Aids Counselling, Testing Centre Inaugurated
OraQuick(R) Rapid HIV Test Chosen for Madagascar National AIDS Control Program
OraSure Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: OSUR - News), the market leader in oral fluid diagnostics, announced today that it has been selected by the Malagasy government and its National AIDS Control Program to be the exclusive first-line provider of rapid HIV screening tests for the country's outreach program over the next five years. Under this program, the government intends to test more than 400,000 individuals in 2007 with the Company's OraQuick® Rapid HIV 1/2 Antibody Test.
The government of Madagascar, particularly His Excellency President Marc Ravalomanana, is committed to keeping the HIV/AIDS epidemic at bay by implementing the National AIDS Control Program, a countrywide HIV testing campaign that offers free HIV education and testing for all individuals. A major component of this program is a local outreach effort that includes teams of individuals traveling across the country to highly populated areas and offering HIV tests in convenient locations, including individuals' homes.
"In Madagascar, the rate of prevalence for HIV/AIDS is low, and we want to keep it that way," said Fenosoa Ratsimanetrimanana, Executive Secretariat of the National AIDS Committee. "HIV testing is a cornerstone to our HIV prevention program and last year we saw a significant increase in HIV testing because we launched a rapid oral fluid HIV test during the second half of the year. This year, with the continued support of the World Bank and the Global Fund against AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, we anticipate more than tripling the number of HIV tests administered versus the year prior."
The Madagascar program began in 2005 when 15,000 individuals were tested. In 2006, the program's second year, approximately 140,000 individuals were tested and this significant increase in testing is attributed directly to the introduction of the OraQuick® HIV Test during the latter part of that year. Due to the immediate impact of the test, the Ministry of Health, Family Planning and Social Protection has elected to use the OraQuick® HIV test preferably.
"We are very pleased to have been selected by the Government of Madagascar to be the first provider of oral rapid HIV tests for its country-wide testing initiative. This decision is a testament to the value of our technology - and in particular the versatility of the OraQuick® platform which enables individuals to use either blood or oral fluid for screening," said Douglas A. Michels, OraSure President and Chief Executive Officer. "OraSure is committed to help stop the spread of HIV throughout the world and is proud to be working in partnership with the government of Madagascar to support education and testing programs."
The program is a good example of a public-private partnership to help further stem the spread of HIV/AIDS in Madagascar.
"HIV testing is a vital component of the effort to prevent the continued spread of the epidemic," said Shana Ward Ryzowy, program manager for the Global Business Coalition on HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. "Testing is also the first step in accessing treatment and care. The Global Business Coalition commends OraSure's collaborative efforts with the government of Madagascar to dramatically scale up HIV/AIDS awareness and testing. This initiative has the potential to have far reaching public health impacts." The Global Business Coalition is a non-profit organization dedicated to harnessing the power of the global business community to end the HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria epidemics.
Alarming rates of unsafe sex among HIV-infected British gays
More than a third of British homosexuals who are infected with the
AIDS virus continue to have unprotected sex, according to a survey published on Tuesday.
The investigation was carried out in 2003 and 2004 among 2,640 men in London, Manchester and Brighton who filled out questionnaires.
Most of the volunteers also provided a saliva sample for HIV testing, and the results showed that among those with the AIDS virus, only a third knew they had been infected.
Thirty-seven percent of HIV-positive men said they had had unprotected sex with more than one partner in the past year, while the rate among HIV-negative men was 18 percent.
The survey appears in the latest issue of the journal Sexually Transmitted Infections, published by the British Medical Association (BMA).
The authors, led by Julie Dodds of the Centre for Sexual Health and HIV Research at University College London, say they are worried.
The high rates of unsafe sex and ignorance about HIV status occurred despite an awareness campaign and access to condoms, virus testing and antiretroviral drugs, they note.
Out of seminar closet, LU starts HIV course
Enough of seminars and HIV/AIDS awareness programmes. The Lucknow University's Social Work department now offers a one-year post-graduate diploma in HIV/AIDS and Family Life Education.
The course starts this July, for the 2007-08 academic session, university officials said.
"Apart from spreading HIV/AIDS awareness, our diploma would focus on counselling HIV/AIDS-afflicted persons," course coordinator Dr D K Singh said. "If we talk about Uttar Pradesh, there has been not been any special emphasis on holding counselling sessions for HIV/AIDS (afflicted persons)."
He said the idea is to prepare students to meet this "global challenge" head on, rather than "just confining ourselves to the usual seminars and programmes."
Singh said the course has got all necessary approvals from the university administration. "All preparations have been made. We have decided to admit 60 students in the PG diploma initially. But we might increase the seats if we get a good response from the students."
University officials said the PG diploma progarmme would enable students to conduct surveys to assess ground realities about HIV/AIDS awareness programmes. "Despite many such programmes launched in various parts of the state, the awareness level has not risen in the same proportion," a university official said. "So our surveys would ascertain real awareness levels about HIV/AIDS, which in turn would help bring out the loopholes in these awareness programmes."
Singh said the Social Work department has already made a list of areas with HIV/AIDS ratio. "Our students would visit these localities to conduct survey as part of the course's practical session," he said. "Based on results of the survey, students would design new HIV/AIDS awareness programmes.
"These programmes would put special emphasis on the affected population's literacy level, family background, profession and such details."
Faculty members of the Social Work department said the university has tied up with several NGOs dealing with HIV/AIDS issues to make the training more substantial. "The assistance would strengthen our training programmes," a faculty member said. "Several NGOs have agreed to provide us their data on HIV/AIDS studies, and such statistics would be of immense help for students who would visit far-flung areas."
AIDS virus hides quickly inside babies' blood
Drug-resistant versions of the AIDS virus passed from mother to child can quickly hide in the infant's immune system cells and lurk for years, researchers reported on Monday.
This will limit what drugs the children can take to control their infection, Dr. Deborah Persaud of Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore and colleagues said.
While mother-to-child transmission of the AIDS virus has been slowed in the United States by giving drugs to both the mother and the baby at the time of birth, it is still a major cause of HIV infection in the developing world.
If not treated, about 25 percent of newborns get the virus from their infected mothers, either during birth or shortly after, while breastfeeding.
Drug-resistant versions of the human immunodeficiency virus are also a growing problem. People develop resistance while taking AIDS drugs, but then this resistant virus can be passed from one person to another.
Persaud's team studied 21 HIV-infected infants in 10 U.S. states. They found five of them were infected with drug-resistant HIV from their mothers.
The virus moved quickly to so-called resting or inactive CD4 T-cells -- the cells normally infected by HIV, Persaud's team reported in The Journal of Infectious Diseases.
The virus was resistant to a class of AIDS drugs called non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors or NNRTIs. But protease inhibitors, another class of AIDS drugs, worked, the researchers found.
"The initial transmitted drug-resistant virus will likely never be cleared from that infant with currently available treatments," Persaud said in a statement.
The AIDS virus is especially difficult to fight because it infects the immune system cells that usually battle a viral infection. Single drugs do very little to control it, so it is important to use cocktails of drugs that interfere with the virus at various points in its life cycle.
There are currently about 20 different available AIDS drugs in various classes, but patients with resistant virus automatically cannot use several of them.
South Africa launches national AIDS council
The South African government and AIDS campaigers buried the hatchet Monday with the launch of a joint national body to oversee a programme aimed at halving the country's rate of new infections.
The formation of the South African National AIDS Council (SANAC), which is to be chaired by Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, marks a radical shift in the relationship between the government and lobby groups who last year demanded the resignation of Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang.
Long-time critics of the minister, currently recovering after a liver transplant, said they were delighted to now be working in a partnership with the government, which also expressed satisfaction at the agreement.
Acting health minister Jeff Radebe said the council was a "true expression of our multi-sectoral response to HIV and AIDS in the country."
"We have set up the necessary coordinating structure and we have all agreed on the five-year Strategic Plan to address HIV and AIDS," he said at the council's launch near Johannesburg, referring to a programme unveiled earlier this year.
The plan's main targets are to cut the number of new infections in half by the end of 2011 and increase levels of care to 80 percent of sufferers and their families in a country with the world's second highest incidence of HIV.
"It is now time to get down to the real business of implementation," Radebe said.
The Treatment Action Campaign (TAC), the country's top AIDS lobby which was among Tshabalala-Msimang's greatest detractors, is among many represented on the new council.
It said the new five-year programme was commendable but the council had to be more than just window-dressing.
"It has been a very arduous process. Whilst it is not a perfect plan, it's by far the best plan the country has ever had," TAC spokesman Mark Heywood told AFP.
"The real challenge is going to be implementation. SANAC has to be more than a talkshop," he added.
The council has no legal power and is merely an advisory body but Mlambo-Ngcuka's presence is a sign of the importance that the government attaches to it.
"What distinguishes SANAC from other work that we do, is that it is us working together as partners," she said at the launch.
A spokeswoman for a number of civil society groups also hailed the government for allowing widespread consultation on the new AIDS plan.
"We are excited with the extent to which we have been consulted in the development of the plan," said Hendrieta Bogopane-Zulu.
South Africa launches national AIDS council
The South African government and AIDS campaigners buried the hatchet Monday with the launch of a joint national body to oversee a programme aimed at halving the country's rate of new infections.
The formation of the South African National AIDS Council (SANAC), which is to be chaired by Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, marks a radical shift in the relationship between the government and lobby groups who last year demanded the resignation of Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang.
Long-time critics of the minister, currently recovering after a liver transplant, said they were delighted to now be working in a partnership with the government, which also expressed satisfaction at the agreement.
Acting health minister Jeff Radebe said the council was a "true expression of our multi-sectoral response to
HIV and AIDS in the country."
"We have set up the necessary coordinating structure and we have all agreed on the five-year Strategic Plan to address HIV and AIDS," he said at the council's launch near Johannesburg, referring to a programme unveiled earlier this year.
The plan's main targets are to cut the number of new infections in half by the end of 2011 and increase levels of care to 80 percent of sufferers and their families in a country with the world's second highest incidence of HIV.
"It is now time to get down to the real business of implementation," Radebe said.
The Treatment Action Campaign (TAC), the country's top AIDS lobby which was among Tshabalala-Msimang's greatest detractors, is among many represented on the new council.
It said the new five-year programme was commendable but the council had to be more than just window-dressing.
"It has been a very arduous process. Whilst it is not a perfect plan, it's by far the best plan the country has ever had," TAC spokesman Mark Heywood told AFP.
"The real challenge is going to be implementation. SANAC has to be more than a talkshop," he added.
The council has no legal power and is merely an advisory body but Mlambo-Ngcuka's presence is a sign of the importance that the government attaches to it.
"What distinguishes SANAC from other work that we do, is that it is us working together as partners," she said at the launch.
A spokeswoman for a number of civil society groups also hailed the government for allowing widespread consultation on the new AIDS plan.
"We are excited with the extent to which we have been consulted in the development of the plan," said Hendrieta Bogopane-Zulu.
