AIDS IN AFRICA

AIDS/HIV: Africa Under Siege

RESOURCE: http://chora.virtualave.net/hiv.html

Chora Highlights

January 29, Africa Action Group Press Release: Africa Action Demands Dollars to Match Announcement on AIDS in Africa.

While Africa Action welcomes [ President Bush's ] announcement of new money to fight HIV/AIDS, Salih Booker noted this morning that this money must be made available immediately if it is to save lives and have a real impact on the course of the pandemic in Africa and globally

Dec 6, OXFAM: HIV and AIDS responding to challenge

Oxfam GB is working to help poor and marginalised communities overcome their vulnerability to HIV, secure their basic rights and achieve sustainable development in the face of HIV/AIDS.

IRIN: ETHIOPIA: Interview with Negatu Mereke, head of the National AIDS Secretariat

Q: Why was the World Bank so scathing of the HIV/AIDS secretariat? A: We did not adequately establish the institutional arrangements that enabled effective absorption of funds of that size when the loan of US $59.7 million was secured two years back. Institutionally, we did not have that capacity to deal with the funds that came to the country. The absorption of funds of this size was strange for us.

Nov 27, Washington Post- Peter Piot(director of the Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS): Fighting AIDS With a Sound Investment

Addressing the links between hunger, disease, lack of education and war is vital to long-term solutions for humanitarian emergencies. The world's most serious health problems, including HIV/AIDS, are deeply connected to the violence and poverty that shackle hundreds of millions of people around the world.

Nov 26, UNAIDS- AIDS epidemic updateDec 2002

Best current projections suggest that an additional 45 million people will become infected with HIV in 126 low- and middle-income countries (currently with concentrated or generalized epidemics) between 2002 and 2010-unless the world succeeds in mounting a drastically expanded, global prevention effort. More than 40% of those infections would occur in Asia and the Pacific (currently accounts for about 20% of new annual infections).

UNAIDS Report on Ethiopia 2002

The Next Wave of HIV/AIDS: Nigeria, Ethiopia, India, Russia and China

This Intelligence Community Assessment (ICA) highlights the rising HIV/AIDS problem through 2010 in five countries of strategic importance to the United States that have large populations at risk for HIV infection: Nigeria, Ethiopia, Russia, India, and China. The paper does not attempt to make aggregate projections about global trends. The five countries were selected because they are: 1)Among the world’s most populous countries, together representing over 40 percent of the world population. 2)In the early-to-mid-stages of an HIV/AIDS epidemic. 3)Led by governments that have not yet given the issue the sustained high priority that has been key to stemming the tide of the disease in other countries

July 1, AIDS 2002 Barcelona: XIV International AIDS Conference

July 7-12, Barcelona, co-sponsored by the International AIDS Society,UNAIDS and others, will discuss medical, social, and legal issues in treatment and prevention. More than 10,500 presentation abstracts have been submitted by scientists, clinicians, community representatives and people living with HIV/AIDS.

July 10, UNICEF: Children on the Brink 2002

The report contains the broadest and most comprehensive statistics yet on the historical, current and projected number of children orphaned by HIV/AIDS. It finds more than 13.4 million children have lost one or both parents to the epidemic in the three regions studied (Sub-Saharan Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean), a number that will increase to 25 million by 2010. In addition to the millions of children orphaned by AIDS, millions more are being adversely affected by the disease.

July 2, UNAIDS: The Report on the Global HIV/AIDS Epidemic

A new report released today by UNAIDS, in advance of the XIVth International AIDS Conference in Barcelona, warns that the AIDS epidemic is still in an early phase. HIV prevalence is climbing higher than previously believed possible in the worst-affected countries and is continuing to spread rapidly into new populations in Africa, Asia, the Caribbean and Eastern Europe.

July 2, UNAIDS: Young People and HIV/AIDS: Opportunity in Crisis A joint report by UNICEF, UNAIDS and WHO

This report contains important new data about why young people are key to defeating the global HIV/AIDS epidemic, including results from more than 60 new national surveys. It reaffirms that we must accord top priority to making investments in the well-being of young people and to engaging them in the fight against HIV/AIDS. and young people.

WIC, March 29: A Cry for Leadership to Conquer HIV/AIDS in Ethiopia

Seleda, Dec 2001-Berhanu Nega: Economic Holocaust

Sonia and Jeffrey Sachs: AIDS and Africa: Where is the US

Behavioral Change, Achievable?

DRAFT DECLARATION OF COMMITMENT ON HIV/AIDS

Enhancing International Aids Care-First International Aids Conference in Ethiopia

AIDS and Poverty in Africa

Aids and Africa-Talk out, fight back

CIA: The Global Infectious Disease Threat and Its Implications for the United States

1999-US International Response to HIV/AIDS

Z Magazine: AIDS Drugs for Africa: An Uncertain Victory

NEW UN REPORT ESTIMATES OVER ONE-THIRD OF TODAY'S 15-YEAR-OLDS WILL DIE OF AIDS IN WORST-AFFECTED COUNTRIES

BBC-The Orphaned Continent

2000 The UNAIDS Report (in PDF format)

July -The Washington Post Series on Aids and the Africans

July 7, Washington Post- Series on Aids and Africa:Part 3-Death Watch:Disease Spread Faster Than the Word

July 6, Washington Post- Series on Aids and Africa: Part 2-Death Watch: S. Africa's Advances Jeopardized by AIDS

July 5, The Washington Post-Series on Aids and Africa: Part 1- DEATH WATCH: The Global Response to AIDS in Africa

Oct. 10-13 -The Boston Globe Series on Aids and the Africans

Oct 13- US Black Leaders React

Oct 13- Minister try to shame officials into action

Oct 12-Denial- Most Leaders won't confront the epidemic

Oct 12- Changing Attitudes-Couple fights AIDS virus, taboos

Oct 12- Officials Prodded on discrimination

Oct 11- "If you would have seen me with these children you would have thought they were getting ready to die."

Oct 11- Rape victim:"I felt myself drowning"

Oct 11- Prostitution- Prostitution plays key role in fueling Africa's Aids crisis

Oct 10- "Unless there is a fundamental change in behavior, there will be no drastic change in the evolution of the epidemic."

Oct 10- 'We grew up telling lies to ourselves, "If you have one girlfriend, you're not man enough."'

Graphics from the "Aids and the Africans" of the Boston Globe's Series

The Impact of the Disease

Aids Decimates three generations

HIV in sub-Sharan Africa

A disproportionate toll

AIDS RELATED NEWS

January 30, 2003- Boston Globe: Big spending on AIDS seen as go-it-alone plan

President Bush's new $15 billion initiative to fight AIDS globally includes the largest amount ever, American or otherwise, devoted to treatment of those infected with the disease in the poor world, US officials said yesterday. But activists said the proposal also suggests that the United States wants to act unilaterally and does not trust global coalitions.

January 17, Addis Tribune: Chinua Akukwe (Part 2): HIV/AIDS, Africa and 2003: Urgent Strategic Issues

African nations have a unique opportunity to seize the momentum in 2003 in the fight against HIV/AIDS. To seize the momentum, Africa will have to deal with key strategic issues in the fight against HIV/AIDS in the continent. I briefly review these strategic issues.

January 13, IRIN: Warning Over High Toll of Aids Orphans

A quarter of children in Ethiopia could be orphaned by the HIV/AIDS virus within eight years, experts warned on Friday.

January 12, 2003 Washington Post: AIDS Hasn't Peaked Yet -- and That's Not The Worst of It

Most of what we once thought we knew about global health has been proven wrong by the relentless advance of HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria.

January 10, 2003: Addis Tribune:Chinua Akukwe (Part 1): HIV/AIDS And Africa: Back To The Drawing Board

African leaders are now fine-tuning an ambitious development initiative known as New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD). However, for a continent that is losing its most productive citizens on a daily disease and is dealing with a ballooning AIDS orphan problem, these "positive" measures are clearly not enough. Africa must go back to the drawing board and come up with a comprehensive strategy and operational mechanism to fight this deadly disease.

January 6, 2003 BBC: Woman's bid to break Aids cycle

She [Hirut Gedlu] has just finished a 2,500 kilometre journey across her country, on her bike, which took her to 280 places where she preached her anti-Aids message.

Dec 16, NY Times: More than words to fight Aids

If President Bush visits Africa next month, he should be carrying with him an AIDS initiative backed with real money.

Dec 16, Walta: Ministry To Distribute School Text Books on HIV/AIDS

The Ministry of Education disclosed that it will distribute text books on HIV/AIDS in schools in a bid to strengthen the fight against the spread of the pandemic among students.

Dec13, Addis Tribune: Estimate of HIV Prevalence in Ethiopia 6.6 Percent

The new edition put the HIV prevalence in Ethiopia for 2001 at 6.6 percent, which is less than the prevalence of 7.3 percent presented in the third edition. The new edition, however, emphasized that the decrease in the percentage is in no way an indication that the HIV epidemic in the country is declining.

Dec 12, (US State Department) Washington Files:U.S. Joins Ethiopia in Disease Fighting Partnership

U.S. and Ethiopian government representatives signed an agreement December 9 to coordinate efforts to help prevent and control HIV/AIDS and other diseases. According to a December 10 press release from the Department of Health and Human Services, the two nations will work in partnership to prevent further HIV infection and to improve care and support of HIV/AIDS patients.

Dec 10, Walta: HIV/AIDS Resource Center Opens In The Capital

The AIDS Resource Center is the result of a partnership of Ethiopia's HIV/AIDS Prevention and Control Office the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health Center for Communication Programs (CCP), Analytical Sciences, Inc. and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The center will serve as Ethiopia's main source of information on the epidemic that is sweeping through the nation of 67 million. 7.3 per cent of Ethiopian adults are now infected with HIV.

Dec 2, Washington Post: An AIDS Policy That Would Add Up

Bush should point out that the biggest obstacle in the AIDS battle is not actually a lack of money. It is that money can be hard to spend. During the past two years, the World Bank has pledged $550 million for AIDS projects in Africa and has more money on hand. Yet little of the pledged millions has reached people.

Dec 1, Walta: HIV-Victims said more Affected by the food crisis

President Girma Woldegiorgiz expressed his worries that the current food crisis was affecting HIV- Victims more than other cross-sections of the society.

Dec 1, W.J Clinton (NY Times): AIDS Is Not a Death Sentence

Through testing, we can also help end discrimination against people who acquire AIDS. This is in keeping with the theme of the 15th annual World AIDS Day, which is today: "Live and Let Live: Ending Stigma and Discrimination." The more that people understand that AIDS is not only a preventable disease but a treatable one, the less they will shun those who have it. And as more and more people are able to live with AIDS, their presence in families, workplaces and neighborhoods will help to reduce fears and misconceptions about the disease.

Nov 30, Walta:Positive Trends Should Not Overshadow The Severity Of AIDS Epidemic: UN Official

The Executive Director of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) has warned that positive trends in the fight against HIV/AIDS in Africa should not overshadow the Severity of the epidemic in the Continent.

Nov 27, Boston Globe: Half of those with HIV are women

For the first time since scientists discovered AIDS more than two decades ago, specialists now believe that women with HIV account for roughly half of the adult cases worldwide, the United Nations said yesterday in its annual report on the pandemic.

Nov 27, World Bank: World AIDS Day 2002

"We see success in countries where they have publicly embraced the epidemic and have tried to do something about it," says Debrework Zewdie, Bank Global HIV/AIDS Program head. "Countries that have embraced the epidemic do better than those which are still in denial. The very people who are stigmatized can become a powerful force to evoke change in every community."

Nov 26, IRIN: ETHIOPIA: UNAIDS warns against stigma

Stigma and discrimination of HIV/AIDS victims are preventing countries from adequately tackling the pandemic, the UN’s anti-AIDS taskforce in Ethiopia said on Tuesday.

Nov 26, BBC: HIV cases top 40 million

More women are now infected with HIV/Aids than men and well above 40 million people are now living with the disease, latest figures reveal.

Nov 26, AP: Worsening AIDS crisis strikes famine-hit countries, Asia, EEurope

Five million people will have become infected with HIV this year, bringing to a record 42 million the number of individuals living with AIDS or the virus that causes it, the United Nations said.

Nov 24, The NY Yimes: AIDS in Africa Imperiling Armies That Are Seen as Keys to Stability

Angola has only to look around the continent, to countries like Ethiopia, Nigeria and South Africa; they are all at peace after long periods of upheaval, and like Angola, all aspire to influence and power on the continent. Yet the stability they are trying to entrench and the ambitions they are trying to realize are threatened by AIDS.

Nov 22, Addis Tribune: Focus on HIV/AIDS

It would seem shocking even to mention but one cannot disregard a recent report released by a certain study group which declared bluntly that the population of this same city [Addis Ababa] is projected to decrease by HALF A MILLION in the coming decade or two due to the devastating effects of the AIDS epidemic. At stake here is the lives of countless numbers of young people and adolescents in the city who are undoubtedly the cornerstones of development and the country's hopes for the future.

Nov 8, Addis Tribune: A Proposal for War

So, it is clear that currently, AIDS stands as the number one public enemy Ethiopia faces. Given our tendency to boast and talk about how courageous and incentive we are when it comes to defending our country; one would think people would descend on this killer with vengeance. Although, there has been some incredible work done by some amazing individuals and organizations, the response from citizens is still on the cool side when compared to the ferocity of the disease itself. It is especially disappointing to see people promote destructive political agendas even while the very people they say they care about are teetering towards a calamity of unknown heights.

Oct 30, The Reporter: Country fails utilizing 47m dollars on HIV/AIDS prevention, control

The National HIV/AIDS council secretariat has been labeled as inefficient as a result of its failure to utilize approximately 12 million dollars out of the total 59 million dollars it received from the World Bank in soft loans for its activities in the country from 2001-2003.

July 12, AP: Clinton and Mandela Call for Action on AIDS

Experts say that rich nations need to donate $10 billion a year. Current spending stands at about $2.8 billion. As always, the call for more money to finance work in the developing world was a major focus. Nobody wrote a fat check....Seth Berkley, president of the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative, called the Barcelona conference ``a splash of cold water'' on how the world is doing in the fight against AIDS.

July 11, UNDP: Addis Builds Leadership to Stem HIV/Aid Epidemic

Ethiopia is mobilizing more than 250 leaders at all levels of government and civil society to step up efforts to reduce the number of people contracting HIV/AIDS and improve treatment and care for those infected with the disease.

July 10, Reuters: AIDS creates unprecedented orphan crisis

A Unicef/Usaid/Unaid report, entitled Children on the Brink 2002, predicts that by 2010 almost six percent of all children in Africa will be orphaned because of the disease that is destroying families, communities and the fabric of society.

July 8, Washington Post- Study: AIDS Shortening Life in 51 Nations

The AIDS pandemic will cause a decline in life expectancy in 51 countries in the next two decades, a demographic effect essentially without precedent in modern times, according to a study released here on the opening day of the 14th International AIDS Conference.

July 8, BBC: New hope for Aids vaccine

A US biotechnology company has been giving details of a vaccine against Aids, which it hopes could be available by 2005, to delegates attending the International Aids Conference in Barcelona.

July 6, Washington Post: Americans on AIDS in Africa: Help and Discipline Needed

Most Americans favor modest and targeted increases in spending on the global AIDS crisis but many believe any additional money likely will do little to slow the spread of AIDS in Africa and elsewhere in the developing world, according to a survey by The Washington Post, the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation and Harvard University.

July 5, Addis Tribune: UNAIDS, WHO and UNICEF Joint Report on HIV/AIDS Reveals the Epidemic on Increase in Ethiopia

A joint statement issued by the UNAIDS, WHO and UNICEF on the situation of youth and HIV/AIDS in Ethiopia revealed that despite the continuous effort from all walks of life to curb the virus, the HIV/AIDS virus has continued to increase alarmingly among the youth in Ethiopia.

July 5, Addis Tribune: The New Geography of HIV/AIDS

The new geography of HIV/AIDS demands a new understanding of the complex interactions of poverty and HIV/AIDS. This new understanding must include the exercise of caution when advocating for methods borrowed from experiences elsewhere. Unfortunately, the caution also extends to drug therapies that may give relief to suffering patients. The global response should recognize the complexity of the pandemic in poverty-stricken nations. Most of all, the global response should seek alternatives to attempts to employ measures that showed success in the developed world only after decades of intensive education, extensive organzation of care centers, highly selective, and closely monitored clinical trials.

July 3, NYT:In Poor Nations, a New Will to Fight AIDS

On the eve of next week's International AIDS Conference in Barcelona, a new report from the United Nations AIDS program states that at current infection rates, AIDS, the deadliest epidemic in human history, will kill 68 million people in the 45 most affected countries over the next 20 years. More than five times the number claimed by AIDS in those nations in the past 20 years. In some of these nations, AIDS could kill half of today's new mothers.

July 2, BBC: Aids epidemic 'still in early stages'

An estimated 68 million people will die from Aids in the developing world over the next 18 years, a major report suggests.

July 2, BBC: Aids 'rising in West Africa'

The number of people with HIV/Aids is rising in West Africa, according to the United Nations.

July 1, World Bank: Combating HIV/AIDS in Africa

In an effort to meet an overwhelming need for information regarding HIV/AIDS, the World Bank Institute-in partnership with Bank’s External Affairs, the Africa Region, and the Bank’s overall AIDS efforts-has developed a program designed to fight the pandemic on three fronts: prevention, care, and mitigation.

June 27, 2002-WIC: Youths Vow To Take Lead In The Fight Against HIV/AIDS

Ethiopian youths said they would take the leading role in fighting HIV/AIDS, which they said, was consuming the productive section of the population and the meager resource of the country.

June 26, The Daily Monitor: Survey Finds Behavioral Change On HIV/Aids Low

Dr. Getnet Mitike, Department of Community Health at the Addis Ababa University (AAU) said that the key findings in the BSS showed that close to 98 % of the study population are aware of HIV/AIDS. He however added that only 60 % of the same population knew the three prevention methods.

June 24, BBC: Africans still ignorant about Aids

High numbers of people in Africa and other developing countries do not realise that HIV/Aids can kill.

June 17, Xhinua: About 250,000 Ethiopian Children Living with HIV/AIDS

ADDIS ABABA, Jun 17, 2002 (Xinhua via COMTEX) -- An Ethiopian health official has disclosed that about 250,000 Ethiopian children are living with the HIV/AIDS due to mother-to-child transmission (MTCT) of the virus.

June 12, 2002- WIC: Strategic Frame Work For The National Response To HIV/AIDS in Ethiopia 2002-2005

Globally, Ethiopia has the 16th highest HIV/AIDS prevalence of any country and the third largest number of people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA). One of every 11 people living with HIV/AIDS today is an Ethiopian. Life expectancy is already falling, and the epidemic is systematically undermining the country's effort to reduce poverty, especially, its investments in health, education, and rural development...

May 8, 2002, World Bank: New Bank report calls for ‘education vaccine'

HIV/AIDS kills teachers faster than they can be trained, makes orphans of students, and threatens to derail efforts by highly-infected countries to get all boys and girls into primary school by 2015, a new World Bank report, launched yesterday, warns. And yet a good basic education ranks among the most effective, and cost-effective means of preventing HIV.

Feb 11, 2002, WIC: Workshop On HIV/AIDS Data Analysis Opens

Nov 7, The Reporter: HIV/AIDS: The Other Major Development Challenge

Sept 11, Director of Hiwot and Ethiopian Win Awards

August 29, A Glimmer of Hope: The AIDS Epidemic A Generation of Orphans

August 28, Walta: Preparation Of Guideline On ARV Drugs Well Underway

July 17, Reuters: African Leaders Awake From AIDS Lethargy: UN

June 28, BBC: UN declares war on Aids

June 25, BBC: Teaching truck drivers about Aids

April 5, NY Times: South Africa AIDS Policy Still Confused

April 1, NY Times: Cheaper AIDS Drugs Pose More Dangers in Africa

March 16, NY Times: Trade, Health Bodies to Study Cheap Drug Options

March 15, NY Times: HIV Drugs Still Costly for Africans