PlusNews – New national treatment guidelines are set to make the world’s largest antiretroviral (ARV) programme even bigger as South Africa extends treatment to more HIV-positive infants, pregnant women and people battling HIV-tuberculosis (TB) co-infection.

Dr Nono Simelela, CEO of the South African National AIDS Council (SANAC), confirmed that the revised guidelines were in the final stages of editing and would go to print in a few days; implementation is scheduled to begin on 1 April 2010.

Major changes to the guidelines include providing ARVs to all HIV-positive infants less than one year old regardless of their CD4 count, which measures immune system strength.

Read more – http://www.plusnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=88207

IPS  - Africa needs urgent action on global warming. The consensus position adopted by African leaders ahead of the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen failed. African environmental activists are now debating their way forward.

Samantha Bailey, Africa coordinator for the 350 Campaign, said activist organising had been a success.

In the framework of the international “TckTckTck” campaign, 350 held an international day of action on Oct. 24, 2009, which it says was “the biggest single day of political action ever to happen”. It involved 5,200 actions in 181 countries demanding a fair, ambitious and binding deal.

The 350 Campaign, founded in the United States by author Bill McKibben, was established to pressure governments to agree that 350 parts per million is the safe upper limit for carbon dioxide in the atmosphere if catastrophic climate change is to be avoided.

Read more – http://www.ipsnews.net/africa/nota.asp?idnews=50291

Plus News – Hope of an effective tuberculosis (TB) vaccine has been boosted by findings from the Tanzanian trial of a new TB vaccine showing that TB infection in HIV-positive patients was reduced by 39 percent.

The TB vaccine “mycobacterium vaccae” was tested in a double-blind, randomised, controlled trial that ran for seven years and involved 2,013 HIV-positive Tanzanians, and was a collaborative effort between scientists from the Dartmouth Medical School in the US, and Tanzania’s Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences.

“This is the first TB vaccine to show effectiveness in any clinical trial,” Dartmouth’s Dr Richard Waddell told IRIN/PlusNews. “It will re-energize the search for an even more effective TB vaccine, which is especially urgent in Africa.”

Read more – http://www.plusnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=88071

PlusNews – Southern Sudan’s poor infrastructure, largely illiterate population and dearth of health facilities and workers mean that despite five years of peace, HIV programmes are still in their infancy.

There are no national-level statistics on HIV prevalence or incidence, further hampering the fight against the pandemic, but a 2007 site-specific antenatal surveillance by the US Centres for Disease control found prevalence levels ranging from as low as 0.8 percent in Leer, Unity State, to as high as 11.5 percent in Tambura, Western Equatoria State.

“We use an estimate of 3.1 percent for the south, and we know that the epidemic is more concentrated in big towns and areas near the border with our neighbours who have higher prevalence, such as Kenya and Uganda, but so far we have not conducted a survey of HIV indicators,” Bellario Ahoy Ngong, chairman of the South Sudan AIDS Commission (SSAC) told IRIN/PlusNews.

Read more – http://www.plusnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=87979

IRIN – A plan to expand the three percent AIDS levy to include those in the informal sector could have a negative impact on the lives of Zimbabweans, analysts have warned.

In July 2009, the consultants carrying out a mid-term review of the Zimbabwe 2006-2010 National HIV and AIDS Strategic Plan recommended that the low level of funding for HIV/AIDS be improved by obtaining part of the money from value added taxation (VAT), a sales tax.

“The pandemic (HIV/AIDS) affected people from all walks of life and therefore everyone should make a contribution through the Value Added Tax system, rather than rely on individuals in formal employment and the corporate sector,” the consultants’ team leader suggested.

Read more – http://www.plusnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=87830

IRIN – A study finding that foreigners are about half as likely to fail antiretroviral (ARV) treatment as South African citizens attending the same Johannesburg clinic has challenged widely held assumptions about migrants’ ability to adhere to HIV/AIDS drug regimens.

South Africa hosts large numbers of asylum seekers, refugees and undocumented migrants from the rest of the continent, but HIV treatment requires almost 100 percent adherence to avoid the development of drug resistance, and it was thought that their high levels of mobility made these population groups poor candidates for treatment.

Read more – http://www.plusnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=87734

Kenya has launched an ambitious strategy to fight HIV/AIDS that aims to reduce new infections by at least 50 percent over the next four years and focus more on most at-risk populations (MARPs).

 The third Kenya National AIDS Strategic Plan, which runs from 2009/2010 till 2012/2013 and was launched in the capital, Nairobi, on 12 January, also aims to reduce AIDS-related mortality by 25 percent.

 “We cannot achieve our target unless we close new taps of HIV infections – this involves putting most at-risk populations at the centre of our HIV programmes and prevention strategies,” said Alloys Orago, director of the National AIDS Control Council.

Read more – http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=87721

IPS – While food is readily available in shops and some political and economic stability is returning in Zimbabwe, vulnerable groups such as children and people living with HIV and AIDS still face a shortage of food.

It is this vulnerable group that has galvanised the international community into action to mobilise humanitarian support in the form of food, medication and water facilities.

Read more – http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=49647

IPS – Zimbabwe’s ruling political party has been accused of launching a “widespread and systematic campaign of rape and sexual terror” aimed at intimidating opponents and voters in the troubled African nation, according to a new report released here.

“The exceptionally violent rapes, as described by women from every province of Zimbabwe, were often nearly fatal,” says the study released by AIDS-Free World, an international advocacy organisation that promotes effective global responses to HIV/AIDS.

Read more – http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=49626

UNAIDS – To mark World AIDS Day, UNAIDS Executive Director Mr Michel Sidibé joined President Jacob Zuma and South Africans in their national commemoration in Pretoria where he called for the forging of a mass prevention movement.

Mr Sidibé was in the company of the President of the Republic of South Africa Mr Jacob Zuma and Minster of Health Dr Aaron Motsoaledi at the Tshwane Events Centre in Pretoria for an event attended by thousands of participants. At the event, President Zuma made a commitment to take an HIV test, personifying the theme of the South African celebrations–I am Responsible. 

Read more – http://www.unaids.org/en/KnowledgeCentre/Resources/FeatureStories/archive/2009/20091201_WAD_MS.asp