Today’s Health News
Africa: Snake oil salesmen and dodgy HIV “cures”
20 January 2012
Nairobi/Johannesburg,
Uganda’s National Drug Authority recently arrested sales representatives of a company selling a drug that purports to cure HIV; the firm’s owners are not licensed to sell medicine and are being sought by the police. The drug, known as Virol ZAPPER, was being sold in 37ml liquid doses, each costing about US$210; patients were advised to take 10 drops daily. It was being advertised on local radio and TV stations as a miracle cure for HIV. The sale of such “cures” is a profitable racket for charlatans willing to take advantage of desperate HIV-positive people; here is a collection of some dodgy treatments that have made the news in Africa over the years: Tanzania – In 2011, tens of thousands of people from all over East Africa flocked to the tiny village of Loliondo in Tanzania seeking a cure for several diseases, including diabetes, tuberculosis and HIV. Ambilikile Mwasapile, a former Lutheran pastor, was charging 500 Tanzanian shillings – about $0.33 – for a cup for his concoction. Several sick people died in the queues, which at their peak numbered 15,000 people. Studies are being conducted to determine the properties of Mwasapile’s treatment. South Africa – A 2008 Cape High Court judgment ruled that clinical trials of multivitamins in the treatment of HIV/AIDS by controversial vitamin salesman Matthias Rath were unlawful, and stopped them. The court also prohibited Rath from publishing any more advertisements claiming that his product, VitaCell, cured AIDS, pending further review by the Medicines Control Council. Rath, who had been operating in South Africa since about 2004, claimed his multivitamins treated AIDS, heart disease, cancer, diabetes, bird flu and numerous other illnesses. Rath ran numerous advertisements aimed at convincing HIV-positive people to take his high-dose multivitamins rather than ARVs, available free-of-charge through the public health system, which he claimed were “toxic”.
Zimbabwe : Why it’s important to get tested
20 January 2012
Were we to conduct a random survey and ask who knows his/her HIV status among the general populace we would receive many a baffling response. Some would argue that since they are fit and healthy the need to know or undergo a test falls away. Another lot would use the bus stop gauge and say thus far no one has died from the circle of those they have been intimate with, so they are fine. Then there would be the last group that is just scared to know. One understands the fear but this needs to be overcome as it could be detrimental if left until too late. Pedzisai is a man I met over the Christmas holidays when I visited one of the nursing homes in Harare. He has been at the home for the past three months and is grateful that he was saved at the last minute. The home which depends on support from well-wishers has patients referred there by its volunteer educators. Pedzisai is aged 30 and said he was as strong as a horse before he got bed-ridden in his home area of Zhombe, Midlands, sometime in 2010. “I worked as a gold panner along the Munyati River and made enough to look after my wife and three kids. Unfortunately, I would be away from home for long periods even a month or longer which was not conducive to marriage and my family as a whole,” said Pedzisai speaking from his wheelchair. Pedzisai said at first when he engaged in extra-marital affairs he would always insist on the use of protection. “I always used protection for the first three years I was in the ‘bush’ but as the years went by, I got used to one female who also said she was ready to stop working on a commercial basis and just be mine when I was in the field panning,” said Pedzisai. Pedzisai said he did not bother to first take HIV tests together with his new “bush wife” but rather what he was concerned with was that she would not fall pregnant so he advised her to get the five-year family planning gadget inserted.
Africa : Fighting malaria through Afcon 2012
20 January 2012
United Against Malaria (UAM) in collaboration with the Malaria Control Program(NMC), the John Hopkins University Centre for Communication Programs(JHC/CCP),Voices for Malaria-Free Future and the Ghana Football Association(GFA)is expected to hold a special media event on Monday January 23, 2012 in Accra to promote advocacy for malaria elimination during the forthcoming 2012 African Cup of Nation to be hosted by Gabon and Equatorial Guinea. The event is aimed at tapping into the enthusiasm and support for the Black Stars of Ghana to win the Cup of Nations and also to advocate the complete eradication of the Malaria disease on the African continent. Again, the program would see the launching and distribution of the AFCON 2012 edition of the Goal and the 13 Winning Moves Against Malaria Chart for the Public and Private Sectors. Ghana plays its first match in the AFCON 2012 tournament on 24th January 2012. Participants expected to grace the event include officials of the GFA, the National Sports Authority, members of the Ghana Media Malaria Advocacy Network (GMMAN), representatives of all print and electronic media in Ghana, private companies, National Voices and the Ghana Coalition of NGOs in Malaria.
You can also visit Dziwani Resource Centre WEB page on Facebook by following the link below.
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Additional materials in the Dziwani Knowledge Centre for health
REPSSI
Mainstreaming psychosocial care and support through child participation
REPSSI
Johannesburg, South Africa
2009, 52p.
The document is a guide with a view of enhancing child participation in various interventions meant to address their needs. Particular emphasis is put on the benefits of their participation. These include increase in skills and confidence as well as bringing creativity, energy and fun to development programmes.
REPSSI
Mainstreaming psychosocial care and support within food and nutrition programmes
REPSSI
Johannesburg, South Africa
2009, 50p.
Tailored for practitioners working with children and families affected by HIV and AIDS, conflict and poverty, the key messages in the book mainly focus on the nutritional programmes and how these build children’s dignity, confidence and general well being. The book also highlights how linkages with other organisations can help in referrals for further assistance of these children.
Smith, Tricia
Understanding HIV basics
REPSSI
Johannesburg, South Africa
2009, 13p.
The manual is a third in a series called Body Maps: Bringing mind, body and community together for wellbeing. Provides information from HIV and AIDS basic terminologies to CD4 count, ART, drug classes drug resistance and adherence.
REPSSI
Psychosocial care and support for young children and infants in the time of HIV and AIDS: A resource for programming
REPSSI
Johannesburg, South Africa
2007, 78p.
Key messages in this publication include role of family care, specialised mental health services, natural resilience in children and cost-effective interventions for addressing psychosocial wellbeing in children.
REPSSI
Tracking your health: A guide to creating a tracing book
Johannesburg, South Africa
2009, 23p.
Strives to mainstream psychosocial support into health services, in this case HIV treatment provided by clinics, hospitals and home based care. The document uses the tracing book as a tool to better understand individual health. The tracing book is like a journal and one can enter things that are important in their lives. This can be used to help children better understand HIV. The use of words is not necessary as symbols take on the illustration. Parents may also use the tracing book to encourage their older children get tested for HIV but also as an important piece of information in the event of illness.
Today’s Health News
Underage drinking : causes, effects
Times, 17 January, 2012, p5
It is sunset, the weather is cool but dust all around as a result of motorists who keep the shadowy figures of pedestrians barely lit by the yellow glow of the setting sun off the road as they rush to and from on the infamous ‘Devil Street’. The road devil street is nick named so because of its location which encompasses bars and taverns in Emmasdale Township of Lusaka. A mere evening stroll in the neighbourhood of ‘Devil street’ reveals an orgy picture of social degradation; young adults engaging in alcohol intake which is a common sight…………………..Vices in the name of underage drinking, premarital sexual affairs , drug abuse are some of the most common that have rocked the youths in society especially in the urban areas.
Fruits, vegetables; better, healthier than meat
Times, 17 January, 2012, p6
Our bodies require just a certain amount of starch, protein, and fat. This should be well measured because anything in excess or less can be harmful to our health. Abundant vegetables and fruits that contain a high proportion of mineral salts which immensely helps in the prevention of constipation. Constipation predisposes our bodies to alot of diseases. Though liked by alot, meat is not the only source of energy. Yes it may give strait temporarily but it loads the body with toxic substances.
Rwanda steps up male circumcision exercise
Times, 17 January, 2012, p6
This will be a busy year for Rwanda’s health centres as the country attempts to reach its goal of medically circumcising 50 per cent of men by June 2013 as part of HIV prevention efforts. “ We plan to extend free male circumcision services to all men in Rwanda – we are targeting two million circumcisions by 2013,” said Simon Kanyaruhango, head of the national male circumcision programme at the Rwanda Bio-Medical Centre.
Kenya : The downside of male involvement in PMTCT
17 January 2012
Kisumu
Involving men is increasingly being promoted as a key element in the prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV, and while its benefits are well-documented – in one Kenyan study it reduced the risks of vertical transmission and infant mortality by more than 40 percent compared with no involvement – it can occasionally lead to domestic discord and even violence. Silvia*, a 33-year-old mother of six, now living at her mother’s home in western Kenya, says her 14-year marriage was doomed the minute she followed her healthcare worker’s advice to bring her husband for an antenatal visit after she tested HIV-positive. “I was tested and I was told I was positive; I asked if I could go ahead and just carry the pregnancy and the nurse assured me it was fine,” she said. “She, however, asked me to bring my husband when coming for the next visit and I agreed.” She convinced her husband to accompany her on her next visit, but when he tested HIV-negative, he accused her of cheating on him. “He left me at the hospital… When I got home, he beat me up and said the child I was carrying wasn’t his and he chased me away,” she added. “The nurse thought she was helping us but it turned out to be a curse for me.” There is limited research into the area of gender-based violence following HIV-testing, but a presentation by the NGO, the Sonke Gender Justice Network, at the 2010 International AIDS Society conference in Vienna, Austria, reported that women’s experiences upon disclosing their status to their male partners were often “complex and positive”: some studies reported violence levels of up to 14 percent, while others stated that about half of HIV-positive women said their partners reacted supportively to the disclosure. According to Beatrice Misoga, PMTCT programme officer with the AIDS Population Health Integrated Assistance (APHIA Plus), gender-based violence is more common in discordant relationships where the man is HIV-negative. “Male involvement has helped realize success with PMTCT programmes where it has been applied because prevention of mother to child transmission is a family issue, but yes, there have been challenges in certain aspects like the possibility of gender-based violence targeting women and more so in a situation where the male partner is not willing to be part of it.”
Nigeria : Affordable malaria medicines – when will the countries begin to benefit?
17 January 2012
Little Nkem was the joy of her parents who were childless for over 15 years before her birth. From the date of her birth, Nkem was adored as the princess of the house. Her parents never ceased to thank God each day that breaks. But little did they know that their joy will be short lived. It started like a fairy tale when Nkem all of sudden became ill. All efforts to bring down the high fever proved abortive. Sadly, there was no money to take her to a health centre. They, they resorted to self medication. Nkem was bombarded with different types of pain relievers in the absence of standard medical treatment in any hospital. Still battling to save their only child, they decided to take her to a nearby diagnostic laboratory where a few tests were conducted. Lo and behold, malaria was confirmed. With the laboratory test, it was expected that Nkem’s illness would be tackled immediately, unfortunately, purchasing the recommended malaria drugs became a problem drugs due to the financial situation of the family. Nkem’s parents are poor. Her mother sells packaged water, popularly known as pure water while the father is jobless. Things are tight. Little Nkem’s health got worse. Worried that genuine Artemisinin combination Therapy, ACT, costs between N1, 000 and N1, 500 depending on the brand, Nkem’s mother started gathering proceeds from her daily sales, with the hope that within a week, she would buy the drug for her child. However, luck ran out for her. Few days later, Nkem’s health deteriorated further, and she died. She is part of the 90 per cent of the country’s population at risk of malaria, a statistic of the 30 per cent of childhood mortality and among the 30 Nigerian children who lose their lives every hour from malaria_ related illnesses.
Tanzania : Poverty fuels Mother to Child HIV Transmission
17 January 2012
Poverty in Dar es Salaam has been cited as the biggest stumbling block in ensuring that pregnant women get access to services for the prevention of mother to child HIV transmission. The Management and Development for Health (MDH) Chief Executive Officer, Dr Chalamilla Guerino, said yesterday during the opening of a care and treatment centre in Vingunguti area in Ilala District, that poverty causes fewer women to visit clinics when pregnant. “Thanks to the availability of centres in Dar es Salaam that have been opened since our programme began in 2004, 94 per cent of women have antenatal visits to the clinic at least once, but statistics also show that only 62 per cent of them go the required four times,” he said. The World Health Organisation (WHO) recommends that for the full life-saving potential that antenatal care visits promises for women and babies, four visits providing essential evidence-based interventions – a package often called “focused antenatal care,” are required. Dr Guerino explained that current statistics also showed that of the 85 per cent of pregnant women in Dar es Salaam who tested for HIV/AIDS, only 68 per cent of them get access to ARVs. “These statistics clearly show that there is big deficit among those with access to these services and we hope that this new care and treatment centre will help bridge this gaping gap,” he said. MDH is a public health organisation based in Dar es Salaam and provides technical and financial support in provision of quality HIV care and treatment services to 50 health facilities in the region. The support is funded by the financial support from the US government, president’s emergency fund for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). Dr Guerino explained that the Vingunguti centre, that cost 150m/-, was a gift from the American people through the US PEPFAR, in collaboration with Tanzania and that direct support for the clinic was based on a partnership between the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention and MDH.
Namibia : Close shave for TB patients
17 January 2012
USAID has thrown a lifeline to the close to 600 tuberculosis (TB) patients at the Penduka Namibia programme in Katutura. In mid-December, it was announced that the TB programme would have to be shut down because its funding had dried up. The crisis came amid the fact that Namibia is one of the worst TB-affected countries in the world – with an annual rise in national figures. Resistance to medication adds fuel to the country’s TB fire. Penduka Namibia general manager Rudolph Tjaveondja said they could not sustain the programme beyond December. Yesterday, Tjaveondja had good news – the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has come to their rescue and the Global Fund will resume its funding towards next month. But, he said, they still need financial support to help feed the 556 TB patients. “They need proper food when they take their medication.” If the TB facility had to close its doors, the patients would have had to go to State clinics for treatment, provided they could be accommodated. There was also a fear that they might default on their treatment – which would result in further drug resistance. In December, the Khomas Regional Health Director, Sakaria Taapopi, said TB in the country is “an emergency that needs action from all of us at household level, at [the] workplace, at school level and everywhere where there are Namibians”. In February last year, the Global Fund withdrew all its financial support to Lironga Eparu, a local HIV-AIDS support organisation, following alleged financial abuse.
Zimbabwe : Sports or HIV and Aids, which is our priority?
17 January 2012
The Global Fund recently announced that it has stopped the application for round 11 of funding for HIV and Aids in Zimbabwe. We were told they were unable to raise enough funds and that major donors no longer see HIV and AIDS as an emergency compared to issues such as climate change. In my country people living with HIV and AIDS (PLWHA) are always surprised by the effort, attention and money that is being spent by successful local companies, such as Delta and Mbada Diamonds, on sport. Both companies this year alone poured at least $2million into the soccer league and cup games. These are not the only two major companies. Econet, Telone, and Old Mutual are performing well on the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange yet you rarely hear about them donating money to HIV and AIDS programmes. While one might argue that they run wellness workplace programmes for their employees, what about the millions of our dear brothers, sisters and orphans who are affected or infected by the pandemic directly or indirectly? These companies are pouring millions of dollars into sports such as cricket, soccer, tennis and golf but we are quick to rush to international donors looking for funds for our local anti-retroviral therapy (ART) programmes. Information at hand says that our government is spending at $9 instead of the WHO recommended $34 on health http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk/life/health/54890/gnu-spends-9person-on-health.html. So if these corporate companies would pour money into health instead of sport, think how many lives would be saved in our country
Nigeria : World malaria report 2011 (part one)
17 January 2012
The year 2011 had come and gone. It is in the interest of forging ahead that we should review some achievements, challenges and landmarks as we are ushered into 2012. This article is about Malaria and 2011 which is captured in a detail report by World Health Organization (W.H.O) titled ‘World Malaria report 2011′. It summarizes information received from 106 malaria-endemic countries and other sources and updates the analyses presented in the 2010 report. It highlights continued progress made towards meeting the international targets for malaria control set for 2010 and 2015. Internationally agreed targets and goals for malaria control the year 2010 was the date set to achieve universal coverage for all populations at risk of malaria using locally appropriate interventions for prevention and case management, and to reduce the malaria burden by at least 50% compared to the levels in the year 2000. In the light of progress made by 2010, the Roll Back Malaria (RBM) targets were updated in June 2011. The targets are now to reduce global malaria deaths to near zero by end-2015; (ii) reduce global malaria cases by 75% from 2000 levels by end-2015; and (iii) eliminate malaria by end-2015 in 10 new countries since 2008, including in the WHO European Region. These targets will be met by: achieving and sustaining universal access to, and utilization of, preventive measures; achieving universal access to case management in the public and private sectors and in the community (including appropriate referral); and accelerating the development of surveillance systems. A growing number of countries have recorded decreases in the number of confirmed cases of malaria and/ or reported admissions and deaths since 2000. Global control efforts have resulted in a reduction in the incidence of malaria and malaria specific mortality rates. A total of 8 countries and one area in the WHO African Region showed > 50% reduction in either confirmed malaria cases or malaria admissions and deaths in recent years (Algeria, Botswana, Cape Verde, Namibia, Rwanda, Sao Tome and Principe, South Africa, Swaziland, and Zanzibar, United Republic of Tanzania). Eritrea, Ethiopia, Senegal and Zambia showed reductions of 25%-50%. In all countries, the decreases are associated with intense malaria control interventions. The increases in malaria cases observed in Rwanda and in Sao Tome and Principe in 2009 (two countries that had previously reported reductions) were reversed after intensification of control measures. This highlights the need to build systems for effective surveillance of malaria and to rigorously maintain control programmes even when cases have been reduced substantially. According to available information, increases in cases and deaths observed in Zambia in 2009 have not yet been reversed.
You can also visit Dziwani Resource Centre WEB page on Facebook by following the link below.
Please click “LIKE” and share this with partners and your friends.
http://www.facebook.com/AfyaMzuri
Additional materials in the Dziwani Knowledge Centre for health
REPSSI
Mainstreaming psychosocial care and support through child participation
REPSSI
Johannesburg, South Africa
2009, 52p.
The document is a guide with a view of enhancing child participation in various interventions meant to address their needs. Particular emphasis is put on the benefits of their participation. These include increase in skills and confidence as well as bringing creativity, energy and fun to development programmes.
REPSSI
Mainstreaming psychosocial care and support within food and nutrition programmes
REPSSI
Johannesburg, South Africa
2009, 50p.
Tailored for practitioners working with children and families affected by HIV and AIDS, conflict and poverty, the key messages in the book mainly focus on the nutritional programmes and how these build children’s dignity, confidence and general well being. The book also highlights how linkages with other organisations can help in referrals for further assistance of these children.
Smith, Tricia
Understanding HIV basics
REPSSI
Johannesburg, South Africa
2009, 13p.
The manual is a third in a series called Body Maps: Bringing mind, body and community together for wellbeing. Provides information from HIV and AIDS basic terminologies to CD4 count, ART, drug classes drug resistance and adherence.
REPSSI
Psychosocial care and support for young children and infants in the time of HIV and AIDS: A resource for programming
REPSSI
Johannesburg, South Africa
2007, 78p.
Key messages in this publication include role of family care, specialised mental health services, natural resilience in children and cost-effective interventions for addressing psychosocial wellbeing in children.
REPSSI
Tracking your health: A guide to creating a tracing book
Johannesburg, South Africa
2009, 23p.
Strives to mainstream psychosocial support into health services, in this case HIV treatment provided by clinics, hospitals and home based care. The document uses the tracing book as a tool to better understand individual health. The tracing book is like a journal and one can enter things that are important in their lives. This can be used to help children better understand HIV. The use of words is not necessary as symbols take on the illustration. Parents may also use the tracing book to encourage their older children get tested for HIV but also as an important piece of information in the event of illness.
Today’s Health News
Zambia’s HIV kits not among defective batches
Post, 13 January, 2012, p13
The Ministry of Health says Zambia’s HIV kits are not among the batches that were identified as defective and had to be recalled. Last November, the World Health Organization issued a notice stating that some HIV kits do not meet the necessary quality standards. It stated that thi had resulted in the recall of all batches identified as being defective by the manufacturer. But Ministry of Health spokesperson Dr Reuben Kamoto Mbewe said the ministry had checked Zambia’s kits and the recalled batch numbers were not among those in the country.
DMMU forms team to end typhoid spread in Mufulira
Post, 13 January, 2012, p15
The Disaster Management and Mitigation Unit has constituted a technical team to end the spread of typhoid in Mufulira’s Mupambe township. About 2,200 cases of typhoid have been recorded since the disease broke out three weeks ago in the township that has more than 3,200 residents.
Tanzania : Fight against malaria proves successful
13 January 2012
The Ministry of Health and Social Welfare (MoHSW) through the National Malaria Control Programme (NMCP) has reached an amazing milestone, with almost all beds in the country covered with Long Lasting Insecticides Treated Nets (LLIN). This has been made possible by the National Insecticides Treated Nets Programme (NATNETS), a public private partnership co-ordinated by the Netcell Project under the NMCP. The completion of free nets distribution marked the end of the Universal Coverage Campaign (UCC) that commenced in August 2010 to October 2011, making it almost every household in Tanzania to have a net. This campaign was fully funded by the Global Fund to fight AIDS TB and Malaria (GFATM). A total of 18,200,000 Long Lasting Insecticides Treated Nets (LLINs) were distributed to beneficiaries in Tanzania Mainland to cover all the sleeping spaces that were formerly not covered by the Under-five Catch Up Campaign (U5CC) and through the Tanzania National Voucher Scheme (TNVS) for pregnant women and infants. All households in the country whose sleeping spaces were initially not covered by an LLIN qualified as a beneficiary in the Universal Coverage Campaign and therefore, received a bed net. The net distribution brought joy to thousands beneficiaries whose children had not only suffered from malaria, but whose burden of the disease had drained their economy, forced pupils to postpone studies as well as losing some family members through death. Mwajuma Bakari (78), a resident of Endiamtu Ward in Mirerani District, Manyara Region said that the nets she got will enable her to make some savings from the amount of money she used to buy anti- malaria for her grand children. “I am now sure that the health of my grand children will improve,” she said. She said after every three months she had to take her grand children to the hospital to get treated from malaria. “It is too disturbing but I had no choice but to take care of the children who are orphans,” said the aged widow.
Tanzania : More than 130,000 young people are HIV positive
13 January, 2012
Dar es Salaam
At least 132,000 young people in Tanzania below the age of 15 live with HIV/Aids, it has been revealed. The Tanzania Commission for Aids (Tacaids) executive chairperson, Dr Fatma Mrisho, said that this called for concerted efforts to equip them with information and services based on specific needs and situations.Current national statistics show that 60 per cent of all new HIV/Aids infections involve young people below 24 years of age. It is estimated that 32 per cent of Tanzanians are between 10 and 24 years old. Dr Mrisho observed that young people needed to access appropriate non-judgmental information guiding them for a healthy productive life.Speaking at the launch of a booklet titled “Young People Living with HIV and Aids” yesterday in Dar es Salaam, she said Aids among the youth was worrying. The booklet was published under the Tanzanian German Programme to Support Health (TGPSH) of the German Cooperation Office. Dr Mrisho noted: “Most young people, especially young women living with HIV/Aids, do not have full information. The situation is worse for young people belonging to marginalised groups and those in most risk situations.” According to her, young people with HIV/Aids continue living in fear thinking that they will not be able to meet their dreams. She added that awareness will help them understand themselves better. The TGPSH programme manager, Dr Inge Baumgarten, noted that stigma and discrimination around HIV and Aids were still among the big challenges for individuals, their friends and loved ones, their families and communities living in Tanzania. She explained: “Young people aged 10 to 24 years form one of the most important target groups for sexuality and HIV interventions – be it prevention, care or treatment.” She said they have several questions preoccupying them beyond HIV and are often left ignored for questions about puberty, relationships, love and sexuality. She said in realising the gap, in 2000 the TGPSH started embarking on developing question – and answer booklets that responded to what young people really want to know about sexuality, HIV and Aids as well as reproductive health.
Uganda : Circumcision promo failing
13 January 2012
While there is high demand for circumcision services, it is not known how many men are undertaking the surgical procedure as part of efforts to reduce new HIV infections in the country, which stand at an annual average of 130,000. When three scientific studies in South Africa, Kenya and Uganda produced the same findings in 2007 that medical male circumcision reduces by 60 percent the chance of HIV infection in men, UNAIDS and the World Health Organisation asked countries to use it in combination with pre-existing measures such as ABC (Abstinence, Being faithful and Condom use). Recent research has also added treatment and pre exposure prophylaxis using antiretroviral therapy among discordant couples to the current prevention arsenal. It however emerged recently at a meeting in Kampala of the Safe Male Circumcision (SMC) National Task Force, that most of the institutions carrying out circumcision don’t share their data with the ministry of Health. According to the commissioner for National Disease Control, Dr Alex Opio, it is not possible to quantify the number of procedures due to lack of a comprehensive national report. “During supervision visits, I have found that while circumcision is happening in very many places the data is not being shared,” he said. “And as national chairperson, I do not have a single figure on the great work being done. We need to address this immediately and at least share some data on who is being circumcised, location, age group and adverse events after the surgery, if any.” Globally, use of data for evidence based programming is increasingly taking centre stage in public health interventions. And with modelling studies showing what targets Uganda needs in the next five years, monitoring of data will be of significant importance. In the case of Uganda for instance, 4.2 million adult/adolescent men need to be circumcised in five years to avert 340,000 new HIV infections by 2025. However, with most circumcision programmes funded using foreign aid -now on a downward spiral – there are sustainability challenges. For example, given a decrease in funding during the August – November period, Bugiri hospital did not offer any circumcision services. This was similar in Kamuli. As a possible mitigation measure, several speakers agreed that there is need for integrating circumcision services in the health system to ensure sustainability. But according to the UNAIDS Country Representative in Uganda, Musa Bungudu, the predicament should be an opportunity for African countries to rethink national funding priorities. “This very week, together with colleagues from the ministry of Health and Uganda AIDS Commission, we met parliamentarians and asked them how they could help. Their answer was that we present a costed plan. That is all they need and take it from there.”
Liberia : New approach developed to intensify fight against HIV/Aids
13 January 2012
The Lutheran Church in Liberia (LCL) HIV&AIDS Program has developed a new approach to intensity its fight against the threatening pandemic HIV&AIDS in Liberia. The strategy referred to as “Congregational Response,” is a mechanism aimed at engaging and empowering parishes within the Lutheran Church in the country. The strategy will also buttress relevant institutions involved in the fight against HIV/AIDS to reach the targeted audience. It would empower 25 out of 40 parishes of the Lutheran Church in Liberia (LCL) through the provision of generators, Mega phones and video cassettes intended to enhance their activities on HIV&AIDS messages. The Lutheran Church in Liberia (LCL) HIV&AIDS Program Officer, Mr. F. Philip L. Nushann, Jr. disclosed that his organization will bring on board the religious community to take the lead in the prevention of the virus. Mr. Nushann further disclosed that the new approach, which is geared toward the sustainability of HIV&AIDS issues, was developed last year following the midterm review on the progress of the faith based organization. Since the establishment of the Lutheran Church in Liberia AIDS Program in 2001, it has been funded by the Danish Evangelical Mission for the implementation of various programs relative to the control and prevention of HIV&AIDS in the country.
Tanzania : TACAIDS chief warns on HIV prevalence among youth
13 January 2012
Tanzania can achieve HIV/AIDS free-generation goal, if concerted efforts and urgent interventions are focused on the youth aged 24 years and below, the Tanzania Commission for AIDS (TACAIDS) Executive Chairperson, Dr Fatma Mrisho, has said. Dr Mrisho said Current statistics showed that 60 per cent of all new HIV infections involved young people below 24 years. The TACAIDS chief further made chilling revelations that of the 60 per cent infections, the most hit sex group was girls aged between 15 and 19 years. She said this on Wednesday in Dar es Salaam, when launching a book containing questions by young people living with HIV/ AIDS in Tanzania. The book was prepared by Tanzanian German Programme to Support Health (TGPSH). She noted that the number of young people living with HIV/AIDS was estimated to be 132,000, most of them being those aged under 15. “The situation calls for urgent intervention if Tanzania really wants to have an HIV/AIDS free generation,” she said. Dr Mrisho noted that young people, boys and girls, were susceptible to infections because sometimes they engage in relationships with older people which makes them have little room to negotiate for safer sex. According to TGPSH Programme Manager Dr Inge Baumgarten, the book, which was released as part of series, will go a long way in educating the youth countrywide. The Manager said more than one million books had been published and distributed countrywide and they were being used in 18 countries, translated in various languages.
You can also visit Dziwani Resource Centre WEB page on Facebook by following the link below.
Please click “LIKE” and share this with partners and your friends.
http://www.facebook.com/AfyaMzuri
Additional materials in the Dziwani Knowledge Centre for health
REPSSI
Mainstreaming psychosocial care and support through child participation
REPSSI
Johannesburg, South Africa
2009, 52p.
The document is a guide with a view of enhancing child participation in various interventions meant to address their needs. Particular emphasis is put on the benefits of their participation. These include increase in skills and confidence as well as bringing creativity, energy and fun to development programmes.
REPSSI
Mainstreaming psychosocial care and support within food and nutrition programmes
REPSSI
Johannesburg, South Africa
2009, 50p.
Tailored for practitioners working with children and families affected by HIV and AIDS, conflict and poverty, the key messages in the book mainly focus on the nutritional programmes and how these build children’s dignity, confidence and general well being. The book also highlights how linkages with other organisations can help in referrals for further assistance of these children.
Smith, Tricia
Understanding HIV basics
REPSSI
Johannesburg, South Africa
2009, 13p.
The manual is a third in a series called Body Maps: Bringing mind, body and community together for wellbeing. Provides information from HIV and AIDS basic terminologies to CD4 count, ART, drug classes drug resistance and adherence.
REPSSI
Psychosocial care and support for young children and infants in the time of HIV and AIDS: A resource for programming
REPSSI
Johannesburg, South Africa
2007, 78p.
Key messages in this publication include role of family care, specialised mental health services, natural resilience in children and cost-effective interventions for addressing psychosocial wellbeing in children.
REPSSI
Tracking your health: A guide to creating a tracing book
Johannesburg, South Africa
2009, 23p.
Strives to mainstream psychosocial support into health services, in this case HIV treatment provided by clinics, hospitals and home based care. The document uses the tracing book as a tool to better understand individual health. The tracing book is like a journal and one can enter things that are important in their lives. This can be used to help children better understand HIV. The use of words is not necessary as symbols take on the illustration. Parents may also use the tracing book to encourage their older children get tested for HIV but also as an important piece of information in the event of illness.
Today’s Health News
Mufulira typhoid cases reach over 2,200
Times, 11 January, 2012, p2
Typhoid cases in Mufulira have reached 2, 227 with health authorities calling for increased efforts to prevent new infections in Mupambe Township. Ministry of Health spokesperson, Reuben Mbewe, said in an interview yesterday that by Monday, Mupambe had continued to record new infections of typhoid. “As by January 8, we had a total of 131 admissions with 50 cases that were still under treatment and a total of 91 discharges,” Dr Mbewe said.
Save the Children, cage the rapists
Times, 11 January, 2012, p2
Domestic violence or, to borrow the parlance currently in vogue, Gender Based Violence (GBV), has assumed frightening proportions in Zambia and this has ruined the lives of countless victims, many of whom endure the pain in silence. Child defilers are on the rampage, rape cases are on the upswing on a daily basis and many wives are being battered to death by their abusive husbands. The statistics paint a very grim and grotesque picture about the Zambian society as a whole. It is quite clear the country needs to do more to reverse the trend.
Nigeria : World malaria report 2011
11 January 2012
The year 2011 has come and gone. It is in the interest of forging ahead that we should review some achievements, challenges and landmarks as we are ushered into 2012. This article is about Malaria and 2011 which is captured in a detailed report by World Health Organization (WHO) titled ‘World Malaria Report 2011′. It summarizes information received from 106 malaria-endemic countries and other sources and updates the analyses presented in the 2010 report. It highlights continued progress made towards meeting the international targets for malaria control set for 2010 and 2015. Internationally agreed targets and goals for malaria control. The year 2010 was the date set to achieve universal coverage for all populations at risk of malaria using locally appropriate interventions for prevention and case management, and to reduce the malaria burden by at least 50% compared to the levels in the year 2000. In the light of progress made by 2010, the Roll Back Malaria (RBM) targets were updated in June 2011. The targets are now to reduce global malaria deaths to near zero by end-2015; (ii) reduce global malaria cases by 75% from 2000 levels by end-2015; and (iii) eliminate malaria by end-2015 in 10 new countries since 2008, including in the WHO European Region. These targets will be met by: achieving and sustaining universal access to, and utilization of, preventive measures; achieving universal access to case management in the public and private sectors and in the community (including appropriate referral); and accelerating the development of surveillance systems. Impact of malaria control: A growing number of countries have recorded decreases in the number of confirmed cases of malaria and/ or reported admissions and deaths since 2000. Global control efforts have resulted in a reduction in the incidence of malaria and malaria specific mortality rates.
Gambia : Journalists briefed on HIV/Aids high level meeting
11 January 2012
The Association of Health Journalists (AOHJ) in collaboration with the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) on Saturday organised a one-day media briefing on the follow-up to the High Level Meeting on the Universal Access on Aids, which was held at the UN headquarters in New York, from the 8th-10th June 2011. The one-day forum brought together media practitioners, both from the print and electronic and was held at the Girl Guides Conference Hall, along MDI Road in Kanifing. It also accorded the participants the opportunity to interact and discuss the role of the media in the Aids response and how to reduce the prevalence of stigma and discrimination in the society. Addressing the participants, Nuha Ceesay, UNAIDS Country officer, spoke among other things on the significance of the High Level Meeting and the role of the media by ensuring these objectives are achieved. He however added that the High Level Meeting came at a crucial moment, when the global AIDS response deadline for achieving key goals and targets are unanimously set by the member states in order to reverse the pandemic, including the goal to achieve universal access to HIV prevention, treatment, care and support which expired at the end of 2010 and were reviewed. This, he added, resulted in the adoption of Resolution 65/277. He explained that the global leaders also adopted the new UNDAIDS strategy-getting to zero and called on all concerned parties to ensure the implementation of robust programmes that would lead to zero new infections, zero AIDS related deaths and zero stigma and discrimination. He further went on to outline that symbolically, 2011 also marked 30 years since the beginning of the AIDS epidemic. “The High Level Meeting therefore provided the platform where delegates took stock of three decades of the response of HIV/AIDS at country, regional and global levels and as well agreed on concrete actions for the next five years, that is until 2015,” he stated.
Nigeria : Perspectives on the Anids model in Anambra
12 January 2012
When the Peter Obi administration assumed office in the year 2006, its programme of action was tagged Anambra Integrated Development Strategy [ANIDS]. It is a novel initiative; a multi-sectoral model predicated on the internationally-acclaimed Millennium Development Goals [MDGs] of Eradication of Extreme Poverty & Hunger, Gender Equality & Women Empowerment, Reduction of Child Mortality, Boost to Maternal Health, Combat HIV/AIDS, Malaria and other Diseases, Environmental Sustainability and Global Partnership in Development. Even as noble as the intents were, the governor’s critics scoffed at how he imagined he could effect development in all sectors simultaneously in Anambra State – a State without oil resources; a State literally under the steel grips of brigands who had held the apparatuses of governance hostage. Many of his admirers also wondered if he was not going too far in blending dreams with reality. But most people did not take Almighty God into consideration; that He selects leaders and empowers those who revere Him to make positive impact on their societies. Now in its second term and six years in office, the Obi administration has made tremendous impact on the polity, economy and social status of the State with its ANIDS model. Across board, there are impressive and evidence-based outcomes with testimonies from the people whose lives these projects have touched. First are heavy investments to enable institutional structures. These include instilling transparency in the management of public affairs; boosting confidence and efficiency in the three arms of governance [Executive, Legislature & Judiciary and their apparatuses]; strengthening the infrastructural base of the State, most extensive road network in the country today with over 500 kilometres of urban and rural roads majority of them with dual drainages; water schemes; waste and emergency management, generating Master Plans for three major cities [Awka, the State Capital, Onitsha and Nnewi]; housing development; concrete support for primary, secondary and tertiary healthcare and educational services, and many others.
Angola : Over 20 HIV/Aids cases recorded in Kibala
12 January 2012
Kibala
At least 27 people were diagnosed with HIV/AIDS in Kibala Municipality, throughout the year 2010, says the responsible of the counselling and testing centre of the mentioned illness, Verónica Manuel Cassule. Among these people are 12 pregnant women and a child. Awareness campaigns will continue near to the communities meant to stimulate voluntary tests.
Additional materials in the Dziwani Knowledge Centre for health
REPSSI
Mainstreaming psychosocial care and support through child participation
REPSSI
Johannesburg, South Africa
2009, 52p.
The document is a guide with a view of enhancing child participation in various interventions meant to address their needs. Particular emphasis is put on the benefits of their participation. These include increase in skills and confidence as well as bringing creativity, energy and fun to development programmes.
REPSSI
Mainstreaming psychosocial care and support within food and nutrition programmes
REPSSI
Johannesburg, South Africa
2009, 50p.
Tailored for practitioners working with children and families affected by HIV and AIDS, conflict and poverty, the key messages in the book mainly focus on the nutritional programmes and how these build children’s dignity, confidence and general well being. The book also highlights how linkages with other organisations can help in referrals for further assistance of these children.
Smith, Tricia
Understanding HIV basics
REPSSI
Johannesburg, South Africa
2009, 13p.
The manual is a third in a series called Body Maps: Bringing mind, body and community together for wellbeing. Provides information from HIV and AIDS basic terminologies to CD4 count, ART, drug classes drug resistance and adherence.
REPSSI
Psychosocial care and support for young children and infants in the time of HIV and AIDS: A resource for programming
REPSSI
Johannesburg, South Africa
2007, 78p.
Key messages in this publication include role of family care, specialised mental health services, natural resilience in children and cost-effective interventions for addressing psychosocial wellbeing in children.
REPSSI
Tracking your health: A guide to creating a tracing book
Johannesburg, South Africa
2009, 23p.
Strives to mainstream psychosocial support into health services, in this case HIV treatment provided by clinics, hospitals and home based care. The document uses the tracing book as a tool to better understand individual health. The tracing book is like a journal and one can enter things that are important in their lives. This can be used to help children better understand HIV. The use of words is not necessary as symbols take on the illustration. Parents may also use the tracing book to encourage their older children get tested for HIV but also as an important piece of information in the event of illness.
Today’s Health News
Zambia slowly winning AIDS fight- expert
Post, 10 January, 2012, p11
Dr Michael bush says an HIV- positive person who is well medicated and is on ARVs can have the same longevity as the one who is not infected. In an interview, Dr Bush who is chairmen of the board of trustees of the Mother of Mercy Hospice in Chilanga, said Zambia was slowly winning the fights against HIV and AIDS.
Scientists Characterize protein essential to survival of Malaria parasite
10 January, 2012
A biology lab at Washington University has just cracked the structure and function of a protein that plays a key role in the life of a parasite that killed 655,000 people in 2010. The protein is an enzyme that Plasmodium falciparum, the protozoan that causes the most lethal form of malaria, uses to make cell membrane. The protozoan cannot survive without this enzyme, but even though the enzyme has many lookalikes in other organisms, people do not make it. Together these characteristics make the enzyme an ideal target for new antimalarial drugs. The research was published in the January 6 issue of the Journal of Biological Chemistry (JBC) as “Paper of the Week” for that issue. The work also will be featured in ASBMB Today (the newsletter of the American Society for Biological Molecular Biology, which publishes JBC). Sweating the cold room: The protein’s structure might have remained an enigma, had it not been the “unreasonable optimism” of Joseph Jez, PhD, associate professor of biology in Arts & Sciences, which carried his team through a six-year-long obstacle course of failures and setbacks. “What my lab does is crystallize proteins so that we can see what they look like in three dimensions,” Jez says. “The idea is that if we know a protein’s structure, it will be easier to design chemicals that would target the protein’s active site and shut it down,” Jez says. The latest discovery is the culmination of a project that began years before when Jez was working at the Danforth Plant Science Center in St. Louis and collaborating with scientists at the local biotech start-up Divergence. “At the time, C. elegans had just been sequenced and the Divergence scientists were looking at using it as an easy model to work out the biochemistry of parasitic nematodes,” Jez says.
Nigeria: We are winning the fight against HIV/Aids-Suswam
10 January, 2012
Wife of the Benue State Governor, Arc. Mrs. Yemisi Suswam has declared that the state is winning the war against the dreaded HIV/AIDS despite daunting challenges confronting the renewed onslaught against the virus. Mrs. Suswam who spoke yesterday while hosting the Network of People Living With HIV/AIDS to a new year feast in Makurdi, said she would continue to lead the campaign against the virus and to ensure better condition of living for the infected and affected. She said Benue State has recorded alot of successes in ensuring that the prevalence rate of the virus in the state was brought down through sustained campaigns, reach out programmes and the establishment of specialized clinics for the infected. “I can assure you that no state in the country has given HIV/AIDS virus the kind of sustained fight we have mounted in Benue State in the last four years, that is why we are recording much successes”, she said. Mrs. Suswam disclosed that through the three HIV treatment centres established by her pet project, the Sev Av Foundation, at the three senatorial district of the state, most of the infected persons have been availed necessary counseling and treatments at no cost. She however sent an SOS to public spirited individuals and cooperate organizations to come to the aid of the legion of the infected In the state by donating CD4 Count Machines to the treatment centres spread across the three senatorial zones of the state.
Angola: Official stresses journalists’ role in fighting HIV/AIDS
10 January, 2012
Malanje
The role played by journalists in disseminating actions turned to the fight against HIV/AIDS in the country and the world was highlighted Friday, in Malanje city, by the head of radio and television department of the Provincial Management of Mass Media, Maria Fernanda . The official, who spoke at the opening of the provincial methodological meeting on the integrated programme of HIV/AIDS for the media, acknowledged that the media has played a leading role in the disclosure of matters related to the danger of the disease, aimed at raising awareness of the population. For the event, sponsored by the Association of Angolan Journalists in Fight against AIDS, she said that it will provide major advantages in the minimization of the disease in the region, since journalists are promoters of activities aimed at the eradication of the disease. In this perspective, Maria Fernanda encouraged the association to continue with this honorable task in order to join the efforts of the Government and other organizations involved in the fight against HIV/AIDS, aimed at reducing adverse effects within the population.
Rwanda: Aiming towards two million medical male circumcisions
10 January, 2012
This will be a busy year for Rwanda’s health centres as the country attempts to reach its goal of medically circumcising 50 percent of men by June 2013 as part of HIV prevention efforts. “We plan to extend free male circumcision services to all men in Rwanda – we are targeting two million circumcisions by 2013,” said Simoni Kanyaruhango, head of the national male circumcision programme at the Rwanda Bio-Medical Centre. “The programme has, under the sponsorship of the Global Fund [to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria], extended the necessary kits … to all district hospitals, which will in turn offer the service free of charge to the public.” The free male circumcision programme began in October 2011, and officials at the Ministry of Health say demand is growing. “Here we carry out circumcisions every weekend but we are looking at including the working days as the demand is increasing by the day,” said Christian Ntizimira, director of Kibagabaga Hospital in the capital, Kigali. A large randomized controlled trial in Kenya, South Africa and Uganda found that medical male circumcision can reduce a man’s risk of contracting HIV through vaginal intercourse by almost 60 percent. In order to reach 80 percent coverage – a target set by UNAIDS and the World Health Organization (WHO) under a new plan to accelerate medical male circumcision in eastern and southern Africa – Rwanda would need to circumcise 1,746,052 men; at present, some 15 percent are circumcised. However, with a severe shortage of highly trained medical staff – according to WHO, Rwanda has just two doctors per 100,000 population – the goal is unlikely to be met unless lower cadre health workers are involved in the campaign. Simpler techniques: At present, the programme is using circumcision surgery, the only WHO-approved method. The government is hoping for WHO approval of a device known as the “PrePex system”, which delivers “bloodless” male circumcision and would reduce the need for a sterile environment, anaesthetic and highly trained medical personnel. The PrePex system works through a special elastic mechanism that fits closely around an inner ring, trapping the foreskin, which dries up and is removed after a week. “This device has been clinically studied and found effective. We are only awaiting approval from the World Health Organization Technical Advisory Group on technical innovations in male circumcision,” said Vincent Mutabazi, lead investigator in the PrePex Clinical study. “With WHO approval of the device, we could perform male circumcisions anywhere, any time or even run mobile clinics out to remote communities rather than have men travel long distances for the circumcisions,” said Agnes Binagwaho, the Rwandan Minister of Health.
How Diabetes affects a woman’s sexual health
10 January, 2012
Sex is good for diabetes. It’s good for the heart and circulation, helps sleep, and improves mood. So why are many women with diabetes not enjoying sex? The reason, of course, is that although sex may be good for diabetes, having diabetes is not always good for sex. Nerve damage, or neuropathy, can make it difficult to have orgasms, and can cause vaginal dryness, making intercourse painful. Bruising from injections and fears about blood sugar plummeting can zap your self-confidence. And if you wear an insulin pump, where does it fit into intimacy? Diabetes-related issues may seem overwhelming, but they’re solvable, experts say. “Many times I’ve heard people say, ‘I’m done with sex,’” says Janis Roszler, RD, a diabetes educator and co-author of Sex and Diabetes (American Diabetes Association, 2007). “It’s sad because there’s so much that can be done.” As with most diabetes complications, high blood sugar levels are often the cause of sexual side effects, so keeping them under control is the No. 1 strategy. But even women with tight control of their blood sugars can face some sexual challenges. Here are some common problems and ways to conquer them.
Additional materials in the Dziwani Knowledge Centre for health
REPSSI
Mainstreaming psychosocial care and support through child participation
REPSSI
Johannesburg, South Africa
2009, 52p.
The document is a guide with a view of enhancing child participation in various interventions meant to address their needs. Particular emphasis is put on the benefits of their participation. These include increase in skills and confidence as well as bringing creativity, energy and fun to development programmes.
REPSSI
Mainstreaming psychosocial care and support within food and nutrition programmes
REPSSI
Johannesburg, South Africa
2009, 50p.
Tailored for practitioners working with children and families affected by HIV and AIDS, conflict and poverty, the key messages in the book mainly focus on the nutritional programmes and how these build children’s dignity, confidence and general well being. The book also highlights how linkages with other organisations can help in referrals for further assistance of these children.
Smith, Tricia
Understanding HIV basics
REPSSI
Johannesburg, South Africa
2009, 13p.
The manual is a third in a series called Body Maps: Bringing mind, body and community together for wellbeing. Provides information from HIV and AIDS basic terminologies to CD4 count, ART, drug classes drug resistance and adherence.
REPSSI
Psychosocial care and support for young children and infants in the time of HIV and AIDS: A resource for programming
REPSSI
Johannesburg, South Africa
2007, 78p.
Key messages in this publication include role of family care, specialised mental health services, natural resilience in children and cost-effective interventions for addressing psychosocial wellbeing in children.
REPSSI
Tracking your health: A guide to creating a tracing book
Johannesburg, South Africa
2009, 23p.
Strives to mainstream psychosocial support into health services, in this case HIV treatment provided by clinics, hospitals and home based care. The document uses the tracing book as a tool to better understand individual health. The tracing book is like a journal and one can enter things that are important in their lives. This can be used to help children better understand HIV. The use of words is not necessary as symbols take on the illustration. Parents may also use the tracing book to encourage their older children get tested for HIV but also as an important piece of information in the event of illness.
Today’s Health News
Nurses body engages govt in talks for improved conditions
Post, 6 January, 2012, p15
The Zambia Union of Nurses Organization (ZUNO) has started negotiations for salaries and improved conditions of service for health workers in both the public and private sectors. ZUNO information officer Mabvuto Zulu yesterday said the union had started negotiations with the government for nurses and mid-wives working in government health institutions as well as with two mining companies, Mopani and Chibuluma.
Mufulira typhoid claims one as cases top 1,566
Times, 6 January, 2012, p1
One person has died in the typhoid-infested Mupampe Township in Mufulira since the disease broke out two weeks ago. The deceased as been identified as Paul Kalunga Muma, 27 who had been on treatment for typhoid. He died at 08:00 hours yesterday in Mupampe Township.
Tanzania : Giant rats sniff out land mines and TB
6 January, 2012
Femi scratches at the moist surface. Something metallic appears from beneath the soil. A dry clicking sound makes her run to her trainer, who gives her a piece of banana. The young female is a giant pouched rat with an excellent sense of smell, which makes her ideal for the task of detecting land mines. Femi and other rats are trained to find land mines by the Belgian-Tanzanian APOPO company, based in the Tanzanian city of Morogoro. The animals are tested and accredited in accordance with international standards. They have to score one hundred percent before being certified and deployed in land mine-ridden countries like Mozambique. During the country’s civil war, which ended in 1992, approximately half a million landmines were laid, half of which have been cleared by now. “Rats are much faster in detecting mines than humans,” reveals Hannah Ford of APOPO. “In twenty minutes a rat can search an area of one hundred square meters for land mines; a de-miner would need a full day.” None of the rats weigh more than one and a half kilo, far too light to detonate a landmine. Other rats in Morogoro are trained to detect tuberculosis (TB). One of them is Astrid. She works in a glass lined cage with a metal floor. The floor has little holes. The rats are trained to sniff at the holes under which samples of sputum are placed. When Astrid sticks her nose in one of the holes that contains a TB positive sample, and keeps it there for four seconds, a clicking noise is sounded. The click means ‘reward’ in the form of a bite of mashed banana or avocado.
Senegal : Double sentence – Aids in a local prison
6 January 2011
Dakar
Amadou* takes in a long, deep breath, clears his throat and steps to the front of the room. He turns to look out at a familiar group of faces sitting on long wooden benches here at the Camp Penal maximum-security prison in Dakar. This is the last in a group of 150 inmates Amadou has been speaking with today. He’s tired, but remains focused. “I know your realities,” he begins, in his native Wolof. “I’ve slept on the same mattresses as you, eaten the same food, and showered in the same bathrooms. Today I’m here to talk to you about AIDS. What it is, how we catch it and how to prevent it.” The prisoners are sitting up attentively. Some are smiling and look relaxed. Others have a more serious gaze, stroking their beards and twirling prayer beads round in their fingers repeatedly. For a majority of them, Amadou isn’t a stranger. Less than three years ago, he was here, living among the over 800 prisoners, serving a two-month stint. Amadou was arrested in December 2008, along with eight other men, for allegedly “engaging in homosexual acts” – a serious crime in this majority-Muslim country. He was sentenced to eight years in prison, but the case was later overthrown when international aid groups intervened. Today Amadou continues to work as a prominent gay AIDS activist, helping promote harm-reduction strategies throughout the country. Senegal has among the lowest rates of HIV in Sub-Saharan Africa, at less than one percent. But the most vulnerable group is men who have sex with men (MSM), nearly 22 percent of whom are HIV-positive. Prisons are high-risk environments for the transmission of the disease, due to the prevalence of hard drugs, violence and sexual relations. There is no mandatory testing in prison, and for those prisoners who, either knowingly or unknowingly, are living with HIV, the stresses of living in prison – including overcrowding, unsanitary conditions, and poor nutrition – mean their health is even more compromised. Cyrille* is an HIV-positive inmate from Cameroon who is serving a two-year sentence at Camp Penal for theft. He found out he contracted the disease six years ago, when he was hospitalised for a blood clot in his leg. Every month he goes to the Centre de Traitement Ambulatoire in Dakar for anti-retroviral treatment, which is financed by the Senegalese government. He says he is very worried about his health, because he knows of three AIDS patients who have already died, and his own doctor tells him he needs to improve his diet.
Zambia : ‘People are not dead until they have died’
6 January, 2012
Lusaka
“I had no power, I could not even walk. I just had to be lifted by someone. When bathing, when going to the toilet, when going anywhere,” Geoffrey Mwila says in a soft voice. Forty-three-year-old Mwila, lying in bed, coughs often in between his short sentences. Weakened by the HIV virus, he was severely affected by tuberculosis and found himself on the verge of death only a few weeks ago. His unbuttoned shirt reveals an extremely frail body, but compared to when he was first brought to this hospice, he has improved miraculously. “Things were very bad with him,” recalls sister Mercy Ng’andwe, the palliative care nurse who currently takes care of him at the Mother of Mercy hospice in Chilanga, just outside Zambia’s capital Lusaka. “When he first came in, we did not even know if he would still be there tomorrow.” After receiving proper antiretroviral and pain medication, as well as exercises and massage therapy for his weakened legs, Mwila is now able to walk again. “I can’t go very far, but at least I can go alone.” Hospices like Mother of Mercy have been on the forefront of providing palliative care in Zambia ever since the HIV epidemic rose in the early 1990s. By then, anti-retroviral medicines were not yet widely available and the public health sector struggled to cope with the large number of patients, so hospices founded by the churches had to fill the gap. The Palliative Care Association of Zambia (PCAZ), formed in 2005, is now working to make good quality palliative care more widely available. This is not only for people who are very close to death, as people often assume. “Palliative care starts from the moment you are told: this disease cannot be cured,” says Njekwa Lumbwe, national coordinator of the association. “With ARV’s you can prolong life, but it should also be a quality life.”
Additional materials in the Dziwani Knowledge Centre for health
REPSSI
Mainstreaming psychosocial care and support through child participation
REPSSI
Johannesburg, South Africa
2009, 52p.
The document is a guide with a view of enhancing child participation in various interventions meant to address their needs. Particular emphasis is put on the benefits of their participation. These include increase in skills and confidence as well as bringing creativity, energy and fun to development programmes.
REPSSI
Mainstreaming psychosocial care and support within food and nutrition programmes
REPSSI
Johannesburg, South Africa
2009, 50p.
Tailored for practitioners working with children and families affected by HIV and AIDS, conflict and poverty, the key messages in the book mainly focus on the nutritional programmes and how these build children’s dignity, confidence and general well being. The book also highlights how linkages with other organisations can help in referrals for further assistance of these children.
Smith, Tricia
Understanding HIV basics
REPSSI
Johannesburg, South Africa
2009, 13p.
The manual is a third in a series called Body Maps: Bringing mind, body and community together for wellbeing. Provides information from HIV and AIDS basic terminologies to CD4 count, ART, drug classes drug resistance and adherence.
REPSSI
Psychosocial care and support for young children and infants in the time of HIV and AIDS: A resource for programming
REPSSI
Johannesburg, South Africa
2007, 78p.
Key messages in this publication include role of family care, specialised mental health services, natural resilience in children and cost-effective interventions for addressing psychosocial wellbeing in children.
REPSSI
Tracking your health: A guide to creating a tracing book
Johannesburg, South Africa
2009, 23p.
Strives to mainstream psychosocial support into health services, in this case HIV treatment provided by clinics, hospitals and home based care. The document uses the tracing book as a tool to better understand individual health. The tracing book is like a journal and one can enter things that are important in their lives. This can be used to help children better understand HIV. The use of words is not necessary as symbols take on the illustration. Parents may also use the tracing book to encourage their older children get tested for HIV but also as an important piece of information in the event of illness.
Today’s Health News
1, 500 Typhoid cases were treated in Mufulira- Simbule
Post, 5 January, 2012, p3
Over 1, 500 Typhoid cases have been attended to at a makeshift clinic in Mufulira’s Mopambe compound since the waterborne disease broke out two weeks ago. And local government and environment minister Professor Nkandu Luo says the government will not allow Mopani Copper Mines to continue punishing the people in the area through pollution of the environment.
Most people with mental disorders have no access to specialised care- WHO
Post, 5 January, 2012, p9
Two-thirds of people with schizophrenic disorders in developing countries have no access to specialized mental health care, a WHO study has revealed. And Partners Zambia says it hopes 2012 will be a year packed with new ideas, innovative practices and events culminating in the holding of the XIX International AIDS conference in Washington DC, USA under the theme ‘Turning the tide together.’
Comprehensive implementation plan on maternal, infant and young child nutrition
5 January, 2012
The 130th Executive Board of WHO will discuss the draft Comprehensive implementation plan on maternal, infant and young child nutrition requested by the WHA in 2010. The plan defines its objectives and sets five global targets and a time frame. It further proposes a series of five high-priority actions for Member States, the Secretariat and international partners, and lists effective health interventions and non-health activities that affect nutrition as well as indicators for monitoring the implementation of the plan.
Sudan: Malaria, Bilharzia and Filariasis endemic in South Darfur
5 January, 2012
Nyala
The Ministry of Health announced an outbreak of parasitic diseases in the southern localities of South Darfur. Ja’afar Abdullah Ali, Director of parasitic diseases at the Ministry of Health for South Darfur said malaria, bilharzia and filariasis are spreading in El Radom, Gereida and Bram localities. He said 80 percent of people in those areas were suffering from bilharzia, whilst 91 percent in El Radom were carrying the disease. Bilharzia and filariasis spread in middle schools where students were reported as urinating blood. El Radom topped the list with 26,440 recorded cases of the three diseases. Nyala recorded 1,962 and El Salaam locality noted 16,000 cases said the Director speaking from Nyala.
Feto-maternal nutrition and low birth weight
5 January, 2012
The 30 million low-birth-weight babies born annually (23.8% of all births) often face severe short- and long-term health consequences. Low birth weight is a major determinant of mortality, morbidity and disability in infancy and childhood and also has a long-term impact on health outcomes in adult life. The consequences of poor nutritional status and inadequate nutritional intake for women during pregnancy not only directly affects women’s health status, but may also have a negative impact on birth weight and early development. Low birth weight also results in substantial costs to the health sector and imposes a significant burden on society as a whole. Whereas the global prevalence of such births is slowly dropping, it is as high as 30% in many developing countries.
Nigeria: Stakeholders unveil $82 million Malaria action programme for states
5 January, 2012
As part of efforts to step up malaria control efforts in the country, the United States Agency for International Development, USAID, Family Health International 360 and other partners recently brought together stakeholders in the health sector to unveil the Malaria Action Programme for States, MAPS, currently running in Ebonyi, Nasarawa, Cross River, Oyo, Zamfara and Benue. The seventh state is to be enlisted into the programme in the early part of 2012. At the unveiling by the United States Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr. Terrence McCauley, Minister of State for Health, Dr. Muhammad Ali-Pate, confirmed that malaria is still a global emergency that affects mostly women and children. According to Pate, Malaria costs Africa’s economy $12 billion per year. He said: “The impact of malaria is enormous as Nigeria loses about N132 billion to prevention, diagnosis and treatment. This is apart from the loss of man hours by the nation’s labour force”. Country Director, fhi 360, Otto Nzapfurundi Chabikuli said despite known and affordable diagnostic, prevention and treatment technology, malaria remains a major cause of morbidity and mortality in Nigeria, directly contributing to poverty, low productivity and reduced school attendance. He said: “It is responsible for nearly 300, 000 deaths per year, as well as 11 per cent of maternal mortality cases reported each year. No amount of commitment alone will reverse these statistics. Action is required”. Chabikuli explained that the MAPS Project in Nigeria remains the single largest malaria prevention programme to be managed by fhi360 and also one of the most comprehensive in its approach. Launching the programme, United States Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr. Terrence McCauley, said MAPS is designed to support the National Malaria Control Strategic Plan through initiatives aimed at increasing the quality, access and uptake of specific malaria control interventions. The diplomat said “the incidence has continued to exert enormous strain on the finances of African countries even as one African child dies of malaria every three seconds.” In his presentation, Coordinator of the Malaria Action Programme for States, Dr. Abba Zakari Umar revealed that the programme is aimed at supporting the control of malaria in Nigeria, especially state-specific malaria plans through improved capacity for malaria programme management at the state and local government levels.
Ethiopia: New PMTCT plan needs men
5 January, 2012
Addis Ababa
Ethiopia’s new plan to eliminate mother-to-child HIV transmission by 2015 cannot be attained unless men are more meaningfully involved in reproductive health, experts say. “Among the pregnant women who come to our hospital, less than 10 percent of them come with their partners,” said Etalem Gebrehiwot, head nurse at the prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) wing of Gandhi Memorial Hospital. “Those who find out that they are living with the virus usually face a problem while taking medicines, given that most prefer to take it without the knowledge of their partners.” Studies show that low male partner involvement is one of the challenges to the success of the country’s PMTCT programme. According to experts, men’s involvement in PMTCT can have a positive impact on PMTCT by encouraging their partners to visit antenatal clinics and have skilled health workers attend the birth of their children. In a 2010 Kenyan study, male partner involvement in PMTCT reduced the risks of vertical transmission and infant mortality by more than 40 percent compared to no involvement. “The biggest challenge we are currently facing is to convince mothers to get tested in order to determine that they are eligible for PMTCT services… the major reason for their resistance is lack of consent from their husbands or partners, who are more influential in family matters including this,” said Aster Shewa, who supervises Zewditu Hospital antiretroviral service centre in Addis Ababa. “Besides, after they know their status, most HIV-positive mothers refrain from disclosing it, which usually impacts the way they use PMTCT services and their effectiveness,” she added. Many men do not see the advantages of an HIV test; one father, whose wife gave birth to a daughter in November 2011, told News: “We are married – what is there to test about?”
HIV/AIDS: Depression “overlooked” in treating HIV patients
5 January, 2012
HIV patients in Africa frequently suffer shame and depression but the continent’s health systems are ill-equipped to handle the issue, which not only affects their quality of life, but can lead to poor adherence to HIV treatment regimens. While HIV programmes focus heavily on reducing externalized stigma and ill-treatment of HIV patients by society, little is done to deal with a patients’ self-perception and how that might deteriorate following an HIV diagnosis, speakers said at a session on stigma at the 16th International Conference on AIDS and Sexually transmitted infections in Africa in Addis Ababa. Studies show that depression is the most common psychiatric disorder among people living with HIV, and is more prevalent among HIV-positive people than the general population. “Operational research carried out in Zambia has found a positive correlation between patients who self-stigmatized and failure to adhere to treatment,” said Sikazwe Izukanyi from Zambia’s Ministry of Health. “Self-stigma was often found in patients who did not disclose their status to partners or family members – making it difficult to maintain strict adherence to regimens while trying to hide the drugs.” Izukanyi noted that while counselling was a standard part of HIV care in Zambia, counsellors needed to be made aware of the prevalence of self-stigma and how to deal with it.
Additional materials in the Dziwani Knowledge Centre for health
REPSSI
Mainstreaming psychosocial care and support through child participation
REPSSI
Johannesburg, South Africa
2009, 52p.
The document is a guide with a view of enhancing child participation in various interventions meant to address their needs. Particular emphasis is put on the benefits of their participation. These include increase in skills and confidence as well as bringing creativity, energy and fun to development programmes.
REPSSI
Mainstreaming psychosocial care and support within food and nutrition programmes
REPSSI
Johannesburg, South Africa
2009, 50p.
Tailored for practitioners working with children and families affected by HIV and AIDS, conflict and poverty, the key messages in the book mainly focus on the nutritional programmes and how these build children’s dignity, confidence and general well being. The book also highlights how linkages with other organisations can help in referrals for further assistance of these children.
Smith, Tricia
Understanding HIV basics
REPSSI
Johannesburg, South Africa
2009, 13p.
The manual is a third in a series called Body Maps: Bringing mind, body and community together for wellbeing. Provides information from HIV and AIDS basic terminologies to CD4 count, ART, drug classes drug resistance and adherence.
REPSSI
Psychosocial care and support for young children and infants in the time of HIV and AIDS: A resource for programming
REPSSI
Johannesburg, South Africa
2007, 78p.
Key messages in this publication include role of family care, specialised mental health services, natural resilience in children and cost-effective interventions for addressing psychosocial wellbeing in children.
REPSSI
Tracking your health: A guide to creating a tracing book
Johannesburg, South Africa
2009, 23p.
Strives to mainstream psychosocial support into health services, in this case HIV treatment provided by clinics, hospitals and home based care. The document uses the tracing book as a tool to better understand individual health. The tracing book is like a journal and one can enter things that are important in their lives. This can be used to help children better understand HIV. The use of words is not necessary as symbols take on the illustration. Parents may also use the tracing book to encourage their older children get tested for HIV but also as an important piece of information in the event of illness.
Today’s Health News
TALC cites poverty, alcohol among HIV drivers
Post, 4 January, 2012, p2
The government has been urged to urgently tackle poverty as it is contributing to the spread of HIV and AIDS. Treatment Literacy and Advocacy (TALC) country director Felix Mwanza said alcohol abuse and low condom use in the country were other pressing matters that needed to be addressed.
India lends govt $50m for health centres
Post, 4 January, 2012, p7
The Indian government has given the Zambian government a credit line of $50 million to finance prefabricated health centres in all the provinces. Foreign affairs minister Chishimba Kambwili, who disclosed this at a briefing at his ministry yesterday, said the rate of interest for the credit was 1.75 per cent and the repayment would run for a period of 20 years.
Authorities raise alarm on state of Kawambwa hospital
Post, 4 January, 2012, p12
Kawambwa District Hospital is on the verge of collapse, hospital administrator Shadreck Mbewe has warned. Mbewe disclosed this when area member of parliament Nickson Chilangwa visited the hospital last week. Mbewe lamented that since 1956 when the hospital was built, structures have not been worked on.
Mufulira Typhoid cases go up
Times, 4 January, 2012, p3
Typhoid cases in Mufulira have risen to 1, 249 since the water-borne disease broke out almost two weeks ago. Mufulira Town Clerk Charles Mwandila said in an interview yesterday that health personnel were on the ground in Mupambe Township and surrounding areas. Mr Mwandila, however, said the cases were expected to reduce because of the interventions that had been put in place in the affected areas.
Govt buoys mobile hospitals
Times, 4 January, 2012, p3
The government has released funds for the continued operations of the mobile health services in nine provinces. National director, mobile and emergency health services at the Ministry of Health Welani Chilengwe said in an interview that the money was released last week.
PF eager to improve people’s lives – Masebo
Times, 4 January, 2012, p3
The government is committed to improving the living standards of the people, said Chongwe Member of Parliament (MP) Sylvia Masebo. She was speaking when receiving medical items for the Ngwerere Health Centre and assorted groceries for the community worth about K15 million donated by the Muslim community in Zambia. Ngwerere rural Health Centre officer in charge Kennedy Mulenga appealed to the government to build more houses for health workers at the centre.
Midwife delivers own baby using makeup mirror
4 January, 2012
So many of us think of birth as something that absolutely must take place in a hospital with a team of doctors around for intervention and to administer pain medication. Sometimes this is definitely the case, and medical intervention is needed. But there are times when birth, which is a natural and beautiful thing women can do, can be performed unassisted. Yes, you have to have a healthy pregnancy. But mama-to-be must also have absolute faith in her body and her ability to birth. Which we should all have. You have faith in yourself for being able to use the bathroom, right? You pee and poo without any help most of the time. Birth is just another function our bodies can perform. Which is why I’m not too shocked when learning that a midwife delivered her own baby at home with the help of a makeup mirror. This wasn’t in her birth plan — she had her own midwife, but her baby came sooner than she expected. Claire Clarke-Wood, 28, had just finished a 13-hour shift at Croydon University Hospital in London. She said it was a busy day with a lot of moms having babies, but she didn’t think it was her time since she was still three weeks away from her due date. She was having back pains, but she was working a long shift, so she thought nothing of it. When she got home she was having some contractions but nothing severe or close together. She went to bed, but around 5 a.m., she woke up her husband Tim because those contractions were getting stronger. She decided to go into the bath and a bit later checked to see what was going on with her mother’s little mirror. It was time! She called her midwife, but baby wasn’t going to wait. That’s when Claire’s midwifery experience took over — she stayed calm, relaxed, and realized that yes she was scared but she knew she could do this. With her husband by her side and her mom’s mirror helping them, she delivered a 6-pound, 12-ounce baby girl they named Esmay right there in the bathroom. Okay so not every woman has midwifery training but every woman can educate herself on birth — it’s empowering. Our bodies can do amazing things. We just have to have faith in them. When you are pregnant, learn all you can — relaxation techniques, HypnoBirthing, breathing exercises — this way you can take the fear out of birth and have the best experience you can. Sure, not everyone is going to have an unassisted birth in their own bathroom, but staying calm and trusting your body will do wonders for you wherever you have your baby.
Rwanda: Nyagatare tops Malaria cases
4 January, 2012
Nyagatare District has been cited as having the highest cases of malaria compared to other districts in the country. According to reports compiled from various health centres in the district, Nyagatare tops with 40.4% of malaria prevalence. The report was presented at a district security meeting on Monday. While the government plans to uproot malaria by the year 2015, health specialists in the district warned that the percentage of malaria infection could rise unless tough measures are taken. “Nyagatare’s terrain provides suitable breeding ground for mosquitoes. There are also people like herdsmen who live in places with low penetration of mosquito nets such things fuel the spread of malaria,” said Dr. Benon Karekezi Rukunda, director of Nyagatare Hospital. “There is need for awareness campaigns to encourage residents to adopt the culture of sleeping under mosquito nets as a preventive measure”.
Kenya: Nyanza yet to withdraw ‘faulty’ HIV kits
4 January, 2012
Health officials in Nyanza support the use of the standard diagnostic Bioline kits for testing HIV despite the World Health Organisation ban on the gadgets over inaccuracies. The Ministry of Public Health recalled over one million of the South Korea made HIV testing kits over inaccuracies after a global alert issued by WHO. By yesterday however, the gadgets were still in use in major health and testing facilities in Nyanza despite a circular from the ministry to replace them with Unigold. Nyanza director of public health and sanitation Jackson Kioko however defended the use of the banned test kits saying the faulty gadgets were never dispatched to the province. “We are aware of the recall but in Nyanza, there is no need to fear since the batch that had the faulty gadgets were not dispatched here,” said Kioko. He said, those who were tested by the Bioline technology have no reason to fear since the gadgets delivered in the province were quality. While withdrawing the gadgets, the Ministry of Public Health said the Standard Diagnostic Bioline, one of the three kits used for HIV testing in the country, had diagnosed patients as HIV negative when they were positive. However, Kioko said cases of discrepancies have never been detected by the use of the Bioline in the region. “What we did we withdrew some ARVs and that was a long time ago. Our kits are not among the faulty ones, so we will continue using them unless advised otherwise by the ministry,” added Kioko.
Man with HIV slept with 3,000 men and women
4 January, 2012
An HIV-positive man has potentially infected thousands of people – by having unprotected sex so he could spread the disease. David Dean Smith, 51, turned himself in to a Michigan police station last week – after claiming to have slept with 3,000 men and women over several years. A detective investigating the case said: ‘He says he intentionally attempted to spread the disease to kill people. ‘His latest fantasy is strangling a woman and having sex with her dead body.‘ It is unclear when Smith was diagnosed with HIV, but he claims to have known full well what he was doing when he had unprotected sex with many partners over the past few years. While he claims that there may be thousands of victims, so far he has only been arraigned and charged with two counts of AIDS-sexual penetration with an uninformed partner. Neither of the two victims that police are aware of have been identified, but one has spoken to reporters in an effort to help other women realize if they may be infected. She said that once she was tested, she immediately knew it was Smith who infected her. The two met through a Yahoo! Personals listing and, in speaking with MSNBC, she called him a ‘sociopath’ and ‘a predator’.
Zimbabwe: GMB steps up war against HIV
4 January, 2012
The Grain Marketing Board has re-committed itself in responding to HIV and Aids and has pledged to scale up its current workplace interventions as part of its contribution to an Aids-free generation. Addressing guests mostly GMB employees at the organisation’s belated World Aids Day commemorations held in Harare last week, GMB general manager Mr Albert Mandizha urged all his staff to have individual roles in curbing prevalence of HIV. “I am appealing to all members of staff to feel free to get tested as this is the gateway into positive living. We can only access treatment when we know our status and equally stay negative if one knows his status as well,” said Mr Mandizha. In relation to this year’s theme, “Getting to Zero: Zero new infections, Zero deaths and Zero stigma and discrimination”, Mr Mandizha urged GMB workers to relegate behaviours that instigate stigma and discrimination among fellow employees. ‘It is very important that at individual level, we all ensure personal protection against HIV, avoid stigma and discrimination and get involved in providing care and support to those infected and affected,” he said. Mr Mucheki Mucheki, manager for the Community Enterprise Development Against Stigma (CEDAS), who was the guest of honour at the function, urged GMB to strengthen its programmes through partnerships with Aids service organisations.
Tanzania: The forgotten innocents, in face of double stigma
4 January, 2012
Rolling her round, shouting eyes, Neema Abbas looks at the ‘benching’ clients who await services from her without a murmur. They do so with minimum movement then move into Neema’s service room one by one. No client can respond if a name were called out but, Neema, as she awaits them, uses sign language to invite each to the service room. It takes about 5 minutes for any of them to get in before they move out to leave space for the next. Neema is 36 years and in her life, she has learnt that putting one’s passion to something usually moves life forward quite more meaningfully than a few months ago when she stayed at home doing nothing. She was a Person Living with Disability and many community systems seemed not to have a place for her. Initially, she says, for example, many deaf people were coming here for counseling or test for HIV, at the Ngamiani health centre, some 400km from the capital, Dar es salaam, to access the services but could not be catered for. And so they could walk way unattended to. It was until Nema joined this particular health centre last year after a short training with Comprehensive Community Based Rehabilitation in Tanzania (CCBRT), a local non-governmental organisation. It was here that she got the ABC’s on how to help People Living with Disabilities access services. Largely, the issue was ‘communication.’ Speaking through a sign language interpreter on the times I visited her, Neema said that the starting was really difficult. “I had to get used to my clients because I cater for both the normal ones and PLDs but it is now a smooth relationship. Working with PLD clients was a new phenomenon. How could I communicate a thing to them clearly?” she says It was a challenge she had to overcome, because in dealing with peoples’ health, nothing had to be left to chance. Life, generally, was not easy for Neema before she got work to do and give her services to those accessing the health centre. To date, “I attend to the deaf and I do not have many challenges as we can communicate perfectly. Communicating with the hearing public is very difficult. It is also very difficult for two deaf people to talk intimately.” According to her, most Government institutions, especially in hospitals, shops and hotels and police stations do not have experts in sign language, making it very difficult for the deaf, physically and visually impaired to access services. “I find it demeaning that every time a deaf person has to go to hospital, he or she must be accompanied by an interpreter. Communicating your health needs is very difficult through another person,” she says. Neema’s story is an inspiration in a country where about 5million people live with a disability. They are distributed as physically handicapped 28 percent, blind 27percent, deaf 20 percent, mentally handicapped 8 per cent, multiple handicap 4 per cent and other disabilities 13 per cent. This is not lower than the World Health Organization (WHO) estimates which note that one person in every ten or 677million people across the globe, live with a disability .Tanzania’s number of PWDS is growing because of accidents, malaria, meningitis, malnutrition and other reasons. Yet, according to the Permanent Secretary in Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, Ms Blandina Nyoni, until recently, the impact of the AIDS pandemic upon PLDs has received little attention.
Zimbabwe: Hormone-based contraceptives double HIV risk – study
4 January, 2012
Women using hormone-based contraceptives have been urged to be properly assessed and counselled following research indicating that the contraceptives double the risk of contracting HIV. Hormonal contraceptives include the pill and the injection and are used by between 150 000 and 200 000 women in Zimbabwe annually. Zimbabwe National Family Planning Council executive director Dr Munyaradzi Murwira said women should protect themselves from risks of contracting HIV when using the contraceptives. “All clients using contraceptives should be properly assessed and counselled on issues relating to STIs and HIV, and then provided with comprehensive information on how to protect themselves from, STIs, HIV and unwanted pregnancy,” he said. Dr Murwira said those using the contraceptives should not panic because their use is known to be generally safe even in HIV positive people. He said ZNFPC was working with guided scientific evidence on the suitability of contraceptive methods registered for use in Zimbabwe. The council also got technical guidance from the World Health Organisation, United Nations Family Planning Agency and others on new developments regarding use and safety of hormonal contraceptives. “Currently, we use guidelines based on WHO recommendations of 2010 in the provision of contraceptive services,” he said. “These guidelines include recommendations on the safety of contraceptives in HIV negative people and those living with HIV.”If the guidelines change, the country will craft new policies accordingly.” A recent study from the University of Washington in Seattle revealed that contraceptives such as Depo Provera may double the chances that a woman would contract HIV.
Government asks manufacturers of infant formula and baby food stuffs to take them off the shelf
4 January, 2012
Government has given manufacturers of infant formula and baby food stuffs a one month ultimatum in which they should write to the Ministry of Health indicating challenges they are facing before they can start abiding by regulations contained in Statutory Instrument (SI) 48 of 2006. The SI 48 regulates the marketing of breast-feeding substitutes in the country and restricts the way that breast milk substitute manufacturers market their products. This was the reason behind a large-scale seizure of infant formula in Mansa and Kasama stores last month. Infant formula was removed because of the messages and pictures that were displayed on the packaging. The claim is that the packaging made an attempt to persuade mothers to feed their infants the substitute instead of breastfeeding, which is a direct violation. It is recommended that all women breastfeed exclusively for the first six months of an infant’s life. And while mothers cannot be forced to breastfeed, the guidelines on formula sales are in place to help encourage breastfeeding, which has been proven in multiple studies to provide many benefits to mother and baby. In an interview yesterday, Ministry of Health permanent secretary Peter Mwaba said his ministry held a meeting with stakeholders on November 24 this year during which it was resolved that manufacturers of baby foodstuffs should explain challenges they face before their products are completely withdrawn from the market. Dr Mwaba said if stakeholders do not get back to the ministry on the agreed date, Government will take it that they have agreed to follow SI 48 regulations.
Additional materials in the Dziwani Knowledge Centre for health
REPSSI
Mainstreaming psychosocial care and support through child participation
REPSSI
Johannesburg, South Africa
2009, 52p.
The document is a guide with a view of enhancing child participation in various interventions meant to address their needs. Particular emphasis is put on the benefits of their participation. These include increase in skills and confidence as well as bringing creativity, energy and fun to development programmes.
REPSSI
Mainstreaming psychosocial care and support within food and nutrition programmes
REPSSI
Johannesburg, South Africa
2009, 50p.
Tailored for practitioners working with children and families affected by HIV and AIDS, conflict and poverty, the key messages in the book mainly focus on the nutritional programmes and how these build children’s dignity, confidence and general well being. The book also highlights how linkages with other organisations can help in referrals for further assistance of these children.
Smith, Tricia
Understanding HIV basics
REPSSI
Johannesburg, South Africa
2009, 13p.
The manual is a third in a series called Body Maps: Bringing mind, body and community together for wellbeing. Provides information from HIV and AIDS basic terminologies to CD4 count, ART, drug classes, drug resistance and adherence.
REPSSI
Psychosocial care and support for young children and infants in the time of HIV and AIDS: A resource for programming
REPSSI
Johannesburg, South Africa
2007, 78p.
Key messages in this publication include role of family care, specialised mental health services, natural resilience in children and cost-effective interventions for addressing psychosocial wellbeing in children.
REPSSI
Tracking your health: A guide to creating a tracing book
Johannesburg, South Africa
2009, 23p.
Strives to mainstream psychosocial support into health services, in this case HIV treatment provided by clinics, hospitals and home based care. The document uses the tracing book as a tool to better understand individual health. The tracing book is like a journal and one can enter things that are important in their lives. This can be used to help children better understand HIV. The use of words is not necessary as symbols take on the illustration. Parents may also use the tracing book to encourage their older children get tested for HIV but also as an important piece of information in the event of illness.
Today’s Health News
500, 000 babies born in Zambia annually- Kasonde
Post, 3 January, 2012, p4
Health minister Dr Joseph Kasonde has disclosed that 500, 000 babies are born in the country annually. And Dr Kasonde said the government would employ about 2, 500 doctors and nurses this year. Receiving a donation of food hampers valued at K7 million from Shoprite and 120 baby cots from Pep stores on behalf of the University Teaching Hospital and Levy Mwanawasa General Hospital in Lusaka yesterday, Dr Kasonde said half a million babies are born annually.
State to recruit 2, 500 health workers
Times, 3 January, 2012, p1
The government is aware of increased shortages of doctors and nurses especially in rural areas and has this year made a provision to recruit 2, 500 health workers with most of them to be deployed in areas with critical manpower shortage. Health Minister Joseph Kasonde said the government has also embarked on construction of more housing units for health workers to address the current crisis of accommodation in rural areas.
Diarrhoea second leading cause of death in Zambia
Times, 3 January, 2012, p6
Diarrhoea is a known second leading cause of death in children under five-years old of age worldwide, Zambia inclusive. Diarrhoea is responsible for killing 1.5 million children every year. In children under five years-old, diarrhoea disease is the second leading cause of death second only to pneumonia.
Home based care helping families
Times, 3 January, 2012, p6
Home based care (HBC) has been and will continue to be part of care given at community and household level because the patient remains part of our homes as brothers, sisters, parents and own children. While the hospital remains a place where the sick can receive medical attention, the home is s place where they can receive the prescribed medical, care and support effectively especially people living with HIV who are on antiretroviral treatment (ART).
Global health Corps to expand activities
Times, 3 January, 2012, p6
Global Health Corps, an organisation that provides fellowship opportunities for emerging leaders will be expanding into Zambia next year with the aim of building the movement of health equity. The Global Health Corps was started three years ago by Barbara Bush, daughter of former US president George Bush.
Five principles of Reiki therapy
Times, 3 January, 2012, p6
In the first column, I brought out important and proven alternative therapies that can help bring down levels of stress subsequently giving you that desired cure. We discussed the reasons why Reiki therapy is becoming one of the most effective therapies with a growing demand around the world.
Health community: Keys to house-hold development
Times, 3 January, 2012, p8
The government has continued to recognise that having a health community is not only a key to household development but also contributes to the socio-economic development of the nation. It is from this background that various measures have been put in place to ensure that people receive adequate and quality health services regardless of their location in Zambia.
Africa: Malaria scientist does groundbreaking research
3 January, 2012
At the Malaria Forum hosted by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in October, the latest findings on what is currently the most viable malaria vaccine candidate in medical history, known as RTS, S, were announced. Amidst the videotaping, camera flashes, tweeting and blogging, Dr. Patricia Wamboi Njuguna awaited her turn at center stage at the Seattle forum. The only African woman in a team of 22 principal investigators on the Phase III trial of RTS, S, Njuguna couldn’t give in to jet-lag after 24 hours of travel through five time zones. She couldn’t afford to be nervous or hesitant. After all, she was representing not only the African scientists involved in this historic research, but all African scientists, of which women are a tiny minority. And Njuguna also knew that after the pomp and ceremony of the Gates Foundation event, back home in Kenya, yet another series of media interviews awaited her. “It was such a hectic time. I spoke a lot more than I am used to,” Njuguna recalls, laughing. “The best part of it all was the response of the community in Kilifi whose children were enrolled in the study. People were very excited by those findings.”
Rwanda: Media urged to intensify reporting on Tuberculosis
3 January, 2012
Journalists should play the lead in providing information on measures to fight against tuberculosis (TB). The call was made by Malick Kayumba from Rwanda Biomedical Centre (RBC), during a training session that brought together journalists from various media houses especially, reporters on health issues. “Tuberculosis is a curable disease, but the problem is that people do not follow the right or required measures to ensure complete treatment,” said Kayumba. He explained that a tuberculosis patient is supposed to undergo treatment for six months and upon completion of the given dosage, tests must be carried out to determine the condition of the patient.
HIV/AIDS: Ten big stories in 2011
3 January, 2012
It’s been a roller coaster of a year in HIV and AIDS. AIDS turned 30 in 2011, and with new evidence of the effectiveness of HIV treatment as prevention, experts are increasingly talking about “the end of AIDS”. At the same time, however, funding for HIV has become ever more uncertain, jeopardizing efforts to put new, life-saving science into action. IRIN/PlusNews brings you 10 HIV-related stories that made headlines in 2011: AIDS turns 30 – The first case of HIV was reported in 1981, and 2011 was a year of reflection on the growth of the epidemic and progress made in the fight against it. In 30 years, an estimated 30 million people have died, another 34 million are living with the virus and an estimated 7,000 new infections occur every day. An estimated 6.6 million people were on treatment globally by December 2010, but some nine million people who qualified for antiretrovirals (ARVs) did not receive them. ARVs as Prevention – The little pills that turned HIV from a death sentence into a chronic condition could now help us prevent new HIV infections. In May, the HPTN 052 study, a large, randomized controlled trial, found that earlier initiation of HIV treatment led to a 96 percent reduction in HIV transmission to the HIV-uninfected partner. Activists have called on the UN World Health Organization (WHO) to rapidly develop guidelines on the use of ARVs as prevention. AIDS funding – In November, poor funding forced a board meeting of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria in Accra, Ghana, to cancel its 11th round of funding, which was to fund programmes from 2011 to 2013. The international financing mechanism is responsible for about 70 percent of HIV treatment in developing countries. Earlier in the year, the Kaiser Family Foundation and UNAIDS released a report showing that funding fell from US$7.6 billion in 2009 to $6.9 billion in 2010 – the first time funding has dropped in more than a decade of tracking HIV/AIDS spending. Between 2002 and 2008, spending rose more than six-fold before levelling off in 2009. Disappointing prevention trials – In April, a three-country study, known as FEM-PrEP, was halted after daily doses of the ARV Truvada, used as a pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), failed to prevent HIV infection in the women participating. In September, the independent Data and Safety Monitoring Board (DSMB) for the Vaginal and Oral Interventions to Control the Epidemic (VOICE) study – which aimed to test the safety, effectiveness and acceptability of the daily use of one of two different ARV tablets or of a vaginal gel – recommended that women assigned to the tenofovir tablet should discontinue use because the study would be unable to show a difference in effectiveness between the drug and a placebo. In November, on the recommendation of the DSMP, the VOICE trial discontinued the use of the tenofovir-containing gel – and a control placebo gel – on the grounds that it was not effective in preventing HIV in the women participating in the trial.
Kenya: HIV testing kits recalled over accuracy fears
3 January, 2012
More than one million HIV testing kits have been recalled following a global alert by the World Health Organisation over their accuracy. The Public Health and Sanitation ministry has said the Standard Diagnostic Bioline, one of the three kits used for HIV testing in the country, had diagnosed patients as HIV negative when they were positive. “Following the World Health Organisation (WHO) global alert, the Government of Kenya has instituted an immediate recall of all Bioline rapid test kits supplies from all health facilities and VCTs in the country,” said the National Aids and STI Control Programme (Nascop). The Public Health ministry directed provincial directors and Aids and sexually transmitted diseases sector co-ordinators to remove the kits from health facilities. The Director of Public Health and Sanitation, Shanaz Sharif, said Bioline rapid test kits constituted about a tenth of the tools in circulation which he estimated at 10 million units.
Namibia: TB patients out in cold
3 January, 2012
Close to 600 Tuberculosis (TB) patients will be out in the cold by the end of this month as Penduka Namibia shuts its doors because funding has dried up. This crisis comes amidst the fact that Namibia is one of the worst TB-affected countries in the world, with national figures increasing annually. Moreover, resistance to drugs used to treat the disease adds fuel to the country’s TB fire. Penduka Namibia general manager Rudolph Tjaveondja yesterday said they only have funding until the end of December. According to him, they are waiting for money from the Global Fund. However, this has not been confirmed and there is no indication when this will arrive, if at all. “We have serious challenges with the funding of our programme. We are waiting for money from Global Fund, but that has not yet been confirmed. There is talk that it might only come in March next year.” Currently, 567 patients are receiving support and treatment at the centre in Katutura. He said these patients would need to go to State clinics for treatment, provided they can be accommodated. The biggest dangers, Tjaveondja said, was that patients might default on their treatment, which could result in drug resistance.
Zimbabwe: Female condom use remains low
3 January, 2012
The uptake of the female condom remains low compared to male condoms as women fail to negotiate safe sex, the Zimbabwe National Family Planning Council says. Speaking during a journalists’ training seminar recently, ZNFPC marketing and public relations officer Mr Simon Chikwizo said comprehensive condom programming was needed to ensure HIV prevention in Zimbabwe. “The key challenge is that condom use remains high in casual sex relationships but the uptake of female condoms in a marriage is significantly low. “The reason for this is that women fail to negotiate for safe sex and there is great need to promote male involvement in condom programming and education,” he said. The media training seminar was meant to equip journalist with condom negotiation skills to impart comprehensively to the nation. Mr Chikwizo said men shape social norms and public discourse that affect their participation in reproductive health and family planning.
Zimbabwe: 16 Percent of rape victims test HIV positive
3 January, 2012
The Adult Rape Clinic in Harare says 16 percent of victims in rape cases it has handled this year tested HIV-positive. ARC said the statistics were of cases that were handled by Harare courts, but only accounted for those aged 16 years and above. Victims and perpetrators undergo HIV tests whenever rape is reported. The figure could be higher if children are included. During the year, an HIV negative boy raped several girls below the age of 10 and one of the victims tested positive. In the report, concern was raised that the courts had difficulties in dealing with juvenile offenders as some of them were too young to be prosecuted. Such cases are on the increase and affecting efforts to arrest the spread of HIV. Since there is no law that condemns juveniles to prison, the courts can only send underage perpetrators for counselling with the hope that they will be rehabilitated. In a related survey by a local NGO, it has been revealed that most girls and women who have been sexually abused do not know that consequences of rape such as HIV infection and pregnancy can be prevented, treated or limited. The Medecins Sans Frontieres Belgium-Zimbabwe Mission, in conjunction with the University of Zimbabwe, Centre for Applied Social Sciences undertook the study to obtain an overview of the perceptions of sexual and gender-based violence in Mbare, an area they intend to operate in. The results may be an indication of the general situation in the country.
Angola: Malaria cases reduced by 50 percent in five years
3 January, 2012
Luanda
The acting director of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Janice Weber said on Tuesday in Luanda that the country recorded a decrease of malaria cases by 50 percent over the past five years. According to the source, the data was found after a research of indicators of malaria, held in Luanda that shown a low prevalence of 3.7 percent among patients with fever. Janice Weber, who spoke during a workshop on “The role of media in the prevention and fight against malaria and other diseases” said that many health workers received a training during this year on who to diagnosis malaria and proper treatment. Attending the event are journalists from the 18 provinces of Angola.
3 midwives delivering 90 babies a day at UTH
3 January, 2012
The shortage of staff at Zambia’s flagship healthcare institution, the University Teaching Hospital (UTH), has deteriorated to a level where three to four midwives are being forced to deliver 90 babies in a single day, the public relations wing has confirmed. Officials have partly blamed expecting mothers who have been rushing to the referral hospital leaving clinics in their communities, which have operational maternity wings. Speaking in an interview in Lusaka, UTH public relations manager Pauline Mbangweta said midwives at the maternity ward are overwhelmed with the patient burden resulting in compromised service delivery. “This situation is compounded by self-referrals. Pregnant mothers come to deliver at the University Teaching Hospital instead of their local clinics because they say here, they are guaranteed of being attended to by a doctor,” she said. She said the women, who prefer to deliver at the main hospital, compound work for the midwives who should only be attending to complicated cases. Ms Mbangweta said the country’s largest hospital has suffered a brain drain since the ‘90s when nurses began seeking greener pastures abroad. She said to manage the workload; the hospital has engaged the services of trained part-time retired nurses. Ms Mbangweta said she is happy that from January next year, general nurses will also train in midwifery to help alleviate the crisis at the institution. She was speaking in the wake of an uproar sparked by confusion surrounding a baby born to Priscilla Nyondo, and who later died but the body was found with two different name tags. Ms Nyondo refused to bury the baby insisting on a DNA test to ascertain its true parentage. Ms Mbangweta said one tag on the baby’s forehead bore its correct names while the wristband bore the surname of the doctor who attended to it. She said the names were recorded by a nurse who she believes was fatigued as a result of being overworked. Ms Mbangweta urged mothers to deliver at the nearest clinics to ease the burden on the few midwives at UTH.
Additional materials in the Dziwani Knowledge Centre for health
REPSSI
Mainstreaming psychosocial care and support through child participation
REPSSI
Johannesburg, South Africa
2009, 52p.
The document is a guide with a view of enhancing child participation in various interventions meant to address their needs. Particular emphasis is put on the benefits of their participation. These include increase in skills and confidence as well as bringing creativity, energy and fun to development programmes.
REPSSI
Mainstreaming psychosocial care and support within food and nutrition programmes
REPSSI
Johannesburg, South Africa
2009, 50p.
Tailored for practitioners working with children and families affected by HIV and AIDS, conflict and poverty, the key messages in the book mainly focus on the nutritional programmes and how these build children’s dignity, confidence and general well being. The book also highlights how linkages with other organisations can help in referrals for further assistance of these children.
Smith, Tricia
Understanding HIV basics
REPSSI
Johannesburg, South Africa
2009, 13p.
The manual is a third in a series called Body Maps: Bringing mind, body and community together for wellbeing. Provides information from HIV and AIDS basic terminologies to CD4 count, ART, drug classes drug resistance and adherence.
REPSSI
Psychosocial care and support for young children and infants in the time of HIV and AIDS: A resource for programming
REPSSI
Johannesburg, South Africa
2007, 78p.
Key messages in this publication include role of family care, specialised mental health services, natural resilience in children and cost-effective interventions for addressing psychosocial wellbeing in children.
REPSSI
Tracking your health: A guide to creating a tracing book
Johannesburg, South Africa
2009, 23p.
Strives to mainstream psychosocial support into health services, in this case HIV treatment provided by clinics, hospitals and home based care. The document uses the tracing book as a tool to better understand individual health. The tracing book is like a journal and one can enter things that are important in their lives. This can be used to help children better understand HIV. The use of words is not necessary as symbols take on the illustration. Parents may also use the tracing book to encourage their older children get tested for HIV but also as an important piece of information in the event of illness.
Today’s Health News
Kitwe council raids illegal ‘hospital’
Post, 14 December, 2011, p4
Kitwe City Council has confiscated medical equipment from a Congolese medical practitioner who was illegally using his house as a hospital. Council public relations officer Dorothy Sampa said council officers swung into action yesterday morning and confiscated equipment at a semi-detached flat Number 1, Diamond Drive, in Kitwe’s Parklands area after a tip off from the public. Sampa said the Congolese medical practitioner identified as Dr Kasongo was admitting people at his house under unhygienic conditions. She said Dr Kasongo failed to produce relevant documents that were required from a practicing medical practitioner and had since reported to the police and Immigration Department.
Govt set to improve drug stocks
Times, 14 December, 2011, p1
The Government will ensure sufficient stocks of drugs in all health facilities and beef up staff levels, Health Minister Joseph Kasonde has assured. Speaking in Parliament yesterday when the K2.5 trillion allocated to his ministry was approved, Dr Kasonde said it was sad that drug shortages had continued to haunt Zambia for many years.
South Africa : Failing healthcare system renews HIV activism
14 December 2011
Mbabane
A new wave of HIV activism is rising in Swaziland as people living with HIV take to the streets in protest, many for the first time in their lives, over continued shortages of antiretroviral (ARV) treatment. Swaziland ‘s deepening financial crisis is taking a toll on service delivery, and the country is experiencing an unprecedented number of protests over issues such as school closures and a lack of HIV treatment. While Africa’s last absolute monarchy does not allow formal political opposition to operate, a new brand of HIV activism may be taking hold as anger mounts over a lack of ARVs. “People living with HIV and AIDS are more politically active,” said Thandi Nkambule, director of the Swaziland Network for People with HIV and AIDS (SWANEPHA), an umbrella body. He noted that there are similarities between Swaziland’s newfound HIV activism and established movements in neighbouring South Africa. “The leaders of the HIV support groups are joining the marches because they know that [government] leadership lacks the political will to meet the needs of people living with HIV and AIDS.” About a quarter of all adult Swazis are living with HIV and about 47,000 patients nationally were on ARVs at the end of 2009, according to UNAIDS.
Zimbabwe : Malaria – why the battle is elusive
14 December 2011
Sadc Ministers of Health met in Limpopo on Friday November 11 to commemorate Sadc Malaria Day and raise the profile of the disease. The theme of this year’s event was, “Be free of Malaria in the Sadc region,” which is now conceivable as several countries in the region move towards the goal of malaria elimination. But while some countries are making progress, the evidence from the region and around the world suggests that sustained elimination of the disease will require far higher economic growth and levels of prosperity. Though malaria control in Southern Africa has largely been a good news story, it isn’t without controversy. Spraying insecticides such as DDT inside houses has proved to be a highly successful strategy against the disease and is approved by the World Health Organisation. Some fear, however, without solid evidence, that the spraying could harm the environment and human health. Ministers of Health laid these fears to rest among the local population and sprayed the insides of houses themselves. As part of the event members of the Mhlanga family at Bungeni village were visited by South Africa’s Minister of Health, Dr Motsoaledi, and later said, “We will always remember Minister of Health Aaron Motsoaledi spraying DDT in our rooms. This will help in the fight against mosquitoes and malaria.”
Additional materials in the Dziwani Knowledge Centre for health
National AIDS Council
Comprehensive Condom Programming strategy and operational plan 2010 – 2014
National AIDS Council
Lusaka, Zambia
2009, 40p.
Bridges the discrepancy between what is current state of condom provision and the ideal. It endeavours to make this a reality anchored on four main components which are interlinked and interdependent: Leadership and coordination, Supply and commodity security, Access, demand and utilization; and programme support.
Southern Africa HIV and AIDS Information Dissemination service
Situational analysis on SRH/HIV integration in Zambia
SAfAIDS
Lusaka, Zambia
2011, 34p.
Report on the rapid situational analysis which was undertaken in June, 2011. The report is divided into two sections. Section one is an introduction and the following section comprises findings of the study.
Southern Africa HIV and AIDS Information Dissemination service
SAfAIDS News
SAfAIDS
Pretoria,, South Africa
2010, 28p.
A newsletter from SAfAIDS. This particular edition looks at male circumcision, ART adherence, case studies, business sector involvement and nutrition.
