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[Pakira]

Progress in Zimbabwe's HIV/Aids Battle

Africa Renewal (New York)

January 12, 2006
Posted to the web January 17, 2006

Michael Fleshman


Despite serious economic and political challenges, Zimbabwe has become only the second country in sub-Saharan Africa to significantly slow the spread of HIV, the human immunodeficiency virus that causes AIDS. In a brief press statement on 10 October, the Joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) announced that infection rates among a particularly vulnerable group -- pregnant women -- declined from 24.6 per cent in 2002 to 21.3 per cent in 2004.

The findings are good news in a country with one of the highest HIV infection rates in the world. It is an indication, UNAIDS Advocacy, Communication and Leadership Director Achmat Dangor said, that education and prevention programmes launched during the 1990s are beginning to show results. "For us," he noted, "that is very significant."

During an exclusive interview with Africa Renewal in New York in late October, Mr. Dangor, a noted South African novelist and former head of the Nelson Mandela Foundation, also reported that infection rates among young people, another group at high risk, have dropped even further, from about 25 to 20 per cent.

Despite the impressive progress, he cautioned, "this is no reason for complacency. Zimbabwe still has one of the highest HIV prevalence rates in the world." The challenge now, he said, is to build on those gains.

Zimbabwe is only the second African country, after Uganda, to reduce very high HIV rates through education and prevention. Continued reductions in Zimbabwe, which is at the geographic and epidemiological centre of the AIDS pandemic in Africa, could mark a turning point in the struggle against the disease and offer valuable lessons to other countries in the region.

Given the difficult circumstances in Zimbabwe, Mr. Dangor said, when evidence of a decline in new infections began to arrive, "we were skeptical at first." UNAIDS commissioned the Imperial College in London to review data from a wide variety of sources -- including government reports and research by the US Centres for Disease Control -- to confirm that there had been a real fall in infections, rather than an increase in mortality rates or some other statistical quirk.

"All reviews tell us that mortality does play a role [in prevalence rates], but that level of decline cannot be accounted for by outward migration or mortality," he asserted. "The death rate would have had to quadruple, in fact," to be the sole cause of the decline. The challenge now is to find out what aspects of Zimbabwe's anti-AIDS programme are responsible for the improvements. "At this stage we cannot pinpoint what the scientists call the 'specific programme interventions'" behind the decline, he explained. "We are now looking at the major programmes, governmental and non-governmental, urban and rural, to see if we can identify them."

Early analysis suggests that behavioural changes, including young people waiting longer before becoming sexually active, fewer casual sex partners and increased use of condoms, are parts of the explanation. But Mr. Dangor also pointed out that Zimbabwe's strong education system, its emphasis on district and community management of AIDS programmes and improvements in the status of women since independence in 1980 could also be factors.

"We have ABC," he said, referring to Uganda's successful Abstain, Be faithful or use a Condom campaign. "If I could add another letter it would be 'W' for women, because we will never defeat AIDS in Africa until we empower the women. These things must become embedded in every activity of government at every level."

The country's progress cannot be explained by an abundance of external resources. Neighbouring Zambia received $187 in aid for every HIV-positive citizen in 2004, whereas Zimbabwe's strained relations with some donors meant that it received just $4 per person, according to the World Bank. But even that, Mr. Dangor said, offers an important lesson. "You do not have to wait for a massive amount of external funding to contain the spread of HIV." As vital as resources for prevention, care and treatment are, he continued, "what is even more important is that countries own both the problem and the solution, instead of the targets and the programmes coming from outside."

The country's struggling AIDS treatment programmes, however, have been particularly affected by the lack of funds. Only 15,000 of an estimated 300,000 Zimbabweans in urgent need of the anti-retroviral drugs (ARVs) that attack the AIDS virus currently have access to them. With little external financing available and foreign currency shortages hampering imports, patient costs have soared, despite government subsidies, from US$7.60 to $50 per month -- beyond the means of most.

"AIDS will be with us for many years -- maybe forever," Mr. Dangor concluded. "If governments of affected countries, donors and civil society can just remove AIDS from the party political arena, the ideological arena, I think we have a chance of containing this disease much quicker."

http://allafrica.com/stories/200601170145.html
_________________
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ki nèg klè ki nèg nwè
tout nèg a nèg

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sa ki fèt pou nèg vin' blang?
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mandé to fanm...!
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ha... savé ki avan vin' blan yé té ja nèg!

a nou mèm ké nou mèm dépi nânni nânnan...
chinwa soti, kouli soti, indyen soti, blang soti
mèm koté nèg soti

avan yé sotil koté y fika
AFRIKA!!!"

[Pakira]

Health-e (Cape Town)

February 3, 2006
Posted to the web February 3, 2006

Kerry Culinan


Changes in sexual behaviour seem to be behind the dramatic drop in HIV prevalence in Zimbabwe, according to researchers

There has been an almost 50 percent decline in HIV prevalence in some groups in Zimbabwe as people delay when they first have sex and cut down on casual partners, according to research published in the magazine Science (3 February).

HIV prevalence has dropped by 49 percent in women aged between 15 and 24, while there has been a 23 percent drop in men aged 17 to 29, according to researchers from Imperial College London and the Biomedical Research and Training Institute, Zimbabwe.

They found that overall HIV prevalence declined from 23 percent to 20.5 percent.

In 2003 Zimbabwe was estimated to have 1.8 million people infected with HIV/AIDS out of a population of 12 million.

"Although we can't say for certain, fear of HIV and AIDS may have influenced this change in behaviour, with Zimbabwe's well educated population, good communications, and health service infrastructure, all combining to create this effect," said research leader Dr Simon Gregson.

The researchers studied 9 454 people recruited from two household censuses, the first conducted between 1998 and 2000, and the second between 2001 and 2003.

In the second census, slightly more than a quarter (27%) of young men aged 17 to 19 had started having sex, whereas that figure was closer to half (45%) in the earlier census.

For women aged 15 to 17, the percentage reporting sexual experience was slashed by more than half, dropping from 21% to 9%. At the same time, the proportions of men and women reporting a recent casual sexual partner fell by 49 and 22 percent respectively.

Professor Geoffrey Garnett, from Imperial College London, and one of the researchers, said: "A key reason for this decline appears to be the reduction in the number of casual sexual relationships, although there was also a delay in the onset of sexual activity and increases in condom use prior to the time of the study may also have contributed".

http://allafrica.com/stories/200602030168.html
_________________
"tout nèg a nèg

ki nèg nwè ki nèg klè
ki nèg klè ki nèg nwè
tout nèg a nèg

nèg klè pè nèg nwè
nèg nwè pa lè wè nèg klè
nèg nwè ké wéy klè
senti i sa roune nèg klè
mè nèg klè ké wéy klè a toujou nèg

sa ki fèt pou nèg vin' blang?
blang té gen chivé pli long?
pou senblé yé nou trapé chivé plat kon fil mang!!!
mandé to fanm...!
mè pou kisa blang lé vin' nwè?
ha... savé ki avan vin' blan yé té ja nèg!

a nou mèm ké nou mèm dépi nânni nânnan...
chinwa soti, kouli soti, indyen soti, blang soti
mèm koté nèg soti

avan yé sotil koté y fika
AFRIKA!!!"