Estimated worldwide HIV infections: 59 484 509 at noon on Wednesday, October 13
Aggravating factors: Famine in Africa could worsen unless action is taken to tackle the continent’s HIV/Aids epidemic, according to a senior United Nations official.
‘Unless urgent interventions are made, the epidemic could cause a steady fall in agricultural production, which would fuel serious famine in African countries,†said Peter Piot, executive director of the joint UN programme to fight HIV/Aids.
In Malawi, up to a quarter of the country’s civil servants have died or have been left seriously ill from HIV/Aids.
In KwaZulu-Natal about 68 000 of the 75 000 teachers will be lost from the system by 2010 because of Aids and staff taking jobs outside of the area. In northern Zambia the disease has severely undermined food production.
Source: Reuters
Estimated worldwide HIV infection rate: 59 383 707 at noon on Wednesday October 6
Funding the fight: The Global Fund to Fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria awarded Uganda a new grant of $70-million last Friday to battle the disease and expand life-prolonging therapy with anti-retroviral drugs.
Mary Muduuli, Deputy Secretary in the Ministry of Finance who signed the agreement on behalf of Uganda’s government, said the new funding would not just be used for buying anti-retrovirals.
‘Among others, the money will be used on activities to prevent the spread of the virus, provide seed money to people living with HIV/Aids and to monitor drug resistance to anti-retroviral drugs,†she told a news conference in the capital, Kampala.
The grant means the Geneva-based fund has now approved more than $270-million in funds for Uganda.
The government says about 1,2-million Ugandans are infected with HIV, and doctors say about 100 000 have Aids and would benefit from drug treatment.
Last week a Ugandan support group for people living with the disease questioned the country’s much-acclaimed official statistics, saying the real prevalence of the virus was higher than the 6% claimed by the government.
The Global Fund was set up in 2002 as the brainchild of United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan, but the public-private partnership is not part of the UN bureaucracy.
The fund has committed $3-billion to more than 300 programmes in 128 countries, of which $500-million has been disbursed.
Source: Reuters
Estimated worldwide HIV infection rate: 59 282 862 at noon on Wednesday, September 29
War toll: HIV/Aids rates in northern Uganda are nearly twice as high as the rest of the country because of an 18-year war with the brutal Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) rebel group, World Vision said on Monday.
‘National prevalence rates for Uganda are estimated at 6,2% and declining, but rates in war-affected areas are almost double that of the national average, at 11,9%,†according to the new report.
In Gulu district, epicentre of the rebellion, researchers found HIV/Aids was the leading cause of death at 69% of fatalities, three times higher than direct killings during military confrontation.
The agency said massive displacement, poverty, lack of health care, and high prevalence of rape all contributed to the number of infections.
It said the virtual collapse of health-care systems meant northerners could not access information about HIV/Aids, or take advantage of testing, counselling and treatment.
Uganda’s government, which has won acclaim for reducing the HIV infection rate from about 30% in the early 1990s, could see many of those gains evaporate if the war is not brought to an end.
The LRA has kidnapped about 25 000 children to serve as fighters, porters and sex slaves who make up more than three-quarters of its ranks.
About half the girls abducted by the rebels are later found to carry the HI virus, doctors say.
It said any post-conflict plan must make special provisions for counselling and community reintegration efforts for girls who were victims of sexual bondage.
Source: Reuters