Estimated Aids related deaths in South Africa: 1 622 241 at noon on Wednesday, November 23 2005
Fact: Malaria could encourage mother-to-child transmission of HIV, according to research on the Science and Development Network website (www.scidev.net).
Pregnant women with malaria produce increased quantities of a chemical called TNF-alpha in their placenta, which nourishes the foetus as it develops, say scientists in Cameroon. This chemical boosts HIV replication and might explain why more children are born with HIV after the rainy season there, when malaria cases also increase, says lead researcher Afumbom Kfutwah of the Pasteur Centre in Yaoundé.
Kfutwah pointed out that studies elsewhere in Africa had found links between malaria and HIV-transmission.
In 2003, a Ugandan study of nearly 750 pregnant women with HIV showed that the virus was transmitted to babies in 40% of cases when the mother also had malaria. Transmission dropped to just 15% of babies when the HIV-infected mother did not have malaria as well.
The ongoing study’s initial findings were presented at the Fourth Multilateral Initiative on Malaria conference in Yaoundé.
‘We need more resources to increase knowledge and better understand the interaction between HIV and malaria,” pleaded Albert Kilian, former malaria adviser to Uganda’s health minister. ‘Evidence to date suggests that this is a complex interaction.”
‘People living with HIV are a specific vulnerable group for malaria and need access to prevention tools such as insecticide-treated nets,” adds Kilian.
Modest Mulenga of the Tropical Diseases Research Centre in Ndola, Zambia, says the findings suggest that if it were possible to reduce the number of malaria parasites in the placenta, this might limit HIV transmission from mother to child.
Source: SciDev.Net
Aids-related deaths in South Africa: 1 615 728 at 3pm on Wednesday November 16
Death penalty: In response to growing alarm over Swaziland’s HIV infection rate, a draft law proposing the death penalty for child rape and the intentional transmission of the virus was released this week.
‘Any person who is convicted of rape under this Bill is liable to the death penalty if the victim is below the age of 14 years, or to the death penalty if HIV and Aids are an aggravating factor, or to the death penalty where such person has parental power over the child,” reads the Sexual Offences and Domestic Violence Bill of 2005.
The death penalty proposed in the Bill for fathers or guardians who rape and infect children in their charge with HIV is in response to widely reported incidents of Aids-related incest.
Swaziland has the world’s highest HIV infection rate, estimated at 40% of adults. Attempts by health workers to disabuse HIV-positive men of the myth that sleeping with a virgin cures them of the virus have not been entirely successful.
Consensual sex may also become a capital crime if an HIV-positive person does not use condoms.
‘A person who is HIV-positive or has a life-threatening sexually transmitted disease who engages in unprotected sex with another person and intentionally transmits such disease to such a person is guilty of an offence and liable on conviction to the death penalty,” the draft legislation states.
The Bill, drawn up by the Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Affairs, emerged after consultations with health and social welfare groups, and the public. — PlusNews
Tattooed for life: Canada has opened tattoo parlours in five federal prisons and a sixth one is to open later this month in a bid to curb the spread of blood-borne diseases.
For C$5 each, federal prisoners can get tattooed by trained fellow prisoners. Racist or gang-related designs are prohibited. The contentious pilot project is the first of its kind in Canada and is believed by some to be the first in the world.
By making tattoos openly accessible, officials hope to control the spread of infectious diseases like hepatitis C and HIV, said a Correctional Service Canada spokesperson.
Though the tattoo parlours, which opened in August, are scheduled to operate only until March 31 next year, Public Health Agency of Canada plans on applying for funding to extend the programme.
Canada is also considering whether to hand out clean needles to injection-drug-using inmates. — Ottawa Citizen
Aids-related deaths in South Africa: 1 609 879 at 11am on Thursday November 10
Spreading the word: Nine million young people in Nigeria are to be sent text messages on Wednesday to raise awareness about HIV/Aids. Unicef is launching its Nigerian campaign because the country has the third highest number of people with the disease.
Unicef is aiming to take advantage of the surge in cellphone use in Nigeria over the past six years. The campaign also sees Nwankwo Kanu fronting a TV campaign. The West Bromwich Albion player will pass on safe-sex advice in the clips.
More than 39-million people are living with HIV worldwide. Nigeria ranks third in the world after India and South Africa. Every day, 1 000 Nigerians contract HIV and 800, many of them children, die of Aids and related diseases, Unicef said.
Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk
Aids-related deaths in South Africa: 1 602 377 at 1pm on November 2 2005
A new counter that reflects the estimated real-time number of Aids-related deaths in South Africa has been posted on www.redribbon.co.za. The website, sponsored by Metropolitan, provides up-to-date information on HIV and Aids in South Africa, which has an estimated five million HIV-positive individuals and an estimated 1,6-million of accumulated Aids deaths.
The counter previously published on Red Ribbon reflected the total number of HIV infections that have ever occurred worldwide. This number is estimated to be more than 60-million, which comprises the 39,4-million people worldwide living with HIV at the end of 2004 (as estimated by UNAids), plus the estimated 20-million people who have died from Aids-related illnesses since the start of the epidemic.
It is impossible to know with certainty what the real statistics are because only about 15% of people in sub-Saharan Africa, where the epidemic is the most severe, know their HIV status. UNAids indicates the levels of uncertainty in statistics of this magnitude by publishing bands within which the estimates may fall. For example, the total numbers of HIV-positive people worldwide at the end of 2004 is estimated to be between 35,9-million and 44,3-million. The accumulated HIV infections worldwide have, however, become a statistic that is simply too large to relate to.
The decision was taken by Metropolitan and Red Ribbon to replace the accumulated HIV infections worldwide with a more relevant statistic, namely accumulated Aids deaths in South Africa.
The current accumulated Aids deaths in South Africa of 1,6-million is estimated to grow to 7,6-million by 2020, according to the ASSA2002 Aids and demographic actuarial model. Since the average time from HIV infection until death from an Aids-related opportunistic infection is about 12 years in the absence of anti-retroviral treatment, it is only towards the beginning of the new millennium that the real impact of HIV is starting to hit home through Aids deaths.
Aids deaths hit hardest in economically active age groups from 20 to 49, resulting in an escalating number of orphans, child-headed households and a loss of skills.
The nature of a mature epidemic, such as the one in South Africa, is that new HIV infections are estimated to be between 400 000 and 500 000 a year and Aids deaths between 300 000 and 400 000 a year, meaning that those who die are quickly replaced by newly infected people. — Nathea Nicolay, actuarial specialist and Aids risk consultant