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Opinion: Chronic disease in Africa; education can help combat disease; climate change and health; TB vaccine

"An epidemic of chronic, non-communicable diseases such as heart disease, mental illness, cancer, diabetes, and obesity is growing in Africa, a continent still struggling with infectious and nutritional diseases," according to a Boston Globe opinion piece by Michelle Holmes and Shona Dalal.

18 Aug 2009

Sleep apnea increases chances of dying

Nightly bouts of interrupted, oxygen-deprived sleep from a collapsed airway in the upper neck raises the chances of dying in middle-aged to elderly people by as much as 46 percent in the most severe cases, according to a landmark study on sleep apnea by lung experts at Johns Hopkins and six other U.S. medical centers.

18 Aug 2009

PEPFAR partners with BD to improve blood collection safety in Africa

PEPFAR and the global medical technology company BD announced an iniative Tuesday that will work to improve blood collection safety in clinics and hospitals in sub-Saharan Africa – an issue that PANA/Afrique en ligne reports has "become more critical than ever in sub-Saharan nations and other developing countries severely impacted by the HIV/AIDS pandemic" (8/12).

16 Aug 2009

HIV/AIDS funding, treatment standards, empowering women addressed at ICAAP

Funding to fight the spread of HIV/AIDS in Asia and the Pacific has fallen short of the demand, and the majority of available money has missed reaching those at highest risk -- Swarup Sarkar, director of Asia unit for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria -- said during a session at the 9th International Congress on AIDS in Asia and the Pacific (ICAAP) in Bali, Indonesia, the Jakarta Post reports.

13 Aug 2009

Human trafficking, HIV; Zimbabwe doctors; Lay health care workers

"Up to a quarter of a million women and girls in Southeast Asia, mostly adolescents, are forced into prostitution each year and face violence and the prospect of contracting HIV/AIDS," researchers said on Wednesday in a report about criminal activity in Cambodia, Indonesia and Thailand, Reuters reports.

13 Aug 2009

Global Fund Director says G20 can become donor nations

Reuters examines Global Fund to Fight HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria Executive Director Michel Kazatchkine's recent comments on the sidelines of the 9th International Conference on AIDS in Asia and the Pacific (ICAAP), that some emerging nations should consider becoming donor nations.

12 Aug 2009

Shwarzenegger’s cuts to HIV/AIDS programs to be protested

AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), the nation’s largest non-profit HIV/AIDS healthcare provider, is joining a broad-based coalition of AIDS advocates and patients to protest draconian budget cuts that were blue lined out of the budget by California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and that will jeopardize the public health by eliminating the vast majority of funding for AIDS prevention, care and treatment.

11 Aug 2009

Drug-resistant tuberculosis can apread as easily as drug-sensitive tuberculosis, study says

New research has found that drug-resistant strains of tuberculosis are just as likely to be transmitted between people as drug-sensitive TB, which could make drug-resistant forms of the disease "highly prevalent in the next few decades," the Australian Associated Press/Sydney Morning Herald reports (Rose, 8/11).

11 Aug 2009

AIDS Research Center earns $7.5 million grant renewal

The University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) Center for AIDS Research (CFAR) has won a $7.5 million grant to continue its work in the research, prevention and treatment of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS).

11 Aug 2009

UNAIDS report says 50 million women in Asia at risk of HIV infection from intimate partners

A UNAIDS report released Tuesday at the 9th International Congress on AIDS in Asia and the Pacific (ICAAP) in Bali, Indonesia, estimates that more than 90 percent of the 1.7 million HIV-positive women living in Asia were infected by husbands or long-term partners who engaged in "high-risk sexual behaviours," Agence France-Presse reports. The UNAIDS report also found "women accounted for 35 percent of all adult HIV infections in Asia in 2008, up from 17 percent in 1990, the AFP writes.

11 Aug 2009

HIV-treating clinicians support health care reform, express caution

The International Association of Physicians in AIDS Care (IAPAC), which represents approximately 4,000 HIV-treating clinicians in the United States [out of a global membership of over 13,000], today released results of a nationwide survey indicating that while supportive of ongoing health care reform efforts, a significant percentage of its U.S. membership is concerned about issues ranging from increased patient caseloads to the possibility of rationing HIV care.

11 Aug 2009

Clinton signs new $10 million agreement on HIV/AIDS with Angola, says U.S. 'stands ready' to work with South Africa on HIV/AIDS

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton signed a new agreement with Angola aimed at controlling the spread of HIV/AIDS, the Associated Press reports. "The Obama administration will more than double funding for Angola to combat the disease, from $7 million to $17 million," the news service writes (Lee, 8/10).

10 Aug 2009

Global Fund awards Zimbabwe $37.9 million to fight diseases

The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria on Friday awarded Zimbabwe $37.9 million to help fight the three diseases, "and in an unusual move handed the money directly to the new unity government," the Associated Press reports.

10 Aug 2009

Experts gather in Bali to adress HIV/AIDS in Asia, the Pacific

The ninth International Congress on AIDS in Asia and the Pacific (ICAAP) kicked off Monday in Bali, Indonesia, bringing together health experts representing 65 nations to discuss ways to achieve universal access to HIV/AIDS treatment, Agence France-Presse reports (8/9).

10 Aug 2009

Zara's Center at Bulawayo provides relief to AIDS orphaned children

Rachael Plutzik seems like an ordinary teenager and student growing up in New York City. She likes hanging out with her friends and family, singing in her a cappella group, playing the guitar, and reading Harry Potter books.

10 Aug 2009

New kind of “molecular condom” to protect women from AIDS

University of Utah scientists developed a new kind of “molecular condom” to protect women from AIDS in Africa and other impoverished areas. Before sex, women would insert a vaginal gel that turns semisolid in the presence of semen, trapping AIDS virus particles in a microscopic mesh so they can’t infect vaginal cells.

10 Aug 2009