Home AIDS/HIV Resources AIDS in the News IRIN - Global HIV/AIDS News & Analysis
IRIN - Global HIV/AIDS News & Analysis
IRIN Plusnews Service
  • KENYA: Musa,* "When the results came back we didn't think they could be true"
    JOHANNESBURG, 10 September 2010 (PLUSNEWS) - For the past five years Musa* and his wife have known that their HIV status was different [discordant]. Now the father of two healthy, HIV-negative children, he spoke to IRIN/PlusNews about how he and his wife - like many couples - did not know discordancy existed, and had trouble finding the answers and services they needed.

  • BOTSWANA: Amendment to end dismissal based on HIV status
    GABORONE, 9 September 2010 (PLUSNEWS) - The Botswana government has passed an amendment to its Employment Act that will bring an end to dismissal based on an individual's sexual orientation or HIV status, but rights groups believe the legislation needs to go further.

  • KENYA: Help HIV-positive children in pain, urges HRW
    NAIROBI, 9 September 2010 (PLUSNEWS) - A new report by Human Rights Watch (HRW) says the Kenyan government needs to do more to provide palliative care for children with chronic illnesses, including cancer and HIV/AIDS.

  • AFRICA: Drug-resistant HIV threat looming
    JOHANNESBURG, 9 September 2010 (PLUSNEWS) - HIV-positive patients about to start antiretroviral treatment are warned not to skip even the occasional dose of their medication because of the virus' ability to mutate rapidly and become drug resistant; but what about patients who have never taken treatment and already have a drug-resistant strain of the virus?

  • KENYA: Kicking HIV out of Nairobi's slums
    NAIROBI, 8 September 2010 (PLUSNEWS) - On a dusty football field in Mathare, one of the largest slums in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, young boys chase a rough, home-made ball. Their coach, Elias Mwangi, 21, a former drug addict, hopes football will not only keep the boys away from crime but motivate them to avoid behaviours that put them at risk of HIV.

  • KENYA: Nomadic communities struggle to access PMTCT
    SAMBURU, 7 September 2010 (PLUSNEWS) - Nomadic Kenyan women who test positive for HIV but live in remote areas far from the nearest health facility are missing out on the opportunity to prevent their children from becoming infected with the virus.

  • SOUTH AFRICA: National HIV testing campaign disappoints
    MANZINI, 7 September 2010 (PLUSNEWS) - South Africa, home to the world's largest HIV treatment programme, is trying to pull off the most extensive global HIV testing campaign but the ambitious initiative is facing some daunting realities.

  • SWAZILAND: Task-shifting could improve HIV treatment and prevention
    MANZINI, 3 September 2010 (PLUSNEWS) - Swaziland has yet to act on a 2006 World Health Organization (WHO) recommendation to alleviate health worker shortages through task-shifting and according to the Ministry of Health, the failure to do so is compromising scale-up of the antiretroviral (ARV) programme.

  • SOUTH AFRICA: Strike sends XDR-TB patients home
    DURBAN, 3 September 2010 (PLUSNEWS) - Striking public health workers in South Africa have virtually shut down King George V Hospital, a referral facility in the port city of Durban, KwaZulu-Natal Province, which specializes in caring for and isolating patients with multidrug-resistant (MDR) and extremely drug-resistant (XDR)-TB.

  • GLOBAL: New two-hour TB test
    JOHANNESBURG, 3 September 2010 (PLUSNEWS) - A new, accurate, easy-to-use test can diagnose tuberculosis (TB) - including drug-resistant strains of the disease - in less than two hours. It has the potential to save thousands of lives in developing countries, where current tests are often unreliable, take weeks to process, or are simply unavailable.

  • SOUTH AFRICA: Survivor's guide for non-striking health workers
    JOHANNESBURG, 2 September 2010 (PLUSNEWS) - Public sector strikes in South Africa have become so common in recent years that people are asking if plans should not be put in place to prevent the disruption of HIV and tuberculosis [TB] treatment, and prepare health workers.

  • KENYA: Camel clinics bring condoms to nomads
    SAMBURU, 31 August 2010 (PLUSNEWS) - In the remote and rural district of Samburu, northern Kenya, where paved roads are scarce and motorised transport hard to come by, reaching the mostly pastoralist and nomadic inhabitants with HIV/AIDS services requires an unusual approach.