World Aids Day

Today is World Aids Day, and this year is also the 30th year since Aids was discovered and named.

This map shows how it has spread around the world in the last 30 years:




For more information see World AIDS Day - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Aids war is over - sort of

While there was controversy and a split in the ANC over the resignation of President Thabo Mbeki, there were few to mourn exit of his health minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang. The Times - ‘The war is over’:

AFTER years of anger, South Africa yesterday commemorated World Aids Day, confident for the first time that the government is responding effectively to the epidemic.

Mark Heywood, deputy chair of the SA National Aids Council, said: “The war is over. This doesn’t mean that there won’t be disputes and that the Treatment Action Campaign will be muted when we have issues to raise — but it means that the level of resistance that we once encountered is over...

Last month The Times reported that a study by the Harvard School of Public Health in the US had found that more than 330000 lives had been lost because of the failure of Mbeki and Tshabalala-Msimang in the provision of HIV-Aids drugs between 2000 and 2005.

The Harvard report blamed the deaths on the reluctance of the Mbeki-led government to implement a feasible and timely antiretroviral treatment programme. The study found that almost 35000 babies were born with HIV between 2000 and 2005 because Mbeki and his health minister had failed to make widely available the drug nevirapine, which prevents mother-to-child transmission of the virus.

The new Health Minister, Barbara Hogan, is taking action to turn this around.

But the Mbeki government's failure to deal adequately with HIV/Aids has led to another health crisis:

Al Jazeera English - Focus - South Africa's hidden epidemic:

Once on the wane, tuberculosis is again resurgent, especially in countries facing major HIV/Aids epidemics.

In 2006, it killed an estimated 1.7 million people, according to the UN. An estimated two million died of HIV/Aids, but for many the immediate cause was tuberculosis; TB is the number one killer for people with Aids.

Unlike Aids, TB - once known as the white plague - is a curable disease, but proper treatment is complicated and requires at least a six-month course of antibiotics.

However, HIV attacks the immune system, making people more susceptible to infections like TB, and as a result, there are high-levels of co-infection.

One of the consequences of this has been the evolution of new strains of drug-resistant TB.

This is my contribution to the Bloggers Unite on World Aids Day campaign.

It's a day late, because yesterday was also the synchroblog on Mythical Monsters, which, though it seemed to me to be an interesting topic, only got three contributions. Anyway, better late than never, for both the Aids Day one and the mythical monsters one.

• Terri of Aquila ka Hekate on Our Gods, Our Monsters.
• Mahud of Mythology Blog on The Multi-Headed Serpent.
• Steve Hayes of Khanya on Mythical Monsters.
  

Circumcision and Aids

clipped from www.thetimes.co.za Circumcision is a cultural practice and should not be used as a preventative measure in the fight against HIV-Aids, Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang said yesterday. It had therefore sought to discuss the matter with traditional leaders to “inform and enlighten all concerned”. Tshabalala-Msimang told traditional leaders and healers that cultural practices should not be used for “purposes other than those for which they were meant for at the beginning”, her department said in a statement. “She also called on all role-players to guard against sending confusing messages that would encourage people to get circumcised with the hope of not getting HIV infected,” it said. The minister again called on traditional leaders to “assert their role” in the fight against HIV-Aids.

The Minister's ideas on what should and should not be used in the fight against HIV/Aids have been pretty weird in the past. Circumcision has been practiced for various reasons, and male circumcision has often been practised because it was believed to be "healthy", though this is in itself a cultural belief.

One of the problems with using it in the fight against HIV/Aids is that it is believed to reduce the incidence of male infection, though does nothing to reduce the spread of infection from infected males. Thus circumcision could in fact encourage male promiscuity (because males think they are "safe") and do nothing to stop the general spread.

Dual therapy for HIV babies OK

The Department of Health has given the go ahead to use dual therapy to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV.

And it's about time too!

For people infected with HIV, treatment cannot cure -- it can only retard the progress of the disease. The treatment of babies, however, is a direct intervention to reduce transmission, and the more new infections we can prevent, the better.

clipped from www.iolhivaids.co.za The Department of Health have released a revised policy and guidelines clearing the way for dual therapy in the prevention of mother to child transmission of HIV. At the same time, Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang dismissed claims that her department was reluctant to implement the new regime. Up to now, most state clinics have offered only the officially sanctioned single drug, nevirapine, to infants. Dual therapy will mean the addition of a second drug, AZT, which will increase the effectiveness of the intervention. Commenting on disciplinary action threatened against KwaZulu-Natal doctor Colin Pfaff for administering dual therapy at Manguzi Hospital, Tshabalala-Msimang implied that the provincial health department was correct in its decision to suspend him. n the 2005/06 financial year 70 percent of all antenatal clinic attendees were tested for HIV, of whom 26 percent tested positive. About 60 percent of those who tested positive received nevirapine.