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Strategies & Market Trends : Africa and its Issues- Why Have We Ignored Africa? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Stephen O who wrote (655)	11/26/2006 4:43:18 PM
From: Frank A. Coluccio	Respond to of 1267

"In Uganda, the HIV rate peaked at 15 percent in 1991. Officials introduced what has been called the ABC approach, advocating abstinence, monogamy, and condoms in equal measure for the general population; the HIV rate fell, down to 4 percent in 1998.[10] The decline has been attributed to increased abstinence,[11] delayed sexual initiation,[11] partner reduction,[12] and a steep rise in condom use.[13] With the advent of PEPFAR (the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief), Uganda began to emphasize abstinence over condoms.[14] Uganda’s AIDS Commission Director General David Kihumoro Apuuli announced in May 2006 that the number of new HIV infections in Uganda rose from 70,000 in 2003 to 130,000 in 2005.[15]" With comparisons to other developing nations and numerous reference pointers in brackets [ ], from: advocatesforyouth.org One wishes to believe the results cited, and that there would be continuing declines, but I don't know that I fully do. Do you? Maybe the following will help clarify that matter. "Beyond Slogans: Lessons From Uganda's Experience With ABC and HIV/AIDS" -By Susan A. Cohen guttmacher.org ------

To: Stephen O who wrote (655)	11/27/2006 2:50:15 AM
From: Frank A. Coluccio	Respond to of 1267

I've read the Susan Cohen essay, referenced above, which has caused me align more closely with your initial citation. This said, I'm also reminded of the earlier post by Tim (Message #653) that illustrated the masking of one condition by another, or if one cares to extrapolate, the illusion of one condition caused by the presence of another. To my point, what if the dramatic declines posted were merely a reflection of the depletion of the available number of individuals - due to the expirations of earlier victims - that remain predisposed to the lifestyles and sexual behaviors that lead to AIDS? Whatever the case, the trend appears to be a positive one - in Uganda, at least.

To: Stephen O who wrote (655)	11/27/2006 10:07:06 PM
From: Frank A. Coluccio	Respond to of 1267

This evening the Discovery Times Channel (Ch 113 on the TW of NY system) will be re-airing Uganda Rising at 11PM, in case anyone is interested. Earlier it covered several other nations' endeavors. See the day's schedule: times.discovery.com

To: Stephen O who wrote (655)	12/18/2006 6:02:47 AM
From: Frank A. Coluccio	Respond to of 1267

NY Times Editorial: The AIDS-Malaria Connection December 18, 2006 AIDS prevention has seen two breakthroughs this month. The big news is the protective value of circumcision. But there is another important finding: AIDS and malaria feed on each other, with disastrous effects. In a paper published in the journal Science, researchers looked at health records from Kisumu, Kenya, a city of 200,000 with high levels of both diseases. They calculated that the interaction of the diseases increased AIDS cases by 8 percent and malaria by 13 percent. Over 25 years, that meant 8,500 additional AIDS cases and almost a million extra cases of malaria. The researchers drew on earlier findings that H.I.V.-positive people who get malaria experience a six- to eight-week spike in the level of the AIDS virus in their blood. During that spike, they are supercontagious, with double the usual chance of infecting a sexual partner. People with H.I.V. have also been proved more likely to catch malaria. One important lesson of the study is that protecting H.I.V.-positive people from malaria would also limit the spread of AIDS. They need insecticide-treated bed nets to sleep under, and should take a daily dose of the antibiotic cotrimoxazole. Combining bed nets and cotrimoxazole with antiretroviral therapy reduced malaria cases in H.I.V.-positive people by 95 percent in one study. Cotrimoxazole is cheap, but is not yet widely used in poor countries. The findings should add extra urgency to the fight against malaria, which has always lagged far behind AIDS in both money and attention. Last week President Bush convened a forum on malaria, but the fact that more than a million people — most of them under 5 — die each year from a disease that is easily preventable and curable speaks volumes. The study also sheds new light on why Africa’s AIDS rates are so much higher than elsewhere: Africans’ health is poor, and they are more likely to suffer from diseases — malaria, genital herpes and others — that make H.I.V. more transmissible. Donors eager to fight AIDS have shown less interest in improving Africa’s health systems, training health workers and equipping clinics. The biggest lesson of the new study is that it is all one fight. URL for this editorial: nytimes.com ------