ArchiveJuly 2009

July 31st, 2009

• SAO TOME AND PRINCIPE: Saturday night fever, with condoms
• MOZAMBIQUE: Lives at play
• Kimberley Process recommends suspension of diamond trade

July 30th, 2009

• Video game fights for behaviour change
• First influenza cases detected in Central Asia
• Doing a food airdrop

July 29th, 2009

• Children still miss out on treatment
• Livelihoods at risk as drought worsens in western Somaliland
• Agencies optimistic about water supplies
• Mugabe threatens to ban NGOs again

July 28th, 2009

• DRC: Charcoal profits fuel war in east
• RWANDA-UGANDA: Refugees fear "xenophobic" attacks
• Fewer lab tests could save more lives
• Action needed to avert "treatment time bomb"

July 27th, 2009

• SUDAN: Malakal minefields still a challenge
• WEST AFRICA: Disaster-risk reduction made simple
• Tele-service attracts patients to Bamyan hospital

July 26th, 2009

• Labour MPs blame Brown for poll defeat
• Botswana’s ailing minister ‘replaced’
• Darfur people may be left out of Sudan election: UN
• Congo Republic court rejects Sassou win complaints
• More than 35,000 flee homes over renewed fighting in DR Congo

July 25th, 2009

• Freedom of expression is now more restricted than ever in Gambia, say rights groups
• Injecting drug use is a major driver of the epidemic
• New code of practice protects HIV-positive employees
• A change in US HIV/AIDS policy?
• Human life is priceless - Save lives not banks, says Machel

July 24th, 2009

• According to media reports, between 170 and 200 schools for girls were destroyed by militants -Schoolsin Swat area
• Heavy fighting in Mogadishu disrupt normal business

July 23rd, 2009

• Outreach activities are educating households about male circumcision
• An estimated 800,000 Christians are left in Iraq
• Many of the displaced will likely not be able to return to their homes until the end of monsoon in September

July 22nd, 2009

• Training programmes for doctors and nurses are more efficient
• Urgent action needed on TB, HIV co-infection

July 21st, 2009

• Scientific community urged to become activists
• Test and treat - a pipe-dream?

July 20th, 2009

• The use of remote sensing and satellite imaging looks set to become more widespread in South Africa
• Al Jazeera West Bank ban 'revoked' - Rewinding the meter of fear by the authorities 

July 19th, 2009

• TB and HIV: Deadly allies - co-infection crisis a bigger threat
• ARVs and communities in crisis - the drugs do not cure HIV, they can, if successfully administered, significantly slow the spread of HIV in the body
• Refugees and HIV - the trying conditions under which they live often leaves them susceptible to disease.
• Men and HIV - masculinity are fuelling the global HIV/AIDS pandemic
• The Triple Threat - combined danger of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, food insecurity and weakened institutional capacity.

July 18th, 2009

• HIV/AIDS and the Military - AIDS is a powerful enemy facing Africa’s armed forces
• Children and HIV - Treating HIV-positive children is complicated, but not impossible. Treated early, an African child born with HIV could enjoy a long life.
• Gender-Based Violence - Add HIV/ AIDS into this mix and women are fighting not only discrimination and physical abuse, but also a disease that will more than likely kill them.
• Injecting Drug Use and HIV transmission - Health officials in sub-Saharan African countries, such as South Africa and Kenya, are increasingly concerned over rising HIV prevalence rates among IDUs

July 17th, 2009

• Migrant workers face numerous social and health challenges when they leave their communities for the unknown - How is mobility tied to the spread of HIV/AIDS?
• Globally, about 3 million deaths a year can be traced to HIV/AIDS - uncles, aunts, grandparents and governments must carry the burden of caring for more and more orphans.
• Most clinics in resource-limited settings cannot afford to carry out viral load testing
• Irinnews surveying to evaluate services

July 16th, 2009

• Most African governments have developed plans to respond to a severe influenza outbreak, but they now need to implement these plans
• Some aid agencies use armed escorts to protect their aid convoys from insurgents and other armed criminal groups
• The Islamist opposition group recently suffered its first serious military setback in fighting in Mogadishu

July 15th, 2009

• Asylum seeker children in a demonstration in Levinsky Park, Tel Aviv - a fight for their right to humane life
• Patients with the least income pay a higher percentage in out-of-pocket costs - Governments should come out and help the poor
• Recovery from the financial downturn will be slow making it difficult for many countries to import enough food
• AIDS funding reached an all-time high last year - The world
• Sexual abuse is widespread in South Africa's prisons - I met a 15-year-old boy in prison who said he would look after me ... he invited me to sleep with him

 July 14th, 1009

• Often known for its decimation of African livestock, the tsetse fly also infects humans
• Tighter controls for small arms
• Arms and ammunition stockpiles are becoming increasingly unstable due to age and, in many cases, unintentional mismanagement
• Protection against HIV infection
• HIV-prevention needs of women in same-sex relationships have been ignored

July 13th, 2009

• The government and army say the Swat area is secure now - Displaced people have begun returning home
• Weapons are commonplace among pastoralist communities in east Africa
• Heavy pollution of the Balu River has turned its water into a thick black sludge
• Urban slum dwellers are off the policy radar

July 12th, 2009

• SANDF peacekeepers in Burundi - renewed commitment to the UN
• ANEHS – in a campaign dubbed “bring hydrocephalus out of the darkness”

July 11th, 2009

• Nine million children died before age five in 2007, many within the first month of life
• Orphaned children are more vulnerable - Girls who have been orphaned may be twice as likely to experience sexual abuse

July 10th, 2009

• African union Expert Group on the harmonization of Industrial Investment
• The need to re-examine testing comes amid on-going calls for countries with generalised epidemics like South Africa to adopt PITC
• MSF doctors made weekly visits to the local clinics in the Scott area to support and mentor the nurses.
• Clinics have been experiencing condom stock-outs for several weeks
• 16,000 people displaced by the floods were moved to camps

July 9th, 2009

• Several high-risk groups are calling on the government to give them more say in the fight against HIV and AIDS
• In the first case of its kind in Botswana, a woman has successfully sued another woman for publicly revealing her HIV status.
• President Barack Obama wants the United States to focus on agricultural development in the countries it helps support, rather than having them remain recipients.
• Banding together for a different type of battle -  Fighting HIV

July 8th, 2009

• GLOBAL: Twelve countries on climate change hit-list - Droughts are going to become more frequent and intense
• ZIMBABWE: Doctors and ARVs in short supply
• ISRAEL-JORDAN: Environmentalists oppose Red-Dead canal pilot project
• Basic information on the humanitarian system remains unknown

July 7th, 2009

• DRC: MONUC denounces coalition between Mayi-Mayi and Rwandan rebels
• Pregnant women and children are particularly vulnerable to malaria

July 6th, 2009

• AFRICA: Donors urged to step up gender equality efforts - Young women are much more vulnerable to HIV than young men in many countries in Africa.
• SOUTH AFRICA: Health worker burnout - "When I get home I'm so demoralized"

July 5th, 2009

• BOTSWANA: Significant impact in widespread circumcision - study
• Help needed - An inability to access adequate funding is crippling efforts by community-based organisations

July 4th, 2009

• GLOBAL: Standard TB vaccine could be fatal to HIV-positive babies
• In Africa billions of dollars from oil, gas and mining revenues go missing

July 3rd, 2009

• Ghana: Road accidents kill more Ghanaians than Aids - It has become number one killer.
• Africa: River blindness drug trial launched - Onchocerciasis - transmitted through black flies that breed near rivers - is one of the leading causes of blindness in Africa
• Zimbabwe: Investigation over conflict diamonds by an international diamond certification body
• Niger: Mixed views on constitution controversy - The country's highest court ruled the referendum was illegal three times before President Tandja de facto dissolved the court by decree on 29 June.
• Zimbabwe: Tsvangirai says no need to probe wife's death - he is convinced that his wife was not assassinated

July 2nd, 2009

• Africa: Promoting women's land rights at the 13th AU summit (opinion) - The feminisation of poverty has deepened and now more than ever, African governments are called upon to review the structural inequalities
• Africa: Museveni opposes Gaddafi on African political union - but supports regional political federation
• Some 15,000 mainly African asylum-seekers in Israel have put the regulatory, security and welfare response under strain, according to the Interior Ministry and UNHCR.
• When disaster strikes it pays to know who is doing what where
• Observers say African think tanks need core funding to enhance research and staff 

July 1st, 2009

• Botswana: Private papers have a right to government adverts (editorial)
• Nigeria: Government bans fresh investment in tobacco - Smoking and the pervasive use of tobacco products is a risk factor for several diseases
• Ethiopia: Zenawi plays 'reluctant' African ruler, so why aren't we upbeat? (opinion) - he wants to step down
• Namibia: Russia joins oil hunt - It is quite a nice, sexy little project," Ivanov said
• Zimbabwe: Tsvangirai and Mugabe clash over constituional draft - ¤ drafts to choose from