counselling

Days after US officials gave unprecedented approval for the use of an antiretroviral drug by HIV-negative people to reduce the risk of their acquiring the HI virus, the World Health Organization (WHO) has issued guidance to governments on so-called pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP).

WHO's guidelines, which call for a cautious and gradual roll-out, will likely see many countries begin to add PrEP to the growing arsenal of tools in the fight against HIV.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Key Issues in the Management of Drug-Resistant Tuberculosis

1. Multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) is defined as tuberculosis (TB) disease where there is in vitro resistance to both isoniazid and rifampicin, with or without resistance to other anti-TB drugs. As isoniazid and rifampicin are the two most important first-line TB drugs, their removal through resistance from the anti-TB drug armamentarium has serious implications.

New WHO guidelines recommend offering HIV testing and counselling to couples, wherever HIV testing and counselling is available, including in antenatal clinics. For couples where only one partner is HIV positive, the guidelines recommend offering antiretroviral therapy to the HIV positive partner, regardless of his/her own immune status (CD4 count), to reduce the likelihood of HIV transmission to the HIV negative partner.

Tuberculosis (TB) is the leading killer of HIV-positive people globally. Almost 15 years ago the World Health Organization (WHO) and UNAIDS recommended that people living with HIV be given isoniazid preventative TB therapy (IPT), to prevent active TB, but national implementation of IPT has been slow.

IPT, intensified TB case finding, and infection control are now the World Health Organization’s three strategies for reducing TB among people living with HIV, also known as the "Three I's for HIV-TB."

IRIN/PlusNews charts the uneven adoption of TB preventative therapy in southern Africa, which has the unhappy distinction of bearing some of the world's highest HIV and TB burdens.

Botswana

A new WHO study reveals that low-income countries could introduce a core set of strategies to prevent and treat cancer, heart disease, diabetes and lung disease for just US$ 1.20 per person per year.

"Noncommunicable diseases are the leading cause of death worldwide, killing ever more people each year. Nearly 80 per cent of these deaths occur in low- and middle-income countries," says Dr Ala Alwan, Assistant Director-General for Noncommunicable Diseases and Mental Health at WHO. "The challenge to these countries is tremendous, but this study proves that there are affordable steps all governments can take to address noncommunicable diseases."

Cost of not taking action

A Community Health Worker (CHW) may be defined as any health worker delivering health care services and who is trained in the context of the intervention but has no formal professional, certificated or degreed tertiary education. CHW is an umbrella term used for a heterogeneous group of health workers, their scope of practice ranging from implementing biomedical interventions to acting as community agents for social change.

MATERNAL, NEONATAL AND CHILD HEALTH AND NUTRITION PROJECT