AIDS

UNAIDS’ Update highlights key elements of the AIDS response in a number of African countries. South Africa, for example, is rapidly scaling up access to HIV treatment, with a 20% increase in the number of people receiving therapy from 2011-2012 alone. Sixteen countries—Botswana, Ghana, Gambia, Gabon, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Rwanda, São Tomé and Principe, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe—now ensure that more than three-quarters of pregnant women living with HIV receive antiretroviral medicine to prevent transmission to their child. 

Timely linkage to care and treatment by HIV-positive individuals can lead to significant decreases in morbidity and mortality as well as increases in life expectancy and quality of life. Further, there are significant prevention benefits as early initiation on antiretroviral treatment (ART) can significantly reduce HIV transmission to uninfected partners. Modeling exercises also suggest that universal HIV testing coupled with immediate treatment could decrease HIV incidence and virtually eliminate the HIV/AIDS pandemic. To achieve this, the rate of linkage to care must be 100%. This underscores the importance of understanding and addressing barriers to linkage.

Health Systems Trust is a dynamic, not-for-profit organisation that supports the development of an equitable and comprehensive health system for the provision of quality health care in South and Southern Africa.

Health Systems Trust wishes to appoint a Clinical Mentor to support the clinical services in the Frances Baard District in the Northern Cape supported by the South Africa Sustainable Response to HIV and AIDS (SA SURE) project. SA SURE aims to strengthen local capacity to provide sustainable HIV and TB-related care and treatment services. This is a contract position linked to the duration of the project.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES:
 

Abstract

Objective:

Accurate and timely information on the causes of child deaths is essential in guiding efforts to improve child survival, by providing data from which health profiles can be constructed and relevant health policies formulated. The purpose of this study was to identify causes of death in children younger than 5 years-old in a tertiary hospital in South Africa.

Methods:

A new survey provides a comprehensive snapshot of how countries’ education sectors are responding to HIV and AIDS, assesses progress since the last survey in 2004, and points out the policy implications of the current situation. Called the 2011-2012 Education Sector HIV and AIDS Global Progress Survey Progression, Regression or Stagnation?, it was commissioned by the UNAIDS Inter-Agency Task Team on Education convened by UNESCO.

Almost two decades after the end of apartheid, inequality still shapes every facet of life in South Africa. A child in the poorest 20% of households is 17 times more likely to experience hunger than a child in the richest 20% of households (South African Human Rights Commission, UNICEF, 2011). In 2010, 35% of all children lived below the ultra-poverty line (R290 per month1); this rises to 60% of all children who lived below the lower poverty line (R575 per month) (Hall, 2012). South Africa is also home to the highest number of people living with HIV/AIDS—over 5.6 million (UNAIDS, 2012). The HIV/AIDS crisis has weakened family structures and accelerated the demand for social services.

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Authors and Acknowledgements

List of Abbreviations / Acronyms

Advances in HIV treatment research in 2010 and 2011 saw improvement in treatment regimens and strategies, and reinvigorated optimism for finding a cure. In 2012, TAG and AVAC, with financial support from UNAIDS, put forth a collaborative effort to analyze investment trends in HIV treatment research and development (R&D) in 2010 and 2011.

The latest report, Funding Scientific Innovation: Global Investments in HIV Treatment Research and Development in 2010 and 2011, found US$2.6 billion was invested in HIV treatment R&D in 2011. Data from 41 public, private, and philanthropic donors reveal a 12% increase in funding from the baseline year of 2009, with the majority of funding targeted at research for new medications.

The purpose of this document is to provide guidance to national AIDS programmes and partners actively involved in the country response to AIDS on use of core indicators to measure and report on the national response.