HIV treatment

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. 

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 South African Child Gauge is published annually by the Children’s Institute, University of Cape, to monitor government and civil society’s progress towards realising children’s rights. This issue focuses on children and inequality.

Please access the book and all accompanying materials (a policy brief, poster, child-friendly summary and ordering form)  at http://www.ci.org.za/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=997&Itemid=399

The South African Child Gauge is divided into three parts:

PART ONE: Children and law reform

The global war on drugs is driving the HIV/AIDS pandemic among people who use drugs and their sexual partners. Throughout the world, research has consistently shown that repressive drug law enforcement practices force drug users away from public health services and into hidden environments where HIV risk becomes markedly elevated. Mass incarceration of non-violent drug offenders also plays a major role in increasing HIV risk. This is a critical public health issue in many countries, including the United States, where as many as 25 percent of Americans infected with HIV may pass through correctional facilities annually, and where disproportionate incarceration rates are among the key reasons for markedly higher HIV rates among African Americans.

This report draws on recently collected field data from numerous countries where the International HIV/AIDS Alliance operates to explain why the funding crisis requires urgent action on the part of Global Fund donors and all other stakeholders. The Alliance’s recommendations for responding to the crisis are based on our analysis of the implications of funding shortfalls in the following specific areas: HIV treatment; HIV prevention; care and support; services for key populations at higher risk of HIV infection; and efforts to create an enabling environment.

The Community based systems in HIV treatment (CoBaSys) programme aims to understand and support conditions for community empowerment in services providing treatment for people living with HIV in east and southern Africa (ESA). A community system for health is understood to be the sum of the organizations, local government structures, civil society organizations, institutions and resources whose primary purpose is to improve health at community and primary care level.

A new report by the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) has been released and shows that 2011 was a game changing year for the AIDS response with unprecedented progress in science, political leadership and results. The report also shows that new HIV infections and AIDS-related deaths have fallen to the lowest levels since the peak of the epidemic. New HIV infections were reduced by 21% since 1997, and deaths from AIDS-related illnesses decreased by 21% since 2005.

This report is a preliminary assessment of global investments in research and development
(R&D) devoted to the discovery and development of new therapies and treatment strategies
for HIV. As part of a broader effort to track and analyze HIV/AIDS spending, UNAIDS
commissioned the Treatment Action Group (TAG) and AVAC to measure global R&D spending
for HIV treatment, starting with the year 2009.
From a total of 144 surveyed institutions, 48 funders reported investing $2.5 billion in HIV
treatment R&D in 2009. The scope of HIV treatment R&D included HIV basic science, drug
discovery, drug development, diagnostics, and operational and implementation science on

There has been a lot of discussion and a lot of resource mobilisation (donors setting money aside) on medical male circumcision. This has been so given recent research findings and the desperate need to find 'something' to do to increase real results in the prevention, treatment and care, and support arena. However, concerns have been expressed about the real implications. The World Health Organization (WHO) held a meeting in Mombasa last month to discuss this issue and the Aids Vaccine Advocacy Coalition held a meeting prior to this to particularly focus on growing concerns regarding the impact of medical male circumcision on an epidemic in which women are mostly infected and affected. I include a background document and a consensus statement from the meeting.