HIV

Impumelelo will be hosting 2-day workshop at the Cape Town International Convention Centre.

Experience has shown that it is possible to run successful paediatric HIV programmes in rural African settings, yet less than 10 percent of patients on life-prolonging antiretroviral (ARV) drugs are children, field officers of the international medical NGO, Mdecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), have said.

South Africa's official AIDS treatment guidelines are being re-assessed after the international AIDS conference. Health Department chief director of HIV and AIDS Dr Nomonde Xundu said: There is a draft recommendation that is being discussed.

Marion Stevens of the Health Systems Trust focuses on the recent meetings and discussion around medical male circumcision.

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.

July Is Mental Health Month and I would like us to challenge ourselves as nurses to explore this significance in two ways. Firstly by reviewing our own lives, taking up the challenge to look after ourselves by paying attention to our own mental health and secondly by addressing our clients, tll0se we look after and care for with mental health difficulties.

Between 22 and 23 June over 35 civil society representative, predominantly women living with HIV in sub-Saharan Africa, met to discuss the implications for women in male circumcision for HIV prevention programmes. Marion Stevens reports.

Marion Stevens, Treatment Monitor with the Health Systems Trust, reflects all the links between women's health and HIV/Aids.

Closing date: 20 August 2008

The Khusela Project is a PEPFAR funded, joint venture of three NGOs working with the Eastern Cape Department of Health to Improve Comprehensive PMTCT Services in the Eastern Cape through Support to Facilities and Communities. South Africa Partners is a US based organization that has been working in South Africa for 10 years.

There is a growing belief among men in Swaziland that circumcision provides complete protection against HIV, a perception that worries non-governmental organisations (NGOs) battling the highest HIV prevalence rate in the world.