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  • African Science Academy Development Initiative (ASADI) Meeting in Ghana The fifth annual international conference of the African Science Academy Development Initiative (ASADI) will be held Nov. 9-11 in Accra, Ghana, in conjunction with the 50th anniversary of the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences. The theme of this year's conference will be improving maternal, newborn, and child health in Africa, which will be discussed by top experts from around the world. ASADI V will kick off with the release of Science in Action: Saving the Lives of Africa's Mothers, Newborns, and Children, a new report by several African science academies, assessing the effectiveness of interventions aimed at reducing maternal and childhood mortality -- the focus of U.N. Millennium Development Goals Four and Five -- in sub-Saharan Africa. The report will include estimates of lives that could be saved if proven scientific methods reached more parts of Africa. 11/9
  • Meeting HIV/AIDS Cost Demands: Is The Global Response Working? The November/December 2009 edition of Health Affairs focuses on key global health challenges – including the economic, political, scientific and ethical ones – facing world policymakers in their response to HIV/AIDS treatment and prevention. Over the next several years, the world could face a funding shortfall that would prevent millions more with HIV/AIDS from gaining access to antiretroviral drugs. Yet over the long-term, the world could also take critical steps to slash the global burden of HIV-AIDS – and the costs of battling the pandemic – by half. 11/10
  • Meeting HIV/AIDS Cost Demands: Is The Global Response Working? The November/December 2009 edition of Health Affairs focuses on key global health challenges – including the economic, political, scientific and ethical ones – facing world policymakers in their response to HIV/AIDS treatment and prevention. Over the next several years, the world could face a funding shortfall that would prevent millions more with HIV/AIDS from gaining access to antiretroviral drugs. Yet over the long-term, the world could also take critical steps to slash the global burden of HIV-AIDS – and the costs of battling the pandemic – by half. 11/10

The Globalist Examines HIV/AIDS in Haiti, Latin America

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Tuesday, May 05, 2009

The Globalist recently examined the HIV/AIDS situation in the Caribbean and Latin America. Although Haiti was "one of the countries hardest hit" by HIV/AIDS in the region, infection rates have been falling during the last few years, according to UNAIDS statistics.

Infection rates have been declining more slowly in rural areas than in urban areas, and the percentage of pregnant women who have tested HIV-positive has declined by half over the last 10 years, the Globalist reports. Currently about 190,000 Haitians or 2.2% of the population is HIV-positive. In 2001, 6.1% of the adult population was HIV-positive, according to UNAIDS.

The Globalist looks at the work of two doctors, Jean Pape and Paul Farmer, who have contributed to the "progress in battling the epidemic in Haiti" as well as some of the challenges the country faces as it continues to fight HIV/AIDS, including lack of prevention knowledge and early onset of sexual activity. 

According to the Globalist, more than two million people are living with HIV/AIDS in Latin America and the Caribbean. U.N. figures show that there were 20,000 new cases of HIV/AIDS in the Caribbean and 140,000 news cases in Latin America in 2007. However, access to antiretroviral drugs has increased because of the proliferation of HIV/AIDS treatment programs. According to the Globalist, Brazil has led the way in government-provided HIV/AIDS programs.

Latin America's diversity means that perceptions about the disease takes on different forms in different parts of the continent, but taboos and discrimination are still some of the "biggest obstacles to prevention and treatment," the Globalist reports (Chelala, Globalist, 5/2).

The Kaiser Daily Global Health Policy Report is published by the Kaiser Family Foundation. © 2009 Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.