Afr

First Vaccine Designed for Africa Cleared for Testing in Humans

The first AIDS vaccine candidate designed specifically for Africa will enter human trials this summer. The International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI) announced on July 11 at the 13th International AIDS Conference in Durban, South Africa, that the Medicines Control Agency (MCA) of the United Kingdom has approved Phase I testing of a DNA vaccine based on HIV subtype A, the most commo...

South Africa dilly-dallying on AIDS situation

South Africa, which is now the third most affected country by the AIDS virus, HIV, is in an unenviable position. One in every five South African is HIV positive. If this isn’t enough, the government is in the midst of a major controversy, as it refused a huge consignment of one million AIDS detecting kits free of cost estimated around seven million U.S. Dollars. Earlier last year the Sou...

TB coupled with AIDS soars in Africa

Tuberculosis is back with a vengeance. The killer disease of the past is now killing millions in Africa as it has found a new partner in its destructive mission. Full-blown cases of AIDS coupled with TB is killing on an average three million people a year in Africa alone. What is alarming is that the death rate has gone up by 10% in 2 years and there are no signs of the destruction slowin...

Cipla holds talks with mining giant to supply AIDS drugs for South African workers

Indian pharmaceutical giant Cipla is holding talks with London based mining giant, Anglo American for supplying AIDS drugs to South African workers. About 11% of South African population is HIV positive, totaling around 4.7 million people, giving it the dubious distinction of being the country with the maximum number of HIV positive people in the world. The HIV scourge is sure to have a...

African HIV strains more resistant to anti HIV drugs

Genetic variations in the HIV strains in Africa make it more difficult for the anti AIDS drugs to act on them according to researchers. This however does not mean that these drugs will be powerless against the virus but these drugs find it difficult to latch on to the protease, which is an enzyme useful in the replication of the virus inside the body. If the drug attaches itself to the p...

South Africa Wins landmark case against pharmaceutical giants

South Africa has scored a landmark legal victory over pharmaceutical giants wanting to stop South Africa from importing cheap AIDS drugs. The country with largest number of AIDS patients in the world now wants to secure affordable drugs from around the world to tackle its AIDS epidemic. The Health Ministry of South Africa, published 70 pages of draft legislation that would allow it to s...

S. Africa AIDS in 'death phase'

The AIDS epidemic in South Africa is entering the "death" phase as mortality outstrips new infections, say scientists."South Africa is experiencing a devastating epidemic -- the world's worst -- and this is just the beginning,'' said researchers . South African President Thabo Mbeki's government has been criticized for its lackluster approach to tackling the disease, //which has already i...

Hypertension Drug of Choice for African Americans

A beta-blocker called Nebivolol, may be the best drug to control high blood pressure, especially// among black Americans of African origin according to a new study. At The International Society on Hypertension in Blacks (ISHIB2005), Nebivolol was shown to be statistically significantly better than placebo in reducing systolic and diastolic blood pressure among African-American hyperten...

Over Six Million HIV Infected People In South Africa- Finds A Survey

Johannesburg: In South Africa over six million people were infected with HIV by 2004.// This puts the prevalence of AIDS in the country at a high of 14 percent. South Africa 's total population is 46.9 million. The latest figure announced by South African Health Department is far higher than the estimate of 4.5 million given by the official state statistics agency, Statistics SA, re...

The Kidney Transplantation conspiracy in South Africa

Three South African Indian doctors have been charged of alleged involvement in a scam, which saw Brazilians being paid paltry sums for their kidneys, which were transplanted into mainly Israeli clients.//The medical men were allegedly part of a team that performed more than 110 transplants at the St Augustine Hospital, which, according to the prosecutors were illegal.The charges were fram...

WHO declares Tuberculosis – ‘An Emergency’ in Afrca

The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared Tuberculosis as an emergency in Africa. It is killing more than half a million people every year. WHO Regional // Committee for Africa comprising health ministers from 46 Member States has declared tuberculosis an emergency in the African region. The deaths have quadrupled in the last few years. A resolution was adopted today at the end...

Africa Is Not The Only Continent Struggling Against AIDS

Africa has been the nation of high discussion during the G8 Summit. WHO has started its campaign “Treat 3 Million by 2005”. WHO started its campaign “3 by 5” antiretroviral campaign prior to the G8 Summit in order to mount increased pressure on rich countries to provide more funds and importance to AIDS treatment in Africa.// But due to high profile of Africa’s dire problems overshad...

Bird Flu Risk In Europe, Middle East And Africa

The UN food agency has issued notice urging countries to intensify surveillance and prepare for emergencies due to risk of spread of Bird Flu Virus from Asian countries to Europe, Middle East and Africa.// Though the initial risk would be for the poultry animals they are wide chances of the virus may mutate and may cause infections to humans. Mutation of the virus is very dangerous an...

Shortage of funds for providing AIDS drug in Africa and India

The number of people on antiretroviral therapy has doubled to 1 million worldwide and tripled in Africa and Asia. Asia and Africa are two regions which are hit greatly by AIDS. Though, there is a immense increase in antiretroviral // treatment, it is still far less than the requirement, and the WHO goal to treat 3 million people by 2005, will never happen world wide critics say. Repor...

Phase II trails of new HIV vaccine to be held in South Africa

In a step further to combat the AIDS epidemic, South Africa's first Phase II HIV vaccine trials were launched by charitable group the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI) and U.S.-based Targeted Genetics Corporation. // The trials will test the safety of "tgAAC09" is a preventive HIV vaccine candidate that is based on HIV subtype C, the subtype of the virus most prevalent in s...

South Africa May Start Manufacturing Bird Flu Vaccines

The Director of Biovac Institute in Cape Town said that the company is conducting various studies to start producing bird flu vaccine as the chances of bird flu //pandemic is high worldwide which may lead to a high shortage of vaccines and anti-flu drugs for treating infected people in South Africa. The South African authorities feel that they have to manufacture their own bird flu va...

Africa Accounts For 50% Of HIV Patients

Senegalese schoolchildren took a pledge to abstain from promiscuous sex on 1 December 2005, the World AIDS Day. The prevailing taboos in the developing nations // and ignorance with regard to AIDS are contributing towards the disease spreading rapidly. The Special Envoy of the U.N Stephen Lewis, has called upon the world’s rich nations to contribute more towards combating the disease....

HIV transmission to children's must be prevented in Africa

Lucy Auwalu a HIV positive mother, who gave birth to HIV negative childrens want the countries in African continent to provide drugs, information and clean water which could help HIV positive mothers to give birth to HIV negative childs. Auwalu has started an organization which provides // information about the ways to prevent transmission of the virus from mother to child during child b...

African Conference to Combat AIDS

The 14th International Conference on HIV/AIDS and Sexually Transmitted Infections in Africa (ICASA) aimed at combating the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Africa has been opened by the Continent’s scientists in Nigeria on 4 December 2005.// The focus of the conference is on more effective implementation of the projects and better utilization of funds. During the year 2005 alone over 3 million Africa...

New AIDS drugs not available in Africa

New AIDS drugs produced by Pharmaceutical companies which are proved to be better than older drugs are still not available in Africa, where the actual benefit of these drugs could be realized reports//, Medicine Sans Frontiers (Doctors Without Border). MSF (Medicine sans Frontiers) have accused the pharmaceutical companies that they are not selling their new drugs in Africa. MSF is provi...

Africa Needs More Drugs For HIV

Regina is a volunteer of Médecins sans Frontières (MSF) in Kenya’s west, and she ensures that the HIV patients in the area take their medication regularly, and also renders advice with regard to the disease. The chief difficulty // for those who are afflicted with the virus is getting to the clinic, finding a person who will take care of the patient, and coping with the large volume of d...

AIDS bias successfully overcome by Indian Muslims in South Africa

Indian Muslims in South Africa who displayed stigmatization and discrimination against AIDS victims, are now becoming open minded about supporting HIV/AIDS patients despite their traditional religious beliefs. // This was clear when a number of Muslim organisations joined the local branch of the Muslim AIDS Programme (MAP), an NGO operating countrywide, to host an AIDS awareness day h...

Possibility Of Bird Flu Outbreak In South Africa Ruled Out

The mysterious death of swallows in Malawi had raised fears about the possibility of a bird flu outbreak in South Africa. However, test reports // have revealed a negative bird flu infection status of the dead swallows, much to relief of veterinary officials. // "We have tested samples that were sent to us from Malawi and they all tested negative. They were from migratory swallows,...

Home Based HIV counseling in African Countries

Christopher Smith, Member of African Subcommittee, House Committee on International Relations has urged the African countries to implement house to house AIDS testing and counseling as done in Uganda. //Uganda is conducting this program and as been found very effective in early diagnosis of HIV and also helps in avoiding social stigma of violence against HIV positive person due to ignoran...

Aspirin, Not Used By African Americans And Diabetics To Prevent Heat Problems

It is recently seen that the usage of aspirin to prevent heart problem have increased tremendously//. The researchers at the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health (GSPH) and others conducted the study and published in the American Journal of Medicine. It said that African Americans and diabetics do not opt for aspirin therapy. The researchers from the me...

African American smokers are more prone to developing Lung cancer

Researches have found that African American smokers are more prone to developing lung cancer than White American smokers who smoked the same quantity of cigarette. // The researchers found that lung cancer was increased in these African American people who are exposed to nicotine than the White American due to presence of genetic predisposing factors which would have been triggered by smo...

South Africa To Recruit Indian Nurses

A private hospital group in South Africa will be recruiting Indian nurses to overcome the shortage of staff the country faces. // Estelle Jordaan, Director of Nursing at Medi-Clinic, told the Afrikaans daily Beeld here that a team from the private hospital group would be leaving for India to start a selection process for 60 clinical nurses. These nurses are destined for a pilot proje...

Anti-Retrovirals in Africa, not a distant dream

Ranbaxy Laboratories (India) has entered into a joint venture with a South African company that will support Ranbaxy’s key agenda of enabling antiretroviral drugs in Africa. //A joint venture between Ranbaxy and South Africa based Community Investment Holdings has been signed, that will give authority for this company to sell the drugs in Africa. The CEO of Ranbaxy South Africa, Desmond B...

The AIDS Pandemic May Orphan 18 Million African Children By 2010

If appropriate steps are not taken to restrict spread of the AIDS pandemic in sub-Saharan Africa, it is predicted that more than 18 million African children would be orphaned // by the end of 2010. This would correspond to a 20% increase in just 4 years time. The following prediction was projected in the AIDS conference (London), attended by more than 150 health professionals and Gove...

Increased Funding For AIDS/HIV Program In Africa

It has been proposed to raise the financial grant for the South African AIDS program from the existing 187 million U.S. dollars to 255 million dollars in the current financial year (2006- 07). //Finance Minister Trevor Manuel, who presented the annual budget in the National Assembly, submitted the proposal. The minister also said that care of children orphaned by AIDS/HIV would deserv...

Unilever And World Dental Federation Team Up To Improve Oral Health In North Africa, Middle East and Turkey

Unilever has announced a partnership with the World Dental Federation (FDI) to improve oral health in North Africa, Middle East and Turkey.// Both organizations will assist National Dental Associations (NDAs) in these countries to education and spread awareness about the importance of oral health. Unilever and FDI are calling the partnership Live. Learn. Laugh. The programs include scho...

Large Scale Multiple Sclerosis Vaccine Trial to Be Initiated By PharmaFrontiers

It might not be long before a vaccine for multiple sclerosis is made available. Following the promising results of a multiple sclerosis vaccine trial// in a small group of patients, PharmaFrontiers, a leading pharmaceutical company is all set to test it’s vaccine on a large scale. Multiple sclerosis is a disease in which the myelin sheath, surrounding the nerve fibers in the spinal co...

African American Children More Pone to Develop Diabetes

Levels of insulin in African American children deteriorate as they progress through puberty, reveals a new study conducted by researchers at University of Alberta//. The levels of insulin, however, remain unchanged in their Caucasian counterparts. The study highlights this specific phase of growth plays a crucial role in determining the individual risk of developing diabetes. The 7-ye...

Cost-effective Meningitis Vaccine To Be Launched In Africa

Clinical trials on an Indian-made product have yielded promising results in the prevention of meningitis. Following these promising findings, it might not be long before a cost effective meningitis vaccine is made available, say researchers, hopeful about the same. // The vaccine has already demonstrated a high level of safety and efficacy and is claimed to confer long lasting protecti...

Africa Suffers Tuberculosis as a Fallout of HIV/AIDS and Poverty

Nairobi - The WHO has revealed that Africa's TB crisis has its origin in HIV/AIDS, weak health systems and poverty. Statistics show that//, of the two million people who die from TB every year, 1.5 million are Africans. Winfred Nzioka, a nurse at the African Medical and Research Foundation (AMREF) clinic in the Kenyan slum, revealed that most of the patients who succumbed to TB were a...

Web-Based Training Programme For Africa Vets

Veterinary schools in sub-Saharan Africa have joined forces to create an Internet-based training programme that will allow vets to study// for postgraduate degrees while continuing to work. The African Universities Veterinary E-Learning Consortium, launched in early March, will create online courses for vets unable to attend full-time degrees, reported the SciDev.net science-for-develop...

Africa's vets to gain from web-based training

In a visionary move the veterinary schools in sub-Saharan Africa have joined forces to create an Internet-based training programme that will allow vets// to study for postgraduate degrees while continuing to work. The African Universities Veterinary E-Learning Consortium, launched in early March, will create online courses for vets unable to attend full-time degrees, reported the SciDev...

Tuberculosis Is Still A Major Health Threat In Africa

With 24th March celebrated as the world tuberculosis day. It was thought decades ago that the problem was the verge of being irradiated, but sadly it still remains a major // threat and its toll still rising. The WHO warned that the cases were still rising at almost 1% every year despite the efforts taken against it globally. Tuberculosis has killed about 1.7 million people globally in...

African-American Women Need To Seek Advice On depression

According to Kumea Shorter-Gooden, a clinical psychologist and author, a lot of woman particularly the Blacks in America, are emotional overeater’s who try to mask their depression with food. // Shorter-Gooden said African-American women generally do not seek treatment for their depression, either because their friends, religious community and family members don't recognize depression as...

Advance Funeral For AIDS-infected South African

Johannesburg, April 4. No one has heard of a funeral before death but a South African man having survived with HIV/AIDS plans to stage and attend his own funeral.// Solomon Zimba has already bought his casket and organized the funeral ceremony that will coincide with his birthday and the 10th anniversary of his diagnosis on Sep 27, the Sowetan newspaper said. "I can't w...