A company involved in the production of artemisinine, an anti-malaria drug, is due to set up extraction plants in Kenya and Tanzania to make the drug easily and cheaply available to patients, an official for the company said. The factories would be established in East Africa because of the potential in the region for cultivating artemisia-annua, the plant from which the anti-malaria drug is extracted, the managing director of African Artemisia Limited, Geoff Burrell, said at a conference convened by the UN World Health Organization (WHO) in the northern Tanzanian town of Arusha.
Equity in Health
Kenya and Tanzania to start producing anti-malaria drug
Kenya promises promises expansion of free ARVs
Kenya's government has promised to make antiretroviral (ARVs) drugs freely available to its HIV-positive citizens, many of whom cannot afford the current subsidised medication. Of the 200,000 people in need of treatment in the country, only 35,000 are receiving the life-prolonging drugs. With more than 60 percent of the population living on a dollar a day, HIV-positive Kenyans can expect to pay about KShs500 (US $6.5) per month for ARVs.
Kofi Annan focuses on developing Africa in annual lecture
The Nelson Mandela Foundation, 22 July 2007
Kofi Annan focused on the progress of Africa in the 5th Nelson Mandela Annual Lecture in Johannesburg, saying it needed to be balanced on three pillars: security, development and human rights. The past secretary-general of the United Nations, said significant progress had been made in Africa in relation to all three of these pillars, yet much still needed to be done. He noted, that more than 300-million people in sub-Saharan Africa live on less than $1 a day, and are “starved not only for food, but for opportunity and hope”. Mr Annan was critical of the imbalances of globalisation, and said the world’s rich needed to help the poor, because “If some of us are poor, we are all poorer.” He further pointed out: “We live in an era of inter dependence … [which] in some ways is more obvious in Africa than anywhere else,” he said.
Kwazulu-Natal Cholera Cases On the Increase
The KwaZulu-Natal health department has expressed concern over the upward trend of new cholera infections. The department said yesterday that 15 new cases had been reported over a 24-hour period, adding that although it was considerably less than over the same period last year, it was a matter of concern.
KwaZulu-Natal: Cases of cholera on the rise
The provincial health department has appealed to communities to take particular care against contracting cholera as another 260 new cases of the disease were reported. KwaZulu-Natal has battled a cholera outbreak since August 2000, with 108687 confirmed cases reported and 235 deaths related to the disease recorded.
Lack of Coordination, Leadership Led To Missed 3 by 5 Target, Treatment Advocacy Coalition Report Says
The World Health Organization will miss its 3 by 5 Initiative target of treating three million HIV-positive people in developing countries with antiretroviral drugs by the end of this year because of a lack of cooperation and coordination internationally and a lack of national leadership, according to a report released by a coalition of HIV/AIDS treatment advocates, the New York Times reports. The International Treatment Preparedness Coalition, a group of 600 treatment advocates from more than 100 countries, produced the report, titled "Missing the Target -- A Report on HIV/AIDS Treatment Access from the Frontlines," which aims to identify challenges to treatment access and provide solutions to overcome them.
LACK OF DRUG REGULATION 'SPURS HIV RESISTANCE'
The unregulated supply of AIDS drugs in the developing world could accelerate the development of drug-resistant HIV strains, according to an expert at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, United Kingdom. Better regulation of private-sector providers of drugs in poor nations is needed to ensure that patients use antiretroviral drugs correctly, thereby reducing the risk that a strain of drug-resistant HIV will develop.
Landmark agreement reached in Aids fight
A historic agreement to adopt a unified global response to tackling HIV/AIDS was reached by the international community last month. Despite stepped up resources and the best intentions, the AIDS epidemic continues to be one of the greatest crises of the century, with 40 million people currently infected and over 25 million deaths to date. A major step was taken at a meeting in Washington D.C., co-chaired by UNAIDS, the UK and the US, where donors and developing countries agreed to three core principles to better coordinate the scale-up of national AIDS responses.
Further details: /newsletter/id/30402
Launch of Zambezi River Basin Initiative
International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies: 2009
The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) has launched a US$ 8 million initiative to help build the disaster resilience of 600,000 people living along the Zambezi river in seven southern African countries. The Zambezi River Basin Initiative (ZRBI) is a response to ‘a dramatic increase in the numbers of floods along the river basin’, according to Farid Abdulkadir, IFRC disaster management coordinator for the southern Africa region. The focus of the ZRBI is on disaster preparedness rather than post emergency relief operations, as in the past. It is a joint programme between the Angolan, Botswana, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe Red Cross Societies, combining risk reduction efforts with food security, health, HIV prevention and capacity building activities. The US Agency for International Development (USAID) has already committed US$1 million to the project.
Learning from local farmers and healers
The World Bank's Indigenous Knowledge for Development Program, the US National Institute of Health and representatives of African traditional healers have agreed to work together on validating herbal treatments of HIV/AIDS-related opportunistic infections. In a seminar hosted by the World Bank's indigenous knowledge program earlier this week, the Tanga AIDS Working Group (TAWG) of Tanzania and the Center for Indigenous Knowledge Systems and Agricultural Byproducts (CIKSAP) of Kenya presented their approaches to healthcare, based on indigenous knowledge.