"AIDS in the 21st Century" - Book review

I have just read "AIDS in the Twenty-First Century, Disease and Globalisation" by Tony Barnett and Alan Whiteside, (Palgrave Macmillan, UK 2002) and I am writing to recommend it. It is starkly clear and eminently readable. Facts, figures and stories with which each of us are familiar are juxtaposed in new and graphic ways, to powerful effect.

Two major publications on AIDS Orphans launched

AFXB (Association Francois-Xavier Bagnoud)has laucnhed two major publications on the AIDS orphan pandemic. There can be no doubt that the total number of children left orphaned by the HIV/AIDS pandemic has already reached immense proportions and is continuing to grow at an alarming rate. In spite of this, the issues involved (which are complex, diverse, and must be fully understood if appropriate support is to be provided) remain little more than a footnote pasted onto wider accounts of the socio-economic impact of the disease.

"AIDS in the 21st Century" by Tony Barnett and Alan Whiteside

Financed by AFXB (Association Francois-Xavier Bagnoud), this powerful book presents compelling data and research which reveal the shocking social and economic impact of HIV/AIDS on a global scale. In this groundbreaking study, Tony Barnett and Alan Whiteside - leading experts in the field for over 15 years - argue that it is vital we cease to consider the disease solely in terms of the prevention and treatment of its physical effects.

UNAIDS Report on the global HIV/AIDS epidemic

Zambia may become the second African country - after Uganda - to reverse a widespread HIV/AIDS epidemic, a new UNAIDS report said on Tuesday. New data in the UNAIDS "Report on the Global HIV/AIDS Epidemic" indicates that HIV prevalence among young Zambian women has fallen from 28 percent in 1996 to 24 percent in 1999 in urban areas, and from 16 percent to 12 percent in rural areas.

Turning on to safe sex

Preventing HIV/AIDS in theory seems simple enough. Provide sexually active young people with information on how the disease is spread, and they will naturally adopt safe sex behaviour. But the reality has proved much more complex. Twenty years after the disease was diagnosed, much ignorance surrounding HIV/AIDS still persists.

When should you start HIV therapy?

The main measures of the stage of HIV infection are the CD4 cell count, the viral load (VL) and the clinical picture. It is on these that the strategies for commencement of antiretroviral therapy (ART) are based. But one has to take other factors into account as well.

'Lauryl' condom could make women more hardy

An "invisible" condom worn by women has been hailed as one of the most innovative preventive measures presented at the Barcelona AIDS Conference.

Patients in HIV/AIDS research often come last

Medical researchers in HIV/AIDS are often putting the interests of the patient last. That's according to a seminar on ethics at the 14th International AIDS Conference in Barcelona.

Risking death to stay alive

A third of all women canvassed at three ante-natal clinics in a study in Soweto, South Africa, admitted to having had "transactional sex" in return for food, clothing, transportation, school fees, cash or gifts for their children - and were HIV-positive.

HIVAN Research Associate Projects 2001 - 2002

Projects in South Africa 2001 - 2002 (complete and ongoing)conducted by Jennifer Zelnick and Max O€™Donnell, Associate Researchers at the Centre for HIV/AIDS Networking(HIVAN), University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, South Africa