Your daily Selection of IRIN Africa PlusNews reports, 9/26/2003

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U N I T E D N A T I O N S

Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs

Integrated Regional Information Network

CONTENT:

1 - AFRICA: Universities urged to teach HIV/AIDS awareness

2 - TANZANIA: US firm pledges support for HIV/AIDS treatment

1 - AFRICA: Universities urged to teach HIV/AIDS awareness

ACCRA, 25 September (PLUSNEWS) - Education experts have suggested that

HIV/AIDS awareness be integrated into the curriculum in African

universities to reduce spiraling infection rates of the disease among

students.

They told a conference of the Association of African Universities (AAU)in

the Ghanaian capital, Accra on Wednesday that prevalance rates amongst

students are usually higher than the national average. This is because

most students are young, sexually active people aged 19 to 25.

" HIV/Aids has clearly affected the core business of tertiary institutions

such as teaching and learning, research and management, " Barnabas Otaala,

a professor at the University of Namibia told the meeting.

Alice Lamptey, the coordinator of the AAU working group on HIV/AIDS and a

member of the board of the United Nations AIDS programme (UNAIDS) said:

" We need momentum like a river that carries everybody together. "

Lamptey is heading a survey in the universities of sub-Saharan countries

on HIV/AIDS.

She said: " We need policies and programmes to help break the silence and

protect our children, because in Africa taboo and culture is still killing

us. "

The AAU said that at present HIV/AIDS control activities in African

universities were " isolated. "

The organisation is currently supporting HIV/AIDS awareness programmes in

six universities and colleges with grants of US $10,000 each.

The beneficiaries are the University of Botswana, Nkumba University in

Uganda, Mombasa Polytechnic in Kenya, Highridge College in Kenya, Kigali

Institute of Science and Technology in Rwanda and University of Lome in

Togo.

The AAU said the programme at Highridge College had provided 20

HIV-positive students with a special diet to boost their immunity systems.

Ten more universities would be funded in 2004 and the US-based African

American Institute was interested in supporting additional projects, it

added.

The organisation began a three-day meeting in Accra on Tuesday to discuss

declining academic standards in Africa's universities and colleges under

the theme: " Improving tertiary Education in sub-saharan Africa. What can

work. "

The AAU is developing a tool kit on HIV/AIDS that will be posted on its

website. The association said Hopkins University in the United States

had offered to sponsor the reproduction of the kit for distribution to all

of its 172 members.

[ENDS]

2 - TANZANIA: US firm pledges support for HIV/AIDS treatment

DAR ES SALAAM , 26 September (PLUSNEWS) - A US-based pharmaceutical

company has announced a partnership with the Tanzanian government to

modernise the country's public health care infrastructure and develop

services and care for people living with HIV/AIDS.

The announcement was made during the 13th International Conference on AIDS

and Sexually Transmitted Infections in Africa, held in Nairobi, Kenya, on

22-26 September.

Tanzania Care, the joint venture between Abbot Laboratories and the

government, is a public-private partnership that will be implemented by

Axios, an organisation supported by Abbot Laboratories.

" Tanzania Care is part of our global commitment of $100m over five years, "

Reeta Roy, Abbot's divisional vice-president of global citizenship and

policy, told IRIN on Friday. " The exact figure is not confirmed yet, but

it will be a significant contribution because the need is significant. "

Through helping various public health institutions, increasing the

training of medical workers and laboratory personnel and expanding access

to voluntary counselling and testing (VCT), the partnership will boost

Tanzania's capacity to tackle the HIV/AIDS pandemic.

UNAIDS puts the number of Tanzanians living with HIV/AIDS at about two

million but health officials say that only 1,500 of these have access to

the antiretroviral (ARV) drugs.

The programme will work in four different areas, but initially the focus

will be on the renovation of Muhimbili National Hospital, the country's

largest public health institution, which will be re-established as

Tanzania's primary research, referral and training facility and a regional

" Centre for Excellence " in the fight against HIV/AIDS.

Abbot Laboratories said that Tanzania Care would also support the National

Task Force on HIV/AIDS and build capacity in two other tertiary referral

centres, Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Centre, Arusha region, and the

Mbeya Referral Hospital, to set up ARV treatment and follow up services.

At the same time, the scheme will enable all regional hospitals in

Tanzania to offer voluntary counselling and testing (VCT) and post-care

prophylaxis.

So far, Tanzania Care is concentrating on setting up the structures and

systems for the distribution of ARV drugs but an HIV/AIDS specialist at

Muhimbili, Dr Ngwalle, said the intervention was " very timely and

valid " .

" The focus on treatment is appropriate because reducing the viral load is

an important factor in preventing the spread of HIV/AIDS, Ngwalle told

IRIN on Thursday. " However, you can't provide services without the

physical infrastructure, the human resources the training and the

equipment. "

" Also, as we are going along, we need to make sure that we promote

treatment literacy, " he said. " HIV/AIDS is not a conventional disease and

ARV drug are very new on the market. We want to broaden knowledge so that

it is not just the doctors that know about the treatment. "

Axios Executive Vice-President Anne Reeler said that with so much money

being mobilised to tackle HIV/AIDS, the challenge was to set up

appropriate infrastructure, " so that that when the drugs are available,

they can be used properly and not left on shelves going out of date " .

The US firm hopes Tanzania Care can be a public-private partnership model

that will be adapted by other companies and countries working to fight

HIV/AIDS in the developing world. Similarly, they see " competitive walls

crumbling " as rival drug companies collaborate on in HIV initiatives in

the developing world.

However, they say, there is still a need to redefine the roles that

various bodies will play.

" We want to see where our place is in the future, " Jeff ,

executive director of Tanzania Care, told IRIN. " We want to get a sense of

what we can do, drawing together business and the philanthropic, to

maximise our contribution. "

[ENDS]

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