Your daily Selection of IRIN Africa PlusNews reports, 12/6/2005

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CONTENT:

1 - SENEGAL: Students increasingly a target of HIV-prevention campaigns

2 - TANZANIA: Clinical trials on HIV/AIDS vaccine to start in March 2006

1 - SENEGAL: Students increasingly a target of HIV-prevention campaigns

DAKAR, 6 December (PLUSNEWS) - Ibrahim Thioye was confident as he stood in line

last week to be tested for HIV.

" No fear or apprehension whatsoever, " the university law student said as he

queued with scores of fellow scholars to get tested in response to a call by

student volunteers known as 'Leo Club.'

Thioye says he knows all about how HIV is transmitted, and besides, he is a

" practising and faithful Muslim abstaining from sex before marriage. "

HIV-prevention activists wish that more people would be as bold about learning

their HIV status. To date only about 10 percent of Senegal's 11 million people

have been tested.

Encouraging the test is a big part of a recent push by 'Leo Club' volunteers -

of Lions Club International - and other organisations that have recently stepped

up HIV-awareness campaigns on university campuses in the capital, Dakar.

Health officials say getting youths tested is a crucial step to keeping the

country's infection rate of about 1.6 percent - low by West African standards -

in check.

HIV prevalence rates in Senegal as elsewhere in the region are extrapolated from

testing among pregnant women. But medical officials say a new health survey,

based on the general population, shows most new infections in 2005 were in

people aged between 15 and 24.

According to the UN's latest global AIDS statistics, released last month,

countries with low HIV rates such as Senegal have not seen a decrease in the

pandemic. So activists are warning that such countries cannot afford to be

complacent.

" We must not wait for the AIDS pandemic to shoot up before we react, " said Baba

Goumbala, executive secretary of the country's National Alliance Against AIDS, a

coalition of Senegalese NGOs and community-based associations. " There seems to

be a relaxation of prevention in countries where good results have been

achieved, " he said.

To mark World AIDS Day, Leo Club student volunteers for the first time took to

the campus of Dakar's Cheikh Anta Diop University, armed with HIV-prevention

brochures and condoms, along with medical teams and HIV-testing materials.

" This is good for a start, " said Alpha Ndiaye of Leo Club as he surveyed the

group of students seeking information and getting in line to be tested.

Manning a table stacked with hundreds of books and pamphlets and over 1,000

condoms free for the taking, he said, " I'm glad to see young men thinking about

protecting themselves and a number of young women coming and asking questions

about HIV infection. "

Papa Salif Sow, head of infectious diseases at Fann Hospital, said young women

in particular must be targeted in HIV awareness campaigns, as most of the new

cases among 15- to 24-year-olds are female. " We will focus more and more on

protecting young women, " he told IRIN.

Back at the university another student in line to be tested identified himself

only as . Wearing a small crucifix around his neck, he says facing up to the

challenge of AIDS is part of his Christian faith. " I have confidence in myself

and in my girlfriend to be faithful. And we use condoms, every time. Not a worry

- we protect ourselves. "

For those not so eager to undergo the test, health workers try to put across the

message that testing positive for HIV is not a death sentence.

" With testing, people no longer need to be afraid, " Awa Diop, president of the

family education club at Dakar's F Kennedy High School recently told a

group of students. " If a result is positive, treatment is available. "

And Ndeye Sane, who heads a youth group with the pan-African Society for Women

Against AIDS in Africa, says testing brings peace of mind.

" It is better to know one's status than to continue living in doubt. "

[ENDS]

2 - TANZANIA: Clinical trials on HIV/AIDS vaccine to start in March 2006

DAR ES SALAAM, 5 December (PLUSNEWS) - Tanzania will start clinical trials of an

HIV/AIDS vaccine in March 2006, the head of a local university announced in Dar

es Salaam on Saturday.

" This is taking place after successful trials were done in Sweden to determine

any side effects, " said Kisali Pallangyo, the principal of the Muhimbili

University College of Health Sciences (MUCHS) in Dar es Salaam.

MUCHS, which is a university teaching hospital, will conduct the trials but only

in Dar es Salaam.

Speaking at the college's graduation ceremony Pallangyo, who is a professor of

medicine, said the clinical trials of the vaccination were being supported by

the Swedish International Development Agency and the European Union.

" This is not a guaranteed vaccine and people should not take the HIV/AIDS

problem lightly believing a medical solution has now been struck, " he said.

He said a " preventive vaccine " was not expected before 2011. The vaccine code

named DNA-MVA, he said, was developed by researchers at the Swedish Institute of

Infectious Disease Control. Studies on it started in 1994.

[ENDS]

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