Posted on 12/14/2006 11:34:21 AM PST by MotleyGirl70
BLANTYRE (AFP) - Southern Africa, the epicentre of the AIDS epidemic, agreed to look at male circumcision to fight the pandemic in the wake of reports that it could halve the risk of males contracting HIV. A 14-nation regional bloc ended a three-day meeting on HIV/AIDS by stating that "member states will hold further national consultations to examine the results and will work with the World Health Organisation and
UNAIDS to determine the implications of these studies."
The Southern African Development Community (SADC) said it had noted evidence from Uganda and Kenya and another study conducted in a South African township "confirming that male circumcision has a 50-60 percent preventative effect."
"There is general interest in most countries to consider this and we will come up with a clear action plan on how to act on male circumcision," Keketso Sefeane, chief of Lesotho's national AIDS commission, told AFP.
"We want male circumcision to be done safely... We want to use it as a vehicle to communicate HIV and AIDS issues," said Sefeane.
A report by UNAIDS published this year shows that 63 percent of all adults and children with HIV live in sub-Saharan Africa.
According to the report, adults and children newly infected with the virus rose to 2.8 million in 2006 from 2.4 million in 2004.
The SADC said it would develop an HIV prevention strategy which will be released early next year "to ensure a sustained focus on HIV prevention."
Zambian surgeon and university lecturer Kasendo Bowa had earlier urged the region to embrace male circumcision, saying there was "substantially overwhelming" evidence that it reduced the transmission of HIV.
"SADC must make a decision and generate leadership on this issue. The HIV pandemic has gone up in the region and the key difference is male circumcision," he said.
"It is a low-cost intervention which costs only 15 dollars (11 euros), unlike AIDS drugs which cost 480 dollars (364 euros) per year per person and it's a continued expense."
He said circumcision "is not an isolated intervention, but part of a package of HIV prevention."
The meeting here in the Malawi commercial capital Blantyre has also been addressing how sex workers and gays can be roped in to help the fight against the disease.
Sex workers and gays were regarded as "important stakeholders" in the fight, said Lesotho's AIDS commission chief Sefeane.
"Unfortunately, there is no data on homosexuals and commercial sex workers in the region although there is high levels of HIV prevalence in Mauritius among these groups which has increased to 100 percent from 2003," he said.
SADC groups Angola, Botswana, the
Democratic Republic of Congo, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania , Zambia and Zimbabwe.
Does anyone know why AID's is for prevelant in Africa? I looked it up but there people saying its inflated numbers and another group is saying it because of lack of sex education.
Step right up!!
"agreed to look at male circumcision to fight the pandemic"
It would probably be more effective if they cut even more off.
Testing for AIDS antibodies is complex and expensive. Instead of actual testing, health agencies in Africa have agreed on certain "marker diseases" as "markers" of AIDS. TB is one of these. If you get TB in the US, you are listed as having TB. If you get TB in Africa, you are listed as having AIDS. The figures for AIDS infections in Africa are to some degree inflated by people with "marker diseases" who do not actually have AIDS. No one knows the actual extent of the inflation, but it could be significant.
WHO has a staging system, whereby patients exhibiting certain opportunistic infections can become classified as "AIDS patients".
My understanding is that there is international money attached to this disease and that many patients (a generic term) who exhibit certain illnesses can be classified as "AIDS patients". Therefore, the large number of AIDS patients in Africa is at least partially due to economic factors (they want money) combined with widespread infections (which can be found in undeveloped countries).
It certainly seems to me that, having been around for about 30 years, if HIV had a form that was especially contagious through heterosexual sex, it would have spread beyond Africa by now. The fact that heterosexually transmitted AIDS is found almost exclusively in undeveloped areas tells me that there's more to this phenomenon than simple epidemiology.
Not the tube cutter!!!!!!
Not the tube cutter!!!!!!
Several reasons:
1. The numbers were found to be wildly inflated. Even diarrhea and tetanus end up being reported as AIDS. And samples based on urban poor (with the high numbers of prostitutes) were falsely extrapolated to the nation at large.
2. Promiscuity, anal sex and rape are very prevalent.
3. AIDS is an opportunistic virus which preys on weakened immune systems. In the US, controlled infections such as syphillus in the homosexual population help AIDS spread. In Africa, diseases related to poor hygeine, contamination and hunger do.
Male circumsision to STOP Aids.?....
Depends on how much they cut off I suppose..
Going all the way to the base could cure several problems..
$15 bucks? Wow, dugan surgery for less than the price of a sandwich and a couple of beers. What a bargain!
thanks for that information, hopefully something can be done down in that region. I hope the devices presented above would not have to be used. Thanks for the info again
Kevin? I thought it was Eaton...or S.Wally.
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