http://www.globalhealthmagazine.com/aids_conference_blog_top_stories/ en achristensen@globalhealth.org Copyright 2010 2010-07-22T14:20:14+00:00 http://www.globalhealthmagazine.com/aids_conference_blog_top_stories/marps/ http://www.globalhealthmagazine.com/aids_conference_blog_top_stories/marps/#When:13:20:14Z Life is not that good for injecting drug users in Eastern Europe. Or, for that matter, sex workers, prisoners or anyone else in the high-risk group of marginalized people who have HIV and live on the edge of society there. 2010-07-22T13:20:14+00:00 http://www.globalhealthmagazine.com/aids_conference_blog_top_stories/caprisa/ http://www.globalhealthmagazine.com/aids_conference_blog_top_stories/caprisa/#When:12:25:43Z The exciting results of the CAPRISA 004 trial released today in Vienna are a hopeful and promising first step towards giving women a new tool to protect themselves from HIV infection. This is the first time that a microbicide trial has shown a significant decrease in the rate of HIV acquisition, with 39 percent fewer infections. Additionally, among women who were the most adherent to the trial regimen, we saw an even greater rate of protection - up to 54 percent. These findings alone are reason for hope, but the trial also presented some other important “firsts.” 2010-07-20T12:25:43+00:00 http://www.globalhealthmagazine.com/aids_conference_blog_top_stories/microbicides/ http://www.globalhealthmagazine.com/aids_conference_blog_top_stories/microbicides/#When:12:23:26Z Today, at the 18th International AIDS Conference in Vienna, the Center for AIDS Programme of Research in South Africa (CAPRISA) announced successful results of a clinical trial testing an antiretroviral (ARV)-based vaginal microbicide for its ability to prevent HIV infection in women. This announcement marks a turning point in efforts to develop safe and effective female-initiated HIV prevention methods. The trial, named CAPRISA 004, showed that women who used a gel containing tenofovir, an ARV commonly used to treat HIV, had a 39 percent lower rate of infection compared to women who used a placebo gel. 2010-07-20T12:23:26+00:00 http://www.globalhealthmagazine.com/aids_conference_blog_top_stories/haiti/ http://www.globalhealthmagazine.com/aids_conference_blog_top_stories/haiti/#When:11:26:46Z The need to invest in people, develop private-public partnerships, and reduce poverty is what is needed right now in Haiti, participants in a Global Health Council panel told a packed room at the International AIDS Society conference in Vienna June 20. 2010-07-20T11:26:46+00:00 http://www.globalhealthmagazine.com/aids_conference_blog_top_stories/aids_funding_systems/ http://www.globalhealthmagazine.com/aids_conference_blog_top_stories/aids_funding_systems/#When:11:43:04Z What is the impact of HIV/AIDS on the health systems and on the health workforce in sub-Saharan Africa? To begin, HIV/AIDS has substantially increased the demand for health services. Patients seeking treatment for more traditional illnesses are being crowded out to peripheral health facilities. This has led to congestion at the secondary and tertiary levels, while weakening services at the primary level. Additionally, effect of the epidemic on the health workforce include: attrition from illness and death, absenteeism, low morale, increased demand for provider time and skills, diversion of resources, budgetary and managerial inadequacies, and other effects of managing systems under stress. 2010-07-18T11:43:04+00:00 http://www.globalhealthmagazine.com/aids_conference_blog_top_stories/circumcision/ http://www.globalhealthmagazine.com/aids_conference_blog_top_stories/circumcision/#When:18:10:40Z The news was alarming: “Circumcisions Kill 20 Boys in South Africa.” Posted on the BBC’s Web site last month, the headline was a tragic yet misleading summary of deaths of adolescent boys in the Eastern Cape of South Africa. The boys died after undergoing a traditional circumcision, a rite of passage that occurs every year in this part of South Africa and often, sadly, results in injury and loss of life. 2010-07-17T18:10:40+00:00 http://www.globalhealthmagazine.com/aids_conference_blog_top_stories/iavi/ http://www.globalhealthmagazine.com/aids_conference_blog_top_stories/iavi/#When:12:00:36Z The world’s scientists have had quite a foe in the wily virus known as HIV, but new discoveries from last fall and last week show we might just be starting to get an upper hand in the battle. As we head to the 2010 International AIDS Conference in Vienna, with the virus still wreaking havoc around the world, this is welcome news - and reason we must be more determined, forward-thinking and collaborative than ever in creating a tool to help end this devastating pandemic. 2010-07-17T12:00:36+00:00 http://www.globalhealthmagazine.com/aids_conference_blog_top_stories/integration/ http://www.globalhealthmagazine.com/aids_conference_blog_top_stories/integration/#When:17:52:26Z In a few days I will be on the road to the XVIII International AIDS Conference in Vienna, Austria. The theme of the conference is “Rights Here, Right Now,” which aims to highlight the importance of human rights in the fight against HIV/AIDS and ensure that it remains a global priority. 2010-07-14T17:52:26+00:00