Posted on

HIV/AIDS: Groundbreaking Vaccine Research Reveals More Clues about HIV

JOHANNESBURG, 15 January 2013 (PlusNews) – The only HIV vaccine trial to achieve moderate success took place four years ago, yet it continues to reveal new information about the virus and renew hopes for a future vaccine.

In 2009, researchers released the findings of a six-year HIV vaccine study carried out in Thailand known as RV144. Conducted among 16,000 HIV-negative men and women, the trial found that HIV infection rates were 31 percent lower among participants who received the vaccine than in those who had not.

It was an encouraging protection rate, but short of the minimum 50 percent prevention rate required to slow the epidemic, which afflicts an estimated 34 million people worldwide, according to researchers at Duke University in the US.

Now, researchers say they have a better understanding of why the vaccine might have worked – and possible new targets for future vaccines. Continue reading “HIV/AIDS: Groundbreaking Vaccine Research Reveals More Clues about HIV”

Posted on

Don’t Give it, Go First and Receive Feedback

thumbs upIndividual like you and me originate actions that spice up life but being a ‘starter’ is not always fun. Going first can be risky because it frequently attracts criticism and judgment, and to many of us, that is enough reason not to take the lead.

Generally, we are giving feedback, judging, or criticizing or we are receiving feedback, being judged or being criticized. In order to achieve you full growth potential, you must find opportunities to both give and receive feedback or criticism. Giving feedback comes naturally; doing the thing that will place you at the receiving end, that is, going first doesn’t come naturally. Many of us work to avoid that. Continue reading “Don’t Give it, Go First and Receive Feedback”

Posted on

ETHIOPIA: Concerns Over HIV/AIDS Funding Cuts

ADDIS ABABA, 9 January 2013 (PlusNews) – Major projected cuts in US government funding for Ethiopia’s health sector could greatly undermine the progress the country has made in the fight against HIV, authorities and experts say.

“There’s an AIDS spending cliff in Ethiopia, and the government is already in free fall. Next year, Ethiopia will experience a 79 percent reduction in US HIV financing from PEPFAR [the US President’s Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief],” wrote Amanda Glassman, a director at Global Health Policy and a senior fellow at the Center for Global Development.

Ethiopian government officials, however, told IRIN/PlusNews that, while they were concerned about the funding cuts, they had been expecting them.

“We are a bit concerned, but considering the current global financial crisis and the budget deficit in the US, we had anticipated this,” said Kesetebirhan Admassu, the new minister of health.

“Most of the cuts are going to be around softer programmatic activities that can be taken care of by mobilizing internal resources as well as using some innovative approaches like the health development army and so on,” Admassu added. Continue reading “ETHIOPIA: Concerns Over HIV/AIDS Funding Cuts”

Posted on

ZIMBABWE: Still Struggling with Drug Shortages

HARARE, 11 January 2013 (PlusNews) – Chronic shortages of generic and antiretroviral drugs, stock-outs, high medication costs, and long distances to clinics are some of the hurdles people face in their quest to access essential medicines in Zimbabwe.

At any given time, public health facilities in much of Zimbabwe have in stock only half of a core set of critical medicines, according to findings from civil society groups working to improve access to medicines in Southern Africa.

Zimbabwe is still recuperating from a drastic decline in health services caused by sub-optimal investments in healthcare and an unprecedented economic crisis in 2008, during which the local currency crashed.

To make matters worse, over 80 percent of the country’s drugs are externally funded.

“Unsustainable”

A poorly resourced local pharmaceutical industry can barely provide the country with its essential medicine requirements, and government-backed institutions, such as the National Pharmaceutical Company of Zimbabwe (NatPharm), which is mandated with securing drugs and healthcare products on behalf of state institutions, are struggling to survive. Continue reading “ZIMBABWE: Still Struggling with Drug Shortages”

Posted on

The Emerging, Booming, Rising Stories of Africa: Hype or Hope?

Africa rising editorials are widespread
Africa rising editorials are widespread

Over the past few years, Africa and other emerging market economies spurred by the rising middle class, extractive industries dependant on natural resources like oil, and foreign investment have dominated the editorials of financial and economic news and conferences. Different groups incessantly spew out cooler than cool and hotter than hot data about Africa that has such calming fragrance that I ,someone who is often fed up with the negative caricatures about Africa, do welcome. McKinsey reports that African consumer industry is expected to grow by $400 billion by 2020. Countries in Sub-Saharan Africa are among the fastest growing countries in the world; at least six of the world’s top ten fastest growing economies are in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Sometimes, in some places, the statistic appears accurate and real on the surface. I was in Ghana last year. I was amazed at the changes in several sectors of the economy and society. I witnessed an increasing growth of consumption industries in the category of telecommunication, internet services, financial services, high-end grocery, clothing and apparel in the big cities like Accra and Kumasi. Cinema halls are enthusiastically patronized by the so-called middle class with fat wallets and purses. Not bad at all. Really welcome.

Unfortunately, however, as soon as I drove out of the cities into the outskirts of the country, everything I’ve read and heard appeared like hype and not hope. Continue reading “The Emerging, Booming, Rising Stories of Africa: Hype or Hope?”

Posted on

Before You Click That Mouse

Most people especially in the corporate ‘world’ are conversant with the quotation above in-part which concludes with: ”do a re-check”, or with any other grammartical structure suitable to the writer/speaker depending on its purpose cum contextual usage. Due to the advent of infotech and its consequential effect on our lives viz-a-viz business activities, hardly is there any corporate firm regardless of its size and module operandi that does not operate with the use of computers. Gone where the days when businesses runned on paperwork en-mass, conversely today, most information are stored, processed and saved in computers, making work easy and fast to execute.

As an employee, how do you handle tasks delegated to you by your boss or supervisor/s in the office. Take for instance, a boss briefing you to type a short memo for official use. Imagine you have a very short period of time at your disposal to act as instructed by your supervisor. Two possiblities exist; one, that you would quickly within the time left typesett the memo and then move swiftly as with a predating hyena to your supervisor’s office for submission, alternatively, you would type as fast as you can, then do a thorough re-check on what you typed to ensure that words, phrases, clauses and sentences wrongly typed are rectified. Sometimes, an experienced colleague may be contacted to help edit your work. Continue reading “Before You Click That Mouse”

Posted on

MALAWI: “A Long and Hard Road Ahead”

BLANTYRE, 9 January 2013 (IRIN) – International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Christine Lagarde urged Malawians to stick with tough economic reforms during a recent three-day visit to the country, but measures recommended by the Fund and implemented by President Joyce Banda have been deeply unpopular with many citizens who can no longer afford basic goods and services.

Key among these measures was Banda’s decision, made soon after she took office in April 2012, to devalue the Malawian kwacha by 49 percent and untie the currency from the US dollar. The government also lifted subsidies and price controls on fuel.

The moves were designed to address chronic shortages of foreign-exchange reserves and key imports such as fuel, but they also triggered rapid inflation, which remains at 33 percent. Continue reading “MALAWI: “A Long and Hard Road Ahead””

Posted on

UN Official Welcomes Security Council Action in Efforts Against Conflict-related Sexual Violence in DR Congo

8 January 2013 – The United Nations official dealing with conflict-related sexual violence today welcomed the Security Council’s imposition of sanctions on two armed groups active in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) – the Forces Démocratiques pour la Libération du Rwanda (FDLR) and 23 March Movement (M23).

“The Security Council’s sanctions committee for the DRC has led the way in focusing on crimes of sexual violence,” the Secretary-General’s Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict, Zainab Hawa Bangura, added in a news release.

“I also welcome the designation of Lt. Col. Eric Badege and Jean-Marie Lugerero Runinga of M23 for serious violations of human rights and international humanitarian law,” she continued.

On the last day of 2012, the Security Council’s so-called ‘1533 Committee’ added the FDLR and the M23 – as well as Lt. Col. Badege and Mr. Runinga – to its list of individuals and entities subject to sanctions. Continue reading “UN Official Welcomes Security Council Action in Efforts Against Conflict-related Sexual Violence in DR Congo”