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The International Health Partnership was launched in September 2007 in order to respond to the MDG challenges that called for all signatories to accelerate action to scale-up coverage and use of health services, and deliver improved outcomes against the health- related MDGs and universal access commitments. Closely related initiatives have also been launched with the common aim to accelerate the achievement of the health-related MDGs in line with the Paris Declaration. The result: An inter-agency coordinated process and common work plan: IHP+ (International Health Partnership and related initiatives).
Key Principles: The focus of this process will be on health-related MDG outcomes. Increasing aid effectiveness, improving policy, strategy and health systems performance, and mobilizing all actors, including non-State actors, more efficiently are all means to an end; Actions will be country-focused and country-led. All activities will be contingent on country circumstances and will build on already existing structures, mechanisms and health plans in countries. They will be supported by dedicated regional and global activities, if necessary; The work will evolve as it brings together the support for the implementation of the IHP+ (e.g. Global Campaign for Health MDGs with focus on women and children according to MDG4 & 5, the Catalytic Initiative, Health Metrics Network, Global Health Workforce Alliance,
Providing for Health, etc).
International Health Partnership Objectives – 1] Develop 'country compacts' that commit development partners to provide sustained and predictable funding and increase harmonization and alignment in support of results orientated national plans and strategies that also tackle health system constraints; 2] Generate and disseminate knowledge, guidance, and tools in specific technical areas related to strengthening health systems and services; 3] Enhance coordination and efficiency as well as leverage predicable and sustained aid delivery for health; 4] Ensure mutual accountability and monitoring of performance.
Text and photograph courtesy International Health Partnership, a partner and Cooperating Organization with dgCommunity HIV/AIDS.
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“As HIV spreads, it interacts with other infectious diseases, facilitated by the increase in numbers of immunosuppressed individuals and because its own clinical course can be altered by other infections. Infectious diseases often ‘synergize’, or negatively affect each other, and this is most noticeable with HIV and tuberculosis (TB). In areas of high HIV prevalence, the incidence of TB infection is increased, with a resultant increase in mortality. In addition, susceptibility to HIV can be increased by other infections, notably sexually transmitted infections (STIs), leading to high rates of HIV transmission in communities with high prevalence of STIs.
In Africa, the HIV pandemic has been superimposed on the longstanding malaria pandemic, where P. falciparum malaria is consistently one of the major causes of infant and child mortality. The high prevalence of both HIV and malaria infection in Africa means that even small interactions between the two could have substantial effects on populations. With the inception of the Roll Back Malaria partnership in 1998, there was recognition that previous gradual declines in malaria mortality had been reversed during the 1990’s, and that interactions between malaria and HIV could be one contributor.
Early research did not indicate any direct, biological association between HIV and malaria, although it was noted that malaria-associated anaemia treated with unscreened blood transfusions contributed to HIV transmission. In more recent years, three key issues have focussed much of the research effort: 1] Does HIV/AIDS increase susceptibility to malaria infection or increase severity of acute malarial episodes? 2] Does malaria infection accelerate progression of HIV/AIDS? 3] What is the impact of malaria and HIV co-infection during pregnancy?
Effect of HIV on malaria: HIV infection increases the incidence and severity of clinical malaria. In non-pregnant adults, HIV infection has been found to roughly double the risk of malaria parasitemia and clinical malaria. In east and southern Africa, where HIV prevalence is near 30%, it is estimated that about one-quarter to one-third of clinical malaria in adults (including during pregnancy) can be accounted for by HIV.
Effect of malaria on HIV: Although the effect of malaria on HIV has not been so well documented, some recent research is now adding to the growing body of evidence. Acute malaria infection increases viral load, and one study found that this increased viral load was reversed by effective malaria treatment. This malaria-associated increase in viral load could lead to increased transmission of HIV and more rapid disease progression, with substantial public health implications.
HIV and malaria co-infection during pregnancy: Malaria infection is more frequent and more severe in HIV-positive pregnant women in malaria-endemic settings. Multigravidae with HIV infection are similar to primigravidae without HIV infection in terms of susceptibility to, and negative consequences of, malaria infection. Therefore, in the presence of HIV infection, the risk associated with placental malaria appears to be independent of the number of pregnancies. Pregnant women infected with both malaria and HIV are at higher risk of developing anaemia, delivering low birthweight infants, delivering prematurely… “
Text and photograph for this article courtesy UNICEF, a partner and Cooperating Organization with dgCommunity Youth for Development.
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By Wendy Santis, Laurie Rosenblum, Cheryl Vince Whitman and Anthony Bloome. Published by Education Development Center’s Health and Human Development Programs, International Youth Foundation and Altadena Rotary Charities on behalf of Rotary Clubs of Zambia and USA.
From the Executive Summary: To ensure that services are effective, young people must be included in all phases of research, pro¬gram design, implementation, outreach, monitoring, and evaluation. They understand the interests and needs of their peers and know the best ways to reach them.Young people ages 15–24 who are seeking meaningful, secure, in¬come-generating work constitute a sizable portion of the population in developing countries.
This age group is also at the center of the global HIV and AIDS epidemic. Almost half of all new HIV infections occur in young people ages 15–24. Poverty and limited access to health care, education, and paid employment create situations that make young people most vulnerable to HIV infection.This paper examines the importance of developing strategies to involve young people in income-generating activities to fight HIV and AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa. These strategies support young people in gaining important skills and earning income to reduce their own poverty. The strategies also help foster a sense of hope and purpose in young people as they contribute to addressing this social problem.
The paper highlights: The prevalence of HIV and AIDS among young people, predominant modes of transmission, populations affected, and related social issues in sub-Saharan Africa; The interrelationship of HIV and AIDS, economic development, poverty, and work for young people; Specific case examples of organizations that involve young people in the continuum of HIV and AIDS prevention, treatment, and care services and offer models for compensating young people’s contributions.
A number of international declarations and institutions have af¬firmed the need to improve youth employment opportunities as part of global and national development agendas. In February 2004, approximately 88.2 million young people worldwide were unemployed. Youth unemployment accounts for 47 percent of the world’s total 186 million unemployed persons. In 2003, 18.6 million young people in sub-Saharan Africa—21 percent of the young people in that region—were unemployed.
Youth unemployment and underemployment are risk factors related to social problems, such as poverty, crime, drugs, and health prob¬lems. When young people comprise at least 40 percent of the population, large numbers of unemployed and idle youth may threaten national stability. People living in poverty, who often suffer from multiple health burdens such as malnutrition and malaria, are at a heightened risk for contracting HIV and AIDS.
This article has been contributed by Whitney Harrelson, Guide for dgCommunity Youth for Development. Photograph courtesy FHI, a partner and Cooperating Organization with dgCommunities HIV, Youth and Gender.
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I AM STOPPING TB is more than the slogan for this year’s Stop TB Day on March 24, 2008.
It is the start of a two-year campaign that belongs to people everywhere who are doing their part to Stop TB. This year's World TB Day is about celebrating the lives and stories of people affected by TB: women, men and children who have taken TB treatment; nurses; doctors; researchers; community workers--anyone who has contributed towards the global fight against TB.
Luis Figo, Stop TB Ambassador says “Football has always been my passion, but I have another that is no less intense. I dream of a world where all people have the opportunity to be healthy and improve their quality of life. I dream of an even playing field for all women, men and children everywhere.
TB is one of the most unfair fouls in the game of life. The disease most often strikes people in their prime working years, imposing a heavy cost on families' incomes. Children are vulnerable to TB as well, and the disease may force them out of school, limiting their future job prospects.
TB is curable, but TB kills. There are 8.8 million new cases of infectious TB each year, and 1.6 million people each year, or 4400 people per day, die from the disease. This is unacceptable. That is why I have made a commitment to the global fight against TB. Please join my team -- pick up the ball and run with me to stop TB.”
Text and photograph for the article courtesy Stop TB website.
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FAO, with the UN mandate for improving nutrition and food security, sustainable agriculture and rural development, has a unique opportunity to contribute to preventing and tackling the impacts of HIV and AIDS. In its earlier stages, the HIV epidemic was predominantly an urban problem, affecting more men than women, and those with relatively higher incomes. Now the epidemic has rapidly moved into the rural areas, hitting those who are least equipped to deal with its consequences. Today, 95% of people living with - and dying of - HIV and AIDS are in developing countries. The overwhelming majority are the rural poor, and among them women figure disproportionately.
The epidemic is undoing decades of economic and social development and causing rural disintegration. For example, in sub-Saharan Africa, HIV is depleting the region of its food producers and farmers, decimating the agricultural labour force for generations to come. In spite of the fact that up to 80% of the people in the most affected countries depend on agriculture for their subsistence, most of the response to the epidemic has come from the health sector. The agricultural sector cannot continue with "business as usual" in communities where vast numbers of adults are dead, leaving only the elderly and children. It has to revise the content and delivery of its services, as well as the process of transferring agricultural knowledge.
Effective solutions rely on the agricultural sector and its capacity to reduce people's vulnerability to acquire the disease. The agricultural sector is in a strong position to assist in both the prevention and mitigation of the consequences of HIV. Moreover, it has a responsibility to those people who depend on agriculture for their survival. FAO recognizes the urgent need for action to be able to respond effectively to the impacts of HIV on food security and rural livelihoods and is currently developing a comprehensive HIV strategy for the agriculture sector.
Text for this highlight courtesy the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) – HIV website and photograph, courtesy Family Health International, a partner and Cooperating Organization with dgCommunity HIV/AIDS.
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The 15th Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections was a scientifically focused meeting of the world's leading researchers working to understand, prevent, and treat HIV/AIDS and its complications.
At the Conference which took place from February 3-6, 2008 at Boston - The subjects that were highlighted were: immunology, vaccines (preclinical and clinical trials), virology (including other retroviruses), pathogenesis, neuropathogenesis and neurologic complications, antiretroviral therapy (preclinical, clinical randomized trials, clinical observational studies, and complications), therapeutic vaccines and immune-based therapies, primary/acute infection, clinical pharmacology, HIV drug resistance (including molecular mechanisms, clinical implications and epidemiology of HIV drug resistance), opportunistic infections (including tuberculosis), AIDS-related malignancies (e.g., lymphoma and kaposi's sarcoma), pediatrics/adolescents, maternal/fetal, HIV in women/women's health, novel diagnostic technologies and new monitoring tools, epidemiology of HIV infection, molecular epidemiology (including distribution and diversity of retroviruses), epidemiology of sexually transmitted diseases other than HIV, prevention studies (including microbicides and behavioral interventions), and research on clinical care and scale-up in developing countries (including operational research and implementation).
The Conference featured the thirteenth Annual Bernard Fields Memorial Lecture, the second N'Galy Mann Lecture, plenary lectures that were highly scientific in nature, roundtable symposia that presented and debated controversial scientific issues, several hundred original oral abstract and poster presentations of new data, and late breakers that consisted of important preliminary research findings.
Text and graphic courtesy conference website. Additional resources courtesy The Body, a partner and Cooperating Organization with dgCommunity HIV/AIDS.
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