Physician activist released, Ugandan, Nigerian groups call for action, Uganda government responds, and homophobic rhetoric escalates First the good news: after urging by civil society leaders in South Africa and around the world, Ugandan-born physician and gay rights advocate Paul Semugoma has been ordered released from immigration officials’ custody, and will receive the work permit […]
Signers from 28 organizations advocating for global HIV responses called on United States Senators Robert Menendez and Robert Corker to schedule a confirmation hearing in the next week for Dr. Deborah Birx, nominated by the White House last month to serve as the next U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator and lead the President’s Emergency Plan For […]
“Yes, there are many times I’ve been afraid. There are times when we are told that we are going to be arrested. Those are times you can really be afraid. You cannot be out and open as a gay Ugandan.” Physician, gay rights advocate Paul Semugoma, 2012, International AIDS Conference, interview On the eve of […]
Around much of the world where rates of HIV-tuberculosis co-infection are highest, one of the challenges killing patients has been the wait to discover if their TB would respond to the most common treatments. A four-year South Africa study of co-infected patients showed starting treatment for HIV during the course of anti-tuberculosis treatment, rather than […]
Uganda President Yoweri Museveni’s announcement this weekend that he would sign the country’s new anti-homosexuality law may have seemed all the more puzzling in light of his assertion in late December that his decision on the legislation would be guided by science. That plan, and the conclusion it would point to, seemed to settle the […]
The idea was to document and demonstrate the effectiveness of the “Treatment as Prevention” strategy in fighting HIV and AIDS, but a population-wide study of data spanning 16 years in British Columbia’s HIV epidemic scored points for harm reduction and accessible, publically funded health care as well, it turned out. The PLOS One article on […]
A year and a half ago the Global Commission on HIV and the Law put out its report, HIV and the Law: Risks, Rights and Health with recommendations addressing the discriminatory practices that fuel HIV epidemics. Problems the report pointed to included overreaching patent protections and criminalization of HIV transmission, as well as abuses of […]
HIV on a Dangerous Threshold in Sri Lanka – The Indian Ocean island nation was considered a “low-prevalence country,” this article says, but is facing a “much more explosive and complex situation — the risk of an epidemic within high risk groups.” High-risk groups, the article goes on to clarify, means populations at high risk […]
When Nigeria acting Secretary of Foreign Affairs Viola Onwuliri defended President Goodluck Jonathan’s signature on the country’s brutal new anti-homosexuality law, the couple of weeks preceding had to have been a tough time to answer for her country. The law, for reasons obvious to donors, doctors, advocates and others involved in global efforts to combat […]
In the days following a leaked plan from a U.S.-based public relations firm to derail proposed patent reforms in South Africa, those involved indicated that the plan, dubbed “genocidal” by South Africa Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi, was the product of a misunderstanding. The U.S.-based firm, Public Affairs Engagement released a statement saying that when firm […]
HIV
Innovative approaches can help find vulnerable young women in need of HIV prevention services The following is a guest post by Michelle Li, MS, and Quinn […]
Tuberculosis
In the six weeks before South Africa responded its first diagnoses of COVID-19 with the start of physical distancing measures, more than 47,000 people on average […]
Research & Development
With 2018 data showing highest incidence acute flaccid myelitis since monitoring began, officials say awareness, recognition of rare life threatening condition will be crucial to early […]
Policy
By Karen Carvajal, M.D. Over the course of human history we have come a long way in our fight against the threat of infectious diseases and, […]