World AIDS Day

On this World AIDS Day, we reflect on our global successes in scaling up HIV prevention and treatment efforts and averting new infections.

The “treat all” recommendation issued by the World Health Organization in 2015 was a critical milestone in the HIV response. Also known as “test and treat,” the recommendation expands antiretroviral therapy (ART) eligibility to include all people living with HIV, regardless of CD4 count, and recommends universal lifelong treatment.

This approach ensures that HIV-positive pregnant and breastfeeding women identified in antenatal care, during labor, or while breastfeeding, can benefit from the use of lifelong ART — also known as Option B+ — rather than starting and stopping treatment if they are ineligible upon cessation of breastfeeding, which is known as Option B.

The Option B+ approach simplifies treatment guidelines and prioritizes the health of pregnant women and mothers, and it has proven effective. According to UNAIDS, the number of new HIV infections among children has decreased by 56 percent globally since 2010.

When you get sick, where do you go for health care?

You probably have lots of options — a local hospital, clinic, or even a neighborhood pharmacy. But for women like Rose Chebet, who lives in eastern Uganda, it's not so simple.

When she was about four months pregnant with twins, Rose went to a nearby hospital for a prenatal visit, and there she learned she was HIV-positive. She was terrified that her babies would die, or that they would be born HIV-positive. Fortunately, the hospital she visited participates in a MSH-run program that referred Rose to a clinic, where she received anti-retroviral medication that kept her healthy and prevented HIV transmission to her babies. The program also provides follow up care to ensure Rose keeps her medical appointments and takes her medicine.

Thanks to this early intervention, her babies were safely delivered and remain free of HIV.

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My name is Tiglu. I was born and raised in Bahir Dar. When I first learned that I am living with the [HIV] virus, my mind went blank. I was depressed. After that, I started taking antiretroviral treatment. Then they found TB in me...

Meet Tiglu, a living example of how partnering for stronger health systems saves lives. In Ethiopia, about 790,000 people are living with HIV. Tiglu, a patient at the Bahir Dar Health Center in the Amhara Region of north-western Ethiopia, discovered he is HIV positive three years ago, and started on antiretroviral treatment (ART). He learned later he also has tuberculosis (TB).

“If it wasn't for the trainings given by MSH, patients like Tiglu wouldn't have received proper TB treatment,” said Sister Tiringo Zeleke, a nurse at Bahir Dar Health Center.

“The same is true for ART.”

To commemorate World AIDS Day, Management Sciences for Health (MSH) recently teamed up with Save the Children and ONE in conjunction with the Office of Representative Barbara Lee (D-CA) to co-host an event on Capitol Hill entitled Getting to an AIDS-Free Generation: Overcoming Remaining Challenges.

In recent years, Haiti has endured some of the greatest misfortunes in its history, including hurricanes, floods, the devastating 2010 earthquake, and the cholera epidemic that followed. These natural disasters and public health crises have added to the harm already caused by the country’s widespread poverty, social and political unrest, and under-resourced health system. Haiti’s fragile population is further plagued by the highest HIV prevalence in the Western Hemisphere at 1.9 percent, which translates to roughly 120,000 HIV-positive individuals and 93,000 children who have lost their parents to AIDS (UNAIDS, 2011).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=joX9cq692Wc

Michel Sidibé, Executive Director of UNAIDS, discusses the new UNAIDS World AIDS Day report: Results at a press conference today in Geneva.

• Learn more about the UNAIDS World AIDS Day Report.
• Discuss in the comments below or on Twitter with #Results and @UNAIDS.

MSH's 40th anniversary year has been a catalyst to revisit our origins, recommit to our mission and renew our values. As we approach the holidays and look toward 2012, I’d like to share reflections on one of the most poignant events of the year for me: my recent visit with Mrs. Fumiko Iwamura in Japan. Fumiko-san is the widow of Dr. Noboru Iwamura, who inspired our founder Ron O’Connor to create MSH.

 

Inside Story: The Science of HIV/AIDS, a new feature-length docudrama in which USAID plays a supporting role, premiered to a packed theater in Johannesburg, South Africa, on World AIDS Day, December 1, 2011.

Inside Story is a unique mixture of science and fiction and includes cast members and characters from Nigeria, Kenya and South Africa.

A Poem to HIV & AIDS: "Thou hydra-headed restless monster | Killer of millions of my kind | Sower of discord in my nation | I shall fly in thy face until zero"

This year is not only MSH’s 40th anniversary; it is also 30 years since the first reported cases of HIV. Thirty years ago HIV was considered a new, always-fatal disease. ...Today 6.6 million people—nearly half of those in need—will take life-saving antiretrovirals.