The network of European Union (EU) delegations in southern Africa, known as ?Action Against AIDS?, met in Windhoek last week for their 5th annual meeting to share experiences and best practice, acquaint themselves with new research findings, and to develop a joint plan of action for the year to come.Sub – Saharan Africa remains the region most affected by HIV and AIDS in the world with 67% of all new infections worldwide in 2008, even though globally HIV incidence appears to be stabilising. Within the continent, southern Africa is the region with the highest prevalence and new infections rates.?The importance of addressing the epidemic in our aid efforts in this region which is the most infected and affected globally cannot be underestimated as AIDS changes the course of development,? says Elisabeth Pape, the head of the EU delegation to Namibia, who took over the chairmanship from Malawi for the coming year.Hon. Richard Kamwi, minister of health and social services, said that the fight against HIV/AIDS is shared by all and to move forward, better and smarter partnerships were necessary.?We have to hold each other accountable. Only, and only then, we can win the fight against HIV/AIDS. Prevention is not an easy thing to do for HIV/AIDS, in the absence of an effective vaccine. We will need to rely heavily, for many years to come, in a combination of strategies and approaches to reach our targets. We will have to rely hardly on multidisciplinary and multisectoral collaboration for prevention strategies and approaches to work,? he said.Kamwi also reported on Namibia?s progress on the prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) which ensured that almost all children being born by HIV/AIDS infected mothers, are saved from the virus.Representatives from the Global Fund, as well as a number of participants, failed to attend the meeting as their flights from Europe to Windhoek were cancelled due to the recent volcanic ash cloud in Europe. The EU Action Against AIDS Group which comprises of Angola, Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe has since its creation in 2006 worked to increase attention to the pandemic in southern Africa, in the Commission?s headquarters as well as among other stakeholders.

How do you condense seven years of learning into a package that is usable for the future? And how do you ensure that people know that such a package exists? As the Yelula/U-khâi project draws to a close, it has become important to ensure that the learnings and products from the project are taken up and used by others in the field.Yelula/U-khâi works with communities, individuals and marginalised groups in rural Namibia to strengthen their resources and support their vision in responding to the HIV pandemic and supporting orphans and vulnerable children. Yelula/U-Khâi means ?lift up? in Oshiwambo and Khoekhoegowab. The project works in the four north central regions of Namibia, and the Karas region in the south.On May 10 and 11, Yelula/U-khâi will host two events to share its learnings and successes in working with community self-help groups of people living with and affected by HIV. An exhibition drawn from the project?s work will celebrate the achievements of the community groups the project has worked with. The showcasing falls into 3 main components: an evening event that celebrates the project and its learnings; a more in-depth day of exploration of learnings and their implications; and an exhibition highlighting project activities and learnings. A celebration of Yelula/U-khâi successes and achievementsEvening: 10 May 2010, 17h30 for 18h00Venue: FNCC café and terrace ?We strengthen one another?: exhibitionDates: 10 May – 4 June Venue: FNCC Wild Art café (10:00-22:00)A more in-depth exploration of Yelula/U-khâi methods and implications of learningsHalf day: 08:30-13:00, 11 May 2010Venue: FNCC media roomFramed by a plenary overview and ?roadmap?, and a concluding panel discussion, five ?café tables? give participants the opportunity to dig deeper into various aspects of the Yelula/U-khâi project.Components of World Café will cover:1)Human Rights and HIV 2)Community groups and community action 3)Building capacity to make a difference4)Filling the gaps: RACOCs and CACOCs, Forums, Government interventions5)Positive impact

Geneva ? Nearly 30 donors to the Global Fund met this week in the Hague, Netherlands, to review global health progress and assess funding needs for the period 2011 to 2013. osted by the government of the Netherlands, this is a preparatory meeting ahead of a pledging conference for the Global Fund at the UN Headquarters on 4 and 5 October, which will be chaired by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. The preparatory meeting in the Hague was attended by delegates from 27 countries and the United Nations Foundation, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and UNITAID. ?We have made such extraordinary progress that a world without malaria deaths and a world without any babies being born with AIDS is now within our reach by 2015,? says Prof. Michel Kazatchkine, executive director of the Global Fund. ?The financing allocated in 2010 will determine whether we can finally reach that promise.? Donors will discuss the results achieved by the Global Fund and projections of the costs for funding its share of the response to the three global pandemics.

The Christina Swart-Opperman Aids-Orphan Foundation Trust this week announced its new board of trustees. The members are:Top (left to right) Dr Christina Swart-Opperman, founder of the Trust; Desérè Lundon-Müller, patron of the Trust Bottom (left to right) Jerry Muadinohamba. Ambassador Tonata Itenge and Gersom Katjimune . Dr Christina Swart-Opperman, Economist Businesswoman of the Year 2002, founded and launched the Christina Swart-Opperman AIDS Orphan Foundation Trust on 26 February 2003. She believes that the new board of trustees will enable the Trust to reach new heights.

The HIV/AIDS prevalence among expectant mothers in Namibia is decreasing since 2002, Prime Minister Nahas Angula said this week.?It is indeed very encouraging to see that our efforts over many years of fighting HIV/AIDS in Namibia are indeed bearing fruits,? he said.Angula said this during the annual commemoration of World AIDS Day. ?The health sector has done our nation proud with a rapid and very comprehensive roll-out of the anti-retroviral treatment programme so that we have exceeded our coverage targets and are everyday reaching more people with life sustaining ARV medication,? he said.This year World AIDS Day is commemorated under the theme: ?Make HIV Prevention a national priority.? Angula said this year people were even more responsive so that almost 85 000 women and men came for an HIV test over the course of the National Testing Day campaign.?With this support from our development partners we are looking towards expanding this highly accessible services next year through the purchase of three more mobile testing vans. We are also seeing an encouraging increase in the distribution and use of condoms,? he said.Namibia?s advances in controlling the HIV/AIDS epidemic are also being recognized internationally, Angula said.?We have been very successful in this endeavour. But we now have to appreciate that awareness promotion and preventive interventions against HIV/AIDS need more attention. We now have considerable evidence that shows that we need to move away from a blanket approach to HIV prevention. We need to establish focused interventions and support innovative prevention progammes that are tailored to reach specific driver and targeted at every specific risk groups and risk environments,? he said.

The country?s retirement, long-term insurance and medical industries will face a serious strain on their operations due to the HIV/AIDS pandemic. A study done by the Bank of Namibia in collaboration with the World Bank and Metropolitan South Africa on the impact of HIV/AIDS on the non-banking financial sector in Namibia, has recommended that the sector comes up with ways on ensuring their long-term survival.The study concluded that the Namibian regulatory authorities could require the long-term insurance companies to report on the strategies they have in place to address HIV and AIDS.Overpricing and assumptions that are too conservative in light of the big reduction in AIDS mortality will lead to excessive mortality profits and poor value for policyholders, the study said.The study concluded in its assessment that long term insurance companies should develop individual life insurance products that can be offered to all applicants regardless of HIV status. The results of the assessment showed that there are different options available to the long-term insurance companies.The include: Offering an ?impaired life? insurance product to an HIV positive policy applicant provided that they can proof their status and the take-up on HIV disease management which will eventually include ART. These types of policies are already available in South Africa; scrap compulsory HIV testing (underwriting) at inception and provide a significant discount to those who are willing to test; 0ffer low sum insured life cover with limited underwriting and no HIV test and compel all insurance companies to offer insurance to HIV positive applicants with full underwriting (they can test and calculate the corresponding premium assuming take-up on anti retroviral treatment (ART.)The study said government subsidies for savings and long-term insurance products for those households affected by HIV and AIDS will increase affordability, encourage HIV testing and treatment and will probably lead to an increase in marketing efforts in this market. Subsidies might be targeted at young pregnant females or households with children younger than 16 years, it was recommended. The study said a marketing campaign targeting rural areas and affinity groups such as burial societies will lead to an increase in access to insurance.?Insurance policies sold in areas with limited financial literacy and irregular/low income groups need to be simple, have flexible premium payment terms and easily accessible premium payment mechanisms. Examples are policies where premiums can be paid via mobile phone. HIV education is compulsory for brokers and intermediaries. A sales force educated in HIV and AIDS who concentrate on the older markets will probably increase the take-up of savings and insurance products amongst households affected by HIV and AIDS,? the study said.It said insurance companies can offer education policies with limited underwriting and no HIV test.The report said HIV and AIDS will have a severe impact on the Namibian retirement fund industry because of increased liabilities; reduced funding levels.?Ability of the Retirement Fund Industry to absorb these costs will depend on adequacy of reserving by taking accurate AIDS related mortality and morbidity into account ability of the sponsoring employers to increase their contribution rates. Clear saving in HIV and AIDS related death and disability benefit costs since the introduction of antiretroviral treatment to members of the industry has enhanced the financial stability of the industry considerably,? the study said.

A Gala dinner to raise funds for charity is being organised by the Christina Swart-Opperman Aids Orphan Foundation Trust. The Trust said the dinner is scheduled to take place early next month aimed to raise further funds to help in its goal of helping orphaned children.The dinner, themed Our Beautiful Country, Our Beautiful Children will take place on 18 November.The dinner, which will be the Trust?s eighth fund raising event will go a long way in giving the Trust more muscle to help more children in their already difficult lives. On the night of the dinner, 64 special children from projects supported by the Trust will perform cultural performances to entertain those present. Poems by well-known local poet, Mvula ya Nangolo will mellow the dinner which will mean more than just delicious food for the children.The dinner has a fitting theme ?Our Beautiful Country, Our Beautiful Children?. Dr Swart-Permanent explains the theme. ?The incredible beauty and diversity of our country and children will be the overall theme, which will be reinforced by all performance as well as the cuisine?.The Trust is planning to sell 50 tables (with 30 sold already) in order to raise the N$500 000 it is hoping to raise from the dinner. Dr Swart-Opperman said the money raised will be used to continue with the Trust?s current projects , ?as well as embarking upon identified assistance for additional homes and families?.8045 children have benefitted since the Trust was created in February 2003. ?Funds are solicited by tying in with companies? corporate social responsibility and by hosting unique fund-raising events,? said Dr Swart-Opperman.The dinner will be made possible by sponsorships either in kind or money by My Health, Namibia Breweries, Ammoniac Events, Business Connexion, Olthaver & List, Bank Windhoek, Trip Travel, Welwitschia Travel and Safari Court, where the dinner will take place.

(PLUSNEWS)-A six-year clinical trial in Thailand has yielded the first ever evidence that an AIDS vaccine can provide some protection against HIV infection. The trial team in Bangkok, Thailand?s capital, announced on 24 September that rates of HIV infection were 31 percent lower in trial participants who received the vaccine than in those who received a placebo. ?These new findings represent an important step forward in HIV vaccine research,? said Dr Anthony Fauci, director of the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), the main funder of the trial. The study, known as RV144, began enrolling 16,000 HIV-negative men and women between the ages of 18 and 30 in October 2003. Half the volunteers received a placebo; the other half were given shots containing two different vaccines. The first, called ALVAC-HIV, used a disabled form of a bird virus known as canary pox to deliver synthetic versions of three HIV genes into the body. The second, called AIDSVAX, was composed of a genetically engineered version of an HIV protein. The synthetic HIV components in both vaccines were based on subtypes B and E of the virus, which are most common in Thailand, the US and Europe. Scientists do not yet know whether the vaccine would be effective against other strains, such as subtype C, which is most prevalent in sub-Saharan Africa. The trial was designed to evaluate whether the combined vaccines lowered HIV infection risk, and whether they had any impact on viral load [the amount of HIV circulating in the bloodstream] in the volunteers who became infected. Of 8,197 people given the vaccine regimen, 51 became infected, compared to 74 of the 8,198 volunteers who received the placebo,a result considered ?statistically significant?.

HIV/AIDS patients are not the favourite members of medical aid funds. Their treatment is so expensive that those with medical aid schemes have limited health benefits – so limited that they often have to their treatment since they cannot afford to pay it out of their pockets.The ?Health is Vital Risk Equalisation Fund? was established to address these very challenges. The fund is the brainchild of Prosperity Health, but it is a fund for the entire industry, said Kobus Struwig, the MD of Prosperity Health.?Namibia is a small market in which critical mass is not achieved because of the small membership base of healthcare funds in the market?, he said. The fund is targeted at corporate entities with a big work force. It will also look at HIV/AIDS management, such as keeping national statistics of infected employees and their status; information which the private sector can use in planning.With an industry-funded healthcare plan, medical aid funds will not have to carry the HIV risk. The ?Health is Vital Risk Equalisation Fund? has already received the green light from the Namibia Financial Supervisory Authority. And four medical aid funds have already indicated their eagerness to join the fund and are expected to transfer the HIV/AIDS medical coverage of their members, about 33000, to the industry fund by January next year.Membership contribution is set at N$20 per person. The fund will be administrated by Methealth Namibia.Prosperity Health aims to consolidate the isolated initiatives of commerce and industry with this fund and create a joint communal programme as well as an effective HIV/AIDS financial plan available to all companies and medical aid funds. It also wants to create buying power within the private sector through a critical mass that will secure lower-priced medication and treatment.The fund will cover HIV/AIDS, opportunistic infections and counselling. The fund will be managed by an independent Board of Trustees from amongst the members of medical aid funds, the medical profession and the donor community.According to Struwig, the fund will also take on individuals with no medical aid benefits. The individuals will pay a higher fee of N$30 per person, but there is hope that this could be subsidised by the European Union donor community with whom Prosperity Health is engaged in discussions.If successful, Prosperity Health will introduce the same fund in countries where the company operates. Prosperity Health is administrating medical aid funds in South Africa, Tanzania and Kenya.?It is the first in Africa, a milestone in Namibia?, Struwig said of the industry fund for HIV/AIDS, adding that at present the medical aid industry does not have the capacity to manage HIV/AIDS and related diseases.?We push claims, throw them in the system and pay the doctors, but we do not manage?.