Newsletter of the African Centre for HIV/AIDS Management, Volume 2 Number 1 2004 1

Newsletter

African Centre for HIV/AIDS Management, Volume 2 Number 1 2004

A time to celebrate

Champs of the PDM class of 2003 – the students who came out tops in each of the six modules. From left are Faan Kruger, Prof Jan du Toit, Isabella Maeda, Andrew Treu and Gary Bonney.

IN ABSENTIA? No way, says Sin-die Ntlonze of King William’s Town. It was too hectic getting to the point where she could receive her diploma, says this full-time teacher, wife and mother.

Ntlonze’s joy was echoed by each of the PDM students of 2003 who received their diplomas on 16 April in Stellenbosch.

“The course broadened my perspective on HIV,” says Berna-dine Peyi, an NGO training coor-dinator. “The demands were tough, but the instructors and admin staff were very supportive.”

“The contents of the course had a lot of practical value,” says Koliswa Mshudulu, a social worker at Groote Schuur Hospital. “It gave me the opportunity to draw up a policy, with benefits for the whole hospital. Now we’re seeing more people disclose, as they realise they’re protected by our policy.”

Making a difference is the whole point of the course, says Prof Jan du Toit, director of the African Centre. It was designed that way, he says, and some of the credit belongs to former Director-General of Health Dr Olive Shisana, currently head of the HSRC’s HIV/AIDS programme.

Du Toit handed awards to the top student in each of the six modules. Congratulations once again to Andrew Treu, Mariana Middleton, Faan Kruger, Isabella Maeda and Gary Bonney, also the

overall best student of 2003.

Maeda travelled all the way from Gaborone in Botswana, where she is a medical doctor. “Now my two young ones will stop complaining about mommy going to the library every day!”

Here and there the jokes about the workload are still made with a wry grin. We’re after all talking about 18 assignments, 45 lessons and lots of reading – 602 pages just for module 2 (the socio-cultural aspects of HIV)! No wonder Du Toit says the PDM is equal to an honours degree . . .

But the course is unique, says Bonney. It gives people excellent contacts, and the e-learning is a

good way of interacting with peo-ple. He also stresses the practical value of the PDM, saying it encour-aged him to start a “Madam & Eve” programme, focusing on HIV/AIDS in the domestic worker context.

After receiving their diplomas the students were treated to a cocktail function organised by the centre’s admin staff – Renice Wil-liams, Anja Karsten, Bianca Farao and Ernest Samuels. A real team effort, with friends Renay Luther and mother-and-daughter Brenda and Mandy Pietersen making the venue look festive. “We must be getting used to it, because it gets easier every time,” says Renice. Cheers, then, until next year!

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Kicking off with a bang In short

FOR 260 PDM students the aca-demic 2004 kicked off with a suc-cessful summer school in Pretoria from 9 to 13 February.

The first two days were spent on introducing the students to the lecturers, and a general introduc-tion to the whole programme. One day was spent on WebCT training and the last two days were a continuation of teaching on first semester courses.

The feedback from the students

was very positive. It seems they found the summer school to be very enriching. They found that it clarified what was expected from them academically.

According to the director of the African Centre, Prof Jan du Toit, the PDM programme seems to be going from strength to strength every year.

Next on this year’s agenda is the winter school that will be held at Stellenbosch from 21 to 25 June.

Ms Zethu Xapile of the JL Zwane Centre in Guguletu receives the car from Mr. Frank Rendell (Kromboom Rotary) who was instrumental in raising the money.

Hospice helps hundreds THE community work partnership between the African Centre and the JL Zwane Centre in Guguletu now also includes St Luke’s Hos-pice, to show commitment to car-ing for people dying of AIDS.

The hospice programme em-ploys a social worker, 2 nurses, a property caretaker/security guard and 16 caregivers, who have al-ready made 700 visits this year – and it keeps growing. Today they see an average of 45 patients per day. The majority have HIV/AIDS, though some are cancer patients.

Transport became a great need, and the Rotary Club came to the

rescue. The Rotary Club of Krom-boom, in association with the Ro-tary Club of Barrhead, Glasgow, Scotland and District 1230 in Scot-land, applied successfully to the Rotary Foundation for a grant to provide the hospice with kitchen equipment, a TV/video set for HIV/AIDS education – and a car!

Apart from patient visits, the hospice is involved in home-based care group meetings, support groups, a gardening project and a beading project. The services ex-tend to KTC, Langa and Cross-roads – which makes the Mazda 323 all the more valuable!

New research shows there are

worrying gaps in the SA govern-ment’s campaign to reduce high-risk sexual behaviour. The focus is on promoting safe sex without looking into what motivates behav-iour. Dr Olive Shisana of the HSRC’s HIV/AIDS programme said substance abuse accounts for 5% of new HIV infections. This is alarm-ing, as substance abuse is on the increase in South Africa.

A WHO survey of multi-drug resistant TB unveiled worrying lev-els, especially in China and former Soviet states. Drug-resistant TB strains arise due to the selective survival of naturally occurring drug-resistant strains of mycobac-terium tuberculosis. Selection can happen if patients do not have adequate concentrations of anti-TB drugs or do not complete their course. Once resistant strains gain hold they can be transmitted the same as non-resistant strains.

African ape hunters are being infected by the same class of vi-ruses that causes HIV/AIDS, scien-tists say, raising fears of a new epi-demic. Dr Nathan Wolfe of Johns Hopkins University said ape hunt-ing raises the risk "that ongoing cross-species transmission of ret-roviruses and other pathogens could spark future epidemics simi-lar to HIV." The study said hunters infected by simian foamy virus (SFV) showed no symptoms of dis-ease. More research is needed to discover if it is harmful to humans or can be passed between them.

SA’s Medical Research Council (MRC) could soon be testing tradi-tional medicines that might help in treating illnesses such as HIV and AIDS on humans. The council is in-vestigating seven products, each containing a mixture of about 50 plants, to determine whether the anecdotal evidence could be sup-ported scientifically.

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00002-E-1 – 1 December 2003

Global summary of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, December 2003

The ranges around the estimates in this table define the boundaries within which the actual numbers lie, based on the best available information. These ranges are more precise than those of previous years, and work is under way to increase even further the precision of the estimates that will be published mid-2004.

Number of people living with HIV/AIDS Total 40 million (34 – 46 million)Adults 37 million (31 – 43 million)Children under 15 years 2.5 million (2.1 – 2.9 million)

People newly infected with HIV in 2003 Total 5 million (4.2 – 5.8 million)Adults 4.2 million (3.6 – 4.8 million)Children under 15 years 700 000 (590 000 – 810 000)

AIDS deaths in 2003 Total 3 million (2.5 – 3.5 million)Adults 2.5 million (2.1 – 2.9 million)Children under 15 years 500 000 (420 000 – 580 000)

Still a rampant pandemic gear and prevention is expanding.

But measured against the scale of the global epidemic the pace and scope of the world’s response fall far short of what is required.

The struggle has reached a crossroads – either we inch along or we turn our full knowledge, re-sources and commitment against the pandemic. The choice is clear.

Another side of business

IN 2003 HIV prevalence has re-mained relatively steady, but at high levels, in sub-Saharan Africa. Ac-cording to UNAIDS and the WHO this is because high levels of new infections persist and are now matched by increasing mortality.

How long it will stay like this depends on the effectiveness of prevention, treatment and care. Urgent headway is required on all these fronts, the report states, and says anything less will spell failure.

Education as well as other pre-vention strategies must be ex-panded to curb the spread of the virus, and treatment is needed to blunt the impact of AIDS. One without the other won’t work.

Recent epidemics still grow in China, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Vietnam, Central Asia, the Baltic states and North Africa.

Globally the response is mov-ing, the report states. Political commitment is strong, grassroots mobilisation is dynamic, funding is better, treatment is shifting into

BUSINESS in South Africa shows commitment to fighting HIV, says the recent report on the economic impact of the disease by the Bureau for Economic Research. The study was headed by Linette Ellis and 2003 PDM student Jenny Terwin.

In the survey 9% of companies stated that HIV/AIDS already had a significant impact on business, and more than 40% envisaged a signifi-cant negative impact in five years.

Large companies lead smaller sectors in managing HIV as a busi-ness issue, e.g. more than 90% of big companies (more than 500 people) have an HIV policy, as op-posed to just 13% of companies with fewer than 100 employees.

This is mainly because of a lack of understanding, too little leadership motivation and little cooperation with the public sector.

Despite the cautious rate of workplace action, lots of compa-nies are doing things, or are at least aware of the need, says Sabcoha, who funded the research.

It’s important that companies respond efficiently, but also with clear vision and strategy, and in line with the challenges of its industry, supply chain and community.

According to Sabcoha the time is ripe for every business in South Africa to have a strategy to re-spond to the potential impact of AIDS – no one must be left behind.

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Another milestone in the global fight IT’s almost time for the XVth In-ternational AIDS Conference, held in Bangkok, Thailand, from 11 to 16 July – the deadline for registra-tion (which can be done online at www.aids2004.org) is 1 May.

The abstract programme has five tracks: basic science; clinical research, treatment and care; epi-demiology and prevention; social

and economic issues and policy and programme implementation. In ad-dition there will be plenary gather-ings, symposia, case study presen-tations, satellite meetings, skills workshops and exhibitions.

Over the years HIV/AIDS changed scientific, social and politi-cal needs. Early conferences fo-cused on sharing research and

medical findings about a new dis-ease. More recently attention has been devoted to creating under-standing in social, public health and community related areas.

As organisers the International AIDS Society and the Thai Ministry of Public Health hope the connec-tions and ideas will bring about the changes desperately needed.

Delegates at the programme the African Centre presented in collaboration with the ILO in Douala in Cameroon.

Reaching beyond the borders of SA BECOMING true to its name, the African Centre for HIV/AIDS man-agement has an agreement with the ILO about presenting training programmes in the rest of Africa.

According to the centre’s di-rector, Prof Jan du Toit, they be-lieve this could lead to exciting things, provided they get enough funds. The ILO is not a funding or-ganisation and the centre needs its

own funds to work with them. There are plans to repeat the

programme the centre presented with the ILO in Douala last year in West, East and North Africa.

There are talks around doing two workshops - first with Ivory Coast, Benin, Togo, Ghana and Ni-geria, and then with Burkina Faso, Mali, Sierra Leone and Senegal.

Furthermore people are

working on compiling best prac-tices out of students’ assignments, which will end up as a joint publica-tion of the ILO and the centre.

In another “beyond SA” activity Du Toit and the centre’s commu-nication consultant, Amelia Burger, wrote an article on the manage-ment of HIV/AIDS in the European Business Forum. The article can be accessed at www.ebfonline.com

Newsletter compiled by Amelia Bur-ger. Please send any news items or events you want mentioned in a fu-ture newsletter or on the centre’s website to aids@sun.ac.za Tel: +27 21 808 2964 Fax: +27 21 808 3015 http://www.aidscentre.sun.ac.za/