Women’s Refugee Commission – Where There is Health There is Hope #Burundi

Women’s Refugee Commission – Blog.
Deogratias Niyizonkiza: Where There is Health There is Hope

by Guest Blogger Deo Niyizonkiza, posted: May 19, 2010

Deo attends a severely malnourished child on a home visit in Kigutu

Deo Niyizonkiza was one of two refugees honored at the Women’s Refugee Commission 2010 Voices of Courage Awards held Thursday, May 6 in New York City. In his post below, Deo tells us why he founded Village Health Works in his home country of Burundi, and why he believes it is especially important to provide health care to refugee women and children.

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South Africa Unleashes Plan to Slow AIDS Crisis

South Africa Unleashes Plan to Slow AIDS Crisis – NYTimes.com.

“If we had acted more than a decade ago, we might not have been in this situation where we are,” Dr. Motsoaledi said. “Obviously, we did lose time.”

Michel Sidibé, executive director of Unaids, the United Nations AIDS agency, said South Africa’s undertakings offered hope to the continent. “It’s the first time one country has scaled up so quickly, to so many people,” he said.

South Africa, the region’s richest nation and a symbol of democracy, has an estimated 5.7 million H.I.V.-positive citizens, more than any other country.

“In my village, when we want to kill the snake, we don’t hit the tail, but the head,” said Mr. Sidibé, who is from Mali. “The head of this epidemic is South Africa.”

The South African Finance Ministry said it expected that the broadened access to drugs would put a million more people on treatment in the next few years, roughly doubling the current case load. It has budgeted an extra $1 billion for it. Dr. Motsoaledi said Mr. Zuma reopened the budget to get more money for AIDS when it became clear that costs would be higher.

South Africa’s understaffed public health system and the ballooning cost of treating millions of people for life will pose daunting challenges to the government’s ambitious goals.

The United States has long been South Africa’s principal donor in the fight against AIDS, giving the country $620 million this year. But advocates worry that global donors will not provide enough money to sustain a rapidly growing treatment program.

For now, though, there is optimism among the scientists and advocates who had despaired as the nation dithered on AIDS under its former president, Thabo Mbeki.

“I’ve never known such a gathering of momentum around H.I.V. as in the last month or so,” said Mark Heywood, who directs the AIDS Law Project based in Johannesburg.

Mr. Mbeki had questioned whether H.I.V. caused AIDS and suggested that anti-retroviral drugs were harmful. Harvard researchers estimated that the government could have prevented the premature deaths of 365,000 people during the last decade if it had provided the drugs to AIDS patients and medicines that help stop pregnant women from infecting their babies.

Credit source NY Times