A response to IRIN/PlusNews list of six potholes in the road to significantly increasing HIV treatment coverage in Africa.
1. Cost:
The Joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) has estimated that US$ 28 billion to US$ 50 billion would be needed globally every year from 2010 to 2015 in order to progressively reach universal access targets for HIV/AIDS by 2015. One-third of this will contribute towards the cost of the drugs.
The figure may sound “staggering” but it needs to be put in perspective with a few other figures such as:

The cost of …

Founded in 1978, ILGA, the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association is now a association of over 700 groups in over 110 countries campaigning for lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and intersex (LGBTI) rights. To raise awareness on the extent of State Sponsored Homophobia in the world, ILGA produced a world survey of laws prohibiting same sex activity between consenting adults.

Rating 3.00 out of 5

In a recent posting I suggested that the possibility to show your HIV status online proves “how much has been accomplished in stamping out stigma”. A reader objected that “Actually, no. This is a move to culturally pressured disclosure so that people with HIV can be further minoritized and excluded, and presumed HIV-negative people can couple with potentially dangerous self-satisfaction.”
A search on the Fridae.com website which allows for publicly showing one’s HIV status returns 280 profiles (110 of them Caucasian) stating being HIV negative at the last test (a period …

HIV acquisition and HIV transmission through sexual intercourse are two very different things. The former relates to an HIV negative individual being infected by an HIV positive person whilst the later is about an HIV positive individual infecting an HIV negative person.
That may seems obvious or hair splitting, but when it comes to ending the spread of HIV in the population, it is very important to understand the difference between HIV acquisition and HIV transmission.
HIV acquisition can be regarded as a dynamic and active process in the person exposed to …

It is confirmed. His Madness Benedict XVI will be visiting the United Kingdom at the invitation of PM Gordon Brown. This will be the first papal visit since another controversial catholic leader, John Paul II, came in 1982.

The frock does not make the man

The announcement came with a stern critic of the forthcoming Equality Bill that would remove the exemption given to the Catholic Church not to comply with anti-discrimination laws, particularly in the area of employment and adoption.
The Catholic Church is naturally entitled to have its own views and …