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 …

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 …

Scientists from the Montjoie Institute of Research in Calgary have announced today that after years of secretive research they have finally identified a cure for HIV. “This is a giant step for science and mankind” announced Dr John Vago, leader of the HIV/AIDS research group at the Institute. “It was so simple that for a long time we could not believe it”.
Indeed, it took 25 years to a team of 50 researchers to come with a simple answer, the cure for HIV is no more than… A glass of water! …

Jaboya is a form of bartering observed on the coast of Kenya where a customer is also a lover. Men fish and women buy the fish to sell on the market. A woman without a boyfriend or a male partner would not be able to obtain fish. Women with limited income therefore offer sex to fishermen in exchange for fish. Fishermen on the other hand have a lot of choice and often more than one customer, and hence are involved in a network of sexual encounters fuelling the HIV …