Just a few decades ago, an HIV/AIDS diagnosis used to be a death sentence. Even when highly-effective treatment was newly available, it cost upwards of $10,000 per person—a way to stay alive, but financially far beyond the reach of the majority in need. Fortunately much has changed since then; thanks to negotiation and partnership, the drugs that make up life-saving antiretroviral treatment now cost as little as 40 cents per day. Antiretroviral therapy (ART), consisting of combinations of antiretroviral drugs, has saved millions of lives by suppressing the body’s viral HIV load and halting progression of the disease. ART is not a cure for HIV or AIDS, and the drugs must be taken every day for the rest of one’s life, but it can prolong the onset of illness and enable a person to live a healthy, productive life for many years.
Currently, there are 6.6 million people around the world receiving ART, up from about 300,000 people in 2003. The number of people on treatment in sub-Saharan Africa increased from 50,000 in 2002 to more than 5 million people in 2010. The Global Fund and PEPFAR, the two largest donors providing ART treatment, support nearly 5.6 million people on ART combined. Since the introduction of ART in the mid-1990s, an estimated 2.5 million AIDS-related deaths have been averted.
Our friends at Stop TB Partnership share a story about a TB patient on his way to recovery to mark World TB Day, which takes place on Saturday, March 24.
Meet Saleem, 28. A year ago he was staggering from doctor to doctor with a raging fever, a weakening body and a fear that he would never get an accurate diagnosis for his illness.
Today, as we prepare to mark World TB Day, this photo of Saleem is evidence that he’s on track to making a full recovery.
Action: 34. Time: 15 minutes. Level of difficulty: Easy.
Tuberculosis has always felt like an old-fashioned disease to me, right there with cholera, polio and dysentery. But unfortunately, it’s not. Today, about one-third of the world is infected with tuberculosis, a disease that attacks the lungs. If left untreated, it can be deadly, and in fact it is the leading cause of death for people infected with HIV/AIDS.
Not enough people know that. But next week, you have a chance to make it right. Saturday, March 24, is World Tuberculosis Day, which marks the day that Dr. Robert Koch discovered the cause of tuberculosis in 1882. We want you to help our friends at the Stop TB Partnership raise awareness around this disease by making a customized Stop TB poster.
The Center for Strategic and International Studies recently created a short video featuring the perspectives of HIV/AIDS experts looking forward to the 2012 International AIDS Conference in Washington, DC, AIDS2012.
From July 22 to 27, 2012, Washington, D.C., will host the 19th international AIDS conference, known as AIDS2012. As the largest conference in the world dedicated to a single global health topic, organizers expect 25,000 people –- including scientists, activists, practitioners, and policymakers -– to attend this year’s meeting.
I have a soft spot for many things in life: cat videos on YouTube, quirky coffee shops and Pittsburgh Steelers paraphernalia, to name a few. In my work, I’ve also developed a soft spot for issues that are classified as “neglected” — the underdogs of global health.
Mercy Ships’ Aberdeen Wet African Fistula Center in Sierra Leone
In my previous job, I focused on neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) — a set of diseases so unheard of that neglect is part of their name. While working on NTDs, we had many conversations about what it meant to be neglected. Was it rooted in a lack of public awareness or the lack of a celebrity advocate? Was there a lack of political will and funding? Was it unpleasant, and therefore unpleasant to talk about? Or was it a combination of factors acting as the invisible hand of the attention marketplace, elevating some issues to prominence while diminishing others?
The Global Fund and South Africa’s award-winning Isango Ensemble have joined forces to breathe new life into “La Bohème,” a classic 19th century opera by the acclaimed Italian composer Giacomo Puccini. Titled “Abanxaxhi,” (the Xhosa language translation of the original title), the contemporary interpretation transplants the setting from Paris in the 1830s to South Africa today, complete with revamped instrumentation for marimbas and steel pans. But even with these drastic changes in time and place, the opera’s main storyline doesn’t require any tweaking. The opera tells the tragic tale of Mimi, a young seamstress who dies of tuberculosis — a story all too common in the South African townships.
“Some stories are so strong that even if you take them from a hundred years ago when they were written and put them in the present context, they still make sense,” explains Pauline Malefane, the ensemble’s music director and star performer. “’Bohème’ is like that. It’s exactly how people live in the township: People who are unemployed, but very happy within themselves, and know how to look after each other.”
Tomorrow, Save the Children will host a worldwide Twitter chat on malnutrition. The chat will allow users to ask questions, offer answers and get talking about this #hiddencrisis. Once you log into your Twitter account from this website, you’ll be able to tweet your comments to the guest hosts and your fellow participants.
Photo credit: Save the Children
Experts from various backgrounds in the international development community will trade off hosting the chat, so be sure to drop in to hear their different takes on the problem. The chat is 12 hours long, so unless you’re a dedicated night owl, you probably won’t be awake for all of it — but the joy of social media is that you can join the conversation whenever works for you!
Right now, some of the world's biggest oil companies are fighting to keep some of their deals with foreign governments secret. Let's tell big oil we won't be bullied.
Cuts to poverty-fighting programs won't balance the budget, but they will set back progress on Canada's development priorities and risk jeopardizing existing investments.
2011 marks 30 years since the first cases of AIDS were documented. Take a closer look at the specific, achievable goals we must hit by 2015 to make this year the beginning of the end of AIDS.
Just a few decades ago, an HIV/AIDS diagnosis used to be a death sentence. Even when highly-effective treatment was newly available, it cost upwards of $10,000 per person—a way to stay alive, but financially far beyond the reach of the majority in need. Fortunately much has changed since then; thanks to negotiation and partnership, the drugs that make up life-saving antiretroviral treatment now cost as little as 40 cents per day. Antiretroviral therapy (ART), consisting of combinations of antiretroviral drugs, has saved millions of lives by suppressing the body’s viral HIV load and halting progression of the disease. ART is not a cure for HIV or AIDS, and the drugs must be taken every day for the rest of one’s life, but it can prolong the onset of illness and enable a person to live a healthy, productive life for many years. 
