More in Uganda: Minister Comments Carelessly on HIV/AIDS

Via In2EA.

The Health Minister Christine Ondoa’s remarks that HIV/Aids can be cured through prayer have not been received well by both health practitioners and born-again preachers who called it careless and misleading remarks.

Yesterday, Ms Ondoa was quoted by the Observer newspaper to have had a firsthand experience with people she claimed were infected by the HIV/Aids virus but after a series of prayer, tested negative.

She, however, observed that medical workers and the general public should be cautious about people who claim they were healed of HIV, adding that as a scientist she is often careful not to automatically believe a person who comes to her presenting negative results after being prayed for. Such a person’s sero status must be checked and their medical records that show they tested positive must be scrutinised, Ms Ondoa added.

The Head of The Aids Support Organisation (TASO), Mr Richard Ochai, who refused to believe that a minister could say such a thing, said such statements, most especially from born-again churches, are continuously curtailing TASO efforts to fight against HIV/Aids whose prevalence in recent years is said to have increased in the country.

He said science has proved that if one takes ARVs the viral load will become low such that they may not be detected but once they stop taking the drug, the virus will definitely be seen again. “We know God can do miracles if he so wishes but these many possibilities still need scientific prove,” Dr Ochai said.

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[If an item is not written by an IRMA member, it should not be construed that IRMA has taken a position on the article's content, whether in support or in opposition.]

UNAIDS Director Praises Pope's Condom Shift

via CNN.com

There could be single cases that can be justified, for instance when a prostitute uses a condom ...

Pope Benedict XVI's possible shift on condom use is a "significant and positive step forward," the head of the United Nations anti-AIDS campaign said, welcoming the potentially historic remark.

"This move recognizes that responsible sexual behavior and the use of condoms have important roles in HIV prevention," UNAIDS executive director Michel Sidibe said in a statement.

"This will help accelerate the HIV prevention revolution," he said Saturday.

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[If an item is not written by an IRMA member, it should not be construed that IRMA has taken a position on the article's content, whether in support or in opposition.]

Circumcision Gains in Popularity

From the Financial Times, by Andrew Jack

When a Muslim and a Jewish surgeon travel to KwaZulu Natal later this month to help local healthcare teams develop high-volume adult male circumcision programmes, they are expecting considerable interest. Operation Abraham, an Israel-based group, has tapped into the traditional experience of two faiths in circumcision to offer guidance in a region where the practice was long in abeyance but recently resumed. "Young men are proving very receptive," says Inon Schenker, who led a first training team in August dubbed Shesha (Zulu for swift), based on earlier pilot schemes in Swaziland.

South Africa has long been at the epicentre of the HIV epidemic, and a venue for innovation in tackling the disease. Now, the change in political leadership is allowing some of the findings to be put into practice, albeit more slowly than many advocates would like. Two decades after anecdotal and observational data highlighted lower HIV rates in circumcised men, it was in Orange Farm, near Johannesburg, that Bertran Auvert, a French researcher, conducted a systematic clinical trial proving that the procedure could reduce infection by 60 percent.

In South Africa's private sector, the findings soon began to have an impact. "As soon as we saw the data, we made sure adult male circumcision would become a funded benefit," says Jonathan Broomberg, head of Discovery Health, a large health insurance company that has also helped fund Shesha philanthropically. Yet if scientific, logistical, procedural and financial hurdles have helped explain the modest overall progress thus far in many countries, South Africa had a particular political challeng rooted in the ambivalence of Thabo Mbeki, the former president, towards tackling AIDS.

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Tutu Fabulous - The Archbishop's Top 5 LGBT Quotes

via change.org

In honor of Archbishop Desmond Tutu who officially resigned yesterday, here are 5 great quotes that speak to his commitment to LGBT human rights.

Here is an especially great one:

Gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered people are part of so many families. They are part of the human family. They are part of God's family. And of course they are part of the African family.

- Archbishop Desmond Tutu, March 2010

Read the rest.