Heard

Designing human immunodeficiency virus counselling and testing services to maximize uptake among high school learners in South Africa: What matters?

Strauss M., George G and Rhodes B

Increasing human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) testing in South Africa is vital for the HIV response. Targeting young people is important as they become sexually active and because HIV risk rapidly increases as youth enter their 20s. This study aims to increase the understanding of high school learners’ preferences regarding the characteristics of HIV testing service delivery models and to inform policy makers and implementers regarding ...>>

Political responsibility and global health

Poku, Nk and J, Sundewall

Globalising dynamics have had wide-ranging and pervasive impacts on nearly every form of human relatedness, which now include the bases upon which states calculate and express their political responsibilities. As the ‘reach’ of practical and normative pressures extends and their demands intensify, the compass of state responsibility is becoming a key pressure point for facing the challenges and mediating the tensions of our globalised and ...>>

Fast-tracking HIV prevention: scientific advances and implementation challenges

Govender, K and Poku, N

Funding of community-based interventions for HIV prevention

Poku, NK & Bonnel, R

Since the start of the HIV epidemic, community responses have been at the forefront of the response. Following the extraordinary expansion of global resources, the funding of community responses rose to reach at least US$690 million per year in the period 2005–2009. Since then, many civil society organisations (CSOs) have reported a drop in funding. Yet, the need for strong community responses is even more urgent, as shown by their role in ...>>

UN political declaration on HIV and AIDS: where to begin?

Poku, NK

In June, 2016, the UN General Assembly made a political commitment to end AIDS by 2030, endorsing the fast-track approach of the UNAIDS. This political declaration is unflinching in its characterisation of AIDS as “a paramount health, development, human rights and social challenge”, and is detailed about the structural, programmatic, and normative challenges facing the global response to the HIV epidemic. But as Michel Sidibé, Executive ...>>

Methods to construct a step-by-step beginner’s guide to decision analytic cost-effectiveness modeling

Rautenberg, T., Hulme, C and Edlin, R

Although guidance on good research practice in health economic modeling is widely available, there is still a need for a simpler instructive resource which could guide a beginner modeler alongside modeling for the first time. This publication describes the methods which have been undertaken to develop a step by step guide to cost effectiveness modelling.

Cost-effectiveness of initiating antiretroviral therapy at different points in TB treatment in HIV-TB co-infected ambulatory patients in South Africa

K, Naidoo., Grobler, AC., Deghaye, N., Reddy, T., Gengiah, S., Gray A and Abdool Karim S

Initiation of antiretroviral therapy (ART) during tuberculosis (TB) treatment improves survival in TB-HIV coinfected patients. In patients with CD4 counts <50 cells per cubic millimeter, there is a substantial clinical and survival benefit of early ART initiation. The purpose of this study was to assess the costs and cost-effectiveness of starting ART at various time points during TB treatment in patients with CD4 counts ≥50 cells per ...>>

Human resources for health: challenges facing sub-Saharan Africa

George, G., Reardon, C., and Quinlan, T

The number of nurses and doctors that have left sub-Saharan Africa and who consider emigration is worryingly high, given the imbalance of health workers between urban and under-resourced health facilities in the country. Despite several responses and initiatives by the South African government to reduce the number of health professional wanting to leave the country or to alleviate its negative effects, emigration still persists. Health ...>>

South Africa’s key health challenges

Whiteside, A. 

South Africa has an estimated 6.4 million people living with HIV, with more than 2 million already on treatment. The disease emerged in South Africa at the same time as the transition to democracy began in 1990. Although the country has seen considerable advances in many social spheres, the health sector has lagged. This lag is primarily because the HIV/AIDS epidemic results in an increased burden of disease in a cohort of people who would ...>>

Global development goals (GDGs) and the international HIV response: a chance for renewal

Regondi, I., and Whiteside, A.

As the deadline to meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) approaches, it is apparent that many of the objectives set out in the year 2000 will not be met. It took ten years of political bargaining to devise and agree to the MDG framework and this consideration alone provides a distinct sense of urgency if any post-2015 agreement is to be achieved. In much of Southern and East Africa, the AIDS epidemic has been one of the biggest ...>>