Info e-mail weekly bulletin No 54, 6 July 2001

1. Groundbreaking SADC meeting

The SADC Ministers of Health and seven pharmaceutical companies met in Pretoria in June to review progress in the SADC region since the launch of the WHO/UNAIDS Accelerating Access to Care Initiative about a year ago. The Ministers outlined the challenges confronting their countries and their experience in accessing affordable treatment and care. They generally welcomed the initiatives of the pharmaceutical industry but called for greater consultation between governments. They also noted that assistance was not uniformly available to all countries in the region as companies adopted different eligibility criteria. However, it was recognised that where governments and pharmaceutical companies had worked together the results had been extremely positive and mutually beneficial.  For more information contact Dr Thuthula Balfour, Director: SADC Health Sector, Tel: 27 12 312 0901 or by email on thuthb@health.pwv.za.

 2. Mobilisation of networks in Togo

During the month of May two workshops on HIV/AIDS were held in Togo. The first, held in Lomé, was a training workshop for 15 journalists from different organisations. This was run with the support of UNAIDS, UNDP and WHO, and led to the establishment of a media network focussed on the fight against AIDS. The second workshop was held in Palièmé, and dealt with the establishment of a network of Associations of People Living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) in Togo. The workshop was organised by the Centre for Family Studies with assistance from Glaxo Welcome laboratories and UNAIDS. For more information please contact Dr Yamina Chakkar at chakkary@laposte.tg

 3.      Madagascar signs partnership agreement

The government of Madagascar signed a partnership agreement with the UN Theme Group on HIV/AIDS on 17 May. Implementation is already underway and the various cosponsors are regularly monitoring the activities they are implementing within their respective programmes. This partnership will boost the collaboration with the government and attract new partners. For more information, please contact Pierre Somse at somsep@bow.dts.mg

 4. Plus News from UN network

As of 1 June the United Nations Integrated Regional Information Network (UN-IRIN) together with the UNAIDS Intercountry Teams, SAfAIDS, PANOS, Health-Development Network, GTZ and CDC have initiated the development of a regional information and news service, known as Plus News. Plus News provides a weekly information bulletin including news from the region on HIV/AIDS, information on upcoming events, conferences and new publications being developed in the region. For more information contact Obi Anyadike at obi@irin.co.za or view the website at www.irinnews.org.