covid information: Ivermectin use in Zimbabwe

 

.....

in the west, it is the sick, elderly, and those with chronic illness such as diabetes or renal failure who are dying.

But in Africa, those HIV positive are at risk.

CDC report from Zambia.

The effect of HIV infection on COVID-19 outcomes is unclear. Studies in South Africa (1) and the United Kingdom (2) found an independent association between HIV infection and COVID-19 mortality; however, other studies have not found an association between poor COVID-19 outcomes and either HIV status among hospitalized patients (3–5) or HIV-associated factors such as CD4 count, viral load, or type of antiretroviral therapy (ART) (6). The effect of HIV infection on COVID-19 outcomes remains an urgent question in sub-Saharan Africa, where many countries are experiencing dual HIV and COVID-19 epidemics, and capacity to treat severe COVID-19 is limited. ... those with severe HIV disease were more likely to develop severe COVID-19 or to die of COVID-19 compared with those with controlled HIV disease.

translation: If you have severe HIV, you are at higher risk. 
If your HIV is under control (e.g. by taking treatment) your risk is normal.

the big problem is keeping HIV positive people taking their anti HIV medicine during the pandemic. 

From the DallasNews:

AIDS was an inferno burning through sub-Saharan Africa. The American people, led by Bush, checked that fire and saved millions of lives.
People with immune systems badly weakened by HIV were given anti-retroviral drugs that stopped the progression of the disease. Mothers and newborns were given drugs that stopped the transmission of the virus from one generation to the next. Clinics were built. Doctors and nurses and lay workers were trained. A wrenching cultural conversation about sexual practices broadened, fueled by American money promoting abstinence, fidelity and the use of condoms.
“We kept this country from falling off the edge of a cliff,” said Mark Storella, the U.S. ambassador to Zambia. “We’ve saved hundreds of thousands of lives. We’ve assisted over a million orphans. We’ve created a partnership with Zambia that gives us the possibility of walking the path to an AIDS-free generation. This is an enormous achievement.”
Bush remains active in African health. Last September, he launched a new program — dubbed Pink Ribbon Red Ribbon — to tackle cervical and breast cancer among African women. The program has 14 co-sponsors, including the Obama administration.

Falling death rates

Nyankombe sells colorful batiks, purses and other crafts to benefit Mothers without Borders, a charity that looks after orphans. When AIDS tore unchecked through southern Africa, millions of children lost their parents. Nearly one in five children in countries like Malawi and Lesotho were orphaned. In Zambia, it was one in four.
A decade ago, AIDS was killing 630 of every 100,000 Zambians, according to the World Health Organization. That was 100 times the AIDS death rate in the United States.
In neighboring Botswana, the toll was 750 of every 100,000 people. That was four times the rate for the leading cause of death among Texans (heart disease).
In 2001, four in 10 adults in Botswana were infected with HIV. President Mogae went before the United Nations to plead for the life of his country.
“We are threatened with extinction,” he said. “People are dying in chillingly high numbers. It is a crisis of the first magnitude.”
Bush, with bipartisan support from Congress and $15 billion, mobilized the U.S. government with the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief. In 2008, Congress agreed to provide $38 billion more.
By the time Bush left office, the death rate from AIDS had fallen more than 60 percent in Botswana. There are now 330,000 taking anti-retroviral drugs.
The death rate fell by nearly half in Zambia. There are 418,000 Zambians taking the drugs.

Fear of Infection lowered HIV

from AFP:

WASHINGTON — Fear of infection helped drive a 50 percent decline in new cases of HIV in Zimbabwe from 1997 to 2007, said an international study published Tuesday in the United States....

"Today's findings strongly show that people in Zimbabwe have primarily been motivated to change their sexual behaviour because of improved public awareness of AIDS deaths and a subsequent fear of contracting the virus," said the study in PloS medicine.

Attitude changes were rooted in mass media campaigns that infiltrated church settings, workplaces and other activities, the researchers said.

SA population to shrink after 2030

from Moneyweb.

it's because of HIV, and also smaller families due to family planning.

Circumcision: why it works.

someone left a comment on an earlier post about circumcision preventing HIV transmission.

He then posted a link to a US doc who spouts off stuff on TV there.

Uh, fellahs, I suspect I examined and treated a lot more penile problems than that US expert ever did.

The common thread is cleanliness. In tribal areas, full bathing in a stream full of schistosomiasis laden snails is not the best way to stay clean. In the dry season, it might mean going to a muddy water hole to wash, or to wash in a basin of water.

The dry, dusty dirt gets under the foreskin and causes irritation, called Balanitis. The balinitis results in small abraisions, making female to male transmission more common.

Since circumcision in males started in Egypt long before Abraham was told to start doing it, I suspect men agreed to have it done for a reason...because balanitis is painful, phimosis causes sexual problems (ask Louis XVI) and paraphimosis is nothing to laugh at.

Probably it started as a dorsal slit and then they went further.

As for the high rate in the US: This is mainly in very promiscuous gays, but it's not politically correct to point out the extreme promiscuity, or that sodomy, with it's variations of fisting, rimming, and other exotic variations, is more prone to cause bleeding/abrasions too, whereas monogamous ordinary sexual intercourse in a man who is circumcised or has access to running water probably will never get HIV unless he works in hospitals or is injecting drugs.

indeed, the high rate of HIV in China and Iran (and probably Russia) is not due to intercourse but to IV drug abuse, mainly of heroin...

National AIDS council spends millions on luxuries

from SWRadioAfrica

.... Surprisingly it took the state owned Herald newspaper, notorious for pro-government articles, to reveal that out of US$1,7 million collected in AIDS levies since February this year only US$20 000 was spent by the council in buying critical Anti Retroviral (ARV) drugs. The rest was spent on ‘luxuries’ for staff working for the council, including trips to foreign countries, luxury cars, generous salaries and other mysterious administration costs. Under government’s own policy the National Aids Council should use 50 percent of the levies collected to buy ARV’s. But the Herald reports that the figures it obtained from the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority show that only a shocking US$20 000 had been spent (on medicine)...



Two weeks ago the Global Fund to fight AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria granted Zimbabwe US$37,9 million, after getting assurances from the unity government it would not be misused. Previously Reserve Bank governor Gideon Gono diverted US$7,3m worth of funds from the organization to use in keeping ZANU PF afloat. The same corrupt National Aids Council was also the organization tasked with administering the fund. The United Nations Development Programme in Zimbabwe will now be managing the money from the Global Fund instead.

Bush is hero to Africa

from the UKTelegraph


In the last year of Bill Clinton's presidency, America's direct bilateral assistance to Africa was only Pounds 700 million. Mr Bush has almost quadrupled this sum.
Combating Aids once played virtually no part in America's development policies. Mr Bush has established the biggest fund ever devoted to fighting an epidemic.
...Mr Bush has also made America the biggest single donor to the Global Fund for Aids, tuberculosis and malaria, contributing one third of its Pounds 5 billion.
No other leader has given as much money to the World Food Programme as Mr Bush. America now provides about half of all the emergency food aid distributed across the globe.

The Hidden Hearts of Zimabwe

From Aid to the church at need:

One such hidden heroine is Barbara Makalisa. Her own five children have already all died; now she is caring for over 30 grandchildren. But despite this heavy burden, the smile scarcely ever leaves her face and she is never heard to complain. She says, "God has given me my children and has taken them back to himself. But since He has given me enough strength, I can now care for others instead." And indeed she even finds the strength to care for people who do not belong to her family. Nobody leaves her without also having been helped by her, and within the parish they can likewise count upon her silent but steady support. Father Martin Schupp, the apostolic administrator for the Archdiocese of Bulawayo, knows Mrs Makalisa and many other women just like her. He says, "These people grow to a new stature. Their Faith, their personal encounter with Christ is what gives them this strength. Such people can be an example for us." Another priest adds, "The nation should give the highest honour to these grandparents who have opened up their houses unhesitatingly to the children."

Even in wealthier countries it is far from easy to feed a large number of children. But in Zimbabwe, where the shelves in the local shops have been empty for months, it is a heart-stopping undertaking that demands great trust in God. Even in the better provided supermarkets there is nothing left but a handful of dried caterpillars and -- at astronomical prices -- Coca-Cola for the few who can afford such a luxury. In the other shops there is absolutely nothing. Milk powder is unaffordable for most people, and as for fresh milk and bread, these have long since ceased to be available. The average wage is now around three US dollars a month - for those who who can find work - and unemployment now stands at around 80%. Galloping inflation of 100,000% and an HIV/AIDS rate of 30% only add to the misery. ...

FIghting HIV with mistresses

Fighting HIV with mistresses

Here in the Catholic Philippines, after one politician gave a speech about "family values", a local wag wrote: Yes, we Filipinos espouse family values. We take care of all our families.


The joke was that this politician, like most politicians and rich businessmen in the Philippines, have at least one mistress and family on the side, and no one says anything about it. As long as this family is a secret, and as long as he takes care of them, such families are considered normal.

In the US, we see serial polygamy as the rule: divorce and remarriage.

In Africa, polygamy was the rule until western religion and values took over. Yet even in African tradition, the brideprice made polygamy difficult and expensive to marry.

As a result of Christian morality and African economics on marriage, women have become more valued and have some status in marriage. But they also make it hard to have a formal relationship outside of formal marriage.
So in places like Zimbabwe, where men might work in the city or mines and their wives would have to be left at home to care for the family farm, the men have a problem.

In the past, if they made enough money, they might just marry a second wife in the city. But now society frowns on that practice, even if they could afford to pay her parents. So the result was promiscuity: men could rarely afford sex, but when they did, it was usually with a sex worker who had many other contacts.

The usual scenerio was to go out drinking and have a one night stand. For poor workers, such nights out were few, but for more affluent men and unmarried students such activity might occur frequently, and the result was an epidemic of HIV that ended up killing the breadwinner, his wife in the village, and often their younger children.

Governments and NGO's have mounted campaigns that stress limiting sex to a wife, abstinence, and condom use. But condoms are not well accepted, both because of the obvious decrease in pleasure but also because they are expensive, and often deteriorate and break in hot climates.

So now Kubatana blog reports some men are resorting to the "little house" strategy. No, not the little house on the prarie, but the little house, as in one with a mistress and second family.

A study by Gregson, in Manicaland in 2005, which helps to explain the decline in prevalence rate (from 25.5% in 1998-2000 to 18.1% in 2004) attributed this to a general decline in casual sex among young Zimbabweans and delayed sexual debut. While this has been applauded as an indication of positive behaviour change, the emergence of another phenomenon that seems to have replaced casual sex, commonly called the "small house", is an area of concern. It seems that men are viewing small houses as a new and safer way of dealing with HIV and AIDS.

The study said the men found once they were married, their wives would frequently nag them, and would even refuse them sex when they got angry at their husbands. In the past, men would go out, get drunk, and end up having casual sex. But now, they merely go to the loving woman in the little house.

Another advantage is that the men assume their mistresses are faithful, and might even want to have children, so the men view condom use as not necessary.

All of this brings up things like morality, women's equality, legal status of children born to a relationship etc.

But it is one more low tech and traditional way for Africa to fight dangerous promiscuity behind the spread of HIV in that continent.

US donates 18 million for HIV

The United States Government will provide the Ministry of Health and Child Welfare with antiretroviral (ARV) drugs for 40,000 Zimbabweans living with HIV and AIIDS, as well as HIV rapid test kits for the next three years,....

The drugs and test kits worth US$6 million per year, brings the total annual Government of the United States contribution to HIV and AIDS prevention, care, and treatment in Zimbabwe to US$31 million.

Swedish AIDS/HIV aid

"....
The Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency on Thursday announced it will provide the Zimbabwean government with $7.6 million to fund HIV/AIDS projects in the country, Xinhua News Agency reports.

The Swedish Cooperative Center will receive $1 million for the Food Security and HIV/AIDS Affected Households project, which supports farming for households affected by HIV/AIDS, in Zimbabwe's Kwekwe and Gweru districts. The program will be implemented jointly with the Midlands AIDS Service Organization, according to Xinhua News Agency. The remaining $6.6 million will be used for the Expanded Support Program, a collaborative effort between Zimbabwe's National AIDS Council and the United Nations aimed at expanding access to HIV prevention, care and treatment services. ...