"UNAIDS Board proposes measures to accelerate global response to HIV"

"How microinsurance fights AIDS"

"AIDS funds fears allayed"

"India should tax air tickets to pay for AIDS drugs - U.N."

"Commit more resources to health - US tells Africa"

"Zimbabwe: Financial Burden of HIV Treatment not to be put on Patients' Backs"

"Naminia: Dwindling Donor Funding for HIV/Aids"

"HEALTH: Cost of clinical trials worries donors"

"Kenya: Ministry in race to secure Sh42 billion Aids funding"

"Breaking News: Senate subcommittee votes to boost funding for Global Fund and global TB in 2012"

"Administration on Global AIDS, Budgets $193M More for Global AIDS Funding Than White House"

"Uganda: Analyzing HIV Effects on Economy"

New Documents & Articles

"HIV development assistance and adult mortality in Africa"

The effect of global health initiatives on population health is uncertain. Between 2003 and 2008, the US President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), the largest initiative ever devoted to a single disease, operated intensively in 12 African focus countries. The initiative's effect on all-cause adult mortality is unknown. To determine whether PEPFAR was associated with relative changes in adult mortality in the countries and districts where it operated most intensively.

"HIV treatment as prevention among injection drug users"

The use of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) as a strategy to prevent the transmission of HIV infection is of substantial international interest. Injection drug users (IDUs) are an important population with respect to HIV treatment as prevention because they are often less likely to access HAART in comparison with other risk groups.

"Sexual behavior change interventions and actions in the context of a randomized trial of a conditional cash transfer for HIV prevention in Tanzania (English)"

Information, education, communication and interventions based on behavioral-change communication have had success in increasing the awareness of HIV. But these strategies alone have been less successful in changing risky sexual behavior. This paper addresses this issue by exploring the link between action and the intention to change behaviors.

"P177 Investigating the cost-effectiveness of integrating prenatal HIV/syphilis screening to prevent adverse pregnancy outcomes in China"

The need to scale-up integrated prenatal HIV/syphilis screening in China has increased in the last decade owing to recent increases in syphilis and HIV cases. In this study, we assess the health and economic outcomes of integrated HIV/syphilis screening to prevent adverse pregnancy outcomes in China.

"Achieving universal access for human immunodeficiency virus and tuberculosis: potential prevention impact of an integrated multi-disease prevention campaign in Kenya"

In 2009, Government of Kenya with key stakeholders implemented an integrated multi-disease prevention campaign for water-borne diseases, malaria and HIV in Kisii District, Nyanza Province. The three day campaign, targeting 5000 people, included testing and counseling (HTC), condoms, long-lasting insecticide-treated bednets, and water filters.

"Associations between factors affecting access to care and health-relate quality of life: Results of a statewide HIV/AIDS cross-sectional study"

The objective of this cross-sectional study was to describe the relationship between access to care and health-related quality of life (HRQOL) for persons living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) in Mississippi by administering a statewide survey. A random probability sample of PLWHA was derived from the Mississippi State Department of Health's communicable disease tracking system. Interviews were conducted with 220 PLWHA to collect data on access to care, demographic and social characteristics, and HRQOL.

"Costs, Consequences and Feasibility of Strategies for Achieving the Goals of the National HIV/AIDS Strategy in the United States: A Closing Window for Success?"

Three key policy questions are explored here: Is it still epidemiologically feasible to attain the incidence and transmission rate reduction goals of the U.S. National HIV/AIDS Strategy (NHAS) by 2015? If so, what costs will be incurred in necessary program expansion, and will the investment be cost-effective? Would substantial expansion of prevention services for persons living with HIV (PLWH) augment the other strategies outlined in the NHAS in terms of effectiveness and cost-effectiveness?

"The implementation of a global fund grant in Lesotho: applying a framework on knowledge absorptive capacity"

One of the biggest challenges in scaling up health interventions in sub-Saharan Africa for government recipients is to effectively manage the rapid influx of aid from different donors, each with its own requirements and conditions. However, there is little empirical evidence on how governments absorb knowledge from new donors in order to satisfy their requirements. This case study applies Cuellar and Gallivan's (2006) framework on knowledge absorptive capacity (AC) to illustrate how recipient government organisations in Lesotho identified, assimilated and utilised knowledge on how to meet the disbursement and reporting requirements of Lesotho's Round 5 grant from the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria (Global Fund).

"Exploring the Potential Impact of a Reduction in Partnership Concurrency on HIV Incidence in Rural Uganda: A Modeling Study"

A number of African countries have planned campaigns against concurrency. It will not be possible to separate the effects of a reduction in concurrency from other behavior changes when evaluating these campaigns. This modeling study explores the potential impact of an intervention to reduce partnership concurrency on HIV incidence in contemporary rural Uganda, keeping incidence of sex acts and partnerships in the population constant.

"Multi-criteria decision analysis for setting priorities on HIV/AIDS interventions in Thailand"

A wide range of preventive, treatment, and care programs for HIV/AIDS are currently available and some of them have been implemented in Thailand. Policy makers are now facing challenges on how the scarce resources for HIV/AIDS control can be spent more wisely. Although effectiveness and cost-effectiveness information is useful for guiding policy decisions, empirical evidence indicates the importance of other criteria, such as equity and the characteristics of the target population, also play important roles in priority setting. This study aims to experiment with the use of multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) to prioritise interventions in HIV/AIDS control in Thailand.

"Cost-Effectiveness of the National HIV/AIDS Strategy (NHAS) Goal of Increasing Linkage to Care for HIV-Infected Persons" 

One of the goals of the National HIV/AIDS Strategy (NHAS) is to increase the proportion of HIV-infected individuals linked to care within 3 months of diagnosis (early linkage) from 65% to 85%. Earlier access to care, and eventually, to treatment, increases life-expectancy and quality of life for HIV-infected persons. However, longer treatment is also associated with higher costs, especially for antiretroviral drugs. We evaluated the cost-effectiveness of achieving the NHAS goal and estimated the maximum cost that HIV programs could spend on linkage to care and remain cost-effective.

"Is the Sexual Behaviour of HIV Patients on Antiretroviral therapy safe or risky in Sub-Saharan Africa? Meta-Analysis and Meta-Regression"

Reports on the sexual behavior of people on antiretroviral therapy (ART) are inconsistent.
We selected 14 articles that compared the sexual behavior of people with and without ART
for this analysis.

"Sustainability of donor programs: evaluating and informing the transition of a large HIV prevention program in India to local ownership"

Sustainability is the holy grail of many development projects, yet there is limited evidence about strategies that effectively support transition of programs from donor funding to national governments. The first phase of Avahan, the India AIDS Initiative supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (2003-2009), aimed to demonstrate an HIV/AIDS prevention program at scale, primarily targeted at high-risk groups. During the second phase (2009-2013), this large-scale program will be transitioned to its natural owners: the Government of India and local communities. This paper describes the evaluation design for the Avahan transition strategy.

"Costs and cost effectiveness analysis of preferred GESIDA regimens for initial antiretroviral therapy"

GESIDA (AIDS Study Group) and the National AIDS Plan panel of experts propose "preferred regimens" of antiretroviral treatment (ART) as initial therapy in HIV infected patients. These preferred regimens are based on the results of clinical trials, and on the opinions of the experts of the panel. The objective of this study is to evaluate the costs and the cost effectiveness of initiating treatment following these guidelines.

"Aligning resources to fight HIV/AIDS in the United States: funding to states through the US Department of Health and Human Services"

In response to the first U.S. National HIV/AIDS Strategy released in July 2010, we assessed how HIV/AIDS funding is spent by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and how these resources align geographically with the HIV/AIDS epidemic according to various measures.

"Integrating cryptococcal antigen screening and pre-emptive treatment into routine HIV care"

Cryptococcal meningitis is a leading cause of death in AIDS patients in sub-Saharan Africa. Cryptococcal antigen (CRAG) can be detected weeks before onset of symptoms, and those who are asymptomatic but CRAG positive have a high risk of subsequent cryptococcal meningitis and mortality.

"The impact of HIV/AIDS on children's educational outcome: A critical review of global literature"

The number of children losing one or both parents to HIV/AIDS has continued to rise in the past decade, with most of them being school-aged children. This study reviews global literature on the effects of HIV/AIDS (e.g., parental HIV-related illness or death) on children's schooling. Systematic review procedures generated 23 studies for examination.

"HIV treatment and reproductive health in the health system in Burkina Faso: resource allocation and the need for integration"

Organizational changes, increased funding and the demands of HIV antiretroviral (ARV) treatment create particular challenges for governance in the health sector. We assess resource allocation, policy making and integration of the national responses to ARV provision and reproductive health in Burkina Faso, using national and district budgets related to disease burden, policy documents, organizational structures, and coordination and implementation processes.