Tea break reading

7^th – 14^th June:

News and views:

Editor’s pick:

Africa: Better health: Better human rights – New research shows that a highly effective way to control and defeat infectious diseases like AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria is by focusing on the most vulnerable populations. That has big implications for human rights. From the Huffington Post.
Uganda: Let’s donate blood to help save lives – Today is World Health Organistion’s World Blood Donor Day and it is pertinent to highlight the on-going challenges facing blood banks, not just across Uganda but Africa in general. From the Daily Monitor.
Africa: Chemotherapy, cakes and cancer: a guide for children – Her book about facing life-threatening illness as a teenager is now given to every child who’s diagnosed. It’s Megan Blunt’s tribute to all the friends who didn’t make it, she tells Emily Jupp. From The Independent.

Elsewhere in the news:

East Africa: East African Muslim women on female genital mutilation: ‘We were not meant to enjoy sex. We were supposed to be machines to have babies.’ – Dr. Phoebe Abe (or, as I know her, my mother) sat down in her living room with me and several women from Somalia, Egypt and Sudan. My mother, a GP, had for some time been looking at the issue of female genital mutilation (FGM) with Dr Comfort Momoh MBE… From The Independent.
Africa: Improving Lives of Hundreds of Thousands – UNITAID has committed funds of up to USD 77 million to provide a newer antiretroviral regimen for hundreds of thousands of people in developing countries living with HIV. From UNITAIDS.
Africa: Breast cancer screening not shown to reduce deaths, say researchers – Breast cancer screening programmes have yet to show a reduction in the number of women who die from the disease, researchers say. A study suggests there is no evidence that screening women for breastcancer has an effect on mortality. From The Guardian.
Africa: Renewed fight against fake drugs in Africa takes off – Worried by the dearth of experts and available tools to combat falsified, substandard and counterfeit medicines in countries in Sub-Saharan Africa including Nigeria, the United States Pharmacopeial Convention (USP) has launched the Center for Pharmaceutical Advancement and Training (CePAT) in Accra, Ghana. From The Guardian Nigeria.
Africa: The Worth of an African Woman – The loss and grief path takes many shapes, bends, colors, and in Africa, our large families means more and more grief, so living at the lakeshore village of Wagoma, where many years later, I would turn up to start a loss and grief centre, death became a common visitor. From the Modern Widows Club Magazine (Subscription).
Kenya: Initial 2.2 kg of Morphine from Ministry to boost chronic pain management – Part of an initial Morphine powder procurement purchased by the Ministry of Health in Kenya has arrived in stores. From the Kenya edition of ehospice.
Uganda: Interview with Fatia Kiyange – Kate Jackson from ehospice interviews Fatia Kiyange from APCA at the EAPC. From the Africa edition of ehospice.
Uganda: Uganda running out of ARVs, HIV test kits – The report noted that the antifungal drug Fluconazole, used to fight opportunistic infections in people living with HIV, was out of stock at all three warehouses, while laboratory commodities for haematology, clinical chemistry and assessing CD4 counts – a measure of immune strength – were also running dangerously low. From GantDaily.com.
Uganda: Gov’t to spend Shs 7bn on condoms – Uganda has stipulated shs 7.7bn in the 2013/2014 budget to provide contraceptives to women who require them, the junior Finance Minister Matia Kasaija has said. From The Red Pepper.
Rwanda: New approach to boost war on cancers – The World Health Organisation ranks Rwanda among the countries worldwide with the highest cervical cancer incidence, estimated at 49.4/100,000. From All Africa.
Sierra Leone: Palliative Care in Kambia Government Hospital, Sierra Leone – Lorraine Matheson, a nurse practitioner in Sierra Leone, writes for ehospice about her patient, Santigi and the challenges facing Kambia Government Hospital in implementing effective palliative care provision. From the Africa edition of ehospice.
South Africa: South African DJs Sam Cowen & Anele Mdoda visit Cotlands Hospice – South African radio DJ celebrities Anele Mdoda & Sam Cowen visit Cotlands Hospice to meet the children. From the South Africa edition of ehospice.
South Africa: ANC lauds government successes in fight against HIV/Aids – The government should be congratulated on successes in the fight against HIV/Aids mentioned in a United Nations report, the ANC said on Tuesday. From Times LIVE.
South Africa: Genetic testing can keep cancer at bay – Breast cancer is one of South Africa’s leading killers of women, and although it has been associated with older women for many years, more women under the age of 25 are being diagnosed with it. From IOL.

Research:

Africa: Food insecurity linked to HIV-treated drug users’ deaths – Food insecurity increases the risk of death among injection drug users living with HIV/AIDS even when they are receiving life-prolonging antiretroviral therapy (ART), according to a new study. From the Simon Fraser University.
Africa: Transgender people with HIV are doing better in care – Contrasting past reports showing that HIV-positive transgender people fair poorly in care, a new study has found that this group is as likely to remain in care, receive antiretroviral (ARV) therapy and to reach viral suppression as other people living with the virus. From AIDSMED.
Africa: Screening has not reduced deaths from breast cancer, study shows – Mammographic screening has not had any effect, so far, on breast cancer mortality at the population level in England, a new analysis concludes. From the BMJ.
Egypt: Hepatitis C, hepatitis B and HIV infection among Egyptian prisoners: Seroprevalence, risk factors and related chronic liver diseases. Prisons in Egypt do not currently screen for blood-borne viruses, and there are no statistics concerning the prevalence of hepatitis C virus, hepatitis B virus or human immunodeficiency virus among prisoners. This study was performed to detect the prevalence of antibodies against hepatitis C, hepatitis B core and human immunodeficiency virus among Egyptian prisoners. From US National Library of Medicine.
Kenya: Can a nurse led palliative care intervention affect psychological and social well-being in Kenya? From Cicely Saunders Institute.
South Africa: HIV prevalence by race co-varies closely with concurrency and number of sex partners in South Africa – HIV prevalence differs by more than an order of magnitude between South Africa’s racial groups. Comparing the sexual behaviors and other risk factors for HIV transmission between the different races may shed light on the determinants of South Africa’s generalized HIV epidemic. From PLOS ONE.

Inspiring stories:

Africa: The yoga poses that healed my pain – Her unbearable sadness after the death of her father first drew Genevieve Roberts to the yoga mat. It turned out to be the start of a life-changing journey. From The Independent.

Scholarships and awards:

Africa: 2013 palliative care public health policy and advocacy awards for Africa – The awards seek to recognize the cumulative contributions of an African Ministry of Health, an individual and an institution whose public policy advocacy efforts at the national, regional, or international level have improved patient access to palliative care in Africa. From APCA.
Africa: 2013 APCA palliative care journalist award for Africa – The African Palliative Care Association (APCA), with funding from the Open Society Foundations (OSF), is pleased to announce the 2013 APCA Palliative Care Journalist Award for Africa. From APCA.

Jobs:

South Africa: Health Advisors: National Department of Health – Provide leadership support within the national Department of Health (DoH) for the bilateral Partnership Framework Implementation Plan (PFIP) between the US and South African governments for the US President’s Emergency Plan for Aids Relief. From ehospice.
South Africa: Technical Advisor, HAST – Seeking a Technical Advisor to provide administrative and technical support to the HAST programmes’ implementation team and the Senior Technical Advisor (HAST). From ehospice.

Events:

South Africa: Dr Ernest Nyamato joins APCA/HPCA conference as guest speaker – APCA are delighted to welcome Ernest Omenge Nyamato MBChB, MBA, Ms.(Health) as a guest speaker at the upcoming APCA/HPCA conference. From APCA.
Uganda: The 5^th Biannual Palliative Care Association of Uganda conference – Imperial Royale Hotel, Kampala Uganda. 29^th – 30^th August 2013. From PCAU.
South African: The African Palliative Care Association and Hospice Palliative Care Association of South Africa’s palliative care conference – September 17th – 20^th 2013, Johannesburg, South Africa. From APCA.