"Sometimes it falls upon a generation to be great. You can be that great generation."
An effective HIV vaccine may not be ready for another decade despite ongoing efforts by scientists around the world, AIDS Vaccine 2012 conference heard last week (9–12 September). In 2009 a trial in Thailand, called RV144 and involving 16,000 volunteers demonstrated, for the first time, that a vaccine can protect against HIV infection in humans.
More than 11.6 million people are facing starvation in the Horn of Africa, and as aid agencies struggle to feed them, experts are warning that a lack of food could have wider consequences, including jeopardizing the health of people on HIV treatment.
Though the World Health Organization (WHO) has focused this year’s World Health Day on prioritising the struggle against the global spread of antimicrobial resistance (AMR), scores of international researchers and scientists fear this decision is coming too late, with 2011 already shadowed by the failure of pharmaceutical antibiotics to curb the proliferation of diseases.
The discovery of a safe, effective HIV/Aids vaccine will mark the biggest achievement in modern world history, says Medical Research Council president Professor Anthony Mbewu.
Yesterday there was the launch of the country’s first phase of human clinical trials for two South African-produced HIV-Aids vaccines that are being conducted by Saavi, the HIV Vaccine Trials Network (HVTN) and the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (Niaid), which is part of the US National Institute of Health.
Ory Okolloh, the Executive Director of Ushahidi , is from Kenya but currently lives in Johannesburg. Her blog is "outlet for her opinions. While it is primarily focused on Kenya, she reserves to write about whatever she wants."
Sokari Ekine is a Nigerian social justice activist living in Spain, with a background in technology, gender issues and human rights. She is interested in creating a community of grassroots African bloggers as a way for Africans to exchange ideas, share experiences and tell their own stories in our own words.
Native of Cape Town, Sean Jacobs lives in Brooklyn, New York and teaches in Manhattan. He obsesses about the relationship between politics and popular culture, but the main rationale for his blog is to comment on what passes for media coverage of the African continent.
Rosebelle Kagumire is an experienced Ugandan Journalist. She won the best Journalist blogger English category at the Panos hosted competition in 2009. Currently she is a student of MA. Media, Conflict and Peace studies at University for Peace (UPEACE), Costa Rica.
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