Latest issue of African Journal of AIDS research

From the AJAR website:

African Journal of AIDS Research (AJAR) is a peer-reviewed research journal publishing papers that make an original contribution to the understanding of some of the social and human impacts of of HIV/AIDS in Africa, where millions are living with AIDS and dying from it.

AJAR includes articles from, amongst others, the disciplines of sociology, demography, epidemiology, social geography, economics, psychology, anthropology, philosophy, health communication, media, cultural studies, public health, education, nursing science and social work.

Papers relating to impact, care, prevention and social planning, as well as articles covering social theory and the history and politics of HIV/AIDS, will be considered for publication.

Since late 2005, NISC has been partnering with African Journals OnLine (AJOL), a Non Profit Section 21 Company, also based in Grahamstown, South Africa.

AJOL enhances access to the research output of Africa providing a collection of academic journals and journal articles published in Africa. AJOL hosts over 300 journals from 24 countries and there are currently more than 30 000 article abstracts available on the website.

Free access to the abstracts and Tables of Contents is provided and full text hosting online is coming soon.

AJOL was launched in 1988 by the International Network for the Availability of Scientific Publications (INASP) in the United Kingdom. AJOL became an independent Non Profit Organsation and moved to Africa in 2005. AJOL outsources its software development to NISC and rents office space in the same building, allowing useful exchange and fruitful interaction.

Please click http://www.ajol.info/ should you require more information.

Scanning electron micrograph of HIV-1 budding from cultured lymphocyte. This image has been colored to highlight important features; see PHIL 1197 for original black and white view of this image. Multiple round bumps on cell surface represent sites of assembly and budding of virions

HIVAIDS is a major health issue in Africa, where millions are living with HIV and millions are dying from AIDS because of poor access to the latest AIDS drugs and treatments. STD testing and HIV testing have been expanded in the last few years, giving accurate estimates of the number of people infected. The latest figures show that sub-saharan Africa, 22.5 million people were living with HIV at the end of 2007. About 1.7 million more people have become infected with HIV since. In 2007, 1.6 million people in Africa died from AIDS. Since the AIDS epidemic in Africa began, 11 million children have lost their parents to this relentless retroviral disease.

Funding for AIDS treatment and prevention in Africa is now coming from many sources - the Global Fund, UNAIDS, the WHO, the Gates Foundation and many more. Some progress is being made towards universal access for treatment in the next few years but millions more will die. Research is very important - HIV drug research, HIV vaccine research and the research on the ground to understand how HIV and AIDS affects people in Africa, so that local measures can start to help. Providing health education, condoms, circumcision and other lower cost interventions could help make a difference.

Research to develop an instant HIV test, an instant tuberculosis test, information about AIDS and HIV, are also priorities. In the wider research arena, billions are being spent on developing an effective vaccine to prevent HIV infection - but the challenges involved are great.