Safe healthcare in Africa

HIV infections in sub-Sahara Africa not explained by sexual or vertical transmission by David Gisselquist, PhD, independent consultant

Testimony to Senate Congressional Hearing on Solutions to "Solutions to the Health Care Transmission of HIV/AIDS in Africa" by Dr Anne Peterson (USAID)

Comment
HIV “Superspreaders" - the need for education and behavioral change in the medical and pharmaceutical industry. Recent research also implicates unsafe medical practices, in helping to spread the HIV-1 virus in West Africa. The research suggests that needle transmission via vaccination campaigns in Guinea-Bissau in the 1960’s ....

SARS & HIV “Superspreaders” - most people who get SARS do not infect anyone else, but some individuals appeared to be responsible for transmitting the disease to dozens and sometimes hundreds of others. Such individuals are known as "superspreaders"......

Ever since a paper was published claiming that unsafe injections and needle practices are a significant route for the transmission of AIDS there has been controversy in the scientific establishment. But the story will just not go away, the controversy will not end. More and more evidence and research keeps coming to light supporting the claim that unsafe injections have played a significant role in spreading HIV/AIDS in Africa.

Reducing maternal deaths is the challenge of the new millennium in the African region. In its Health for All Policy for the 21^st Century in the African region: Agenda 2020, the WHO Regional Office for Africa calls for a 50% reduction of maternal mortality by 2020. 

Women have been producing children from the beginning of time. Childbirth is one of the natural miracles of the world. But in Africa too often the birth of a child becomes an occasion for grief due to the death of the mother and /or baby.  Over 250,000 African women die from pregnancy related complications every year.

Many studies show 20%-40% of HIV infections in African adults associated with injections (though direction of causation is unknown). These and other findings that challenge the conventional hypothesis point to the possibility that HIV transmission through unsafe medical care may be an important factor in Africa's HIV epidemic.

Opinion / Comment

Injections and needles may have contributed to the spread of HIV/AIDS in Africa according to an article that recently appeared in the International Journal of STDs and AIDS. The story has ignited a storm of controversy. Some scientists rejected the findings of the research outright calling the study flawed.

A safe injection does not harm the recipient, does not expose the provider to any avoidable risks and does not result in waste that is dangerous for the community.

The SIGN Alliance