Pilgrimage to the Eternal City
Posted on March 24, 2008
Filed Under Travel | Leave a Comment
The Eternal City of Rome has been an important city and sacred place since ancient times.
Interestingly, the oldest Roman catholic edifice, the paleo-Christian Pantheon, was originally a pagan temple commissioned to the architect Agrippa by Emperor Adriano in 27 A.C., and only later, in the 7th century, consecrated into a church.
800 HIV Positive Pregnant Women to Receive Nevirapine
Posted on March 23, 2008
Filed Under Health | Leave a Comment
Eight hundred HIV positive pregnant women will receive free antiretroviral drugs, Nevirapine, to help prevent mother to child transmission of the disease, disclosed Linkages Ndola Project site co-ordinator Dr Jean Tshiula yesterday. Dr Tshiula said Linkages, a USAID funded project, will this Saturday launch a pilot project in which HIV positive pregnant women will be given a dose of Nevirapine. He said his organisation had already trained 63 health care providers in Ndola who include nurses, pharmacists, midwives and clinical officers on how to administer the new intervention.
“This new intervention targets HIV positive pregnant women to mitigate transmission of AIDS to babies. From our survey we intend to reach 800 women in the first year and the dose will be for free,” he said.
Dr Tshiula said the drug, to be donated by a German company, was chosen because it gave no side effects while the success rate in reducing the risk of mother to child transmission stood at 50 per cent. He said Nevirapine had been tested in Uganda and the United States and it gave no side effects to recipients.
However, Dr Tshiula said the success of the programme will depend on acceptance levels of the community. “Although well intentioned, we assume only 50 per cent will come forward in the initial year because accessing the drug will be voluntary. So we hope through voluntary counselling and testing pregnant women will be free to come forward and access the drug,” Dr Tshiula said. “It must be understood that Nevirapine course comes at the end of all other interventions.”
Dr Tshiula said the best intervention was for mothers and their partners in the community to prevent HIV/AIDS right from the beginning.
