Foundation Blog
News, commentary, and voices in the efforts to eliminate HIV and AIDS in children worldwide.
Posted by
Eric Kilongi
December 19, 2012
Kenya, 2009.
In 2010, the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation (EGPAF) launched a research initiative to compare how services and care are provided to HIV-exposed infants in two models in Kenya: within the Maternal and Child Health Clinic (MCH), and the HIV-dedicated clinics referred to as Comprehensive Care Clinics. The question-and-answer below with the lead researcher Dr. John Ongech sheds light on why the research – which was published in the September 2012 issue of The International Journal of AIDS – was conducted, and the impact on HIV service provisions in Kenya.
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Posted by
Eric Kilongi
Ndhiwa, Kenya
December 6, 2012
Dr. Justus Ocholla, Ndhiwa District AIDS
and STDs Coordinator. (Photo: Eric Kilongi/EGPAF)
Ndhiwa district in Homa Bay County of Kenya’s Nyanza region was once infamous for HIV prevalence rates of up to 35 percent in 2010. But over the last 18 months, the district has reduced new HIV infections among children born from HIV-positive pregnant mothers netted through antenatal clinic visits to less than five percent. Learn more after the jump.
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Posted by
Eric Kilongi
Nairobi, Kenya
August 27, 2012
Florence Chessa at work.
Florence Chessa is a nurse fighting against HIV both professionally and personally. Learn about her inspiring and incredible story and how she is helping to improve the delivery of care and treatment services and reduce stigma against health care workers living with HIV.
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Posted by
Eric Kilongi
Washington, D.C.
July 26, 2012
-POC-at-AIDS-2012)
(Photo: EGPAF)
There is a lot of buzz for point-of-care at the AIDS 2012 conference in Washington, as testing and diagnostic efforts increasingly move closer to patients. Point-of-care testing is defined as medical testing at or near the site of patient care, driven by the desire to bring the test to the patient conveniently and immediately.
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Posted by
Eric Kilongi
Nairobi, Kenya
May 3, 2011
A mother and her newborn baby at the
King Sobhuza II public health unit in
Manzini, Swaziland
(Photo: EGPAF/James Pursey)
Late last week, alongside the Swaziland Ministry of Health and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the Foundation marked the inauguration of the $12 million program called Eliminating Pediatric AIDS in Swaziland (EPAS).
The program-launch events began with a visit by Foundation President and CEO Chip Lyons to a public health facility in Manzini, the largest city in Swaziland that treats about 600,000 women and children every year.
The following day, more than 100 people attended a launch event in Swaziland's capital city of Mbabane, including Lyons, the Swazi Minister of Health, and the U.S. Ambassador.
Foundation Senior Regional Communications Officer Eric Kilongi was on hand and gives a first-person account of the event after the jump.
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Posted by
Eric Kilongi
Nairobi, Kenya
January 4, 2011
Thuso's motorcycle outside a traditional
Lesotho home. (Photo: EGPAF)
As preparation for a recent 20/20 episode featuring the Foundation’s work in Lesotho, Regional Communications Officer Eric Kilongi met the pony rider Potso in his village in the mountains. He learned more about Potso’s work delivering HIV drugs and other supplies for the Foundation on horseback, and also met the other half of this unusual delivery team: motorcycle rider Thuso.
A good-humored Rastafarian working for the Riders for Health program, Thuso delivers important blood samples brought from mountain clinics to the district hospital.
Click past the jump to meet Thuso, and to see what motivates him as he races against the clock – and along the region’s curvy roads – delivering health services on the back of a motorcycle.
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