UNAIDS reports that more than 7 million people are now on HIV treatment across Africa, while new HIV infections and deaths from AIDS continue to fall.

HIGHLIGHTS

 The region is exposed to a range of environmental and social pressures.

 47 defined international humanitarian emergencies were identified between 2000 and 2012.

 The results highlight the short recurrence intervals for major shocks and the annual co-occurrence of multiple shocks.

 The research signals a transition from conditions of armed conflict seen in the 1980s and 1990s to social conflicts, often in urban areas, particularly in national capitals.

This report covers the period 01/01/12 to 31/12/12

Overview

Comoros: Flash Flooding

On Grande Comore island, heavy rains between 30 April and 1 May caused some rivers to overflow. An estimated 172 families were affected, of which 82 families had to stay with community members. Some affected people have already started returning to their homes. Government, with support from partners, is assisting those affected. A request for international assistance is not expected.

Mozambique: Early Recovery Strategy

MBABANE, Apr 9 2013 (IPS) - For more than a decade after 1992, when Swazi gold miner Benson Maseko, 50, fell ill with chest pains and a nagging cough, he did not seek treatment.

Because of his illness, Maseko was retrenched without benefits from his job at a mine in Johannesburg, South Africa. And when he returned to his home in Mahlangatsha, a small village on the outskirts of Swaziland’s commercial hub, Manzini, he chose to pursue traditional healing for his ailment instead of going to a doctor.

As the HIV epidemic continues to unfold across southern Africa, countries are still struggling to find effective means to address many of its negative impacts at individual, family and community levels. One of the most complicated challenges is how to support the growing number of orphans and other children made vulnerable, or made more vulnerable, by the direct and indirect effects of HIV on their households. In particular, there have been many individual and institutional efforts to assist these children through schools and other educational services and institutions.

UNAIDS and Swaziland's Minister of Health launched a new National Framework to stop new HIV infections among children by 2015 and keep their mothers alive.

This year, World Water Day (March 22) highlights the importance of international efforts to preserve and protect the world’s shared water resources.

The United Nations has declared 2013 the International Year of Water Cooperation. According to UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon: ‘Water is central to the well-being of people and the planet, we must work together to protect and carefully manage this fragile, finite resource.’

Kim Lewis

Last updated on: March 20, 2013 11:03 AM

Health ministers from Swaziland and South Africa have agreed to radically change the diagnosis and treatment of the co-epidemic of TB/HIV in their countries. They made their comments at a press conference held on March 20 in Johannesburg. Doctors Without Borders, also known as MSF, said TB deaths in southern Africa account for 40 percent of all TB deaths globally, and it remains the leading cause of death for people with HIV.