Kampala Key, Vulnerable and Priority Populations (KVP) News

We are committed to ending HIV, TB,Malaria and COVID-19. We call upon everyone to join our effort.

  Let Us Talk About AIDS     Alex Berg a freelance on-air host and journalist based in New York City, gives us a glimpse of what it means to know that HIV/AIDS has been devastating our lives for 40 years.     “Sawyer, now 67, recalled being told by a doctor, at just 32, to put his affairs in order.   “In addition to being elated that I have survived for 40 years with this illness, I also have a certain degree of survivor's guilt,” Sawyer, a founding member of AIDS activist group ACT UP New York, told NBC News. “Why me? Why did I deserve to survive when so many of my friends and a couple of my boyfriends died really horrible, ugly deaths at very young ages?”   For Eric Sawyer, the 40th anniversary of the first scientific report that described AIDS as a new disease brings up “a dichotomy of feelings.”   When Sawyer, who was living in New York, first began exhibiting symptoms of HIV in 1981, he said he was urged by...

Re-adjust the way we go to grassroots to conduct health work and livelihood improvement activities. We were anticipating social distancing protocols in place. Diagnosis, prevention, testing, adherence and committed enablers are all about people. We have to identify needs, connect people to opportunities that make them productive. Self-preservation is key. We are a 400 strong Community Owned Resource Persons/Champions advancing quality life. We reach out to 120 communities and between August 2019 to present we have identified 177 TB cases and attached them to TB care. We provide contexts within which adherence and commitment are enshrined. This means keeping in touch and regular administrative meetings as well as reading widely on TB Prevention. We developed what we call our TB Prevention profile after deliberations of TB Prevention/Control Profile Planning Meetings. At the end of the day: Anyone, refugees, local communities and leaders will be directly involved as Champions or Com...

Identity can be used to favour or deny one services or access. We continue with the series in Catherine Buck's article that appeared in the New Ways Ministry. The title is: " Candidates, LGBTQ Advocates Challenge Use of Catholic Parishes for Election Events ." A recent profile in The Advocate is raising awareness about a new short film that tells the story of a priest newly diagnosed with HIV. The film is seeking funding on Kickstarter and is described as exploring “a moment in the life of one priest who is faced with a crossroads of health and identity, threatening to deconstruct his entire belief system.” In the opening seconds of his Kickstarter video, Sebastian La Cause, writer/director, gives a rapid-fire pitch for the production: “Set in dynamic East Los Angeles, Holy Water follows a gay priest at a crossroad of identity and self-acceptance as he struggles to come to terms with an HIV diagnosis.” He then quotes Joyce Carol Oates about the power of wri...

A Check out  USAID Global Health for health info. This article is picked up from their website " A  mosquito bite is annoying for everyone. But for millions of people around the world it can also transmit deadly and debilitating illnesses such as malaria, Zika, lymphatic filariasis, West Nile virus, chikungunya, yellow fever, and dengue.  The mosquito’s ability to rapidly spread disease makes it one of the world’s most deadly creatures ㅡ and a top priority for the U.S. Government. The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and the  U.S. President’s Malaria Initiative  (PMI) provide critical funding for programs that fight mosquitoes and the diseases they carry. Over the years, preventive tools such as  insecticide-treated bed nets  have been highly effective at protecting millions of lives. But mosquitoes are constantly evolving, so USAID is  finding new and innovative solutions   to fight mosquitoes and...

DRC Woes: Ebola, Measles and Violence The Ebola outbreak has spread to a third province in the DRC. A story by Tim Cooks of the Global Health Network (GHN) 2 new cases, including 1 death, were recorded in South Kivu, more than 700 kilometers south of the outbreak’s source, according to Reuters . A 24-year-old woman died on Thursday after visiting Beni in North Kivu, STAT reports via AP . Her 7-month-old child is being treated. The woman had been vaccinated after being identified last month as a “high-risk contact” of someone infected with Ebola, Reuters reports. There have been more than 2,800 cases recorded since the outbreak began more than a year ago, according to a report in the H5N1 blog . Adding to DRC’s woes: Measles has infected more than 145,000 people and killed more than 2,700, Médecins Sans Frontières reports today. The organization warns of “an alarming lack of a response” to the country’s worst measles epidemic in nearly a decade.  Armed groups ...

At Most-At-Risk Populations' Society in Uganda (MARPS in Uganda) we have endeavoured to highlight the need to make prevention efforts known to Key Populations (KP). What are these "Prevention" efforts in this case? We are talking of TB, Malaria, HIV, HPV, Hepatitis and other infections such as Ebola. @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ TB When we talk of KP, we are specifically talking of such a population group with higher prevalence of HIV, vulnerability and susceptibility to infections and people who have not always been targeted by mainstream services. In our case we are targeting: LGBTIPQQ, Sex-workers, Drug-users and Persons Living With HIV (PLHIV). We are calling upon all KP-led organisations to work with NAFOPHANU as they lead their TB Prevention Campaign. It runs from July to October 2019, and hey intend to link 30,000 People Living With HIV/AIDS to TB Treatment. The other names for TB Treatment are: Isoniazid Prevention Therapy (IPT) Prop...

Cancer Prevention Tips Stay on effective HIV treatment. Stop smoking. Limit alcohol consumption. Eat a low-fat, high-fiber diet. Maintain a healthy weight. Exercise regularly. Protect yourself from the sun. Get vaccinated against hepatitis B and HPV. Get treated for hepatitis B or C. Get recommended cancer screenings. In July 2019,   Liz Highleyman wrote an exciting article in which people living with Cancer and HIV. We are sharing the same with you.   “As a long-term survivor living with HIV, Sean McKenna has faced numerous battles, including two episodes of skin cancer and several bouts of anal precancer. Jill Cadman, another long-timer, is living with HIV and Stage IV colon cancer. And they are not alone. “Almost every long-term survivor I know is dealing with HPV,” or human papillomavirus, which causes anal, cervical and oral cancer, McKenna says. “Our bodies are beaten down. So many of us in our 50s or 60s are experiencing things that d...