Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Ethiopia to Distribute Condoms to High Risk Populations

via msmgf.org, by AHN


ADDIS ABABA, 12 June 2012 (PlusNews) - More than 100 million condoms will be distributed annually to sex workers, men who have sex with men and other groups vulnerable to HIV as part of a new five-year programme to be run by the Ethiopian government and the US President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR).

Dubbed MULU, the Amharic word for comprehensive, the US$70 million programme - implemented by the NGOs Population Services International and World Learning - will also target day labourers in the booming construction industry, migrant workers and their partners.

"Over the five-year life of MULU prevention, 100 million free condoms per year will be distributed, 2 million counselling and testing sessions will be conducted, and half a million sexually transmitted infection cases will be treated," said Donald Booth, US Ambassador to Ethiopia, launching the programme on 31 May 2012 in the capital, Addis Ababa.

"This programme is going to focus on… getting services for people who practice high-risk behaviours such as having multiple sex partners concurrently," Renee DeMarco, a senior technical advisor to HIV/AIDS Prevention and Social Services at the US Agency for International Development (USAID)-Ethiopia, told IRIN/PlusNews.

Read the rest.

-------------------
*Join IRMA's robust, highly-active. moderated, global listserv addressing rectal microbicide research and advocacy as well as other interesting new HIV prevention technologies by contacting us at rectalmicro@gmail.com. Joining our listserv automatically makes you a member of IRMA - a network of more than 1,100 advocates, scientists, policy makers and funders from all over the world.

*Please look for us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/InternationalRectalMicrobicideAdvocates, and you can follow us on Twitter: @rectalmicro.

*Also, please note that shared news items from other sources posted on this blog do not necessarily mean IRMA has taken any position on the article's content.
-------------------

No comments:

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...