HORIZON INTERNATIONAL SOLUTIONS SITE

A Japanese optometrist, Akio Kanai, M.D., Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Fuji Optical, who has won the world’s top award for assisting refugees has pledged to pour the prize money back into the work that led to the honour – working with the United Nations refugee agency to help displaced vision-impaired people in Azerbaijan and Armenia.

Two new studies released by Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) at the XVI International AIDS Conference in Toronto last week demonstrate good outcomes in antiretroviral treatment (ART) of children living with HIV/AIDS across a wide array of resource-poor settings, but also show that pediatric drug formulations are excessively overpriced, costing up to six times more than adult equivalents.

Some 500 organizations, ranging from local community groups and schools to nationwide campaigns and government departments from 119 countries, will participate in the annual Clean Up the World Weekend on 15-17 September 2006.

The number of people being treated for HIV/AIDS through resources provided by the United Nations-backed Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria has risen to more than half a million, while programmes it has supported to distribute insecticide-treated bed nets in malaria-plagued countries are now reaching more than 11 million people, officials reported.