Members of The Union Africa Region voted for new officers in an online election held in February. The Union extends its congratulations to Muyabala Munachitombwe of Swaziland, who was elected Vice-President; Genevieve Dorbayi of Ghana, who has been re-elected as Treasurer for another term; and Cuthbert Kanene of Zambia, who will be the new Secretary General and Board Representative for the Region. The new officers will work alongside the Africa Region President Michel Gasana of Rwanda. The most important upcoming event will be the 19th Conference of The Union Africa Region on 20-22 June 2013 in Kigali, Rwanda.

For details about the election results in English, click here.

For election results in French, click here.

To learn more about the conference, click here

Steady interest in The Union’s programmatic TB-HIV course continues. The course entitled ‘WORKING TOGETHER: Strengthening the implementation of collaborative TB-HIV activities’ has now been offered six times in sub-Saharan Africa, most recently in South Africa, where it was held for the second time from 21 to 25 May 2012 in Johannesburg.

The Union’s 4-1/2 day course on TB-HIV collaboration at country level was conducted in Gaborone, Botswana from 6-10 February. “Working Together: Strengthening the Implementation of Collaborative TB-HIV Activities” follows the World Health Organization’s framework for TB-HIV collaboration, highlighting each of its key components.

Village registers of births and deaths provided vital health data for a study conducted by Médecins sans Frontières—Brussels, The Union and district authorities in Malawi. Data from registers recording deaths in 210 villages from 2000 to 2007 were triangulated with data of coffin sales and church funerals, and showed a highly significant linear downward trend in death rates as the percentage of people living with HIV/AIDS enrolled into HIV care and ART increased. The results of this study were published in May 2010 in PLOS One and an article about the project recently appeared in the Canadian Medical Association Journal.