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PER GLI AMICI DI ANDREA E FRANCESCA - Info Donazioni 2004
HIV/AIDS news

- The Different Shapes of Risk Ethnographies of Health and Health Care in sub-Saharan Africa
- The Italian Family Responding to HIV/AIDS in the Era of Combination Therapy


Events I will be attending

Médecins Sans Frontières Suisse
Maison des Associations, salle Mahatma Gandhi
Film « Ces brevets me rendent malade. Le sida en Afrique »
Vendredi 14 mai 2004
Suivi d’une table ronde avec :
Dr. Laura CIAFFI, Dr. expert sida, MSF Suisse
Dr. Yves SOUTEYRAND, conseiller du département VIH/sida, OMS
Mme Hubertine BAHILI, Présidente de l’Association des Femmes Africaines de Genève

AIDS IMPACT 2003
7-10 July 2003
Milan, Italy
6th International Conference
Biopsychosocial Aspects of HIV Infection
'Testing and Screening' Chairmen: K. Hankins / L. Ciaffi. Organized by Università Vita-Salute San Raffaele

Aids Conference 2002
July 7-12 2002
XIV International Aids Conference


August 2004
I've spent the last 4 years in Cameroon, where I've encountered different working realities both in urban and rural contexts. Collaborating with various institutions and organizations (MSF, Actions en Brousse, German GTZ, the Cameroonian Ministry of Public Health), I've encountered very interesting and amazing people, my partner among them.

I'm very happy and satisfied with my experience having learned a lot of things, which I will write more about in the future. But for the moment, I'm on my way out to my next destination : Geneva, Switzerland (What a change !)
In Geneva, I will work for MSF as Aids Advisor following the HIV projects around the world conducted by MSF-Switzerland.
This will be a truly challenging and rewarding experience for me.

November 2003
My 2 year period (2000-2002) working in Yaounde with MSF has been a fruitful experience. And Yaounde, the capital had become my home. Now I'm facing the next adventure down here. I love my country, which is Italy, but I think there are many great places in the world that are worth exploring and to know. For this reason I have chose to work and study abroad. Barcelona, Nicaragua and West Timor have been my homes, and now I am in Ngoundere, Cameroon.
I've decided to stay on here for many reasons, mostly having to do with having become settled in the community here. The trials of having sculpted out a niche for myself in Cameroon is too great to let go just yet. My prior master's in Medical Anthropology has been invaluable in my daily work, and I'm happy to say that it has enriched my experience in many small yet great ways.
Through contact with ASA , Milano (Associazione Solidarietà AIDS), I've collaborated in initialising funding for a scholarisation project through AFASO, a sieropositive women's solidariety group in Yaounde.
Besides the HIV/AIDS clinical management experience I've gained during my work with MSF (Doctors Without Borders), I've been also collaborating with a Buruli project. This is a little known skin disease, mostly afflicting young people in a limited area of Cameroon.
I believe that it's great to open a discussion with others that have my same interests ! So thanks for the visit and enjoy !
Laura

Email
Italian, Spanish, French, or Indonesian OK !


On July 16, 2001 Rachel Cohen, Advocacy Liaison for MSF's Access to Essential Medicines Campaign ended a talk quoting Laura from an interview she had given to Doctor's Without Borders :

I'd like to close with a quotation from an MSF doctor working in Cameroon, Dr. Laura Ciaffi:
"...Are the drugs everything? Of course not. Are AIDS patients still dying? Of course—by the thousands. But the availability of drugs is having an impact far beyond the relatively few people who are actually receiving them. We have to continue to insist on the principle that medical treatment for AIDS should be provided, even when we cannot do it for everyone and we cannot do it for everyone tomorrow. The principle makes all the difference. Five years ago, when I was an AIDS doctor in Italy, the first really effective antiretroviral combinations were becoming available in Europe. I recently went back to visit my old clinic in Milan, and I was so happy—but surprised—to meet many of my old patients. They were supposed to have died of AIDS years ago. One day, perhaps five years from now, I hope to come back to Cameroon to see the same thing."

Original text: MAKING IT HAPPEN: Antiretroviral Treatment in Cameroon ALERT, Summer 2001 - Vol. 6, No. 2



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