JOHANNESBURG Dec 21 (IPS) - Human trials of the first Aids vaccine, designed specifically for Africa, which were due to start in Kenya this week, have been postponed. There has been real excitement over the start of the trials and scientists and journalists gathered at the new Aids vaccine centre in Nairobi s Kenyatta
BRIDGETOWN, Dec 15 (IPS) - Propelled by an alarming growth in the incidence of HIV and AIDS, the Barbados government has decided to make free to all infected persons, anti-retroviral drugs that check the spread of the disease within the body. This move means that the HIV/AIDS budget will increase significantly, from it
LIMA, Dec 13 (IPS) - A key part of the work of preventing the spread of AIDS in Peru involves fighting discrimination, and one of the leading figures in that task is Ernesto Pimentel, a local TV personality and the creator of the Dignity Foundation, which is dedicated to assisting AIDS patients in the terminal phase of
ADDIS ABABA, Dec 7 (IPS) - African leaders have committed themselves to intensifying the battle against AIDS and have called for international support at the conclusion of the Africa Development Forum (ADF) here Thursday. The African consensus on leadership to fight HIV/AIDS, which emerged from the meet, calls for a su
ADDIS ABABA, Dec 7 (IPS) - Alarmed by the high rate of HIV and AIDS among military men, African armies have begun to take part in the war against AIDS in order to prevent spread of the fatal disease and help those already infected live longer. According to a report issued last week by the Joint United Nation Programme
ABUJA, Dec 7 (IPS) - Even as African heads of state, doctors and community leaders are meeting this week in Ethiopia to develop continental strategies to tackle the AIDS epidemic, Nigeria has announced its endorsement of the use of traditional medicine to treat the disease. Government is currently in support of ho
ADDIS ABABA, Dec 6 (IPS) - When Zambia s former president, Kenneth Kaunda, preaches about HIV/AIDS, it takes on a personal twinge, having lost a son to the scourge more than a decade ago. Here to deliver a personal message to delegates at the African Development Forum 2000 which ends Thursday, Kaunda told of the pain o
ADDIS ABABA, Dec 6 (IPS) - Young people attending the African Development Forum (ADF) on AIDS here are urging the continent s leaders to listen to their input and take them seriously in the fight against HIV/AIDS. We are the most affected but we are not involved in policy making, in programmes that deal with HIV/AIDS.
ADDIS ABABA, Dec 6 (IPS) - While the international community fell over itself to mobilise resources to protect its computers from the millennium bug, the same sense of urgency has not been seen in the search for funds to curb Africa s AIDS crisis. The world is estimated to have ploughed between 300 billion dollars ¡ sl
ADDIS ABABA, Dec 6 (IPS) - The United Nations s Children s Fund (UNICEF) executive director, Carol Bellamy, has called on African leaders to join a global campaign for the abolishment of all school fees for the continent s 42 million primary school aged children who are not going to school. In Africa alone, almost half
ADDIS ABABA, Dec 5 (IPS) ¡ In the corridors of the UN Economic Commission for Africa s conference centre where African officials are meeting over AIDS and leadership, one can almost hear the frustration in the shuffling feet of delegates going from session to session. Some feel helpless, others are angry that more than
ADDIS ABABA, Dec 4 (IPS) - At 20 years old, fresh from college with an exciting job as a junior consultant at an employment agency and a life that could only get sweeter, Charlotte Mjele s life seemed to freeze when she learnt she was HIV positive two years ago. From being devastated by the news of my HIV status and ha
NEW DELHI, Dec 1 (IPS) - Visitors to India are delighted to discover that they can buy medicines like Ranitidine used to treat blood pressure, at a fraction of the cost it would cost them at home. Pharmaceutical drugs are high on the list of contraband goods regularly smuggled to neighbouring
UNITED NATIONS, Dec 1 (IPS) - Participants at World AIDS Day activities in New York Friday have emphasised the tragic fact that women are now more than twice as likely as men to be living with HIV/AIDS. Highlighting this terrifying pattern during a town hall meeting in observance of World AIDS Day at the UN Mark Malloc
MOSCOW Dec 01 (IPS) - An increasing number of Russians are falling prey to the HIV/AIDS virus and Vadim Pokrovsky, director of the Institute for Preventing and Combating AIDS, says Russia can no longer forestall the AIDS disaster - because it is already happening. However deputy health Minister, Gennady Onishchenko, sa
NEW DELHI, Nov 30 (IPS) - On the eve of World AIDS Day Dec. 1, the Indian government has claimed that HIV spread has been arrested in the country, but not many are willing to believe this. The rate of spread of HIV/AIDS is not so fast as previously projected and there is evidence that it has reached a plateau, Health M
NAIROBI, Nov 29 (IPS) - A new report indicates that, for the first time, the incidence of HIV/AIDS may have stabilised in parts of sub-Saharan Africa, the worst hit region. In the joint report: AIDS in Africa - Country by Country , the UNAIDS and the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), provide new data on the dramati
GENEVA, Nov 28 (IPS) - International health authorities warned on Tuesday that there is no reason to adopt a complacent attitude towards HIV/AIDS, even though this year s report on the epidemic shows signs that it is levelling off in some countries. AIDS is not a closed case because this year 5.3 million people were in
DURBAN Nov 17, 2000 (IPS) - Decisions in health care in Africa were made on the basis of what was going to be cost effective, the vice chairperson of Zimbabwe s Medicines Control Authority and University of Zimbabwe associate professor Dr. Norman Zimunda Nyazema told the Consumers International 16th World Congress in D
GENEVA, Nov 16 (IPS) - Patent protection laws in developing countries can respond to national health policy and serve the needs of the poor without violating international commitments, says a new report on intellectual property rights. Carlos Correa, of the University of Buenos Aires, prepared the study which advises d
LUSAKA Nov 14 (IPS) - Zambia , one of the sub Saharan African countries that have been worst hit by the deadly HIV/AIDS epidemic this week announced radical measures to step up the fight against the disease. It will test some 10,000 pregnant women and put them on a drug that will primarily prevent transmission to the b
LAGOS, Nov 12 (IPS) - Innovative ways are being employed by stakeholders to control and combat the spread of HIV-AIDS which currently afflicts some 5.4 percent of Nigeria s estimated 110 million population. NGOs, seeking new partners to the anti-Aids campaign, recently introduced an Internet chat forum as they begin to
RIO DE JANEIRO, Nov 10 (IPS) - Not only does AIDS endanger millions of human lives, it is also threatening a core institution of capitalism, the private ownership of knowledge in the form of patents, at least in the pharmaceutical sector. Brazil , a country of 168 million, said it would refuse to recognise the intellec
RIO DE JANEIRO, Nov 8 (IPS) - While anti-retroviral drugs represent a big stride in the fight against AIDS, only one of every 20 people infected with HIV has access to the new medications due to their high cost, experts gathered in this Brazilian city reported Wednesday. That was one of the chief conclusions of the pan
NEW DELHI, Nov 8 (IPS) - If India s official AIDS control agency is to be believed, its efforts have dramatically lowered the incidence of HIV in what was known to be the area most vulnerable to the dreaded disease. According to latest figures published by the government s National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO), Ind
RIO DE JANEIRO, Nov 7 (IPS) - Although a full one-third of the 1.6 million people living with the AIDS virus in Latin America and the Caribbean are concentrated in Brazil , the countries of the Caribbean and Central America have the highest proportion of HIV- positive individuals in the region. The most alarming si
MEXICO CITY, Nov 3 (IPS World Desk) - The efficacy of anti- retroviral drugs to treat those infected with HIV is among the issues to be discussed next week, when members of the Latin American and Caribbean health communities gather for a regional conference on HIV/AIDS in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil . Delegates to
BANGK0K, Nov 3 (IPS) - Thailand s AIDS control programme is a model for developing nations, but the country should reverse sharp cuts in spending to fight the pandemic and shed legal inhibitions in tackling it, the World Bank said here Friday. In the past seven years, a highly successful programme centred on the commer
HAVANA, Oct 30 (IPS) - A campaign aimed at fighting the rise in AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) in Cuba is targetting women in its bid to promote condom use, because health authorities point out that women are in a more vulnerable position than men. The condom is not only for men. You can suggest th
PORT OF SPAIN, Oct 27 (IPS) - It was supposed to be their moment of glory. After years of campaigning, the Trinidad and Tobago government this week finally gave the green light for local researchers to be part of an international campaign against the deadly HIV virus that c
CALCUTTA, India , Oct 24 (IPS) - Fourteen-year-old Shefali knows she has lost life s battle. Outwardly, she is listless and morose. But inside, she seethes with anger as she remembers the past few years of her life. Shefali is infected with HIV, picked up during the agonising years she spent in a dank and dark, windowl
MEXICO CITY, Oct 23 (IPS World Desk) - When a leading United Nations agency named the winners of its Race Against Poverty awards this month, it amplified the link between poverty and the Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS). For the four recipients, from countries as far afield as Nicaragua an d
KATHMANDU, Oct 20 (IPS) - Sitting in his home in Nepal s capital, Sunil Pokharel is thinking hard how to shake up development policy makers and people in this country, who believe that the AIDS virus is not a problem for the small Himalayan nation. The veteran stage actor is giving finishing touches to the script of a
NAIROBI, Oct 20 (IPS) - The African trade union movement has launched a 6.3 million US dollar campaign to fight the HIV/AIDS pandemic in the continent. The five-year mother of all campaigns will not just be fighting for the quality of life for workers, but also their right to life, through awareness and cheaper AIDS dr
BUENOS AIRES, Oct 20 (IPS) - A loud wake-up call to the magnitude of the AIDS epidemic in the developing world coincided Friday with the warm response that greeted the development of a vaccine that can slow down the progression of the disease in an individual infected with the AIDS-causing virus HIV. While the prestigi
Port-au-Prince, Oct 20 (IPS) - Though precise statistics do not yet exist on how the Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) has ravaged Haiti , public education campaigns are believed to be making a positive effect on people s behaviour. Many who consider themselves healthy are no longer wary of casual contact with
UNITED NATIONS, Oct 18 (IPS) - Mark Malloch Brown, head of UN Development Programme (UNDP), thinks the AIDS crisis is more devastating and more deadly than any comparable crisis in the world today. You can get a summit at short notice on a political crisis, he complains, but you cannot get a summit on HIV/AIDS. At
HARARE, Oct 17 (IPS) - Going public about being HIV positive has, in some communities, meant death or often being eschewed from society. In a society where those infected with HIV or AIDS tend to keep their illness unknown, Catherine Phiri s bold decision to go public about her HIV positive status in 1990 has helped in
BRUSSELS, Oct 12 (IPS) ¡ Parliamentarians from the European Union (EU) and the 77 states of the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) group held a public hearing here Thursday to examine the effectiveness of their combined efforts to deal with the AIDS epidemic. The hearing came on the final day of the first ACP-EU Join
BANGKOK, Oct 11 (IPS) - Maire Bopp Dupont, like millions of people around the world who are HIV-positive, was devastated when she first found out she had the virus. But unlike the majority who keep silent because of fear or shame, the French Polynesian journalist has come out publicly about her status and has since inv
UNITED NATIONS, Oct 6 (IPS) - Alarmed at the devastation caused by Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS), the United Nations is planning to hold a Special Session of the 189-member General Assembly to co-ordinate and intensify international efforts to combat one of the world s deadliest diseases. The three-day Spe
BANGKOK, Oct 6 (IPS) - When the United Nations department in charge of AIDS launched its global campaign in March this year to combat the killer disease, it had men clearly in mind. Its chosen theme was: Men Make a Difference. The selection by the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS ( UNAIDS ) of
NAIROBI, Oct 5 (IPS) - Religious groups and HIV/AIDS experts rarely agree on issues touching on condoms or polygamy in the case of Muslims. But at a conference being held in the Kenyan capital, both sides now seem prepared to bury their differences in the hope of finding common grounds for fighting the spread of the vi
NAIROBI, Oct 2 (IPS) - International experts, led by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), are meeting in the Kenyan capital this week to discuss cultural practices and beliefs that have frustrated efforts against the spread of HIV/AIDS in most developing countries. The experts,
PORT OF SPAIN, Sep 29 (IPS) - Young people on the island of Tobago are contracting HIV at an alarming rate because of superstitions and misconceptions about how the disease is spread and how it can be controlled, a new survey says. For instance, it is a widely held belief on the island that having sex with a virgin can
MUMBAI, India , Sep 26 (IPS) - Under the shade of a large tree, a group of men drink tea and play cards at the end of their long journeys to India s largest truck terminus, in this western city. They are soon joined by a young woman who begins asking them questions that they have got used to by now.
BRUSSELS, Sep 20 (IPS) - The European Commission is launching a series of proposals to speed up action against killer diseases - HIV/AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis - which kill 5 million people every year. The Commission, the executive arm of the European Union (EU), Wednesday adopted a communication entitled Acceler
GENEVA, Sep 13 (IPS) - The World Health Organisation (WHO) assures the poliomyelitis vaccines currently being used around the world are free of the virus that causes AIDS. The international institution has made the announcement in hopes of dispelling rumours that AIDS was spread via polio vaccines developed in Africa i
HARARE, Aug 29 (IPS) - Medical experts have hailed the decision, by three southern African governments, to spurn loan offers from the US Export-Import Bank for the purchase of anti-AIDS drugs. The three southern African countries, Namibia , South Africa and Zimbabwe have rejec
MEXICO CITY, Aug 27 (IPS World Desk) - India will serve as the launching pad for the first phase of an on-line health network that seeks to deliver instant medical information and assistance at no cost to 130 developing nations. This venture - the Health InterNetwork for Developing Nations - is one of the initiatives U
NEW DELHI, Aug 8 (IPS) - The Indian government has again joined issue with international AIDS agencies, disputing what it says are exaggerated figures of HIV-infected people in the country. Stung by criticism from opposition lawmakers in Parliament, who cited HIV statistics for India put out by UNAIDS
HARARE, Aug 8 (IPS) - Over then next decade, the UN warns, AIDS will kill more people in sub-Saharan Africa than all the wars of the 20th century. But political urgency to combat the disease remains missing from much of Africa, according to a just released World Disasters Report by the International Federation of Red C
MEXICO CITY, Jul 30 (IPS World Desk) - Those concerned about the need to help children orphaned by AIDS in the developing world have another ally in their ranks - the United States Senate. Last Wednesday, this legislative body approved a bill that authorised 600 million dollars to be spent over the next two years for A
WASHINGTON, Jul 26 (IPS) - Developing countries are not queuing up at the US trade department to take advantage of flexible patent regulations allowing them to resort to cheaper AIDS drugs, a trade official says. The reason may be due to mixed signals coming out of Washington. While the US government has been at pains
UNITED NATIONS, Jul 17 (IPS) - The UN Security Council, which deals primarily with war and peace, is launching its own battle against one of the world s most devastating diseases: Acquired Immune-Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS). The 15-member Council Monday unanimously adopted a resolution underlying the importance of halti
MEXICO CITY, Jul 16 (IPS World Desk) -- A few women from South Africa and Thailand have been chosen to play a pivotal role in the quest for a potent microbicide -- a cream or gel applied vaginally to protect women from being infected by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). According to the New York-based Populat
MEXICO CITY, Jul 14 (IPS World Desk) - The World Health Organisation (WHO) has added its voice to the emerging chorus that wants a radical plan implemented in readiness for the eventual arrival of an AIDS vaccine. For developing countries, this means ensuring that voluntary counselling and testing services are in place
DURBAN July 14 (IPS) - Not only do anti-retroviral drugs treat Aids and prevent the spread HIV -- the virus that causes the disease -- but it also creates opportunities to educate whole communities about the illness. At the Aids 2000 conference, this week the President of the South African Medical Research Council, Mal
UNTIED NATIONS, Jul 12 (IPS) - Nations must commit to the largest mobilisation of resources in their history if they hope to defeat the HIV/AIDS pandemic, the UN Children s Fund (UNICEF) said Wednesday. Armed with findings that HIV/AIDS infects six people under the age of 24 every minute, UNICEF said the nations of the
NEW YORK, Jul 11 (IPS) The Mulago Hospital in Kampala, Uganda will be remembered as one of the great landmarks along the road toward controlling the spread of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) that causes AIDS. For it is there that the first systematic test of an HIV vaccine in Africa has been carried out over the
RIO DE JANEIRO, Jun 11 (IPS) - HIV, the virus that causes AIDS (acquired immuno-deficiency syndrome), is taking its toll on human life and on the Roman Catholic Church, especially in Brazil , home to the largest Catholic population in the world. The Brazilian Bishops Conference has adopted the Vatican s policy against
DURBAN, Jul 11 (IPS) - It would take 60-billion US dollars to buy anti-retroviral drugs for all the people living with Aids who need them but cannot pay the price, the 13th International Aids conference in Durban has heard. The United Kingdom-based Panos Institute put the amount in perspective by revealing that it amou
DURBAN July 10 (IPS) - Effective Aids drugs which are inaccessible to the poor as well as South African president Thabo Mbeki s dogged stance on the cause of the pandemic are twin themes already dominating the 13th international Aids conference under way in Durban, South Africa. The mega-gathering of activists, governm
MEXICO CITY, Jul 9 (IPS World Desk) - AIDS activists get another opportunity to champion the cause of human rights for those living with the killer disease at this week s 13th International AIDS Conference, in Durban, South Africa . Of particular importance to these advocates is the need to secure greater community sup
UNITED NATIONS, Jul 6 (IPS) - The United Nations, fearing the spread of AIDS among peacekeepers, has purchased over 1.5 million condoms for distribution to UN troops in Sierra Leone and East Timor. The contraceptives, which are intended as protective measures against the deadly disease, are to be distributed on the bas
NEW DELHI, Jul 3 (IPS) - A new U.N. report showing over 300,000 AIDS-related deaths in India last year, has revived charges that Western donors are neglecting bigger public health problems in the country. The Indian government s World Bank-funded National AIDS Control Organisation has questioned the findings of the
MEXICO CITY, Jun 30 (IPS World Desk) Malawi has been chosen as the s ite for a study that seeks to examine the impact of HIV/AIDS on largely agriculture-based rural communities. This study, conducted by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), will pay particular attention to the needs of the farming population aff
JOHANNESBURG June 28 (IPS) - Despite seemingly overwhelming increases in the number of people infected with AIDS in Africa, there are indications that community-based prevention and treatment programmes can halt the spread of HIV -- the virus that causes the disease. Speaking at the South African release of the Joint U
BANGKOK, Jun 26 (IPS) - More Thais living with HIV will have greater access to cheaper treatment, if the government manages to overcome red tape and pressure againt the purchase and production of generic drugs. Public Health Minster Korn Dabbaransi announced on Jun 19 that the ministry would buy the cheaper generic dru
GENEVA, Jun 13 (IPS) - Denying adolescents and even young children information that could save them from HIV/AIDS is completely unacceptable, agreed reproductive health experts at a United Nations-sponsored debate. It is essential to invest much more in education and improving the information available to young people,
ROME, Jun 22 (IPS) - The fight against acquired immuno-deficiency syndrome (AIDS) in Africa, which is home to the majority of people struggling with the disease, constitutes one of the main objectives of Italy s development aid efforts against poverty this year. The initiative concentrates on low-income countries hit p
BRUSSELS, May 31 (IPS) - Recognising the global threat played by communicable diseases such as HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis , the European Union (EU) and the United States Wednesday pledged to work together in partnership with the countries concerned to combat and control the illnesses. While the threat is
NEW DELHI, May 29 (IPS) - A controversial AIDS pamphlet that put its activist authors in jail, triggering nationwide charges of rights abuse, has revived criticism of the government s handling of its ambitious World Bank-funded HIV control programme. While rapping the excessive use of state power against the publishers
KINGSTON, May 26 (IPS) - Almost 18 years after the first case of the Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) was discovered here there is still a high level of ignorance about how the disease is contracted particularly among the young. A survey carried out by the Ministry of Health in 1996, the results of which were
SINGAPORE, May 24 (IPS) - Singapore sees its deportation of nine foreign women with HIV this month as a self-protective step, but critics say the move only heightens the stigma against people living with the virus and violates their rights. The nine, married to Singaporean nationals, were reported to have been deported
PORT-AU-PRINCE, May 18 (IPS) - Several Haitian religious and social organisations will join individuals and groups around the world on May 21 to pledge their solidarity with past and present victims of AIDS by participating in the 17th International AIDS Candlelight Memorial. Throughout hospitals and churches on that d
MEXICO CITY, May 18 (IPS World Desk) - Now that Africa is in line for cheaper drugs to treat its HIV sufferers, is its health services equipped to deliver the triple-therapy cocktail necessary to aid these patients? Medical experts have questioned whether the countries of Africa, many of which are listed among the poor
UNITED NATIONS, May 11 (IPS) - An international medical aid agency has expressed strong reservations over a joint public/private sector agreement to provide inexpensive drugs and health care to the millions of people suffering from the deadly disease Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS). The concept of dramatical
WASHINGTON, May 10 (IPS) - An executive order signed Wednesday by US President Bill Clinton will allow African countries easier access to medical technologies and inexpensive AIDS drugs as they fight an epidemic regarded as a national security threat by the US government. The executive order directs the US government t
MAPUTO, May 9 (IPS) - The stadium is packed. The crowd cheers wildly. This is a key match for Mozambique s first league soccer cup. The players emerge from the tunnels. But they are not wearing their team colors. Instead, they wear white T-shirts and white caps emblazoned with a logo: a soccer ball bouncing on top of t
WASHINGTON, May 2 (IPS) - With the United States government now formally recognising the HIV/AIDS pandemic as a threat to US national security, it should push for faster and deeper debt relief for those countries, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, which are most threatened by the disease, according to an influential ec
MAPUTO, May 02 (IPS) - Some traditional beliefs and practices run counter to HIV/AIDS campaigns hampering progress, say Mozambican researchers. Take the belief in kaka , for example. In Zambezia, people believe a sexually transmitted disease can be cured by having sex. The bad spirit moves on to another body and you ar
JOHANNESBURG, April 27 (IPS) - President Thabo Mbeki is engaged in a growing war of words with key intellectuals, scientists and medical practioners for his plan to spend state funds investigating the link between the HIV virus and Aids. In the latest volley the 16 000 doctors, who are members of the SA Medical Associa
JOHANNESBURG April 6 (IPS) - South Africa s AIDS prevention strategy has developed major chinks in it s armour as government and community organisations involved in the battle continue to wrestle over the direction of the programme. Mark Heywood of the Aids Law Project summed up the tensions; Non Governmental Organisat
BRUSSELS, Mar 30 (IPS) - Mother-to-child transmission of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, has led to the death of over 3.6 million children in recent years, with another 1.2 million reportedly infected. For Lieve Fransen, these statistics underscore a woeful lack of understanding - or even denial - among leaders that f
BRUSSELS, Mar 30 (IPS) - Mother-to-child transmission of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, has led to the death of over 3.6 million children in recent years, with another 1.2 million reportedly infected. For Lieve Fransen, these statistics underscore a woeful lack of understanding - or even denial - among leaders that f
MEXICO CITY, (IPS World Desk, Mar 19) - Women health activists in India have criticised the theme for this year s global campaign to combat acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS), charging that it is gender biased. The criticisms were levelled soon after the United Nations department dealing with AIDS (
UNITED NATIONS, Mar 16 (IPS) - The United Nations warns that acquired immune-deficiency syndrome (AIDS) - one of the world s deadliest diseases - is not only taking a serious toll on women but also breaking down the institution of extended families and shifting gender roles in Third World societies. Madhu Bala Nath, sp
COLOMBO, Mar 7 (IPS) - AIDS is a four letter word that is taboo in many schools in Sri Lanka , say children from urban and rural schools who attended a youth symposium on AIDS here. Forget AIDS -- discussion on sex itself is taboo, even during the bio (biology) class. Our teachers are embarrassed to talk about it, sai
NEW DELHI, Mar 6 (IPS) - The high levels of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) prevalent in India and Bangladesh could help along the expected HIV/AIDS explosion in the South Asia region, says Peter Piot, executive director, UNAIDS .
GENEVA, Mar 6 (IPS) - The year 2000 World AIDS Campaign will concentrate on involving men in efforts to prevent the spread of a disease that has claimed 16.3 million lives since it began, announced the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS ( UNAIDS ) at the campaign s launch Monday in New Delhi. The UN agency
UNITED NATIONS, Feb 29 (IPS) - Experts warn that gender discrimination is putting women at increased risk for contracting HIV/AIDS, with 2.3 million new infections in 1999. Women are rapidly reaching and surpassing the number of men infected with HIV/AIDS (human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immune deficiency syndrom
MEXICO CITY (IPS World Desk) Feb 25 - People in more than 350 cities, towns and villages around the world have pledged to publicly demonstrate their solidarity with past and present victims of AIDS at this year s 17th International AIDS Candlelight Memorial, which will be held on May 21. Some health activists say they
NAIROBI, Feb 21 (IPS) - Kenya will soon have its own condom factory - a joint venture between a local company, Olag Enterprises, and the German CONDOMI AG, one of the world s largest condom manufacturing companies. The project is supported by the German Development Bank (DEG) within its public private partnership progr
KAMPALA, Feb 9 (IPS) - The arrest of a Ugandan army officer, who knowingly infected 30 partners with the deadly HIV virus, is set to become a landmark demonstration of the vulnerability of women to AIDS infection. Captain Paddy Steven Sekyalo, 40, of the Uganda People s Defense Force (UPDF), announced during prayers at
UNITED NATIONS, Feb 8 (IPS) - Speakers at a UN-sponsored meeting on AIDS in Africa Monday stressed the importance of private sector cooperation to combat the disease, particularly involving the pharmaceutical industry. However, the event failed to attract representatives from Western drug companies, which have come und
NEW DELHI, Feb 3 (IPS) - Far from inhibiting the Acquired Immuno- Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS), the World health Organisation (WHO)- approved drug AZT actually causes it, visiting independent researchers warned Indian health authorities here. Guided by WHO prescriptions, the World Bank-funded National AIDS Control Organ
HARARE, Jan 19 (IPS) - Zimbabwe s social and civic groups, which have opposed the introduction of a compulsory AIDS levy, have urged the government of President Robert Mugabe to suspend the collection of the tax until the issue is satisfactorily addressed. They say it is possible to raise funds through other means than
LAGOS, Jan 18 (IPS) - Nigeria s dancer Alero Obutu-Kuti, wife of the late Afro Jazz star Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, appears in no mood to talk to journalists. Kuti, who is admitted to the state-owned hospital in the Nigerian commercial capital of Lagos, is suffering from AIDS. I have been admitted to this hospital for a mont
UNITED NATIONS, Jan 10 (IPS) - The AIDS epidemic in Africa, which is overwhelming health care systems, devastating the continent s workforce and creating millions of orphans, was described as a cocktail of disasters by Secretary-General Kofi Annan at the first-ever Security Council debate on a health issue. At the init
BRAZZAVILLE, Jan 10 (IPS) - AIDS is the number one cause of death in the Congolese Armed Forces. Fourteen percent of servicemen are HIV-positive, armed forces health officials have revealed. According to the director of the First Military Zone s health service, Colonel Prosper Kinzonzi, the disease wiped out the equiva
LILONGWE, Jan 6 (IPS) - With increasing number of people dying of HIV/AIDS in Malawi , religious groups have been urged to consider promoting condom use among faithfuls, as strongly advocated by government and civil society. Over the years, religious groups in the small southern African nation, have consistently preach
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