2001

Mali to organise day to sensitise populace on AIDS
Panafrican News Agency - December 19, 2001
Bamako, Mali (PANA) - Mali s Sharing Foundation chaired by Adam Ba Konare, President Omar Konare s wife, will Saturday organise a function called Synchro-SIDA to highlight the fight against AIDS in the country. Under a Culture, Solidarity and AIDS project, Synchro-SIDA will be a broadcasting day of information and sens


Ghana's private urged sector to join HIV/AIDS fight
Panafrican News Agency - December 18, 2001
Accra, Ghana (PANA) - Ghana has contracted a 25 million US dollars to augment the 15 percent national health budget to be allocated to the fight against HIV/AIDS, the country s Vice President Aliu Mahama announced Tuesday. Mahame urged the private sector to also commit financial and materials resources in addition to e


76,800 condoms given out at anti-AIDS conference
Panafrican News Agency - December 18, 2001
Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso (PANA) - Some 76,800 condoms were distributed during the four-day 12th International Conference on AIDS and STDs in Africa (ICASA) held last week in Ouagadougou, a condom marketing agent revealed. Yacouba Tou, commercial officer at the association for the social promotion and marketing of cond


28.9 percent of Malian prostitutes are HIV-positive
Panafrican News Agency - December 18, 2001
Bamako, Mali (PANA) - Nearly 30 percent of Malian prostitutes are HIV-positive, according to an epidemiological survey conducted January-May this year throughout the country by the health ministry. The finding of the survey, issued in Bamako Monday, also shows a high proportion of AIDS sufferers among mobile vendors (6


US House Approves $1.3 Billion for Global AIDS Programmes
Panafrican News Agency - December 18, 2001
Jerome Hule, PANA Correspondent
New York, US (PANA) - The US House of Representatives has set the tone for enhanced US financing of the global AIDS campaign by approving nearly 1.3 billion dollars for AIDS programmes in the new fiscal year. The bill provides that 750 million dollars be contributed to the Global AIDS Trust Fund being set up by the UN


Circumcise all men to stop AIDS, says MP
Panafrican News Agency - December 18, 2001
Nairobi, Kenya (PANA) - A Kenyan member of parliament who has advocated for the practice of female genital mutilation (FGM) to continue has this week hit the headlines again - by demanding that all Kenyan men must be circumcised, too, as part of the war against HIV/AIDS. Peter Angwenyi, a former University of Nairobi l


Kenyan Church translates AIDS book into local languages
Panafrican News Agency - December 18, 2001
Nairobi, Kenya (PANA) - The Methodist Church in Kenya has translated the English version of a book it produced on HIV/AIDS, into local languages, in a bid to reach a larger readership with the message highlighting the dangers of the scourge. The Church s regional health and development co-ordinator, Florence Murugu sai


Zambian parenthood association refocuses on HIV/AIDS
Panafrican News Agency - December 15, 2001
Lusaka, Zambia (PANA) - The Planned Parenthood Association of Zambia (PPAZ) has shifted focus from Family Planning to youth sexuality and reproductive health, PPAZ secretary general Alice Lungu said. The Zambian News Agency (ZANA) quoted Lungu as explaining that because of the increasing impact of HIV/AIDS in the count


HIV/AIDS wreaks havoc on Zambian teachers
Panafrican News Agency - December 15, 2001
Lusaka, Zambia (PANA) - Zambian authorities have expressed concern at the death from HIV/AIDS of 93 teachers in the Copperbelt region alone, in the last two years. According Irene Malambo, who is HIV/AIDS coordinator at the ministry of Education, the ministry has set up a prevention programme countrywide for teachers a


Nigeria's HIV/AIDS vaccine plan for 2002
Panafrican News Agency - December 15, 2001
Lagos, Nigeria (PANA) - Nigeria s efforts to produce its own HIV/AIDS vaccine would formally take off in 2002, when a vaccine plan would be launched, according to a top official of the National Action Committee on AIDS (NACA). NACA Chairman Ibironke Akinsete said in Abuja Friday the Committee charged with producing the


ICASA calls for switch from prevention to treatment
Panafrican News Agency - December 14, 2001
Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso (PANA) - The 12th International Conference on AIDS and STDs in Africa (ICASA) ended Thursday evening in Ouagadougou with a recommendation to switch from prevention to treatment in efforts to control the pandemic. Speaking at the closing ceremony, ICASA chairman Prof. Robert Soudre noted that t


Alternate technique presented at AIDS conference in Burkina Faso
Panafrican News Agency - December 14, 2001
Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso (PANA) - An alternate technique for the counting of CD4-lymphocytes in the human body, developed by the Muraz Centre of Bobo Dioulasso in western Burkina Faso, in collaboration with the France s National AIDS Research Agency (ANRS), was presented to the public Thursday. It is worth noting


South African govt loses anti-AIDS drug court case
Panafrican News Agency - December 14, 2001
Johannesburg, South Africa (PANA) - A high court in Pretoria on Friday ordered the South African government to start supplying anti-AIDS drugs to pregnant mothers living with HIV, which leads to the incurable AIDS. President Thabo Mbeki s government will now be forced to provide these drugs to prevent mother to child t


Kenyan HIV/AIDS task force given more time
Panafrican News Agency - December 13, 2001
Nairobi, Kenya (PANA) - Kenya s Attorney General Amos Wako Thursday extended for a further six months, the mandate of a task force recently appointed to look into legal issues relating to HIV/AIDS in the country. The body, which was expected to submit its final report by 31 December 2001, now has up to 30 June 2002 to


Montagnier calls for greater AIDS awareness in Africa
Panafrican News Agency - December 13, 2001
Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso (PANA) - African countries most affected by AIDS need to be aware of the significance of the incurable disease, the chairman of the Global Foundation for AIDS Research and Prevention, Prof. Luc Montagnier, has said. In an interview with PANA in Ouagadougou during the 12th International Confere


Traditional medicine found to cure AIDS symptoms
Panafrican News Agency - December 13, 2001
Harare, Zimbabwe (PANA) - A scientific research institute in Zimbabwe said Thursday it had found that a variety of local traditional herbal medicines cured AIDS symptoms, particularly mental disorders. The Blair Research Institute said it had found that herbal medicines used by traditional healers to treat HIV and AIDS


Burkinabe pharmacists forgo profits on AIDS drug sale
Panafrican News Agency - December 13, 2001
Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso (PANA) - Pharmacists in Burkina Faso have agreed to forgo profits emerging from the sale of antiretrovirals drugs in the country. Victoire Benao, president of the national pharmacists association, announced the decision in Ouagadougou on Wednesday during a press conference held at the fringes


Initiative to broaden access to antiretrovirals in Africa
Panafrican News Agency - December 12, 2001
Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso (PANA) - Acc‚l‚rer l AccŠs , a joint initiative by the World health organization (WHO), the World Bank and five pharmaceutical companies, is improving access to health care for AIDS patients in Africa. Partners in the project have mobilised financial resources to the tune of one billion US dol


Cameroon cuts prices of AIDS drugs
Panafrican News Agency - December 12, 2001
Yaounde, Cameroon (PANA) - The government of Cameroon has announced a price cut on drugs, anti-retrovirals, treatment of opportunistic infections and essential medical components in the country s various provision centres and public hospitals. The decrease, which reaches 67 percent on some generic products, will be fin


WHO recommends the validation of traditional medicine
Panafrican News Agency - December 11, 2001
Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso (PANA) - The World Health Organisation (WHO) Tuesday recommended in Ouagadougou the validation of the efficiency, the harmlessness and the quality of traditional medicine and remedies which offer an alternative for the management of HIV/AIDS and opportunistic infections. Highly represented


Traditional medicine can cure HIV infections -- Doctor
Panafrican News Agency - December 11, 2001
Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso (PANA) - Eric Gbodossou, a Senegal-based medical doctor, who also practices herbal medicine, says traditional medicine can cure several opportunistic infections associated with HIV/AIDS. Gbodossou, President of NGO for the Promotion of Traditional Medicines under the French acronym PROMETRA,


Doctor Says AIDS Management In Niger Is Ineffective
Panafrican News Agency - December 11, 2001
Niamey, Niger (PANA) - AIDS patients in Niger will have to wait for some time before they gain access to triple therapy, National AIDS Control Programme director Kari Moukaila has said. Although triple therapy was the standard treatment for relieving pain in an AIDS patient, he said only two types of drugs were availab


Burkina rights body urges curative approach to HIV/AIDS
Panafrican News Agency - December 11, 2001
Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso (PANA) - Burkina Faso Human and People s Rights Movement has urged African governments to opt for a curative approach in their fight against AIDS. The movement s head, Halidou Ouedraogo, made the call Monday in his address to delegates attending the 12th International Conference on AIDS and Se


HIV/AIDS forum honours Burkinabe President
Panafrican News Agency - December 10, 2001
Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso (PANA) - The African Union against Sexually Transmitted Diseases Sunday in Ouagadougou awarded an honorary distinction on the fight against HIV/AIDS to President Blaise Compaore of Burkina Faso. The award, announced at the ongoing international conference on sexually transmitted diseases and A


Ouagadougou forum urges youth to take up HIV/AIDS challenge
Panafrican News Agency - December 10, 2001
Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso (PANA) - Speakers at the African Youth forum against HIV/AIDS holding in Ouagadougou Saturday challenged the continent s youth to come up with new strategies against the pandemic by the time the conference ends on 13 December. International Conference on AIDS and Sexually Transmitted Diseases


Uncertainty over Nigeria's AIDS drugs administration
Panafrican News Agency - December 10, 2001
Lagos, Nigeria (PANA) - The start of an ambitious health care project aimed at providing access to anti-retroviral drugs for AIDS sufferers in Nigeria was mired in uncertainty Monday. One Health Ministry official in Abuja, who asked not to be identified, said the programme did not start as scheduled due to the absence


UNAIDS director calls for new commitment against AIDS
Panafrican News Agency - December 10, 2001
Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso (PANA) - The head of the Joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS, Dr Peter Piot, has said the commitments made at international conferences this year must be met if the epidemic is to be effectively pushed back in Africa and other seriously affected areas. Turning back the epidemic requires nothing mor


Compaore declares AIDS as a developmental crisis
Panafrican News Agency - December 10, 2001
Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso (PANA) - President Blaise Compaore of Burkina Faso has declared AIDS as a major development crisis in African countries, where it is decimating the most economically active sections of the population. Compaore said this in Ouagadougou Sunday evening at the official opening of the 12th Internat


Benin schools get anti-AIDS Committee
Panafrican News Agency - December 9, 2001
Cotonou, Benin (PANA) - The Benin government has set up a Committee for the prevention of HIV/AIDS in the country s schools and Universities. Officials say the Committee would supervise and co-ordinate HIV/AIDS campaigns targeting young people. Committee Co-ordinator Avode Dossou Gilbert said the school is important,


Chissano warns Mozambicans of threat posed by AIDS
Panafrican News Agency - December 7, 2001
Maputo, Mozambique (PANA) - Mozambique is facing a challenge which, if not overcome, will compromise the country s social and economic development efforts , President Joaquim Chissano warned on Friday. The president was speaking of the threat posed by the lethal disease AIDS to the country s development. Opening a


South African freighters boost anti-AIDS campaign
Panafrican News Agency - December 7, 2001
Cape Town, South Africa (PANA) - South Africa s Road Freight Association (RFA) is injecting three million rand (about 280,000 US dollars) into the country s fight against AIDS, in conjunction with Department of Health. Officials said the grant would be used on AIDS policies and programmes in the long-distance trucking


Rise in HIV infection along Tanzania-Zambia highway, says study
Panafrican News Agency - December 7, 2001
Dar es Salaam, Tanzania (PANA) - Tanzanian health experts have reported a drastic increase of HIV cases in urban centres situated along the 1,000-km Tanzania- Zambia highway. A recent study conducted in Mbarali district in the south-western Tanzania region of Mbeya attributed the high HIV transmission rate to high leve


Mozambique Labour Ministry Staff Discuss AIDS
Panafrican News Agency - December 6, 2001
Maputo, Mozambique (PANA) - Mozambican Prime Minister Pascoal Mocumbi on Thursday stressed the importance of involving the country s working class in the struggle against AIDS. Opening a Labour Ministry national seminar on combating HIV/AIDS at the workplace, Mocumbi urged the meeting to activate all possible means to


Migrants in France intensify AIDS awareness inititives
Panafrican News Agency - December 5, 2001
Thomas Atenga, PANA Correspondent
Paris, France (PANA) - Migrants Against AIDS , AIDS Info Service (immigrants radio), AIDS Info Immigrants , says a broadcast on Paris-based FM 106.3 in initiatives to involve migrant populations in the fight against AIDS in France. The first control effort is to provide access to information on the disease, followed by


UNICEF to lay more emphasis on HIV/AIDS in its programmes
Panafrican News Agency - December 5, 2001
Nairobi, Kenya (PANA) - The Kenyan office of UNICEF Wednesday said that it would lay more emphasis on HIV/AIDS in its programmes for the next two and half years, in a major policy shift that will see 60 percent of the UN body s resources devoted to the scourge. UNICEF Country Office Representative, Nicholas Alipui, obs


Six out of 10 Malawian patients are HIV positive, says report
Panafrican News Agency - December 5, 2001
Blantyre, Malawi (PANA) - A World Bank report says that six out of every 10 patients admitted to Malawi s hospitals are HIV positive, a situation that is over-burdening the country s health ministry. The report says that up to 50 percent of admissions in medical wards and 85 percent of admissions in TB wards are HIV po


US firms deny Kenya access to generic anti-retrovirals
Panafrican News Agency - December 5, 2001
Nairobi, Kenya (PANA) - A cartel of American firms are against the manufacture or import of cheap generic anti-retrovirals (ARVs) by Kenyan pharmaceutical companies, a parliamentarian claimed Tuesday. Newton Kulundu told Parliament that despite Kenya s Industrial Property Act passed in August this year, the government


Senegal gets second AIDS screening centre
Panafrican News Agency - December 4, 2001
Dakar, Senegal (PANA) - Senegal has been equipped with a second anonymous and voluntary HIV/AIDS screening centre based in Kaolack, the third most populated city. The first centre was established years ago in Dakar, the capital. Kaolack (with 90,000 inhabitants) was chosen mainly because the prevalence rate of 1.8 perc


Women in Botswana learn how to use anti-retrovirals
Panafrican News Agency - December 4, 2001
Gaborone, Botswana (PANA) - In a bid to protect unborn babies against infection with HIV, a non-governmental organisation in Botswana Tuesday started teaching HIV-positive women about proper use of anti-retrovirals. Under what it has dubbed buddies programme , the Coping Centre for People Living With Aids (COCEPWA) has


12th African AIDS Conference opens Sunday in Ouagadougou
Panafrican News Agency - December 4, 2001
Tepitapia Sannah, PANA Journalist
Dakar, Senegal (PANA) - The 12th International Conference on AIDS and Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STDs) in Africa (ICASA), opens in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso Sunday, to examine new approaches in the fight against the diseases. Professor Robert Soudre, Organising chair of the week-long Conference, also said the meeti


Film star warns of imminent AIDS explosion in Madagascar
Panafrican News Agency - December 3, 2001
Christophe Rocheland, PANA Correspondent
Saint Denis, Reunion (PANA) - Malagasy film director, Solo Randrasana warns in his latest production, Liza, against trivialising AIDS in the country where explosive relaxation of sexual behaviours exists. The movie is an educational tool which exists in French and Malagasy versions to target urban and rural communities


Botswana President Mogae wins anti-AIDS award
Panafrican News Agency - December 3, 2001
Gaborone, Botswana (PANA)- Botswana President Festus Mogae has been awarded the Harvard AIDS Institute s 2001 AIDS leadership award in recognition of his contribution in the fight against HIV/AIDS. Mogae becomes the first African head of state to receive the award given annually to people who have shown outstanding vis


Harvard Project supports Nigeria's anti-AIDS campaign
Panafrican News Agency - December 3, 2001
Segun Adeyemi, PANA Correspondent
Lagos, Nigeria (PANA) - Nigeria s efforts to stem its rising HIV/AIDS cases have received a boost with a five-year project by the US Harvard School of Public Health. The AIDS Prevention Initiative in Nigeria (APIN) project, has designed a number of intervention activities in three pilot States - Lagos and Oyo, both in


Harvard Project supports Nigeria's anti-AIDS campaign
Panafrican News Agency - December 3, 2001
Segun Adeyemi, PANA Correspondent
Lagos, Nigeria (PANA) - Nigeria s efforts to stem its rising HIV/AIDS cases have received a boost with the take-off of a five-year project by the US Harvard School of Public Health. The AIDS Prevention Initiative in Nigeria (APIN) project, has designed a number of intervention activities in three pilot States - Lagos a


Liberian high court wants law to protect AIDS patients
Panafrican News Agency - December 3, 2001
Monrovia, Liberia (PANA) - Chief justice Gloria Scott of the supreme court of Liberia is calling for a national debate on the legal framework to protect those infected with HIV/AIDS, the local press reported Monday. Scott said such forum should involve lawyers, doctors, caregivers, social workers, civil society and mem


Harvard Project supports Nigeria's anti-AIDS campaign
Panafrican News Agency - December 3, 2001
Segun Adeyemi, PANA Correspondent
Lagos, Nigeria (PANA) - Nigeria s efforts to stem its rising HIV/AIDS cases have received a boost with the take-off of a five-year project by the US Harvard School of Public Health. The AIDS Prevention Initiative in Nigeria (APIN) project, has designed a number of intervention activities in three pilot States - Lagos a


Kenyan teenagers crowned as local beauties
Panafrican News Agency - December 3, 2001
Nairobi, Kenya (PANA) - Beautiful Rose Atieno, 18, is an orphan whose parents succumbed to the dreaded HIV/AIDS some years ago. Her father died when she was only five and her mother, who had to fend for the family of five children from her vegetable-vending business, followed three years later. For Atieno, life has


Second AIDS outbreak feared in Reunion after initial success
Panafrican News Agency - December 3, 2001
Saint Denis, Reunion (PANA) - Reunion is probably one of the few African regions where the AIDS epidemic, first reported on the island in 1987, was quickly brought under control. The belated outbreak of the disease enabled Reunion to draw from the experience of continental France , w


Kenyan hospital managing scourge with antiretrovirals
Panafrican News Agency - December 3, 2001
Nairobi, Kenya (PANA) - Sharp reductions in prices of antiretrovirals (ARVs) announced by two leading pharmaceutical companies, and frenzied efforts by a Nairobi hospital to provide affordable treatment to HIV/AIDS patients, is revolutionising the management of the pandemic in Kenya. It is hoped that a further redu


Burkina Faso AIDS patients looking for alternatives
Panafrican News Agency - December 3, 2001
Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso (PANA) - With 620,000 AIDS patients in 1997, representing an HIV prevalence rate of 7,71 percent, Burkina Faso is the third most affected country in West Africa, behind Cote d Ivoire and Togo . According to a UNDP report on the evolution of HIV/AIDS in Burkina Faso, the HI


Musicians pull crowd with AIDS Day theme
Panafrican News Agency - December 3, 2001
Nairobi, Kenya (PANA) - Some 10,000 people thronged Nairobi s Nyayo Stadium to listen and dance to music laden with strong anti-AIDS messages marking World AIDS Day. The day, marked world-wide on every 1 December since its start 1998, turned into a day of entertainment and family funs as parents, accompanied by their c


Chissano now favours campaign for condom use
Panafrican News Agency - December 2, 2001
Quelimane, Mozambique (PANA) - Mozambican President Joaquim Chissano has urged citizens to break their taboos by speaking about AIDS simply and very clearly . In an address Saturday in the central province of Zambezia, during observance of the International Day of Struggle Against AIDS, Chissano broke one of the major


World AIDS Day commemorated in South Africa
Panafrican News Agency - December 2, 2001
Cape Town, South Africa (PANA) - South Africa, the country with the highest recorded AIDS cases in the world, observed World AIDS Day with dozens of rallies, marches and speeches throughout the country. Of the 40 million people living with HIV/AIDS in the world, more than 4 million are in South Africa. Even this 4 mill


Zimbabwe marks AIDS Day amid increase in infection
Panafrican News Agency - December 2, 2001
Harare, Zimbabwe (PANA) - A recent press report that six Zimbabwean cabinet ministers had AIDS, though unconfirmed, has re-focused the attention of the public on the disease as the southern African nation joined other countries Saturday in marking World AIDS Day. The weekly Financial Gazette newspaper, quoting a medica


HIV/AIDS awareness spiral in Liberia in 2001
Panafrican News Agency - December 2, 2001
Peter Kahler, PANA Correspondent
Monrovia, Liberia (PANA) - Clad in T-shirts with messages inscribed on them and carrying banners about the danger of HIV/AIDS, hundreds of Liberians paraded the streets of Monrovia to mark World AIDS Day. For some hours, the marchers kept the traffic moving at a snail s pace around the city. It is this year that th


Curbing AIDS becoming elusive in Tanzania
Panafrican News Agency - December 2, 2001
Deodatus Mfugale, PANA Correspondent
Dar es Salaam, Tanzania (PANA) - Almost two decades after it was first reported in Tanzania, AIDS has become the biggest threat to the country s development after malaria. The Government of Tanzania, like many others in sub-Saharan Africa, depends on a small number of highly skilled personnel in almost all areas of pub


Kufuor wants community initiatives to curb HIV/AIDS
Panafrican News Agency - December 2, 2001
Accra, Ghana (PANA) - Ghana s president, John Agyekum Kufuor on Saturday urged district assemblies to assist traditional leaders to develop community based initiatives to help curb the spread of the HIV/AIDS that is gradually wiping away the population. He said in a speech read on his behalf at this year s World AIDS D


First batch of anti-AIDS drugs arrives in Liberia
Panafrican News Agency - December 2, 2001
Peter Kahler, PANA Correspondent
Monrovia, Liberia (PANA) - On the heels of the observance of World AIDS Day, a pharmaceutical company here has announced the arrival on the Liberian market of the first commercial consignment of anti-HIV/AIDS drugs. Prior to the import of the drugs, anti-retroviral drugs available in the country were donations from phi


HIV/AIDS cases increasing in Libya
Panafrican News Agency - December 2, 2001
Tripoli, Libya (PANA) - The HIV/AIDS pandemic continues to rise in Libya, according to official statistics released on World AIDS Day. Between January and October 2001, the Libyan National Committee against HIV/AIDS (CNLLS) recorded 319 new infections. Of these, 266 were males, 45 women and eight children. Foreign


Behaviour change, key to halting AIDS spread
Panafrican News Agency - December 1, 2001
Wene Owino, PANA Correspondent
Gaborone, Botswana (PANA) - Calls for positive behaviour change and unity in the fight against AIDS, dominated the commemoration of the World AIDS Day in Botswana Saturday. President Festus Mogae, leading the campaign under the global theme: I care, do you,? stressed the need for citizens to change their attitude towar


Enlisting men in the fight against HIV/AIDS
Panafrican News Agency - December 1, 2001
Linda Asante Agyei, PANA Correspondent
Accra, Ghana (PANA) - A young man made a fatal mistake on his 24th birthday and has a painful confession to make. He had thought that AIDS was a spiritual sickness associated with a category of people, especially women I therefore counted myself out, but I have been proved wrong, confessed young man Kofi, who is HIV


Nigeria battles AIDS on all fronts
Panafrican News Agency - December 1, 2001
Segun Adeyemi, PANA Correspondent
Lagos, Nigeria (PANA) - Rattled by the rising HIV infection in the country, Nigeria s federal government has mapped out a multi-pronged plan to stem new infections and cater for people already infected. The plan includes massive enlightenment campaigns, management of sexually transmitted diseases, prevention of mother-


Kufuor tells men to get more involved in AIDS fight
Panafrican News Agency - November 30, 2001
Accra, Ghana (PANA) - President John Agyekm Kufuor has become Ghana s chief campaigner against AIDS, and on Friday he urged men to get more involved in the fight against the pandemic. He said the notion that having unprotected sex was a demonstration of their manhood should be discarded. Let us treat our women fol


AIDS infection accelerates in 2001
Panafrican News Agency - November 30, 2001
Jerome Hule, PANA Correspondent
New York, UN (PANA) - Intensified global attention to it in the recent past notwithstanding, the HIV/AIDS epidemic accelerated in the world in 2001, with other regions racing to catch up with Africa, the hotbed of the disease, UN data has shown. In its reports to mark this year s World AIDS Day on 1 December,


Kabila vows to intensify anti-AIDS campaign
Panafrican News Agency - November 30, 2001
Kinshasa, DR Congo (PANA) – DR Congo President Jos eph Kabila Friday pledged more active participation in the anti-AIDS fight. The Congolese leader made the commitment during discussions with visiting WHO Regional Director for Africa, Ebrahim Malik Samba. Samba, who is in Kinshasa for Saturday s World AIDS Day activiti


HIV/AIDS prevalence drops 0.4 percent in Senegal
Panafrican News Agency - November 30, 2001
Dakar, Senegal (PANA) - The HIV/AIDS prevalence rate in Senegal dropped from 1.8 percent in 1999 to 1.4 percent in 2000, with sufferers estimated at 80,000, official sources affirmed Friday in Dakar. According to figures at the ministry of Health and Prevention, the country recorded 5 000 AIDS-related deaths in 2000, b


Botswana has reason to celebrate on World AIDS Day
Panafrican News Agency - November 30, 2001
Gaborone, Botswana (PANA) - Botswana is hosting a workshop of scientists, pharmacists and donor agencies seeking to establish networks of HIV vaccine trials in the southern Africa. The workshop, which comes only a day before the commemoration of the World AIDS Day (WAD) Saturday, is seeking to involve all countries in


UNAIDS says anti-AIDS campaign at crossroads
Panafrican News Agency - November 30, 2001
Dakar, Senegal (PANA) - As the World marks the AIDS Day, Saturday (December 1), the joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS ( UNAIDS ), says the global fight has reached a crossroads . This year, we have reached a crossroads. In a charged and changed world, our test is whether we can begin to decisively roll back the epidemic,


HIV prevalence rises in Nigeria
Panafrican News Agency - November 30, 2001
Segun Adeyemi, PANA Correspondent
Lagos, Nigeria (PANA) - The number of Nigerians infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, has increased from 2.6 million in 1999 to three million in 2001, according to a report on the latest National HIV/Syphilis Sentinel Survey. The report released by the federal government Thursday, ahead of the December 1 World


AIDS gains more ground in Cameroon
Panafrican News Agency - November 30, 2001
Yaounde, Cameroon (PANA) - There is a growing wave of HIV/AIDS infection in Cameroon where prevalence rate which was 0.5 percent in 1987, reached 1 percent in 1990, 4.89 percent in 1997 and 7.2 percent in 1998. According to statistics at the national committee on the fight against AIDS (CNLS), the prevalence rate is cu


Cameroon initiates fresh approach against AIDS
Panafrican News Agency - November30, 2001
Yaounde, Cameroon (PANA) - In observance of national AIDS control week, the government of Cameroon said it has launched an operation dubbed 100 percent condoms meant to augment other activities undertaken by the National AIDS Control Committee for 2000-2003. The committee has embarked on the prevention of HIV/AIDS and


Thousands embark on door-to-door campaign against AIDS
Panafrican News Agency - November 30, 2001
Cape Town, South Africa (PANA) - In a bid to deepen public understanding of HIV/AIDS care issues, 7,000 volunteers on Friday began working door-to-door across South Africa s Gauteng province. They will use seven million stickers and 2.5 million pamphlets in their attempt to reach over three million people. The camp


Youths in Benin, Togo launch war against HIV/AIDS
Panafrican News Agency - November 30, 2001
Isseki Therese, PANA Correspondent
Cotonou, Benin (PANA) - Youths from Togo and Benin launched on Thursday in Cotonou an operation known as Crusade for Revival whose objective is to combat AIDS in Africa. The youths expressed their determination to use methodologies initiated by ACS Worldwide and the NGO World Peace to effectively control the AIDS scour


Malawians warned ahead of World AIDS Day
Panafrican News Agency - November 30, 2001
Blantyre, Malawi (PANA) - This year s commemoration of World AIDS Day in Malawi will be held at the Kwacha Conference Centre in Blantyre on Saturday, the country s deputy minister of Health Elizabeth Lamba said in Blantyre. She commended the choice of this year s World AIDS Day theme: Young men and HIV/AIDS, with the


Demand for child sex is linked to spread of HIV/AIDS, UNICEF warns
Panafrican News Agency - November 29, 2001
Nairobi, Kenya (PANA) - The head of UNICEF said Thursday that one of the most troubling and complex aspects of the spread of HIV/AIDS is its link to the widespread sexual exploitation of children. Whether it is myths about the curative powers of sex with young girls, or macho attitudes that sanction violent sexual beha


Mozambique to protect HIV-positive workers in new bill
Panafrican News Agency - November 29, 2001
Maputo, Mozambique (PANA) - The Mozambican parliament Thursday unanimously approved a bill aimed at protecting workers who are HIV-positive against discrimination at the workplace. The bill will make it illegal to fire workers merely because they are suffering from AIDS, or test positive for HIV, the virus that causes


ILO publishes guidelines on HIV/AIDS
Panafrican News Agency - November 29, 2001
Abidjan, Cote d Ivoire (PANA) - The International Labour Office (ILO) Wednesday presented a digest of practical guidelines on HIV/AIDS for workers, at a sub regional workshop in Abidjan. The 50-page document on HIV/AIDS within the labour world, highlights prevention, managing and alleviating the impact of HIV/AIDS on l


Mozambican premier warns of rising AIDS deaths
Panafrican News Agency - November 29, 2001
Maputo, Mozambique (PANA) - Large numbers of state employees are dying of AIDS in Mozambique, Prime Minister Pascoal Mocumbi said in Maputo Thursday. Addressing a press briefing, Mocumbi, who is a medical doctor by profession, said that reliable statistics on AIDS-related deaths were not available because of under-repo


Point-Noire's HIV prevalence reaches 14 percent
Panafrican News Agency - November 29, 2001
Brazzaville, Congo (PANA) - An estimated HIV prevalence of 14 percent prevails in the southern Congolese port city of Pointe- Noire compared with about 8 percent in Brazzaville, the capital official sources said Thursday. The situation of the disease is still disturbing in Pointe- Noire , said a health official, two da


British Airways collects Ksh 55.5m for HIV/AIDS victims
Panafrican News Agency - November 29, 2001
Nairobi, Kenya (PANA) - British Airways, through the United Nations Children s Education Fund (UNICEF), has collected over Ksh 55.5 million (about 0.7 million US dollars) for the care of people living with HIV/Aids in Kenya. British Airways country commercial manager, Ian Petrie, told journalists in Nairobi Thursday th


Botswana gets modern HIV/AIDS laboratory
Panafrican News Agency - November 29, 2001
Gaborone, Botswana (PANA) - Botswana s President Festus Mogae is scheduled to commission a sophisticated AIDS research and testing laboratory in Gaborone Saturday as part of activities marking World AIDS Day. Besides AIDS research, the pula 15.5 million laboratory located within the Princess Marina General hospital in


Ghanaian newspaper cautions youths about AIDS
Panafrican News Agency - November 29, 2001
Accra, Ghana (PANA) - A Ghanaian newspaper has appealed to the National AIDS Commission and NGOs to step up their AIDS education campaign by focusing on the youth. It said they should drive home to the youth, especially students, that being the future of the nation, they must embrace the message and adhere to every wa


Massive AIDS campaign for December 1 in South Africa
Panafrican News Agency - November 29, 2001
Johannesburg, South Africa (PANA) - More than 7000 HIV/AIDS volunteers have planned a door-to-door campaign in South Africa s Gauteng province to mark World AIDS Day on 1 December. Organisers say the volunteers will deal with discrimination against HIV/AIDS sufferers, attempt to deepen understanding of issues related t


ICRC takes HIV/AIDS campaign to Burundi prisoners
Panafrican News Agency - November 28, 2001
Bujumbura, Burundi (PANA) - The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Burundi has indicated plans to take the sensitisation campaign on HIV/AIDS to prisoners in the country, on the occasion of World HIV/AIDS Day coming up 1 December. A press release said activities were planned for the central prison in Mp


Malaria claims more lives than AIDS in Africa
Panafrican News Agency - November 28, 2001
Nairobi, Kenya (PANA) - Malaria, Africa s biggest killer disease, is also one of its biggest impediments in the continent s progress. With 90 percent of the global malaria deaths occurring in Africa, a vaccine - still elusive up now - may be the only solution to the problem. According to Population Services Internatio


Cameroon records 600 new HIV/AIDS cases daily
Panafrican News Agency - November 28, 2001
Douala, Cameroon (PANA) - Health authorities in Cameroon estimate that some 600 people are infected by the AIDS virus each day. According to a survey conducted by the Health ministry 15 years after a national HIV/AIDS control committee was set up, the 15- 29 age group accounts for 30 percent of the infected population.


South Africans take risks despite AIDS concerns
Panafrican News Agency - November 28, 2001
Cape Town, South Africa (PANA) - Eight in 10 South Africans are concerned about contracting HIV/AIDS or another sexually transmitted infection, but many are not protecting themselves, a major international sex survey revealed. The 2001 Durex Global sex Survey, carried out in 28 countries worldwide, found almost a fifth


Camair to serve Ouagadougou during AIDS conference
Panafrican News Agency - November 28, 2001
Douala, Cameroon (PANA) - Raphaël Salambere, director of civil aviation in Burkina Faso , has requesting Cameroon Airlines (Camair) to start flights to Ouagadougou before 9 December, when the international conference on AIDS and sexually transmitted diseases is scheduled to open there. According to a Burkinabe dele


Abidjan hosts sub-regional workshop on HIV/AIDS
Panafrican News Agency - November 28, 2001
Abidjan, Cote d Ivoire (PANA) - Managing directors, heads of human resource units, company doctors and representatives of water and electricity companies from six French-speaking countries in West Africa Wednesday ended a two-day an HIV/AIDS sensitisation workshop in Abidjan. Organisers said the workshop aimed at


Cameroon launches information against AIDS campaign
Panafrican News Agency - November 28, 2001
Yaounde, Cameroon (PANA) - A third of Cameroon s young people have been infected with HIV and were likely to succumb to the fatal stage of AIDS soon, the national AIDS control committee has reported. Latest findings by the committee show that 33 percent of the population aged between 15 and 29 years are HIV-positive.


World Bank names Ethiopian its Adviser on AIDS
Panafrican News Agency - November 27, 2001
New York, US (PANA) - The World Bank has appointed Ethiopian medical scientist, Debrework Zewdie, its Adviser on HIV/AIDS. The Bank said Tuesday that Zewdie would be responsible for intensifying its field work and represent the Bank in the global movement of governments, communities, private companies, development agen


Kenyan research body to hold conference ahead of AIDS Day
Panafrican News Agency - November 27, 2001
Nairobi, Kenya (PANA) - The Kenyan branch of the Association of African Women for Research and Development (AAWORD) will this week host a major national conference on the HIV/AIDS scourge and its impact on Kenyan families. The conference, aimed at taking stock of achievements and losses made in the fight against the pa


Pre-marital HIV/AIDS tests become popular in Kenya
Panafrican News Agency - November 27, 2001
Nairobi, Kenya (PANA) - Voluntary testing for HIV/AIDS is gaining acceptance among Kenyan youth intending to marry, say officials at the country s Centre for Disease Control (CDC). The officials say at least 20 people go for voluntary counselling and testing daily in centres recently established under the CDC, a Kenyan


Botswana parliament throws out MP for claiming AIDS cure
Panafrican News Agency - November 27, 2001
Gaborone, Botswana (PANA) - A Botswana Member of Parliament was Tuesday thrown out of the house for claiming that he can cure AIDS patients. Gaborone North MP Michael Mzwinila incurred the wrath of speaker Ray Mlomo when he said that traditional healers who are members of a sect he leads known as Guta Rwa Mwari can cur


Congo conducts census of AIDS orphans under 18
Panafrican News Agency - November 27, 2001
Brazzaville, Congo (Congo) - A census is underway in Congo to find AIDS orphans below the age of 18, official sources said in Brazzaville Monday. The census, conducted by an NGO, Medecins d Afrique (doctors of Africa) has so far identified nearly 5,000 of such AIDS orphans in the Congolese capital alone. Since October,


Compaore leads anti-HIV/AIDS campaign
Panafrican News Agency - November 26, 2001
Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso (PANA) - President Blaise Compaore Monday launched a National Council for the fight against HIV/AIDS and other Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs), in Burkina Faso. Formerly the National Committee to fight HIV/AIDS under the Health Ministry, the Council is to be co-ordinated by the presiden


Burkina's AIDS agency pleads for openness in resources sharing
Panafrican News Agency - November 26, 2001
Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso (PANA) - The first session of Burkina Faso s National Council for the Fight Against AIDS and Sexually Transmitted Diseases (CNLS-STD) has pleaded for more openness in financing AIDS/STD activities. At the end of a meeting chaired by President Blaise Compaore, participants recommended, among ot


Tri-therapy AIDS treatment to cost less in Congo
Panafrican News Agency - November 26, 2001
Brazzaville, Congo (PANA) - The tri-therapy treatment of AIDS is expected to cost less than 80 US dollars per patient a month in Congo as opposed to the current monthly bills of 800 dollars per sufferer. The fall in prices is a consequence of the country s support for the speeding-up of access to medical care for AIDS


Ivorian First lady intensifies anti-AIDS campaign
Panafrican News Agency - November 26, 2001
Abidjan, Cote d Ivoire (PANA) - Ivorian first lady, Simone Ehivet Gbagbo and a number of industry chief executives have signed an AIDS covenant to boost the fight against the disease in the country. Officials said the Together against AIDS pact prescribes joint actions and the harmonisation of strategies at the nation


Report underscores role of ICT in curbing HIV/AIDS in Africa
Panafrican News Agency - November 26, 2001
Nairobi, Kenya (PANA) - Distance learning through the use of information and communication technology (ICT) could reduce the spread of HIV/AIDS among the youth in Africa, experts say. In a paper, The Response of Information Technology to the Challenge of HIV/AIDS in Higher Education Institutions in Africa, a UNESCO ed


Cameroon's Roger Milla appointed UNAIDS Ambassador
Panafrican News Agency - November 26, 2001
Yaounde, Cameroon (PANA) - Former African football celebrity Roger Milla has been appointed UNAIDS Ambassador, the State Radio in Cameroon reported at the weekend. The new plenipotentiary is due this week at the UNAIDS headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland to receive the honour.


Congo Brazzaville to get anti-retroviral drugs by 2002
Panafrican News Agency - November 25, 2001
Brazzaville, Congo (PANA) - Congo Brazzaville government plans to make anti-retroviral drugs available in 2002 for the treatment of HIV/AIDS in the country, Health Minister Leon Alfred Opimbat has said. The project is to be facilitated through ongoing negotiations involving UNAIDS , UNICEF, WHO, the UN Population Fu


World Bank loans Ghana $25 million to fight AIDS
Panafrican News Agency - November 25, 2001
Accra, Ghana (PANA) - The International Development Association, the World Bank s soft loan arm, has loaned Ghana 25 million US dollars for its fight against AIDS, Ghana Television reported Sunday. The money will be used for Ghana s 27.8-million-dollar Ghana AIDS Response Project Fund whose aim is to support efforts to


2 million condoms used monthly in Kinshasa
Panafrican News Agency - November 24, 2001
Kinshasa, DR Congo (PANA) - Some two million condoms are used monthly in Kinshasa, comprising six million inhabitants, a local anti-AIDS NGO reported Friday. Family Health Association or ASF is an NGO in charge of awareness for HIV/AIDS prevention and supervises the sale and distribution of condoms. Condoms sell like


Benin gives AIDS awareness through volleyball tournament
Panafrican News Agency - November 24, 2001
Cotonou, Benin (PANA) - The first edition of the Volunteer s Trophy volleyball tournament to raise awareness against AIDS in Cotonou and its suburb runs 24 November-1 December in Cotonou. Initiated by the NGO, Abeilles Volontaire du Progres-Afrique (AVP-Afrique) in cooperation with the Atlantique District Volleyball Le


Abidjan to host sub-regional workshop on HIV/AIDS
Panafrican News Agency - November 23, 2001
Abidjan, Cote d Ivoire (PANA) - Senior executives from water and electricity companies are to discuss the impact of HIV/AIDS in six Francophone West African countries during a two-day workshop opening in Abidjan Monday, the organisers said Friday. The theme of the meeting, organised by


Drug addiction fuels AIDS spread in Kenya
Panafrican News Agency - November 23, 2001
Nairobi, Kenya (PANA) - Addiction to illicit drugs has fuelled HIV infections in Kenya, the National Agency for the Campaign against Drug Abuse has reported. The agency s national coordinator, Joseph Kaguthi said Friday that nearly three million Kenyans, many of them secondary school pupils, were hooked to illicit drug


OAU stresses men's role in fighting AIDS
Panafrican News Agency - November 23, 2001
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (PANA) - Putting men in the front line to fight HIV/AIDS would be the surest way to contain the pandemic in Africa, the OAU said Friday. In a statement on this year s World AIDS Day, the OAU said men are a key determinant of success in the struggle against HIV/AIDS. Since men s behaviour affec


Activists want AIDS Fund to subsidise cheap AIDS drugs
Panafrican News Agency - November 23, 2001
Dakar, Senegal (PANA) - Five African delegations are among activists who stormed the Global AIDS Fund s board meeting in Brussels Thursday demanding that the fund should subsidise cheap AIDS drugs, a Health GAP Coalition communiqué has said. Saying bureaucrats betray people with AIDS in poor countries, NGOs from


Human Rights Watch calls on Mbeki to change stance on HIV/AIDS
Panafrican News Agency - November 23, 2001
Cape Town, South Africa (PANA) - Human Rights Watch has urged South African President Thabo Mbeki to have his government drop its fight against a legal appeal for low-cost HIV/AIDS treatment for pregnant women. The South African government is currently in court fighting a case brought by the Treatment Action Campaign o


Doctors want better case management for AIDS in Congo
Panafrican News Agency - November 22, 2001
Brazzaville, Congo (PANA) - At least 30 doctors working in 29 private companies and parastatals in Brazzaville are pressing for better management of people living with HIV/AIDS at their workplace, the National AIDS Control Programme revealed Thursday in Brazzaville. It said the doctors made the call at the end of a wor


Newspaper says 6 Zimbabwean Ministers have AIDS
Panafrican News Agency - November 22, 2001
Harare, Zimbabwe (PANA) - Zimbabwe s weekly Financial Gazette reported Thursday that six of the country s cabinet Ministers had AIDS, and were using anti-retroviral drugs to prolong their lives. The newspaper quoted a medical doctor Frank Guni, as saying the Ministers were among 500 patients receiving anti-retroviral t


Burkina Faso church leaders meet over HIV/AIDS
Panafrican News Agency - November 21, 2001
Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso (PANA) - AIDS has become an outstanding challenge to church leaders in Burkina Faso, according to a pastor involved in the fight against the pandemic in the west African country. Michel Nikiema, executive secretary of L Association Vigilance, has told leaders of Protestant denominations in Bur


Women mostly hit by HIV/AIDS in Mali
Panafrican News Agency - November 20, 2001
Bamako, Mali (PANA) - There are more Malian women infected with the HIV than men, said a study of the Counselling, Care and Assistance Centre (CESAC) released Tuesday in Bamako. Out of 1,324 cases in 2000, the CESAC listed 772 women against 552 men and said that 423 of the women infected are between 25 and 39 years old


Congo earmarks FCFA 584 million for 1,000 HIV/AIDS patients
Panafrican News Agency - November 20, 2001
Brazzaville, Congo (PANA) - The Congolese government has decided to provide 584 million francs CFA (779 000 US dollars) a year to treat 1,000 HIV/AIDS patients, Health ministry sources said Tuesday in Brazzaville. According to the country s National AIDS Control Programme (NACP), the number of people living with HIV/AI


HIV/AIDS takes toll on Botswana's teachers
Panafrican News Agency - November 19, 2001
Gaborone, Botswana (PANA) - Eighty teachers die annually from HIV/AIDS related ailments in Botswana, authorities in Gaborone said Monday. According to the director of primary education, Sogomotsa Basiamang, 400 teachers will die in the next five years if the trend is not checked. Addressing a conference of primary


US organizations to set up HIV/AIDS resource centre in Ethiopia
Panafrican News Agency - November 19, 2001
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (PANA) - A new resource centre with accurate and up-to-date information on HIV/AIDS is to be set up in Ethiopia, a country with one of the world s highest prevalence rates, by the John Hopkins University Centre for Communication Programmes (JHU/CCP). The new centre was earmarked following a 300,00


AIDS threatens life expectancy in Mozambique
Panafrican News Agency - November 16, 2001
Maputo, Mozambique (PANA) - Although the number of Mozambicans infected with the HIV, the virus that causes the lethal disease AIDS, has been revised downwards, it has been revealed that the pandemic could still reduce life expectancy in the country by 14 years over the next decade. A technical group from the Natio


AIDS negatively impacts on South African economy
Panafrican News Agency - November 16, 2001
Cape Town, South Africa (PANA) - South African banking group Absa on Thursday released an update of its 15-year scenario forecast for the South African economy, this time focusing on the impact of AIDS. Absa s Group Economic Research Unit says that government and business in South Africa have found it difficult to impl


Tanzania wages anti-AIDS battle among youth
Panafrican News Agency - November 16, 2001
Nicodemus Odhiambo, PANA Correspondent
Dar es Salaam, Tanzania (PANA) - Using a blend of interventions including folk theatre, Tanzania s national commission on AIDS (TACAIDS) is trying to reach out to the youth in a desperate rearguard battle against HIV/AIDS. Ishi in Kiswahili, the national language or Live in English, is the theme of the multimedia campa


Morocco officially declares 913 cases of AIDS
Panafrican News Agency - November 16, 2001
Rabat, Morocco (PANA) - Morocco s health ministry revealed that 913 people living with AIDS, 65 percent of whom were males, had been registered in the kingdom by 30 September 2001. Revealing the statistics in Rabat Thursday, the ministry said that 70 percent of these were aged between 15 and 39 years while 16 percent w


AIDS lessens life expectancy in Zambia
Panafrican News Agency - November 12, 2001
Livingstone, Zambia (PANA) - The UN Development Programme (UNDP) said Monday that 1.6 million Zambians are likely to die from HIV/AIDS in the country by the year 2015. Zambia s UNDP resident representative Olubanke King-Akelere said the prevalence of HIV infection in urban areas is 27 percent, while it stands at 14 per


Zambian officials to attend Nairobi workshop on AIDS
Panafrican News Agency - November 12, 2001
Lusaka, Zambia (PANA) - A workshop on protecting African sportsmen and sportswomen from contracting HIV opens Wednesday in Nairobi, Kenya . The workshop, dubbed Kick AIDS Out , is intended for sports officials who can raise awareness of AIDS among sportsmen and women. Four Zambian sports officials will be among par


Three sub-African regions to trim AIDS cases by 2006
Panafrican News Agency - November 18, 2001
Dar es Salaam, Tanzania (PANA) - Countries of the Commonwealth Regional Health Community of East, Central and Southern Africa have mounted a joint strategy to trim the scale of HIV/AIDS by 50 percent in the next four years beginning 2002. The countries also aim at reducing the number of new infections among 15-24 year-


Cote d'Ivoire launches HIV/AIDS awareness campaign
Panafrican News Agency - November 10, 2001
Abidjan, Cote d Ivoire (PANA) - The First Lady of Cote d Ivoire, Simone Ehivet Gbagbo has kicked off a national awareness campaign against HIV/AIDS in a move to reawaken consciousness about the pandemic. Dubbed All against AIDS , the campaign is expected to end 13 December. All against AIDS will cover the 58 depa


AIDS killed over 40 Rwandan genocide widows in 2000
Panafrican News Agency - November 8, 2001
Kigali, Rwanda (PANA) - Forty-seven Rwandan genocide widows died of AIDS in the year 2000, the Association of Genocide Widows Consolidation, AVEGA (or Agahozo) reported in Kigali Thursday. AVEGA is an umbrella association that caters for the interest of 25,000 widows, who husbands were massacred during the 1994 genocid


Rawlings sceptical of Africa's chances against HIV/AIDS
Panafrican News Agency - November 8, 2001
Nicodemus Odhiambo, PANA Correspondent
Dar es Salaam, Tanzania (PANA) - Former Ghanaian President Jerry Rawlings has cast serious doubts over Africa s battle against the killer disease AIDS, lamenting that efforts against the scourge continued to be challenged by limited behavioural change. In an exclusive interview with PANA, Rawlings also said the death t


Secrecy blamed for HIV/AIDS spread in Tanzania
Panafrican News Agency - November 7, 2001
Dar es Salaam, Tanzania (PANA) - Tanzanian Health authorities blame the lack of openness among parents and teachers on HIV/AIDS as one of the factors helping the spread of the scourge in the country. A recent survey conducted by the National AIDS Control Programme (NACP) in some parts of the country showed that youths


Niger stages AIDS awareness campaign
Panafrican News Agency - November 7, 2001
Niamey, Niger (PANA) - Niger s National AIDS Control Programme, whose mission is to increase public awareness of the dangers of HIV/AIDS and its causes, recently visited the district of Tahoua (south-west) which is seriously affected by the pandemic due to emigration. The mission aimed at sensitising people in the rura


Luxembourg Agency supports Niger AIDS fight
Panafrican News Agency - November 5, 2001
Niamey, Niger (PANA) - The Luxembourg Agency for Development Co-operation has granted Niger some 2.35 billion CFA francs (about 3.23 million US dollars to help the country in its fight against the spread of HIV/AIDS, State radio reports in Niamey. The grant would support the Niger Information-Education-


World Bank support Benin's fight against HIV/AIDS
Panafrican News Agency - November 5, 2001
Cotonou, Benin (PANA) - The International Development Association (IDA) has made a 25-million dollar grant to Benin for the country s anti-HIV/AIDS multi-sectorial project, official sources confirmed in Cotonou Sunday. The project, which is an integral part of the World Bank s HIV/AIDS multi-country programme for Afric


Sudan to introduce AIDS tests for future civil servants
Panafrican News Agency - November 4, 2001
Khartoum, Sudan (PANA) - Sudan s health ministry will soon introduce AIDS tests for all job seekers before they are allowed to join the public service. Announcing the decision over the weekend, the Sudanese minister of health, Ahmed Bilal, said a new law to this effect would be in force at the beginning of 2002. T


Tanzania unveils HIV/AIDS control policy
Panafrican News Agency - November 4, 2001
Dar es Salaam, Tanzania (PANA) - The government of Tanzania has unveiled a national policy on HIV/AIDS to provide direction for a frantic assault on the disease that has infected an estimated two million people in the country in the past 20 years. The blueprint, intended to induce a united approach against the disease


AIDS patients occupy 42 percent of hospital beds
Panafrican News Agency - November 3, 2001
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (PANA) - Ethiopian health officials have disclosed that the country s hospitals are crowded with AIDS patients who occupy 42 percent of the beds. The Ministry of Health has prepared guidelines on how we can take care of AIDS patients at home, by families and aid organisations, to reduce the number


Minister identifies AIDS as major health problem
Panafrican News Agency - November 3, 2001
Lusaka, Zambia (PANA) - Health Minister Levision Mumba Saturday described HIV/AIDS pandemic as a serious health and developmental problem in Zambia. Addressing the Medical Women s Association of Zambia (MWAZ), Annual General meeting, he said the disease threatened progress in the advancement of women s rights and statu


Rawlings urges Zanzibar to step up AIDS fight
Panafrican News Agency - November 2, 2001
Dar es Salaam, Tanzania (PANA) - Former Ghanaian President Jerry Rawlings Friday asked Zanzibaris to sustain their efforts on the war against AIDS. Speaking separately with the President of the Island, Amani Abedi Karume, religious leaders, NGO representatives and people living with HIV/AIDS, Rawlings said the citizens


Ghanaian students want Parliament to approve AIDS loan
Panafrican News Agency - November 2, 2001
Accra, Ghana (PANA) - Ghanaian students Friday urged Parliament to approve a 25 million-US-dollar loan from the World Bank and the British Department for International Development (DFID), to boost the national campaign against HIV/AIDS. The National Union of Ghana Students (NUGS), also called on the government to imple


Ghana may produce HIV drug, says minister
Panafrican News Agency - November 2, 2001
Accra, Ghana (PANA) - Ghana might in the near future be producing HIV drugs to make it accessible to people infected with the disease, outgoing Health minister Richard Anane intimated on Thursday. The ministry of Health, in conjunction with the World Health Organisation and the Health ministry in


AIDS pandemic ravages education in Kenya
Panafrican News Agency - November 2, 2001
Nairobi, Kenya (PANA) - Growing poverty and rising cases of HIV/AIDS are threatening Kenya s goal of providing education for all by 2015. Latest data from the finance ministry indicate that the economy registered a paltry growth rate of 0.4 percent in 2001, down from an average of 2.4 percent in the 1990s, rendering th


Rawlings blames some African practices for AIDS spread
Panafrican News Agency - November 2, 2001
Dar es Salaam, Tanzania (PANA) - Former Ghanaian President Jerry Rawlings has added his voice to the growing concern that certain African traditional practices and cultural norms were helping to spread or perpetuate the incurable HIV/AIDS. Rawlings said these practices include wife inheritance and other cultural and be


Top Musicians for AIDS Awareness Concert
Panafrican News Agency - November 1, 2001
Lagos, Nigeria (PANA) - Top Nigerian musicians will perform in Lagos Friday at an AIDS awareness concert being sponsored by Korean electronics company LG. Tagged Rhythms for life , the concert is also aimed at engaging national attention on health-related issues, including family planning. Musicians expected at the


Film on AIDS in Africa shown at UNESCO conference
Panafrican News Agency - October 31, 2001
Paris, France (PANA) - UNESCO director general Koichiro Matsuura and the president of the current general conference, Iranian Ahmad Jalali on Wednesday led participants at the session to view the inauguration of a special documentary film on AIDS in Africa. Iranian cinema director Abbas Kiarostami shot the film entitle


Former Ghana president on mission against AIDS in Tanzania
Panafrican News Agency - October 31, 2001
Dar es Salaam, Tanzania (PANA) - Former Ghanaian President Jerry Rawlings arrives in Tanzania Thursday on a mission aimed at promoting the volunteering spirit in the fight against HIV/AIDS. As a UN Volunteers Eminent Person, Rawlings is scheduled to meet Tanzanian government authorities, heads of UN agencies and non-go


Botswana plans HIV/AIDS anti-retroviral therapy
Panafrican News Agency - October 30, 2001
Gaborone, Botswana (PANA) - President Festus Mogae said Monday that Botswana would launch an HIV/AIDS anti-retroviral drug therapy programme before the end of the year. He told parliament the programme would initially target 19,000 patients already admitted in various referral hospitals in Gaborone, Serowe, Francistown


HIV/AIDS strategic planning process rolls off
Panafrican News Agency - October 29, 2001
Niamey, Niger (PANA) - The spread of HIV/AIDS in Niger has led to the implementation of a strategic planning process designed as a national response against the pandemic. The minister counsellor at the President s Office in charge of HIV/AIDS, Jules Auguet, said the various stages of planning call for an analysis of th


Kenyan physician takes condoms to task
Panafrican News Agency - October 29, 2001
Nairobi, Kenya (PANA) - A Kenyan physician has challenged the effectiveness of condoms, charging they are not safe and should not be depended on as preventive measure against HIV/AIDS. The East African Standard daily Monday quoted Dr Steven Karanja of Kenyatta National Hospital as saying condoms have pores that are 50


Doctor warns of more AIDS deaths in Ghana
Panafrican News Agency - October 26, 2001
Accra, Ghana (PANA) - A Ghanaian doctor has warned that by 2014, over 1.2 million people in the country would be infected with the HIV virus if efforts were not doubled to check the infection rate. Dr Phyllis Antwi, a lecturer at the School of Public Health of the University of Ghana, said though the current prevalence


Zambia, India to step up health cooperation
Panafrican News Agency - October 26, 2001
Lusaka, Zambia (PANA) - After four days of talks Zambia and India have agreed to enhance cooperation especially in the field of science and technology, where India is mass producing cheap HIV/AIDS drugs desperately needed by Zambian patients. A communiqu‚ issued Friday at the end of the talks in Lusaka said cooperatio


PA011042
Panafrican News Agency - October 25, 2001
Dar es Salaam, Tanzania (PANA) - Tanzania s media women have teamed up with a host of local and foreign NGOs to halt the spread of HIV/AIDS in the country. The Tanzania Media Women Association (TAMWA) Wednesday launched a three-year (2001-2003) Advocacy against Gender Violence and HIV/AIDS programme to supplement gove


Mbeki refutes criticism over national AIDS policy
Panafrican News Agency - October 24, 2001
Johannesburg, South Africa (PANA) - President Thabo Mbeki rebuffed opposition parliamentarians over allegations that the South African government was in denial of the seriousness of the spread of HIV/AIDS. Mbeki, who had just returned from Nigeria , where he was attended a summit of African leaders on the New Africa


Obasanjo on Nigeria's anti-AIDS fight
Panafrican News Agency - October 22, 2001
Abuja, Nigeria (PANA) - Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo Monday lauded the country s vanguard role in raising world-wide awareness in the fight against HIV/AIDS, as Nigerian workers staged a multi-sectoral walk/rally to boost the campaign among the population. Obasanjo told the rally at the Eagle Square in Abuja th


Minister calls for involvement of men in HIV/AIDS fight
Panafrican News Agency - October 22, 2001
Accra, Ghana (PANA) - Ghana s Minister of Women and Children s Affairs on Monday appealed to non-governmental and civil society organisations engaged in the fight against HIV/AIDS to involve men in their programmes. Gladys Asmah, speaking at a workshop organised by Ghana AIDS Response Fund (GARFUND) said men appeared t


National HIV/AIDS initiative marks third year
Panafrican News Agency - October 22, 2001
Cape Town, South Africa (PANA) - South Africa s Partnership Against AIDS has marked its third year with a call by Deputy President Jacob Zuma for concerted action at stemming new HIV infections and providing care and support to the infected. Launched in 1998, Partnership Against AIDS is part of government s multi-strat


Abject poverty blamed for inability to prevent AIDS
Panafrican News Agency - October 21, 2001
Ruth Nabakwe, PANA Correspondent
Paris, France (PANA) - The President of the South African Nkosi AIDS Association, Gail Johnson said extreme poverty was a major bottleneck in efforts to contain HIV/AIDS in South Africa where 1700-1900 new HIV positive cases were recorded daily. Johnson made the remarks at a press conference over the weekend during a g


Ouagadougou to host HIV/AIDS awareness concert
Panafrican News Agency - October 20, 2001
Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso (PANA) - Top African musicians would on 8 December stage a concert in Ouagadougou, the proceeds of which would be used to in the fight against HIV/AIDS, sources said. According to organising committee member Christophe Ouedraogo, the proceeds would also be used to prepare for the 12th Internat


Muslim leaders recommend premarital AIDS test
Panafrican News Agency - October 20, 2001
Niamey, Niger (PANA) - Muslim leaders in Niger have asked the authorities to encourage premarital AIDS tests and to take strong measures for the observance of moral values. The religious leaders made the call at a workshop held to validate a sensitisation guide on HIV. The meeting, organised by the National AIDS Contro


20 herbalists suspended for claiming AIDS cure
Panafrican News Agency - October 19, 2001
Nairobi, Kenya (PANA) - A Kenyan herbalists association has suspended 20 of its members for misconduct through unethical practices. The 20, all from Nyanza province, had claimed that they could cure the dreaded HIV/AIDS, which is killing hundreds of Kenyans daily, the association said. Nyanza Provincial Chairman of


USAID earmarks $8.8 million to fight HIV/AIDS in Tanzania
Panafrican News Agency - October 19, 2001
Dar es Salaam, Tanzania (PANA) - The US Agency for International Development has earmarked 8.8 million US dollars to finance programmes aimed to halt the spread of HIV/AIDS in five regions of Tanzania. The money will be channeled through NGOs and Community-based Organisations (CBOs) in the regions of Shinyanga, Tabora,


Cleric wants HIV/AIDS declared state of emergency
Panafrican News Agency - October 19, 2001
Cape Town, South Africa (PANA) - Anglican Archbishop Njongonkulu Ndungane is consulting governments in southern Africa, the ecumenical movement, organised labour and NGOs about declaring the HIV/AIDS situation a state of emergency. In a statement released on Thursday, Ndungane the church s recent synod of bishops charg


Pretoria urged to channel resources against HIV/AIDS
Panafrican News Agency - October 18, 2001
Cape Town, South Africa (PANA) - NMG-LEVY, one the leading business service companies focused on private sector HIV/AIDS management initiatives, Thursday called on government to urgently channel resources to meet the HIV/AIDS challenge to the South African economy rather than become side-tracked by statistical sniping


Action Aid to grant Burundi 6 million dollars
Panafrican News Agency - October 18, 2001
Bujumbura, Burundi (PANA) - The British NGO, Action Aid, is to grant 6 million dollars to the government of Burundi to finance several HIV/AIDS control projects in the next four years, official sources said Thursday in Bujumbura. Briefing reporters at an information workshop on the fight against HIV/AIDS, Action Aid di


Press rallies behind national policy on HIV/AIDS
Panafrican News Agency - October 18, 2001
Dar es Salaam, Tanzania (PANA) - Tanzania government s decision to establish a national policy on HIV/AIDS this week won support among the country s prominent newspapers, which said it was long overdue. Last Sunday President Benjamin Mkapa hinted that government was formulating a comprehensive national HIV/AIDS policy,


Father sues HIV carrier son for trespassing
Panafrican News Agency - October 18, 2001
Nairobi, Kenya (PANA) - The 42-year-old son of a prominent Kenyan hotelier has gone to court accusing members of his family of disowning him because he has contracted the HIV virus. In an affidavit filed in the high court, Michael Ryan Kungu claims that his father, a leading hotelier in Nakuru town, has chased him from


Namibia Red Cross Society plans AIDS educational tools
Panafrican News Agency - October 18, 2001
Opuwo, Namibia (PANA) - Namibia Red Cross Society has completed a study on public perceptions of reproductive health and sexually transmitted infections for developing educational tools to address the HIV/AIDS pandemic. The Namibian news agency, NAMPA, has reported that the survey, conducted in Kunene North region, foc


Ethiopia budgets 70 million dollars for AIDS fight
Panafrican News Agency - October 17, 2001
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia , (PANA) - The Ethiopian government has allocated 70 million US dollars to fight AIDS, Dagnachew Hailemariam, Head of the National Anti-AIDS Council Secretariat, said Wednesday. Hailemariam said the money came mainly from donors and the Ethiopian government. The key issue in fighting AIDS is


HIV/AIDS infection on the rise in Zimbabwe
Panafrican News Agency - October 16, 2001
Harare, Zimbabwe (PANA) - A Zimbabwean health official said Tuesday that HIV infection continued to rise unabated in the country, with four children being born with the incurable disease every hour. We know that a third of pregnant women in Zimbabwe are infected, although the majority of them are not aware of their con


Francophone MPs intensify fight against AIDS
Panafrican News Agency - October 16, 2001
Niamey, Niger (PANA) - African francophone MPs, belonging to a Parliamentary Network for the fight against HIV/AIDS, have agreed at a meeting in Niamey, Niger, to mobilise efforts in their respective countries for the intensification of the campaign against the pandemic. The MPs met in Niamey last week to officially la


Gender inequality blamed for high rate of HIV/AIDS among women
Panafrican News Agency - October 16, 2001
Dar es Salaam, Tanzania (PANA) - Health authorities in Tanzania have identified gender inequality and creeping poverty as prime causes for the high rate of HIV/AIDS cases among women in the country. Recent studies by World Vision Tanzania in both urban and rural areas indicate that many women have been involved in unsa


Kenyan NGO mounts HIV/AIDS campaign on radio
Panafrican News Agency - October 15, 2001
Tervil Okoko, PANA Correspondent
Nairobi, Kenya (PANA) - A Kenyan NGO, Programme for the Appropriate Technology in Health (PATH), has launched a radio talk shop dubbed Ni Nini Kati Yetu (Kiswahili for what is in our midst ) in furtherance of the campaign against HIV/AIDS. The programme sponsored by the US Agency for International Development (USAID) t


Doctors Turn Down Scholarships Over HIV Test Condition
Panafrican News Agency - October 13, 2001
Blantyre, Malawi (PANA) - Malawian doctors are ignoring a generous offer for specialist medical training in the Republic of China because they do not accept mandatory screening for HIV/AIDS. The Taiwanese government, as part of its development assistance to Malawi, has since 1999 offered at least 10 scholarships to Mal


Children orphaned by AIDS gain schooling in Burkina Faso
Panafrican News Agency - October 13, 2001
Dakar, Senegal (PANA) - In Burkina Faso , 3,500 children orphaned by AIDS began school this week, thanks to a pilot project supported by the National HIV/AIDS Commission, UNDP and several donors. A UNDP report says the project is assisting children from 40 local associations in 17 provinces around the country.


African Francophone MPs vow to fight AIDS
Panafrican News Agency - October 13, 2001
Niamey, Niger (PANA) - African Francophone MPs, comprising the parliamentary network for HIV/AIDS control, have expressed commitment to mobilise national efforts against HIV/AIDS. They made the declaration Thursday in Niamey at the launch of that parliamentary network which defined a concise programme that will enable


Artists urged to reach out to HIV/AIDS orphans
Panafrican News Agency - October 12, 2001
Cape Town, South Africa (PANA) - Social Development minister Zola Skweyiya has commended the growing number of artists and musicians who are promoting the fight in South Africa against HIV/AIDS. Skweyiya, who was commenting ahead of an HIV Social Fund concert billed for 27 October in Secunda, enjoined artists and music


Nigeria to establish AIDS control agency
Panafrican News Agency - October 11, 2001
Lagos, Nigeria (PANA) - Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo has sent to the National Assembly (Parliament), a bill seeking to establish a National Agency for the Prevention and Control of AIDS (NAPCA) in the country. Obasanjo, who has made the fight against HIV/AIDS a priority of his administration since assuming offi


Grandmother jailed for infecting boy with HIV
Panafrican News Agency - October 10, 2001
Blantyre, Malawi (PANA) - A 60-year-old Malawian grandmother has been sentenced to seven years imprisonment with hard labour after beings found guilty of infecting an 11-year-old boy with HIV, the virus that can lead to the incurable AIDS. However, the woman identified as Emmie Mkumbira appeared unconcerned as the Chie


USAID backs HIV prevention in Maputo corridor
Panafrican News Agency - October 9, 2001
Maputo, Mozambique (PANA) - The United States Agency for International Development is to grant 11.5 million US dollars for a programme aimed at curbing the further spread of HIV/AIDS in the Maputo Corridor. The programme is to be undertaken by a prominent Mozambican NGO, the Community Development Foundation (FDC), the


Pressure mounts for mother-to-child HIV prevention
Panafrican News Agency - October 9, 2001
Cape Town, South Africa (PANA) - Over 1 000 people in Cape Town have demonstrated calling on the government to implement a countrywide HIV mother-to-child transmission Prevention (MTCTP) programme and develop a National Treatment and Prevention Plan to combat HIV/AIDS. A service at St George s Cathedral was on Monday c


47 million CFA francs to educate 3,500 AIDS orphans
Panafrican News Agency - October 9, 2001
Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso (PANA) - Development partners including the UNDP, have donated some 47.1 million CFA francs towards the education of 3,500 AIDS orphans in Burkina Faso. (750 CFA francs=1USD). The UNDP contributed 15 millions CFA francs under the programme called Education for AIDS Orphans, while the French E


Prospects brighten for price cuts in HIV/AIDS drugs
Panafrican News Agency - October 8, 2001
Dakar, Senegal (PANA) - Prices for HIV/AIDS drugs looked set to become more affordable in South Africa with the announcement at the weekend of two initiatives aimed at cutting the cost of the most frequently prescribed anti-retrovirals. Multinational pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline


Benin gets 33 million condoms in 11 years
Panafrican News Agency - October 10, 2001
Cotonou, Benin (PANA) - The NGO Population Services International (PSI), said Saturday it had distributed some 33 million condoms in Benin from 1990. The NGO, which is specialised in health marketing, said the major beneficiaries of the protective shield against HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases, were us


HIV/AIDS cuts down food production in Zimbabwe
Panafrican News Agency - October 6, 2001
Harare, Zimbabwe (PANA) - The UN Food an Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has in a report released Saturday said that AIDS had reduced food production in Zimbabwe by as much as 50 percent in the last five years, warning that the situation would get worse in coming years. The FAO said the slump in food production was caus


HIV/AIDS seminar for Burundi soldiers
Panafrican News Agency - October 5, 2001
Bujumbura, Burundi (PANA) - More than 100 soldiers from several units of Burundi s Army are currently participating in an AIDS awareness seminar, south of the country. Organisers say soldiers belong to a vulnerable social group due to the nature of their job. Youngsters who join the Army every year are always eager to


Namibia's HIV-positive own up publicly
Panafrican News Agency - October 5, 2001
Windhoek, Namibia (PANA) - When former basketball wizard Magic Johnson went public in 1992 that he had been diagnosed HIV positive, the whole of America and the world basketball fraternity went frozen in disbelief. Then another black American pelted in a similar breath taking news, this time, it was the former world te


South African singer drums up support for anti-AIDS campaign
Panafrican News Agency - October 5, 2001
Dar es Salaam, Tanzania (PANA) - Famous South African gospel singer Rebecca Malope is in Tanzania to drum up support for the country s anti-AIDS campaign. Malope is touring Tanzania at the invitation of a non- governmental organisation, Christian Business Women Foundation Trust Fund, to raise money for HIV/AIDS victims


Community commended for assisting HIV/AIDS orphans
Panafrican News Agency - October 5, 2001
Cape Town, South Africa (PANA) - South Africa s Social Development Minister, Zola Skweyiya, on Thursday commended the community of Masoyi in Mpumalanga for assisting children, particularly orphans whose parents have died of HIV/AIDS. Skweyiya urged other communities across the country to follow their example. According


Grassroots HIV/AIDS committees get funds
Panafrican News Agency - October 4, 2001
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (PANA) - The HIV/AIDS Prevention and Control Council in Ethiopia s Harari state is to disburse a total of 18.000 US dollars to 36 grassroots committees fighting the pandemic, council sources said. Council secretary Mehadi Zekaria affirmed Wednesday that six committees had so far received 500 dolla


Zambia queries delay over AIDS cure testing
Panafrican News Agency - October 4, 2001
Lusaka, Zambia (PANA) - Zambia has officially queried the Joint UN programme on HIV/AIDS for its prolonged delay in testing the efficacy of a drug discovered by a Chinese doctor. Official sources in Lusaka said that the Ministry of Health has sent a letter to UNAIDS headquarters in Geneva,


More Ghanaian teenagers in sex trade
Panafrican News Agency - October 3,2001
Accra, Ghana (PANA) - Ghanaian health authorities fear an AIDS explosion could be looming in the country following the growing number of teenagers, as young as 13 years, in the sex trade. The young girls, some of whom are still in basic schools, and citing several reasons including economic difficulties for their decis


WFP to feed AIDS patients in Congo
Panafrican News Agency - October 3, 2001
Brazzaville, Congo (PANA) - The World Food Programme has launched a feeding project devoted to HIV/AIDS patients in Congo, sources close to the National AIDS Eradication Programme disclosed Wednesday. Some 45,000 persons living with AIDS in the country would benefit from the project up to August 2004. To fully benefit


HIV/AIDS cases in Kenya stabilise
Panafrican News Agency - October 3, 2001
Nairobi, Kenya (PANA) - For the first time since 1984 when AIDS was detected in Kenya, health authorities in the east African country reported Wednesday that the pandemic has stabilised. Two senior officials have attributed the stabilisation to the use of condoms. Director of Medical Services Richard Muga told PANA tha


Burkina Faso obtains IDA loan to fight AIDS
Panafrican News Agency - September 28, 2001
Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso (PANA) - Burkina Faso and the International Development Agency (IDA) have signed a loan agreement worth 16.4 billion FCFA francs (22, 620,690 US dollars) to support the National Aids Control Programme Sexually Transmitted Infections. Health Ministry sources in Ouagadougou said that the amount


Opening of ISC meeting of the 12th Conference on AIDS
Panafrican News Agency - September 28, 2001
Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso (PANA) - The president of the African Union against Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs) has expressed confidence that the AIDS epidemic in Africa would be reversed by 2006. Dr Ibra Ndoye, speaking at the opening of an International Steering Committee (ISC) of the 12th Conference on AIDS and


Papers support tests for HIV before wedding
Panafrican News Agency - September 27, 2001
Dar es Salaam, Tanzania (PANA) - The battle against HIV/AIDS in Tanzania this week took a new turn with the church spearheading a national campaign to make it obligatory for couples to undergo blood screening before marriage. The new approach, intended to halt the fast spreading of the incurable disease, has won suppor


Rawlings promotes AIDS awareness in Kenya
Panafrican News Agency - September 27, 2001
Felix 'Machi Njoku, PANA Correspondent
Nairobi, Kenya (PANA) - Former Ghanaian President Jerry John Rawlings took Africa s fight against HIV/AIDS one step further in Nairobi Thursday, pulling out a pack of condoms from his jacket to demonstrate that prevention is better than cure in the anti-AIDS crusade. The pandemic has claimed millions of lives on the co


Brazzaville creates project to care for AIDS orphans
Panafrican News Agency - September 26, 2001
Brazzaville, Congo (PANA) - An NGO called Médecin d Afrique or doctors of Africa has created a project to cater for the wellbeing of AIDS orphans in Congo, health officials said in Brazzaville Wednesday. According to these sources, its objective is to ensure the orphans have access to basic services and favourable cond


Study on cultural influence on AIDS prevalence
Panafrican News Agency - September 26, 2001
Gaborone, Botswana (PANA) - A study on the influence of cultural practices on behaviour and HIV/AIDS transmission will be undertaken soon in Botswana under a joint project of UNESCO and UNAIDS . A group of consultants will carry out the study in the southern African country said to have the world s highest infection ra


UNICEF cautions Ethiopia against culture of silence on AIDS
Panafrican News Agency - September 26, 2001
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (PANA) - Marginalization of HIV/AIDS sufferers would open the way for a culture of silence around the disease and enhance its spread in Ethiopia, the UN Children s Fund has warned. Consequently, the disease is likely to take an enormous toll on human life in all sectors of society in the years to


Kenya's HIV/AIDS infection rate is down
Panafrican News Agency - September 25, 2001
Tervil Okoko, PANA Correspondent
Nairobi, Kenya (PANA) - Kenya s HIV/AIDS infection rate has gone down, thanks to the widespread condom use in the country. According to Medical Services Director Richard Muga, HIV/AIDS prevalence has stabilised and stood at between 13 and 14 percent due to condom use and government interventions. The active interv


Meles, Rawlings discuss HIV/AIDS
Panafrican News Agency - September 25, 2001
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (PANA) - Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi has briefed Ghanaian former President Jerry Rawlings on Ethiopia s efforts at combating the spread of HIV/AIDS, the State radio reported in Addis Ababa Tuesday. Rawlings, who is on a three-day visit as UN s Eminent Person on Volunteerism, has been adv


Rawlings on anti-AIDS campaign in Ethiopia
Panafrican News Agency - September 24, 2001
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (PANA) - Former Ghanaian President Jerry Rawlings is in Addis Ababa as a UN Volunteers Eminent Person to advocate on the role of volunteers in the fight against HIV/AIDS. Rawlings, who will be in Ethiopia for three days, is accompanied by Alamz Gebru, chief of the African section and co-ordinator


Trial of Bulgarians for HIV contamination adjourned again
Panafrican News Agency - September 23, 2001
Tripoli, Libya (PANA) - Ruling in a case involving six Bulgarians (a doctor and five nurses) accused of contaminating over 400 Libyan children with HIV/AIDS at Benghazi hospital, 1,050 km east of Tripoli, was Saturday adjourned to 22 December. To everyone s surprise, the Peoples Court, which was expected to issue a ru


Study says African universities face high risk of HIV
Panafrican News Agency - September 23, 2001
Dar es Salaam, Tanzania (PANA) - A new report by the World Bank has warned that universities in Africa may be a hotbed for the transmission of HIV. The report, titled Challenging the challenger: Understanding and expanding the response of universities in Africa to HIV/AIDS pins down the entailing scenario on lax admini


Impact of AIDS on Mozambique's education sector
Panafrican News Agency - September 21, 2001
Maputo, Mozambique (PANA) - The Mozambican Education Ministry estimates that about 19,200 teachers and more than 100 senior education officials will die of the lethal disease AIDS, or of AIDS-related causes, between the years 2000 and 2010. Ministry documents say that 23.3 percent of these deaths will occur in the cent


President Compaore leads AIDS control council
Panafrican News Agency - September 21, 2001
Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso (PANA) - Demonstrating the importance he attaches to the fight against the spread of AIDS in Burkina Faso, President Blaise Campaore has taken over the charge of the National Council on AIDS and Control of Sexually Transmitted Infections. A statement issued after Thursday s session of the cabi


Congo launches AIDS prevention project in schools
Panafrican News Agency - September 21, 2001
Brazzaville, Congo (PANA) - Congo s education ministry has launched an AIDS prevention project in schools, whose objective is to mobilise the entire academic system against the pandemic, informed sources said in Brazzaville Friday. According to sources close to the ministry of health, teachers will be trained in method


Church wants HIV/AIDS declared national emergency
Panafrican News Agency - September 20, 2001
Johannesburg, South Africa (PANA) - Anglican Arch Bishop Njongonkulu Ndugane has called on the South African government to declare HIV/AIDS a national emergency. The bishop also added his voice to growing calls for government to accept the Medical Research Council s (MRC) report on the pandemic. Weekend papers publ


HIV/AIDS patients plan public awareness campaign
Panafrican News Agency - September 20, 2001
Cotonou, Benin (PANA) - Two Benin HIV-positive patients, Denis d Oliveira and Francois Dubal Kodo, plan a three-month campaign from October to raise public awareness on HIV/AIDS. The campaign will target mainly young school dropouts, in the outskirts of Cotonou and the suburbs of Godomey and Abomey-Calavi, according to


Ethiopia earmarks 2 million US dollars to fight AIDS
Panafrican News Agency - September 19, 2001
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (PANA) - Ethiopia s education ministry has earmarked two million US dollars to be used in a project to prevent the further spread of HIV/AIDS in schools. The secretary of the ministry s AIDS prevention and control task force, Kassu Abdi, told a workshop in Addis Ababa Wednesday that the funds were


WTO must not be allowed to block access to treatment
Panafrican News Agency - September 18, 2001
Dakar, Senegal (PANA) - The World Trade Organisation s ministerial conference, to be held 9-13 November in Doha, Qatar , will have to take a position on access to drugs for people in developing countries, according to Jamie Love s pharm policy wire. It reports that African governments are asking for a moratorium on


Truck drivers blamed for spreading HIV/AIDS
Panafrican News Agency - September 17, 2001
Nairobi, Kenya (PANA) - The HIV/AIDS Control Committee of Kenya s northern District of Turkana has blamed long-distance truck drivers for spreading the disease in the area through their indiscriminate sexual behaviour. Consequently, the Turkana Central Constituency AIDS control Committee (CACC) has appealed to the poli


AIDS campaign to focus on behavioural change
Panafrican News Agency - September 14, 2001
Cotonou, Benin (PANA) - A Benin NGO, Stop AIDS, has started an AIDS campaign focusing on changing the people s attitude towards the disease. Stop AIDS manager Ignace Toha said at the heart of the campaign is information targeting the people s sexual behaviour through civic education. One of the key issues of the ca


Tanzania calls for drastic action against poverty, AIDS
Panafrican News Agency - September 13, 2001
Dar es Salaam, Tanzania (PANA) - Tanzania on Thursday appealed to other African nations to consider applying correct technology in solving the continent s problems. The call was made by the country s science, technology and higher education minister, Pius Ng wandu, in a speech to mark the African Intellectual Property


HIV prevalence rising in rural Burundi
Panafrican News Agency - September 12, 2001
Bujumbura, Burundi (PANA) - The prevalence of HIV/AIDS in rural Burundi has risen from 6 percent ten years ago to about 14 percent today compared with around 20 percent in urban centres, health authorities reported Wednesday. The officials revealed these figures during the opening of a six-day workshop in Gitega, the c


Kenya gets 17 vehicles from Sweden to help fight AIDS
Panafrican News Agency - September 12, 2001
Nairobi, Kenya (PANA) - The Swedish government has donated vehicles worth about 250,000 US dollars to the Kenyan Health Ministry in support of the anti-HIV/AIDS crusade in the country. The 17 vehicles are to be distributed to Districts hardest hit by the disease and areas with rough terrain in the country. Taking d


HIV/AIDS body optimistic about control plans
Panafrican News Agency - September 8, 2001
Nairobi, Kenya (PANA) - Kenya s National AIDS Control Council (NACC) expects to reduce the HIV\AIDS prevalence rate in the country by about 30 percent among young people in the next five years through a national control programme. The council, however, needs around 14,000 million Kenyan shillings (about 177 million US


Report urges focus on young men in HIV/AIDS fight
Panafrican News Agency - September 7, 2001
Paris, France (PANA) - A new report jointly released by the PANOS Institute of London and UNAIDS has warned of the devastating spread of HIV/AIDS in the long term if young men, who account for a quarter of people living with HIV, were not targeted in the struggle against the scourge. The report entitled Young Men


AIDS poses security threat to Africa
Panafrican News Agency - September 7, 2001
Nairobi, Kenya (PANA) - Sub-Saharan African countries, including Kenya, are facing security threats from the increasing number of HIV/AIDS cases, the National AIDS Control Council (NACC) said in Nairobi Friday. NACC Director, Margaret Gachara said in a statement that Defence Ministries in the region had reported preval


Zimbabwean boxer banned for being HIV positive
Panafrican News Agency - September 6, 2001
Harare, Zimbabwe (PANA) - Zimbabwean boxing suffered a major blow Thursday after one of the country s top pugilists tested positive for HIV, which automatically ended his international career. Boxing promoter Stalin Mau Mau said national welterweight champion John Konde was now forbidden from fighting in many countries


South Africans, Tanzanians linked to AIDS drug scam
Panafrican News Agency - September 6, 2001
Alpha Nuhu, PANA Correspondent
Dar es Salaam, Tanzania (PANA) - State House sources in Tanzania have linked senior health and defence ministry officials to an AIDS drug scam that culminated in the expulsion of two South African nationals Wednesday. Jacques Siegrried Zigi Visser and Khamalo Themba Bafana entered the country to conduct anti-AIDS clini


Norway and UNICEF to help Ethiopia's AIDS programme
Panafrican News Agency - September 5, 2001
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (PANA) - Norway and UNICEF on Wednesday signed a 1.6 million US dollar agreement to be used in building the capacity of Ethiopia s National and Regional AIDS Council secretariats. The agreement comes in response to the rapid spread of HIV/AIDS in Ethiopia, where an estimated three million people a


UNAIDS director denounces stigma against AIDS victims
Panafrican News Agency - September 5, 2001
Dakar, Senegal (PANA) - The Executive Director of the Joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS, Dr. Peter Piot, has denounced the lack of access to life-saving treatment by a majority of people living with HIV in the developing world. The fact that today the overwhelming majority of people with HIV in the developing world do not


Kagame to address AIDS vaccine conference in Philadelphia
Panafrican News Agency - September 4, 2001
Kigali, Rwanda (PANA) - Rwandan President Paul Kagame has left Kigali for the United States where he is scheduled Wednesday to address an international conference on AIDS vaccine, the President s Office announced Tuesday. The AIDS Vaccine 2001 Conference, being held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, is attended by over 1,


Kagame invites AIDS Vaccine researchers to Rwanda
Panafrican News Agency - September 6, 2001
Kigali, Rwanda (PANA) - Rwandan President, Paul Kagame, Wednesday invited world s leading HIV/AIDS vaccine researchers to Kigali to explore possibilities of undertaking vaccine trials in his country, official sources reported Thursday. Kagame made the invitation the opening of the first ever AIDS Vaccine Conference in


Kofi Annan pleads for equal access to AIDS treatment
Panafrican News Agency -
Kinshasa, DR Congo (PANA) - United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan has appealed for equal access to HIV/AIDS drugs for people who have the means to pay for treatment and the poor in a bid to curb the incurable disease. Annan made this appeal on Sunday when he and his wife visited people living with HIV/AIDS at the


Burundi prepares 220 million dollar AIDS campaign plan
Panafrican News Agency - August 31, 2001
Bujumbura, Burundi (PANA) - Burundi has finalised its five-year plan to combat HIV/AIDS, which requires at least 220 million US dollars, an official source said in Bujumbura Friday. According to the director of the National Programme for the control of AIDS and Sexually Transmitted Diseases, Dr. Joseph Wakana, the fund


World Bank funded AIDS project targets transport sector
Panafrican News Agency - August 31, 2001
Cotonou, Benin (PANA) - A yearlong programme to control sexually-transmitted diseases has been launched in Benin s transport sector with support from the World Bank. The project, launched in Cotonou Thursday by the Executive director of the Benin Development Association, Christian Martins, seeks to train peer educators


Anti-retrovirals not cure for AIDS
Panafrican News Agency - August 28, 2001
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (PANA) - A medical expert has cautioned persons living with HIV/AIDS in Ethiopia against reverting to risky behaviour after getting anti-retroviral drugs. Dagnachew Haile-Mariam of Ethiopia s National AIDS Council said the anti-retrovirals were meant for reducing the viral load in the body and not


Women's Day focuses on fight against AIDS
Panafrica News Agency - August 27, 2001
Conakry, Guinea (PANA) - The Guinean national Women s Day, celebrated 27 August, is focusing this year on the fight against AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases. AIDS is more a social rather than a medical problem, the main victims of which are women and youths, declared Marie Toure, Assistant National Director


Japan props Togo's fight against HIV/AIDS
Panafrican News Agency - August 24, 2001
Lome, Togo (PANA) - The Japanese government has granted 427,350 dollars to Togo in support that country s fight against HIV/AIDS. Sources in the capital, Lome said the grant would finance the preparation of an emergency HIV/AIDS eradication plan. The project targets several objectives, including a reduction of the HIV


Press sets new focus on crime, AIDS
Panafrican News Agency - August 24, 2001
Dar es Salaam, Tanzania (PANA) - The current scale of crime and AIDS and the reassuring propensity of some African leaders to steer the continent to a better tomorrow are the issues that appear of long-term import to the Tanzanian media this week. Crime, certain sections of the media lamented, was spiralling, while AID


Tanzanian media worried by rising crime and AIDS
Panafrican News Agency - August 24, 2001
Dar es Salaam, Tanzania (PANA) - Rising crime and cases of AIDS as well as initiatives by some African leaders to steer the continent to a better future were the main issues discussed by the Tanzanian media this week. Certain sections of the media lamented that crime was spiralling while others noted that AIDS appeared


Nigeria to get IDA loan for privatisation, AIDS fight
Panafrican News Agency - August 23, 2001
Lagos, Nigeria (PANA) - The Nigerian government is to receive a 204.59 million-dollar loan from the International Development Agency (IDA) to boost ongoing privatisation of inefficient public enterprises and the fight against HIV/AIDS in the country. Transport Minister Ojo Maduekwe told journalists in Abuja Wednesday t


Uganda's AIDS campaign impresses Mozambican deputies
Panafrican News Agency - August 22, 2001
Kampala, Mozambique (PANA) - Mozambican parliament deputies visiting Uganda said they were impressed by the manner in which Ugandans have openly dealt with issues of sexuality, condom use and the HIV/AIDS epidemic in their efforts to stop the disease. They added that in Mozambique these issues were still taboo for


AIDS reduces Zambia's life expectancy
Panafrican News Agency - August 22, 2001
Lewis Mwanangombe, PANA Correspondent
Lusaka, Zambia (PANA) - Zambia s average life expectancy at birth has drastically fallen from 43 years in 1996 to 37 today due to high incidences of diseases, particularly the incurable HIV/AIDS, it was learned in Lusaka Wednesday. The country s population is under pressure from communicable diseases such as


78 test positive in local HIV screening
Panafrican News Agency - August 19, 2000
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (PANA) - Some 78 out of 167 people who underwent blood tests in Debre Marcos hospital in East Gojjam Zone of Ethiopia s Amahara State were found HIV positive, health authorities said Sunday. At a sensitisation meeting, the they said the majority of those found infected with virus were females.


Kenyan urged to fight AIDS on all fronts
Panafrican News Agency - August 18, 2001
Nairobi, Kenya (PANA) - Kenya s Vice President George Saitoti Saturday said the AIDS pandemic was reversing the country development as the total prevalence HIV rate hit the 13.5 percent mark. Speaking in Nairobi during an award ceremony for winners of this year s annual music and cultural festival, Saitoti urged Kenyan


Mauritius launches National AIDS Plan
Panafrican News Agency - August 17, 2001
Port Louis, Mauritius (PANA) - Mauritius Friday launched a National HIV/AIDS Strategic Plan 2001/2005, designed to prevent new infections and step up care for patients. Unveiling the Plan, Deputy Premier Paul Berenger said drastic measures were needed to prevent a major catastrophe. He said the government would now


Jackson Five to assist Africa AIDS orphans
Panafrica News Agency - August 17, 2001
Tom Osanjo, PANA Correspondent
Nairobi, Kenya (PANA) - The Jackson Five, the popular US group that gave the world megastar Michael Jackson, will soon reunite to stage a concert whose proceeds will go towards benefiting AIDS and other natural orphans in Africa. Making the announcement, Jermaine Jackson, who spent some time in Nairobi last week, said


Graca Machel urges change in war against HIV/AIDS
Panafrican News Agency - August 16, 2001
Cape Town, South Africa (PANA) - Former Mozambican First Lady Graca Machel has urged the Anglican Church to use its strengths to mobilise people in the war against HIV/AIDS. She spoke Wednesday to delegates and partners at the All Africa Anglican AIDS Conference in Boksburg, South Africa. The conference is an initi


Kenya launches "HIV/AIDS Hotline"
Panafrican News Agency - August 16, 2001
Nairobi, Kenya (PANA) - Kenya has launched a national HIV/AIDS hotline to provide information on the pandemic to anyone requiring urgent assistance and guidance. The hotline, inaugurated Wednesday by the Kenya AIDS Watch Institute (KAWI) will start operations on 1 September and will be manned 12 hours daily, including


HIV/AIDS threatens Tanzania's gains in child health
Panafrican News Agency - August 14, 2001
Alpha Nuhu, PANA Correspondent
Dar es Salaam, Tanzania (PANA) - The scourge of AIDS is threatening to erode Tanzania s achievements in child health as an increasing number of children are getting infected by their mothers living with HIV, which causes the incurable disease. Tanzania had attained enviable progress in its child healthcare programmes b


Conference seeks African solution to AIDS
Panafrican News Agency - August 14, 2001
Cape Town, South Africa (PANA) - Deputy President Jacob Zuma on Monday lamented that the stigma attached to AIDS had resulted in horrific forms of discrimination and violence including rejection, ridicule and death, for HIV infected individuals and people with AIDS related aliments. He told the All-Africa Anglican


Youth embark on HIV/AIDS campaign
Panafrican News Agency - August 13, 2001
Port Louis, Mauritius (PANA) - A youth group, Mauritius Youth for Life, would this week launch a campaign to sensitise students on HIV/AIDS. We support life, health and the protection of life as well as use of the condom, one of the group s leaders explained, as she presented a document on HIV/AIDS compiled for distrib


Ethiopia imports duty-free drugs for AIDS patients
Panafrica News Agency - August 12, 2001
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (PANA) - Ethiopia has started importing duty-free life-prolonging drugs for AIDS sufferers, President Negaso Gidada announced Sunday. Referring to a recent demonstration by HIV-infected Ethiopians to demand life-prolonging drugs, Gidada, also chairman of the National Anti-Aids Council, said he sup


Agency says Ethiopia needs 2.8 million-dollar AIDS drugs
Panafrican News Agency - August 11, 2001
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (PANA) - Ethiopia s Drug Administration and Control Authority said some 24 billion birr (about 2.8 million US dollars) would be needed every year to import life-prolonging drugs for the 400,000 HIV/AIDS patients in the country. Bekle Tefere, Drug Evaluation and Registration team leader with the Au


Lagos Begins Massive HIV/AIDS Awareness Campaign
Panafrican News Agency - August 10, 2001
Lagos, Nigeria (PANA) - Lagos State, with one of Nigeria s highest HIV prevalence rates, Saturday begins massive HIV/AIDS prevention rallies in all its 20 local governments. The Lagos State AIDS Control Agency said Friday that it was jointly sponsoring the 20-day rallies with several non-governmental organisations invo


Journalists refuse free AIDS tests
Panafrican News Agency - August 10, 2001
Nairobi, Kenya (PANA) - There was mild drama at Nairobi s Kenyatta National Hospital Thursday when journalists from various media houses in the Kenyan capital declined to undergo free tests for the incurable HIV/AIDS. The local media on Friday reported the journalists turned down the offer from public health minister,


Education ministry puts accent on AIDS awareness
Panafrican News Agency - August 9, 2001
Mbabane, Swaziland (PANA)- Swaziland s ministry of education intends to modify the school curriculum to address HIV/AIDS, The Swazi Observer quoted education minister John Carmachael as saying this week. Speaking at the official opening of Macmillan Boleswa Publishers, Southern Africa Distribution Centre, in Matsapha,


Mali moves to prevent AIDS among truck drivers
Panafrican News Agency - August 8, 2001
Bamako, Mali (PANA) - Malian health minister Dr Traore Fatoumata Nafo launched Tuesday in Bamako an operation aimed at preventing the spread of HIV/AIDS among truck drivers plying along inter-state roads in West Africa. The operation whose slogan is drive under protection was initiated by an NGO, Population Services In


Congolese NGOs network against HIV/AIDS
Panafrican News Agency - August 7, 2001
Brazzaville, Congo (PANA) - A national network has been set up in Congo to coordinate action in the fight against HIV/AIDS. The organ was created last week in Brazzaville at an NGO forum on the pandemic. Participants at the forum suggested that NGOs train in prevention counselling techniques. They recommended the invol


Youth panel hopeful about battle with HIV/AIDS
Panafrican News Agency - August 7, 2001
Dakar, Senegal (PANA) - Participants at a panel discussion organised by the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) and the Senegalese government sounded positive Monday about prospects in the fight against HIV/AIDS. The panel that was composed of Senegal s Youth, Environment and Public Hygiene minister Modou Diagne Fada and three


Immunisation urged for HIV positive children
Panafrican News Agency - August 6, 2001
Cape Town, South Africa (PANA) - South Africa s Western Cape Health Department Monday called for all children, even if they be HIV positive, to be immunised against major vaccine-preventable diseases. Immunisation remains the cornerstone of child health and no child should be denied the benefit of it, read the core me


Minister says HIV/AIDS endangers Namibians
Panafrican News Agency - August 6, 2001
Windhoek, Namibia , (PANA) - The HIV/AIDS pandemic could wipe out the entire Namibian society unless urgent preventative measures are taken, a government minister warned in Windhoek Sunday. HIV/AIDS has become the principal public health problem in Namibia with current statistics revealing that one in every four Namibi


Minister wants youth involved in anti-AIDS fight
Panafrican News Agency - August 5, 2001
Maputo, Mozambique (PANA) - Mozambican Youth Minister Joel Libombo Sunday called on the youth in the country to join forces in the fight against sexually transmitted diseases, especially HIV/AIDS. Speaking in Maputo at the opening of the Youth Week, leading up to the celebration of the International Youth Day 12 August


Obasanjo orders free condoms for soldiers
Panafrican News Agency - August 5, 2001
Lagos, Nigeria (PANA) - Nigeria s President Olusegun Obasanjo has directed the nation s military authorities to provide free condoms for soldiers to protect them from contacting HIV/AIDS. In addition, the President said all soldiers must be educated on the dangers of illicit and unprotected sex and particularly abstine


AIDS orphans 10,000 in Kenyan district
Panafrican News Agency - August 5, 2001
Nairobi, Kenya (PANA) - In the last ten years more than 10,000 children have been orphaned in Kenya s western district of Rachuonyo after their parents died of AIDS, district sources said. Press accounts quoted Local District Commissioner Catherine Gatama as saying most orphans come from Karachuonyo constituency where


Two Koreans nabbed selling fake AIDS drug
Panafrican News Agency - August 3, 2001
Dar es Salaam, Tanzania (PANA) - Two nationals of South Korea are due to appear in court here Monday to answer charges of illegal importation of medicines into Tanzania. Sung Man Cho (65) and his son, Y. K. Cho (32), were arrested on 1 August in Dar es Salaam with 3.


10,000 children orphaned by AIDS in Kenyan District
Panafrican News Agency - August 3, 2001
Nairobi, Kenya (PANA) - More than 10,000 children have been orphaned after their parents died of AIDS in Kenya s western District of Rachuonyo over the last 10 years, the local press reported in Nairobi Friday. The People daily quoted District Commissioner, Catherine Gatama, as saying that most of the orphans were with


Benin hosts headquarters of sub-regional AIDS programme
Panafrican News Agency - August 3, 2001
Cotonou, Benin (PANA) - Benin is to host the Headquarters of the sub-regional programme on fight against spread of HIV/AIDS on the Abidjan-Lagos Corridor, Public Health Minister, Celine Seigon Kandissounon, has announced. Closing a workshop on HIV/AIDS transmission reduction programme in Cotonou Thursday, Kandisounon s


Kenyan judiciary contemplates pre-marriage HIV tests
Panafrican News Agency - August 3, 2001
Nairobi, Kenya (PANA) - Kenya s Attorney General, Amos Wako, has warned that it might in the near future be mandatory for couples entering wedlock to undergo HIV/AIDS tests, in order to check the spread of the pandemic. Wako said the authorities were contemplating enforcing the rule very soon, adding that government


Orthodox Church joins mobilisation against HIV/AIDS
Panafrican News Agency - August 3, 2001
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (PANA) - Ethiopia s Orthodox Church Friday said it would in collaboration with its Sunday Schools, soon launch a nation-wide anti-HIV/AIDS campaign involving 2.5 million youths to raise 30 million US dollars. Church officials said the plan has already been submitted to the national council on HIV/


Party joins church in dismissing condom use
Panafrican News Agency - August 3, 2001
Cape Town, South Africa (PANA) - A spokesperson for the African Christian Democratic Party in South Africa has backed the stance of the Catholic Church against the distribution of condoms to young people as a means of checking the spread of HIV/AIDS. According to Cheryllyn Dudley it is glaringly obvious that the war a


Burundi pupils learn AIDS prevention
Panafrican News Agency - August 2, 2001
Bujumbura, Burundi (PANA) - Some 100 pupils from 10 secondary schools in Bujumbura, Wednesday began a three-day training in the Burundi capital, on AIDS prevention and control. The session was initiated by the Burundi chapter of the Forum of African Educators, to sensitise the pupils on the scope of the HIV/AIDS pandem


Church teams up with govt to fight HIV/AIDS
Panafrican News Agency - August 1, 2001
Alpha Nuhu, PANA Correspondent
Dar es Salaam, Tanzania (PANA) - The Catholic Church in Tanzania has formed a technical team to oversee all HIV/AIDS activities in its 30 dioceses in the country as part of a national response against the rapid spread of the incurable disease. The Technical AIDS Committee, set up