The analysis of African residence patterns has proved a far more complex task than the simple definition of family relationships. Any particular household or compound can include relatives, dependents, lodgers, and members who live elsewhere but visit home when circumstances allow.

Authorities in Zanzibar have incinerated another consignment of chicken eggs smuggled from mainland Tanzania, in the hope of keeping their islands free of avian flu. "We seized the egg consignment of about 11 boxes imported from the Tanzanian mainland commercial capital of Dar es Salaam," said Kassim Gharib, the head of a task force formed by the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, Natural Resources and Environment.

There are over a million orphans in Malawi, half of whom have lost one or both parents to AIDS, according to the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), but only 15 out of almost a thousand orphanages are registered with the Ministry of Women and Child Development.

Almost 99 percent of mothers with the HIV virus are not getting the drugs to stop them infecting their unborn children, sparking a cycle of neglect that is affecting more than 4.2 million children in West and Central Africa alone. Just 1.3 percent of pregnant women in West and Central Africa who are infected with the HIV/AIDS virus have access to the anti-retroviral (ARV) drugs that stop them infecting their babies, the UN children’s agency UNICEF said on Wednesday (18 October 2006).

The World Health Organisation (WHO) says the extremely drug resistant tuberculosis (XDR-TB) poses specific threats and challenges in the fight against HIV and AIDS. Tuberculosis is the most common opportunistic infection accelerating HIV infection among those living with the virus.

Health officials in Burundi have moved to control an outbreak of cholera in the capital, Bujumbura, and the surrounding Bujumbura Rural Province, where a total of 90 cases of the disease have been recorded, an official said on Tuesday. The Health Ministry has launched a campaign to spray households of those affected in a bid to prevent the spread of the disease.

The racial gap in preventive health care -- such as Pap tests, mammograms, and prostate and colorectal cancer screenings -- persists and might be larger than previously thought, a study published online in BMC Heath Services Research finds, the Washington Post reports.

Researchers have unveiled a safe and effective treatment for pregnant women suffering from malaria in West Africa. Trials carried out in Ghana showed that treating pregnant women with the drug amodiaquine, either alone or in combination with sulphadoxine-pyrimethamine (SP), can almost completely wipe out malaria parasites without causing any serious side effects. But the researchers say that further tests are needed to assess the risks of the combination treatment.

On paper France treats its 20,000 HIV-positive immigrants well - they are entitled to free healthcare, and even those whose residence status is still to be determined get free treatment after three months if they cannot afford to pay. But immigrants increasingly face a cold shoulder in Europe, indicating that the spirit of the law is being interpreted more conservatively.

Aid agencies are optimistic that harvests will be good in most of the Sahel this year, but warn there are pockets of failed crops, and that donor funds are still lacking for the projects that would nudge Africans away from their precarious dependence on foreign aid and erratic rainfall. “Following a good end to the rainy season in the Sahel, forecasts for cereal production for this year are optimistic, but there continue to be localised crop failures that contribute directly to high rates of malnutrition,” the World Food Programme (WFP) said in a statement on Monday.

Denial and ignorance of HIV/AIDS are still major problems in post-war Sierra Leone, hindering care and support for people living with the virus."When I tested positive in 2002 and told my family, they'd never heard of HIV/AIDS; they didn't know it existed and they didn't want me in the house, so I had to leave," HIV-positive Ibrahim Kargbo, 41, told IRIN/PlusNews in the capital, Freetown.

Botswana's government has turned to advertising and marketing to give the usually unpopular female condom more prominence in its fight against HIV/AIDS.Officially relaunched as 'Bliss' by a local creative and marketing firm, the new name and packaging are expected to encourage more women to make use of it. "The earlier product's packaging was dull and did not stand out much, so we decided to use brighter colours and a sexy name.

Scientists have developed a new compound that they say could be used to treat the symptoms of severe malaria, potentially saving many lives. The researchers at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden published their findings in PLoS Pathogens on 29 September. The most dangerous form of malaria is caused by the parasite Plasmodium falciparum, which kills two million people each year. Previously people with this type of malaria were treated with an anti-clotting agent called heparin, together with drugs to kill the parasites.

The Regional Network for Equity in Health in east and southern Africa (EQUINET) promotes policies for equity in health and supports research, training, analysis and dialogue to strengthen knowledge and to support policy engagement on the implementation of comprehensive, universal, national health systems in the region, centred on the role of the people and of the public sector.

This summary report provides an outline of the main issues and trends in agricultural extension, as they relate to ICTs, with a special emphasis on improving rural livelihoods. The report draws on the presentations, case studies and discussions from the CTA Observatory.

The overall responsibility of the Technical Specialist is to provide technical assistance to the Federal Ministry of Health in the implementation of the Government Reproductive Health Programme within the context of the Health Sector Development Programme (HSDP).

The Awards for Action on HIV/AIDS and Human Rights were established in 2002 by the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network and Human Rights Watch. The Awards highlight outstanding contributions that decrease vulnerability to HIV/AIDS and protect the rights and dignity of those infected and affected.

The price of anti-retroviral drugs has gone up again, further pushing the life-prolonging drugs beyond the reach of many. A survey revealed that the drugs had gone up by between 50 and 65 percent in the last three months. The price of a monthly course of imported ARV's at pharmacies went up from $10 000 to $12 000 in July while in August they rose to $16 000. The price went up to between $18 000 and $20 000.

The dangerous side effects of an anti-AIDS drug commonly used in South Africa have forced medical experts to re-evaluate the limited treatment options available in developing countries. Stavudine (also known as Zerit or d4T), used in South Africa's free antiretroviral (ARV) rollout programme, could cause lactic acidosis in some people, particularly overweight women.

The gains of anti-retroviral treatment for people living with HIV-AIDS are being eroded by resistance the virus is building up against some of the drugs, a local doctor has warned. Dr Ismael Katjitae informed delegates at a medical congress in Windhoek on Friday that about 19 000 AIDS patients had received anti-retroviral treatment (ART) at Government hospitals and clinics over the last three years, but cases of resistance to some drugs had been spotted.