Ten years ago, Inviolata Mmbwavi’s relatives thought she would die. Today, thanks to her determination, she is the star of the family. "My entire family is now proud of what I am despite the handicaps I face," Inviolata says. She adds: "Even relatives who used to gossip about my HIV status have stopped." Today, she has only one wish. "I would want to have another child but I do not want to infect somebody or have an HIV-positive child," she says.

With the dust not yet settled on the health department's bid to regulate medicine prices, another messy conflict over state regulation of private health care looms large. A decade-long attempt to provide a unified health system that includes both public and private sector providers took concrete form on Friday, when President Thabo Mbeki signed the long awaited National Health Bill into law. The move is set to spark loud protest from doctors and private hospital groups, anxious about clauses in the legislation designed to regulate their services.

Namibia's existing human capital is being worn away by the HIV/AIDS pandemic. An estimated 20 percent of Namibia's adult population who are living with HIV and AIDS are rapidly eroding the chances of economic growth, says the International Monetary Fund (IMF). UNDP country-based communication officer John Thynne echoed the IMF's sentiments and described the HIV/AIDS prevalence as the "worst humanitarian crisis in southern Africa".

The term "blood money" has come to have new meaning in Cameroon, where certain patients and their families complain that a brisk trade in trafficked blood has led to shortages in hospitals. "Getting hold of a pouch of blood for a patient who has urgent need of it can be an experience akin to Calvary," Martin Djomo, the husband of someone who is dependent on blood transfusions, told IPS.

Shortages of a critical generic antiretroviral (ARV) drug used in Zambia's treatment programme have revealed a lack of adequate planning by the government that could derail the ARV rollout, activists told IRIN last Thursday. Zambian health minister Dr Brian Chituwo announced in parliament this week that supplies of Triomune-30, a fixed-dose combination of Nevirapine, Lamivudine and Stavudine, had run out.

Eritrea, one of the few African countries that have been able to significantly reduce the number of reported malaria cases, is to further boost its campaign against the killer disease using a donation of 30,000 long-lasting mosquito nets. According to officials, the number of reported malaria cases in Eritrea fell from 200,000 in 1999 to 45,000 in 2003. "The success of Eritrea can be explained by various strategies. One of those is using impregnated bed nets," Berhane Ghebretinsae, the Eritrean director general of Health Services, told IRIN in the capital, Asmara.

The "single most serious obstacle" to fighting HIV/AIDS in Africa is the "desperate shortage of health workers," many of whom are "emigrating in droves" to rich countries like Britain, the United States, Canada and Australia, a New York Times editorial says. Although it is "understandable why overseas work is attractive it's unseemly for wealthy countries" that could afford to pay nurses enough to "create an ample homegrown supply, to run ads instead to recruit skilled staff in places like South Africa," the editorial says.

An editorial in the August 7 issue of The Lancet painted a bleak picture of the work of WHO in the African Region, giving the impression that WHO is not recording any successes there. In fact, despite the challenges of poverty and ongoing instability, the opposite is true. For example, in spite of recent political difficulties, the number of polio-endemic countries in the African Region has fallen from 20 in 1999 to just two today. Huge efforts are underway to eliminate the disease completely.

Foreign donors are skeptical that Zimbabwe's "increasingly repressive government" will "fairly or honestly" channel funds for antiretroviral drugs to groups and individuals who need the money, the New York Times reports. Earlier this year, the Zimbabwean government announced a pilot project to distribute antiretroviral drugs at no cost to patients in select government hospitals.

The rise of the HIV/AIDS epidemic has distracted donors and governments from the basic preventable causes of death, and as a consequence disease control efforts have not been sustained, according to an article published in 'Global Healthlink' by the Global Health Council. The article highlights the growing poor-rich divide in child death rates, both between and within countries.

The Graduate School, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand has announced a Proposal Writing Course in the Field of HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria from the 23rd - 26th November 2004. This course is designed to equip researchers with managerial skills to meet competitive demands of proposal writing in response to local and international funding opportunities.

This article from Malaria Journal looks at care-seeking for fatal malaria among children under five in southern Tanzania. Findings showed that in the case of 78.7 per cent of malaria deaths, biomedical care had been used in the form of antimalarial drugs from shops, government or non-government facilities. In cases of suspected malaria at all ages, including those which involved convulsions, modern care was sought by the vast majority (90 per cent as a first resort).

Persistent attacks on the local populations in southern Sudan by the Ugandan rebel group, the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), could exacerbate food insecurity in a region already experiencing shortages as a result of poor harvests, a famine alert agency has warned. The LRA, a brutal group of insurgents widely condemned for committing atrocities against civilians in northern Uganda for over 18 years, is said to have rear bases in southern Sudan. In recent weeks, it has intensified its attacks on villages there.

It is a beauty pageant with a twist. The contestants are young and pretty. They wear evening gowns and blow kisses. And they are infected with HIV. A pageant to combat stereotypes of Aids patients as skeletal wheezers with blotchy skin is an eye-catching idea. The question is does it succeed in eroding stigma?

The Eldis/HRC HIV/AIDS resource guide has been re-launched with a new look and expanded topic coverage. The guide provides the latest information on HIV and AIDS, with quick access to information and research on a range of issues. New areas of coverage include conflict and emergency, faith, human resources, injecting drug users, and sex workers and the sex industry.

Togo lies smack bang in the middle of West Africa's main trade and transport corridor and health experts say the tide of people passing through this narrow strip of territory have helped to land it with the third-highest HIV prevalence rate in the region. According to government statistics, six percent of Togo's five million people are HIV positive, putting the country just behind Cote d'Ivoire with 10 percent and Liberia with an estimated eight percent.

A new radio drama aimed at transforming Swazis' knowledge of AIDS into a change in personal behaviour began broadcasting this week. "The show's purpose is to give information, but I think it is fundamentally different from other attempts at AIDS communication in Swaziland during the past 15 years," said Alan Brody, UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) country representative, who is sponsoring the drama.

The services of 408 doctors trained at a cost of 24.4 million dollars are likely to be lost by 2006 if the present trend of brain drain among the country's health professionals continued unchecked. Within the same period, it is projected that 591 pharmacists and 1,883 nurses would join the bandwagon of medical professionals leaving the country.

The Zimbabwean government’s lack of transparency on grain availability in the country could jeopardize access to food for millions of Zimbabweans in the coming months, Human Rights Watch said in a briefing paper. Human Rights Watch called on the Zimbabwean government to make this information public immediately. “By withholding vital information on grain availability, the Zimbabwean government is gambling with its citizens’ access to food,” said Peter Takirambudde, executive director of Human Rights Watch’s Africa Division. “Under international law, the government must take all necessary steps to fully ensure its citizens’ right to adequate food.”

In contrast to most sub-Saharan African countries, Senegal's successful attempts to check the spread of HIV/AIDS has transformed the country into a model over the last two decades - a source of inspiration in the global fight against the epidemic. Twenty years on Senegal is still having to battle against some die-hard attitudes, including risky sex behaviour among the youth, whose reticence to test - because of societal stigma attached to HIV positive status - is raising tremendous concern.