The School of Public Health is a forerunner in the public health areas of health promotion, health equity, health information systems, nutrition, health programme development and human resource development. Two senior researchers are required for a new project, aimed at assisting development of health programmes such as HIV/AIDS and nutrition, at health district level. The senior researchers are expected to assist programme managers to develop information systems for their programmes.

Advocates for survivors of genocide in Rwanda have called for antiretroviral treatment to be made available free to women who were infected with HIV during the systematic rape of tens of thousands in 1994. The Survivors Fund has launched an online petition calling on the British government to do more to pressurise pharmaceutical companies to make antiretroviral treatment affordable in Rwanda. International donors are also being urged to do more to help Rwandan women.

The medical relief agency Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) said last Thursday it had launched an urgent vaccination campaign against a measles epidemic in Niger that has led to more than 20,000 cases of the disease and 149 deaths in recent weeks. MSF said in a statement it had begun vaccinating and treating children between the ages of six months and five years in Niamey, the capital of the landlocked Sahelien country, in conjunction with the Ministry of Health.

It is vital that aid agencies continue to refine their approaches to food aid distribution, given the impact of HIV/AIDS in the region, says the Consortium for Southern Africa Food Security Emergency (C-SAFE). As a result, C-SAFE is running its own training course, "HIV and AIDS: Opportunities for Food Security Programming", for its members in Zambia, Zimbabwe and Malawi. Kate Greenaway, C-SAFE Regional HIV/AIDS Technical Advisor and workshop organiser, said in a statement that "the goals of the training are to provide technical updates on HIV, AIDS and nutrition that will influence and inform future programming".

The government of the Central African Republic (CAR) has announced that it will equip health institutions in three towns in the southwestern province of Mambere Kadei with HIV/AIDS research centres and other facilities, state-owned Radio Centrafrique reported on Friday. It added that the government would also establish centres for voluntary AIDS screening, regional centres for treatment of sexually transmitted diseases, a blood bank, and blood transfusion centres in the health facilities in the towns of Berberati, Gambaoula and Carnot, respectively 188 and 281 km southwest of the capital, Bangui.

Elcidio died before his ninth birthday because he was given the wrong anti-malarial drugs. Thousands of African children like him die every day for the same reason, and will continue to die until effective drugs and insecticide treated mosquito nets (ITNs) are available. April 25th is Africa Malaria Day, commemorating the African Summit on Roll Back Malaria in Abuja, Nigeria that took place 4 years ago. The Abuja Summit brought together 44 African leaders and donor organisations who committed to systems reform and a massive scaling-up of funds to fight malaria in Africa, and set five-year targets for reductions in malaria infections and deaths. With one year remaining to reach the 2005 targets, there is little to celebrate. Many African countries are still administering ineffective drugs, and less than 2% of African children are sleeping under ITNs.

What works in the fight against HIV/AIDS is a combination of prevention, care, treatment and impact mitigation strategies, alongside efforts to embed HIV/AIDS responses in the broader and longer-term work of strengthening public health, promoting development, and respecting and protecting human rights. This is according to a report from the International HIV/AIDS Alliance (2003) that presents an assessment of the successes and failures of the global response to AIDS from 1993-2003.

Only 6,000 people out of an estimated population of 800,000 Zambians living with HIV/AIDS have been availed with the anti-retroviral (ARV's) drugs since last year. Health Minister Brian Chituwo said this in Lusaka when he received a consignment of ARV's worth K55 million donated by the Indian government.

Health workers in government hospitals went on strike Wednesday to demand a pay increment, their union announced. The chairman of Uganda Medical and Allied Workers Union, Dr Apollo Nyangasi, told The Monitor by telephone that all negotiation avenues with government had been exhausted.

A minor Senegalese politician who has confessed to re-exporting to Europe subsidised anti-retroviral drugs meant for poor Africans is gaining the support of Islamic and human rights organisations who say he is being persecuted by the government. Abdou Latif Gueye, the former president of the international charity Afrique Aide l'Afrique (AAA) has admitted buying anti-retroviral drugs from international drugs giant GlaxoSmithKline for distribution at subsidised prices to people living with AIDS in Senegal and then re-exporting part of the consignment at a profit. However, Gueye, who also heads a small political party, the Rally for Social Democracy (RDS), has been in prison for 16 months awaiting trial.

Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) and the Central African Republic (CAR) Ministry of Health have conducted immunisation drives against meningitis and measles in several parts of the country, officials told IRIN on Wednesday. MSF coordinator Carlos Recio said that MSF, in collaboration with the UN World Health Organisation and the Ministry of Health, was immunizing the people in the northwestern sub-prefecture of Boguila against meningitis "A".

The number of suspected cholera cases has increased in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, since the beginning of April, according to a World Health Organisation (WHO) medical officer. Speaking by telephone from Mogadishu, Muhammad Fuje said between 3 April and 9 April, 489 diarrhoeal cases had been diagnosed in three of the city's hospitals, of whom nine patients had died.

Health authorities have confirmed a new case of polio in Botswana - the first in southern Africa since 1997 - and traced it to Nigeria. The finding jeopardizes efforts to eradicate the disease and prompted preparations for a nationwide immunization program in Botswana to reach 250,000 children. "This shows unless the virus is eradicated everywhere, no one is protected anywhere," said Jean-Marie Okwo-Bele, senior adviser for immunization activities for UNICEF in New York. "As long as we have a couple of pockets of transmission, we are not safe at all."

Some 85 Burundians representing families of returnees based at the Gatumba transit site near the border with the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), staged a sit-in on Wednesday at the offices of the Burundian human rights group, Iteka, to demand food aid and shelter. "We came to Iteka because all our attempts to get the CNRS [the National Commission for the Rehabilitation of Displaced Persons and Refugees] assistance have failed," the returnees told IRIN. The returnees, who were repatriated in 2002 from the DRC, Tanzania and Rwanda, complained that since their return the CNRS had left them on their own. They said the commission kept promising food aid, which it had failed to deliver.

The Humanitarian Policy Group (HPG) has recently published a report on HIV/AIDS and humanitarian action. The report explores the role of humanitarian relief in the context of the AIDS epidemic. It argues that the disease is clearly a massive crisis in its own right: to the extent that humanitarian response is concerned with increased levels of mortality and morbidity, HIV/AIDS can clearly be described as an emergency. At the same time, HIV/AIDS is only one of many factors contributing to food insecurity. It is important to understand how the impact of HIV/AIDS relates to other factors, such as drought and conflict, to create acute humanitarian crises.

The first formally organised session on agriculture negotiations since Cancun was held at the World Trade Organisation in Geneva on 22-26 March, in what was termed the “Agriculture Week.” It ended without convergence of views among members on the three major “pillars”, i.e. market access, domestic support and export competition. The Chairperson of the agriculture special session, Ambassador Tim Groser of New Zealand, said: “The members are still in the hearing and listening mode.” The week saw a change in the negotiating process, with members negotiating or discussing among themselves in “informal mode”, rather than each of them consulting with the Chairperson. During the week, numerous meetings were held between the various groupings. The organisation Third World Network has produced a report on the meeting.

Health officials in the Republic of Congo said on Wednesday they now had the measles epidemic in the Department of Cuvette-Ouest under control. "Since 13 March, we have been striving to fight against the epidemic with all the financial resources and drugs which the department has placed at our disposal," Martin Ombeli, supervisor of the department's mass vaccination programme, told IRIN.

Malnutrition due to the ongoing food crisis, the HIV/AIDS epidemic, and overcrowded urban areas are all contributing to a rise in tuberculosis (TB) infections in Zimbabwe. Nicholas Siziba, the national coordinator of the Ministry of Health's special TB programme, sounded the alarm last week while visiting Matabeleland South province - one of the worst-affected in terms of TB rates.

In May 1994, a month after being sworn in as the ruling party, the African National Congress (ANC) drew up a National Health Plan, with technical assistance from the World Health Organisation and the United Nations Children's Fund. The plan dealt at length with HIV/AIDS, pointing out that, "In view of the devastating implications of the epidemic for South Africa, it is mandatory to define prevention and control interventions, plus comprehensive care for those already infected, within the context of the Bill of Rights." Only now, a decade later, is a comprehensive treatment plan being rolled out.

Angolans will have an extra reason to celebrate national youth day on 14 April, when young people can start using the first of three new youth centres. The UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) and its partners, which include provincial governors and the Catholic church, will open its first centre in the eastern Moxico province on Wednesday and Benguela in the west on Friday. A centre in the central Huambo province is expected to be operational later this month.