As an individual living with HIV for 20 years, I have been working to break down the barriers of fear and discrimination for nearly a decade now. I believe there is a serious problem stemming from the lack of media coverage, when it comes to educating people about HIV/AIDS. How can there be any real understanding about HIV/AIDS and HIV prevention, without the necessary information reported? HIV/AIDS reported in the news is minimal, at a time when it needs to be at the forefront! Why is this? HIV is a global problem which demands attention yet those of us working tirelessly are unable to get articles or /letters published in newspapers, events covered, or messages conveyed to help educate the public.

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Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa has had an uneasy relationship with civil society from the beginning of his term in office. However, matters worsened recently when he accused AIDS activists of monopolising the funds provided by donors to fight the pandemic. Mwanawasa told a two-day AIDS conference attended by United Nations officials and cabinet ministers from across Southern Africa that most civil society groups were composed of family members who got donor funding under the guise of AIDS prevention programmes. He also lashed out at the United Nations for favouring civil society in the distribution of AIDS funds.

After years of resisting the introduction of antiretroviral drugs (ARVs) in Swaziland, the government bowed to pressure from international donor organisations last year and permitted their distribution. However, what followed has been a confusing and dangerous free-for-all which has reached the point where some activists have called for the drugs to be banned.

Lesotho's Prime Minister Pakalitha Mosisili at the weekend became one of the first heads of state to publicly test for the HI virus as he kicked off a free national HIV testing programme. Mosisili, joined by other members of his cabinet, said that with his test he hoped to stem the stigma surrounding HIV/AIDS.

Nigeria’s predominantly Muslim Kano State, which is boycotting a global polio immunisation programme on suspicion that the vaccines are tainted by anti-fertility substances, plans to order its own supplies from Muslim countries in Asia, a senior official said on Sunday.

Older women are at risk from contracting HIV and are often the main carers of adults with HIV related illnesses and children orphaned by AIDS. Yet, HIV information and prevention messages are rarely targeted at older people and international data on infection rates does not include the over 50s. The exclusive focus on younger people in educational campaigns ignores the need for older women to have information on HIV/AIDS to protect themselves and the children in their care.

The South African government has undermined its promising initiative to provide anti-AIDS drugs to prevent HIV among rape survivors, putting lives at risk amid a dual epidemic of sexual violence and HIV/AIDS, Human Rights Watch says in a new report. The 73-page report, "Deadly Delay: South Africa's Efforts to Prevent HIV in Survivors of Sexual Violence," documents how government inaction and misinformation from high-level officials have undermined the effectiveness of South Africa's program to provide rape survivors with post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP)-antiretroviral drugs that can reduce the risk of contracting HIV from an HIV-positive attacker.

In many developing countries, stigma and discrimination together pose one of the most significant challenges to stemming the spread of HIV and AIDS. People known to have HIV often are isolated and the targets of gossip and name-calling. They can lose status and decision-making power in the household and community, many are shunned by family and friends, and they frequently lose their jobs and sometimes their housing. As a result, it is not surprising that people often go to great lengths to hide their HIV status or deny that they might have it - fuelling the spread of the epidemic. A new International Centre for Research on Women (ICRW) report discusses these and other findings, based on a three-year study of HIV and AIDS-related stigma conducted by ICRW and partners in Ethiopia, Tanzania, and Zambia.

"We need food and drugs," has emerged as the message the world should get loud and clear from People living with HIV and AIDS from the ongoing Harare, Pan African Treatment Access Movement (PATAM) conference. Speaking during a session on 'Understanding Antiretroviral (ARV) therapy' led by Francoise Louis, a Technical Advisor on ARVs with Medicins Sans Frontieres (MSFE) (Doctors without borders), a united voice of AIDS activists noted that good nutrition and drugs are critical components in the fight against HIV and AIDS.

The world is "in the middle of a political momentum" to fight the HIV/AIDS epidemic, Executive Director Peter Piot said last Thursday in Livingstone, Zambia, at the opening of a meeting of representatives from U.N. agencies and the ministers of health, education and finance from six Southern Africa countries - Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe - AFP/Yahoo! News reports.

This submission is concerned with the constraints on responding to the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Africa, as analysed by Justice Africa, on behalf of the African Civil Society Governance and AIDS Initiative (GAIN). It anticipates likely problems of the next five years, as Africa and its international partners struggle to respond to the HIV/AIDS epidemic. It identifies a series of potentially binding constraints on that response: resources, capacity, policy and democracy.

Relief has come the way of persons living with HIV/AIDS as the first consignment of N500 million anti-retroviral (ARV) drugs has arrived the country. However, the drugs will be given to the 10,000 persons already enrolled in the government approved 25 access centres. This was announced by Health Minister Professor Eyitayo Lambo.

An HIV/Aids activist has attacked government for failing to provide Ugandans with anti-retroviral drugs. Maj. Rubaramira Ruranga of the National Guidance and Empowerment Network of People Living with HIV/Aids in Uganda said government should not talk about projections it cannot achieve. "It [government] talks about free medication for people with Aids, but where is it?" he asked. "Is it possible?"

Two-thirds of teenagers in the central African country of Cameroon have sex by the age of 16 and more than half of them shun condoms, according to a study by German aid agency GTZ. Officials said the figures, which shed new light on sexual behaviour in a nation where HIV/AIDS adult infection rates have leapt more than 20-fold in just over a decade, were alarming.

South Africa's adult death rate has jumped by almost 50% over the past six years and the Aids epidemic is probably the main cause, researchers have found. "There is a distinct rise in deaths in the younger, sexually-active age groups. It is our view that this is mainly due to Aids," said Ria Laubscher, a statistician at South Africa's independent Medical Research Council (MRC).

Stephen Lewis, Canadian UN envoy charged with combating AIDS in Africa, warned the failure of wealthy countries to respond to an appeal for $200 million US could sabotage plans to provide three million HIV-infected people with drugs by the end of 2005. Lewis, the UN secretary general's special envoy for HIV/AIDS on the continent, said the plan offers "the best chance we've had in more than 20 years to turn the pandemic around" but the abysmal donor response means there isn't money to implement it.

The Ugandan government has announced that genetically modified (GM) foods can be imported into the country - but that they should be used " strictly for consumption", and not for cultivation. In a statement released last month, the government's National Agricultural Research Organisation (NARO) says that the government "recognises the controversial nature of this subject and has therefore decided to proceed with caution, building consensus at all stages."

Rumonge District, in Burundi’s southern province of Bururi, has registered 93 cases of cholera resulting in four deaths since January, health services have reported. The director of Rumonge hospital, Dr Innocent Ntamavukiro, told IRIN on Wednesday that 18 people were hospitalised at his facility. The majority of patients are from Kizuka subcounty, about 10 km from Rumonge centre. Other affected areas include Kanyenkoko and Iteba, two suburbs of Rumonge urban centre, with a majority of Muslim residents.

Zimbabwe's private doctors this week stopped demanding cash payments for services and reverted to accepting valid medical aid cards, easing the difficulties of patients struggling to afford medical attention. Private doctors had been demanding cash upfront since January, citing long delays in the processing of claims by the National Association of Medical Aid Societies (NAMAS). They also hiked their consultation fees from an average of Zim $26,500 (US $6) per visit to Zim $46,500 (US $10).