HIV/AIDS threatens to block and even reverse democratic   development across the region as lost incomes, increasing   health costs, shrinking tax bases, increased labour costs and decreasing productivity all conspire to threaten the economic growth necessary to sustain democratic practice in poor countries, says one of the findings of a paper by the Centre for Social Science Research (CSSR) at the  University of Cape Town, South Africa. Little is known about why or how children, citizens, elites and institutions infected, affected or threatened by HIV/AIDS change their social and political behaviour.

With one third of mother-to-child transmission of HIV (MTCT) occurring through breast-feeding, advice not to breast-feed appears sensible, and is standard practice in well-resourced countries. However in poorly resourced environments breast-feeding offers substantial advantages to all infants in protecting against infectious diseases such as gastrointestinal infection, meningitis, sepsis and bronchiolitis.

Six people have died from cholera and another 165 are reported to be in a serious condition as the disease sweeps through Zambia's capital, Lusaka. It appears that local authorities have been caught flat-footed by the outbreak. They are now engaged in a frantic bid to contain the disease, which is transmitted through contaminated water and food. Cholera typically occurs in Zambia during the country's rainy season.

An article by South African author and journalist Riaan Malan arguing that horrific HIV/AIDS figures are computer-generated estimates that appear grotesquely exaggerated when set against population statistics has kicked up debate about the severity of Africa's HIV/AIDS crisis. Malan argues that it is time to question some of the claims made by the Aids lobby, arguing that their authority comes from computer-generated estimates that are far from accurate. "Give them their head, and they will commandeer all resources to fight just one disease. Who knows, they may defeat Aids, but what if we wake up five years hence to discover that the problem has been blown up out of all proportion by unsound estimates, causing upwards of $20 billion to be wasted?" In response, Malan was accused by one subscriber to a popular South Africa discussion list of playing a game that is an "intellectually, politically and morally dishonest" one. For the original article, visit http://www.lewrockwell.com/spectator/spec192.html. To track the debate, join Debate: SA discussion list at http://lists.kabissa.org/mailman/listinfo/debate.

The 46th National Council on Health meeting taking place in Yenagoa has heard that Nigeria's health system ranked among the worst in the world. The Minister of Health, Prof. Eyitayo Lambo, said in his address that the health situation had recorded appreciable improvement in the early 1990s but had then nose-dived to an all-time low. "Nigeria's overall health system performance was ranked 187 among the 191 member states by the World Health Organisation while most of the country's disease burden is due to preventable diseases."

Nigeria's House of Representatives will hold a public hearing next week on allegations that polio vaccines used in a recent nationwide vaccination campaign contained elements that could cause infertility and HIV/AIDS. Aminu Safana, chairman of the Committee on Health and Human Services of the lower house of the federal parliament, said in a statement on Wednesday that the hearing had been set for next Monday. Polio vaccination has faced widespread resistance in the staunchly Muslim north, where groups of Islamic fundamentalists have alleged that the vaccination programme was part of a plot by western countries to reduce the population of Muslims by spreading infertility and the HIV/AIDS virus.

Ali Lmrabet, the jailed editor of two banned satirical news magazines in Morocco, has started another hunger strike just five months after he agreed to end a fifty-day fast which left him in a seriously weakened physical condition. According to reports he was joined in his protest by fellow-inmate Mohammed el-Hourd, managing editor of the weekly Asharq. Lmrabet began the hunger strike on 30 November in protest against their mistreatment and to demand recognition of their status as prisoners of conscience.

Human trials of a new type of malaria vaccine are planned for next year after encouraging results in mice. Oxford University scientists are using a combination of techniques to boost the effectiveness of their vaccine, which will be tested on volunteers. Research published on Tuesday revealed that their formula, carried into the body on a virus, produced a strong immune response in mice. No fully effective malaria vaccine has yet been produced by scientists.

With a theme of "Reclaiming the State: Advancing People's Health, Challenging Injustice", the conference will: Present, discuss and review work done and progress towards equity in health in southern Africa post 2000; Present, debate and strengthen the analysis that informs research, policy and practice towards health equity; Resolve on the challenges, policies and actions towards progress in equity in health in southern Africa; and Review and give mandate to EQUINET, its goals, work and organisation.

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The strike by medical doctors and nurses in Zimbabwe is crippling the public health sector, at a time when the poor cannot afford high fees that private hospitals charge. Monica Ngwere, an asthmatic patient from Shurugwi in central Zimbabwe, was last week turned away from Parirenyatwa Referral Hospital in the capital, Harare.

This paper argues that there is surprisingly very little good quality information available that would enable the levels and thus trends in national HIV prevalence rates to be accurately monitored. Population based surveys are the only reliable indicator of the levels of HIV infection among men and women according to age, location and socio-economic background. And yet, there is virtually no population-based survey data in most of the high-prevalence countries, including Botswana, Ethiopia, Malawi, Lesotho, Namibia, and Swaziland.

The Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA) was established in 1973 as an initiative of African scholars for the promotion of multidisciplinary research that extends the frontiers of knowledge production in and about Africa, and also responds to the challenges of African development. As part of on-going programme innovation and expansion, the Council has decided to launch an experimental institute on Health, Politics and Society in Africa in a bid to promote an enhanced interest in multidisciplinary health research among African scholars. The initiative flows from the current CODESRIA strategic plan which has placed a considerable emphasis on the promotion of a social science approach to health studies in Africa and a structured dialogue between the Social Sciences and the Health/Biomedical Sciences.

The health ministry of the Republic of Congo reported last Thursday that the current Ebola acute haemorrhagic fever syndrome outbreak in the country's northwestern Cuvette Ouest Department was stabilising, with 29 deaths among 42 registered cases to date. According to Damaze Bozongo, director-general of the health ministry, since 2 December, no further deaths had been registered in either Mbomo or Mbanza, two villages that were among the worst-affected in Cuvette Ouest, 800 km north of the capital, Brazzaville.

Over the past five months, 49,262 people in the Bahr-el-Ghazal province of south Sudan have been treated for malaria by Medicines Sans Frontiers (MSF) medical teams that are using bicycles to get to areas that have been isolated by recent severe floods. A total of 71,006 people have been treated in the area - including 800 severe cases - when figures from the fixed facilities are included.

The cholera outbreak in Lusaka has spread to Chongwe and Nampundwe areas. Central Board of Health (CBoH) director of technical support services, Dr. Victor Mukonka, said if people were not careful about keeping their surroundings clean, the cholera situation could get out of hand. Dr. Mukonka said four more new cases were also reported in Lusaka.

Government hospitals have been told to treat malaria and TB patients free of charge. Only children below five years have previously been eligible for the service. Health minister Charity Ngilu directed that the new guidelines be enforced without delay and warned defiant doctors that they risked being sacked.

Thirty-seven people have died following an outbreak of diarrhoea in Lomela town in Kasai Oriental Province, central Democratic Republic of the Congo, a medical official told IRIN on Friday. "Some 184 people have been affected and 37 deaths were recorded by 3 December," Dr Benoit Kebela, a departmental director in the Ministry of Health, said.

Plans to provide anti-AIDS drugs to HIV-positive Namibians are slowly taking shape, but the pace of implementing the government's treatment programme is still cause for concern, activists told IRIN on Wednesday. "Things are happening, but not at the pace we want; treatment is being rolled out, but it is still not country-wide," said Conny Samaria, advocacy manager for Lironga Eparu, an NGO assisting people living with HIV/AIDS.

“This is a reminder about a path-breaking research opportunity: the deadline for submitting Letters of Intent under the $200 million Grand Challenges in Global Health initiative is January 9. We very much appreciate all efforts to pass on this information to potentially interested researchers. Detailed program information is available on the Grand Challenges in Global Health Web site.”