Despite delays caused by protocol, preparations for the AIDS vaccine trials in South Africa are still underway and clinical researchers and scientists are hopeful that the Phase One tests will start early next year. This sense of optimism follows months of discussion and debate amongst the Medicines Control Council, the government as well as the vaccines' developers. It is hoped that the extensive consultations will help accelerate the onset of the vaccines trials - the search for the ultimate hope in HIV prevention. Khopotso Bodibe from Health-E News Service went out to seek clarity on the outstanding issues.

Over 60 percent of HIV/Aids infections in South Africa occur before the age of 25, a recent report from the South African University of Cape Town has revealed. The report focuses on "high risk" sexual activity among the youth and makes particular reference to South Africa.

Special U.N. envoy to combat AIDS in Africa Stephen Lewis warned at a January 8 press conference in New York following a trip to Southern Africa that the behaviour of rich countries towards AIDS in Africa could be summed up as "mass murder by complacency". Lewis stressed the sluggish response of industrialised nations to the Global Fund for HIV, TB and Malaria, and warned that a war against Iraq would "eclipse" every other international human priority, leaving people with AIDS among its greatest sufferers. He said: "What is required is a combination of political will and resources," he said. "The political will is increasingly there. The money is not." Read the full press briefing by clicking on the link below.

The current famine in Lesotho is further compounded by HIV/Aids as many young and able-bodied people who cultivate the fields succumb to HIV/Aids related complications. According to the United Nations Resident Representative, Scholastica Kimaryo, the current famine that has left many families destitute has an incestuous link with the high prevalence of HIV/Aids, which has put Lesotho amongst the top four countries worst affected by the pandemic in the world.

The Lesotho Red Cross Society has distributed 265 metric tons of maize seeds and 410 metric tons of fertilizers to orphans. The distribution also covered the aged and the disabled in the districts of Berea, Butha-Buthe and Leribe. Seventy metric tons of maize seeds were distributed in the Mokhotlong district.

Six companies involved with the UNAIDS- and WHO-sponsored Accelerating Access program said this week they would increase the antiretroviral drug supply to Africa, "acknowledging that current efforts only scratched the surface" of the continent's epidemic, Reuters reports.

The people of Zimbabwe are trapped in a leadership paradox. On one hand is the brutual authoritarianism of a government that is long overdue its sell-by date and has overstayed its usefulness. On the other hand is the apparent lack of leadership from an opposition that they have to look up to for answers to their daily anguish. Those that had put all their cards on a new political scene after the elections, feel the most pinch from the opposition’s lack of leadership as they still look up to it for a solution. Unfortunately, the opposition has not been pro-active and decisive in leading the people after the presidential election, says this commentary on the Centre for Civil Society web site of the University Natal.

Preliminary figures from the latest vulnerability assessment indicate that the number of people facing hunger in the tiny kingdom of Swaziland has risen significantly. News reports from the kingdom quoted national disaster task team chairman Ben Nsibandze as saying that 297,000 out of a population of 1 million will require food aid to survive.

Prostitution was legalized in this predominantly Muslim country in 1969, and today the government tolerates it as long as each prostitute registers with the state, is over 21 years old, and comes regularly to a center run by the Ministry of Health for checkups, education, and medical treatment. And that's a big reason why this West African nation of 10.5 million, according to the World Health Organisation, has an HIV infection rate of about two percent while many of its nearest neighbors face rates several times higher.

This policy briefing from Save the Children and Oxfam calls on the international community to recognise the relationship between the HIV/AIDS epidemic and the Southern African food crisis. The paper briefly provides an overview of prevalence in the region and states that HIV/AIDS has a particularly damaging relationship with food insecurity in that it impacts most heavily the key members of society who can produce food as well as health workers, teachers and others of working age. The relationship between hunger and vulnerability to HIV/AIDS is also discussed.

The European Commission Humanitarian Aid Office has granted MK27 million, which is equivalent to about E300, 000 to the United Nations Childrens Fund in support of the Cholera Preparedness and Control Project. The project, which is scheduled to run for eight months, will cover areas in Central and Northern Malawi.

The international medical NGO Medicins Sans Frontiers (MSF) said last Friday that just one of Kenya's provincial hospitals was dispensing antiretrovirals (ARVs) to people living with HIV/AIDS (PWAs). This was despite government funding allocated to five major hospitals last year to kick-start the national distribution of HIV/AIDS drugs.

To provide technical supervision and support to World Relief's HIV/AIDS programs in Africa and guide in the development of new strategic initiatives. The Africa Director will be resident in Nairobi, Kenya and report to the International Director of HIV/AIDS Programs.

South African HIV/AIDS activists have condemned an invitation by Minister of Health Manto Tshabalala-Msimang to a leading AIDS dissident to address regional health ministers later this month. "For the health minister to invite someone who has been castigated by the medical profession for his belief that HIV does not cause AIDS only reinforces our suspicion that Tshabalala-Msimang has failed as minister of health," Sipho Mthathi of the Treatment Action Campaign told Plusnews.

Abt Associates Health Policy Training Institute (AAHPTI) is pleased to announce its Global Core Course, "Building Skills for Implementing Health Reform and Strengthening Health Systems," to be held in Cape Town, South Africa, April 28-May 10, 2003. The course, designed for middle and upper level technical, management and policy staff, develops practical skills in resolving specific problems and issues that policy makers and managers confront when they reach the implementation phase of health reforms. For more information please contact us at:
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Zimbabwe appears headed for another season of food shortages in 2003-2004 with poor rains and reduced plantings likely to dent output, a U.S. based food monitoring organisation says. Although Zimbabwe was once the breadbasket of southern Africa, sharply reduced domestic food production has forced the country into dependence upon food aid, and nearly half Zimbabwe's estimated 14 million people now face starvation.

More than 34 million Africans are threatened by starvation due to severe food shortages throughout the continent. The crisis is exacerbated by an HIV/Aids rate averaging more than 20 percent in the affected countries. Those infected with the disease require 30 to 50 percent greater daily caloric intake.

This compendium describes and provides details for both print and web based materials on the links between health status and literacy status. It also explains how to access and develop easy-to-read health education materials, and how to teach health with literacy, using health content.

The HIV/AIDS epidemic in Africa could be turned around, despite the devastating toll on human lives, UN Secretary General's Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa Stephen Lewis, says. Lewis noted that defeating the disease would require a combination of political will and resources.

A new international coalition - the International HIV Treatment Access Coalition (ITAC) - has been launched to boost efforts to provide access to antiretroviral drugs to the growing number of people with HIV/AIDS in low- and middle-income countries who need them. According to WHO/UNAIDS estimates presented in a report launched by the Coalition, millions of people living with HIV/AIDS in low- and middle-income countries face death within the coming years unless they can access these life-saving medicines.