Uganda was one of the first African countries to face the AIDS epidemic. Prevention programmes began in the late 1980s with strong political commitment. A study by the Medical Research Council Programme on AIDS in Uganda suggests that these efforts have produced a fall in HIV prevalence (the total number of people infected) and incidence (the number of people newly infected each year).

Responsible for providing technical assistance, managing/administering contractors, grantees and partners, monitoring and evaluation, program communication, and government and donor coordination. Previous experience in Africa a must and within a high prevalence HIV/AIDS country highly desirable.

Responsible for: following tribunal activities, requesting archival trial footage for Internews project productions, interviewing and filming interviews with tribunal officials, etc. Requirements include: strong English language skills, excellent communication skills, ability to work independently on long-term projects, knowledge and understanding of the work of the ICTR, and previous camera experience.

An outbreak of an acute respiratory syndrome in the northwest of the Democratic Republic of the Congo has affected Bosobolo, Gbadolite, Gemena and Karawa, the World Health Organisation (WHO) reported last Thursday.

A row has broken out between the Tanzanian government and some development partners over the control and disbursement of development funds.

Global civil society argues that the growth in corporate social responsibility has not come from business but from pressure by civil society organisations. However, research and knowledge of the precise actions and influence of civil society organisations on corporate social responsibility is lacking.

A group of more than 50 nongovernmental organisations, international organisations, governments, donors, people living with HIV/AIDS, private sector organisations and research institutions have launched the International HIV Treatment Access Coalition, a new initiative created to promote increased access to antiretroviral drugs and to advise developing countries on how to most effectively use the drugs.

This course is designed to provide knowledge and skills to enable operational personnel to implement high quality, state of the art malaria prevention and control interventions and be able to develop a process for the continuous improvement of the quality of these activities by using existing or adaptations of existing tools.

The world "has still not grasped" the full "devastation" and threat of HIV/AIDS, which has killed 24 million people worldwide and is "still nowhere near its peak," Richard Feachem, executive director of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, said last Friday.

This handbook, downloadable in three parts, aims to provide practical, experience-based advice and examples for people and organisations working to improve access to HIV/AIDS treatment. The book explores care and treatment, providing an introduction to links between treatment and prevention and barriers to access to treatment. It discusses both the practical and ethical factors involved with treatment work, including a factsheet on antiretroviral (ARV) drugs, choosing, sourcing and supplying them.

Access to affordable generic medicines is essential to enable African and other developing countries to confront the HIV/AIDS pandemic, malaria, tuberculosis, and other urgent health needs. Yet in talks in Geneva rich countries, led by the USA, have blocked implementation of last year's Doha Declaration that public health needs take priority over restrictive patent legislation. In Nigeria, meanwhile, health activists succeeded in revising draft legislation to protect the right to affordable medicine. These trade issues are cloaked in complex language, but their outcome is a matter of life and death. This posting from Africa Action contains several of the more readable articles on the subject as well as links to additional resources.

Patents are only one of many factors preventing widespread access to drugs in Nigeria. Other obstacles include high cost, poor infrastructure, government policy and corruption.

The Regional Network for Equity in Health in Southern Africa (EQUINET) and Oxfam GB are inviting expressions of interest from individuals or organisations based within the region for a programme of work on Equity issues in HIV/AIDS, Health Sector Responses and Treatment Access in Southern Africa between February and July 2003. EQUINET and Oxfam seek to inform the policy debates and advocacy that have grown around health sector responses to HIV/AIDS in the region, particularly with respect to care and health sector responses and treatment access within the region.

The popular Cancer shave-a-thon has come to an end. Guys and girls of courage lost their silky locks for a good cause as donors poured in hundreds of rands for the sake of cancer patients.

Human rights groups have voiced concern that political violence and the politicisation of food aid have continued in parts of Zimbabwe. In its latest report the Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum alleged that violence in the Insiza constituency, where a recent by-election was held, "continued unabated in the post election period".

With about half of all new adult HIV/Aids infections taking place among young people, a recently launched UN Children's Fund project is empowering the youth to become a part of the solution to reverse this trend.

Environmental NGO GroundWork has called for Minister of Health, Dr Manto Tshabalala Msimang, who recently announced her intentions to make it compulsory for alcoholic drinks to carry health warnings similar to those used on tobacco products, to go further and make it a requirement that there are health warnings on other products which are consumed daily or used by young children and pregnant women.

As Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers have become a prominent development tool it is important to consider how health is addressed in the PRSP process.

Oxfam, the National Malaria Control Program and local and international partners are implementing a pilot program in the four quartering zones and one newly displaced area in Humabo. The pilot project aims to build partner capacity, build Oxfam public health team capacity, identify mechanisms and strategies for integration of malaria control into Oxfam GB's public health program and provide, through operational research, an evidence based approach for advocating that the National Malaria Control Program replace re-treatable bed nets with long lasting ones.

Western nations have been "too slow" to help fight HIV/AIDS and hunger in Africa and have employed a "double standard" regarding treatment of HIV-positive Africans and HIV-positive Westerners, Stephen Lewis, the U.N. Secretary General's special envoy on HIV/AIDS, has said.