The Zimbabwean households already affected by HIV/Aids and those headed by women, children or the elderly may have difficulty accessing food aid because of stigma, according to a recently released AIDS country profile.

Susan Ndokwe, the chairperson of Chiedza Home of Hope in Glen View, says that the unending food shortages in the country have increased the vulnerability of patients, who need balanced food to boost the immune system. He says most of their patients are no longer able to take their medication on hungry stomachs.

European Union Head of Delegation, Wiepk van der Goot, says Malawi can get out of its hunger situation and dependence on food aid through growing different types of crops and using irrigation practices during the winter season. Food security can also be diversified into income security through the growing of crops for sale and consumption, he says.

Women radio journalists from Nigeria are invited to apply for a six-day training program on reporting on HIV/AIDS, to be held in Lagos from December 16-21. The training is being organized by the African Women's Media Center (AWMC) in collaboration with the International Press Center (IPC) and Journalists Against AIDS (JAAIDS-Nigeria).

South Africa's Medicines Control Council will have to wait until the end of the year for a report from the United States which will guide its decision on whether to review the registration of nevirapine for the prevention of mother to child transmission (PMTCT) of HIV.

South African Deputy President Jacob Zuma on Sunday at a National Health Providers' Prayer Day gathering in eastern South Africa announced to an audience of approximately 5,000 people, including Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, that the South African Department of Health plans to take steps to address the shortage of health practitioners who are trained to provide care for HIV-positive patients, the South African Press Association reports.

The international medical relief organization Doctors Without Borders is fighting a severe outbreak of the deadly disease kala azar in southern Sudan. Exhausted by decades of war, the population is left extremely vulnerable to this disease. Kala azar, or visceral leishmaniasis, is a parasitic disease that is transmitted by the miniscule sand fly. If left untreated, the illness is fatal.

Reducing the threats to ill health in developing countries is not just a question of encouraging more research. It also requires attention to the social context in which health problems arise. And tackling this social context requires a political commitment that is, in many ways, as important (and difficult) to secure as extra financing.

Spiraling inflation has been worsened by a serious food shortage, which spells further hardship for ordinary Zambians, the majority of whom are low-income earners, analysts have warned. Mulenga Kabungo, a married Zambian police officer with six children, is among those expected to be worst hit by rising food prices, especially that of the staple maize meal.

This report looks at the existing HIV/Aids national policies and plans among countries in SADC. It notes where national strategies are not available, and analyses sector-specific and other policy statements. It is intended to provide an overview of the current status of policy formulation and to suggest future steps to strengthen the policy environment for an effective response to the epidemic.

LEISA, the biggest international magazine for the exchange of experiences on low external input, sustainable agriculture, has published a special issue on ICTs and the changing information flows in agriculture in developing countries. The articles describe how ICTs play an increasingly prominent role in agricultural communities in developing countries. Included also are several examples illustrating the importance of "old" technologies, such as newsletters and radio, and calling on the development community to use all available means to ensure that farmers have the information they need in order to continue to farm sustainably.

The High Commission of the Republic of South Africa in Lesotho donated 1 million to the Lesotho government for the poverty reduction process.

The Medical Research Council (MRC) is expected to sign a multi-million Rand agreement with the US Centre for Disease Control (CDC) in Pretoria to carry out collaborative tuberculosis research activities in South Africa over the next five years.

Chronic food shortages in Zimbabwe were worsening and growing numbers of infants were at risk of serious malnourishment, the United Nations warned on Monday. At least 6.7 million Zimbabweans, more than half the population, face hunger in the coming months because of a sharp drop in agricultural production blamed on a drought and the government's seizure of thousands of white-owned commercial farms.

The cholera outbreak in Kasai Oriental Province in the south of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) continues to worsen, with a total of 672 people affected by the epidemic, which broke out on 19 September, according to the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.

Ethiopia’s anti-AIDS taskforce came under fire on Wednesday for failing to fund projects aimed at tackling the virus – despite a three-year US $59 million loan from the World Bank. The National HIV/AIDS Secretariat has spent just one fifth of the funds in the last two years despite the pandemic sweeping the Horn of Africa country.

The Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) will start a campaign of non-violent civil disobedience if Government has not adopted an HIV/AIDS treatment plan, that includes antiretroviral therapy in the public sector, by the end of February 2003. In a document circulated on the Internet, the TAC said it had initially planned the campaign for December, but had been told that government needed until February to implement a national treatment plan, leading to the decision to postpone the disobedience campaign until February.

The Ministry of Health has warned that babies who contracted HIV/AIDS through mother-to-child transmission in the mid-1980s are now adolescents and could be innocently passing on the virus to their sexual partners.

Langa was 26 when he died a few weeks ago. He was a young black guy who was completely open about his homosexuality. Robert Mugabe's worst nightmare. Although he was fearless as a gay activist, he never came to terms with his HIV status. He died quickly once his immune system became depleted. He lost weight and in the end he could not walk. His friends had to visit him at his bedside in a hospice. It is time, Ralph Berold of the WITS HIV/AIDS Campaign and the TAC argues, for each of us to take an active stand against denial and for life.

As the food crisis deepens in Southern Africa the rhetoric over the issue of GM food aid continues to dominate the headlines. Eldis has prepared a special feature on GM Food Aid and the crisis in Southern Africa which looks beyond those headlines to the issues which lie at the heart of this complex subject. The guide contains: A guide to the issues; Summaries of the key research with links to the full text documents; The latest news; Current situation reports; Summaries and links to over 100 background papers; Links to other useful sources of information.
Related Links:
* The Impact of GMOs on Sustainable Agriculture

* The Impact of GMOs on Sustainable Agriculture (a rebuttal)
http://www.agbioworld.org/pdf/To_Die_or_not_to_Die.pdf
* WFP Policy on GM Donations
http://www.wfp.org/eb/docs/2002/wfp011823~2.pdf