Eating food contaminated with aflatoxins hampers the growth and development of children in Benin and Togo, scientists from the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture in Ibadan, Nigeria, and the University of Leeds, UK, reported in a study published this month.

Already in many African countries the vast majority of care for patients suffering from HIV/AIDS is being done in poor households mainly by women who receive little or no assistance from the health and welfare services.

In a letter to the editor of the London Independent last Saturday, five leaders of international HIV/AIDS advocacy groups urged G8 leaders to "make the [Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria] effective by pledging substantially more money."

The United States has donated US $98 million to the World Food Programme's (WFP) humanitarian efforts.

The Sexual Health Exchange (S/HE) aims to promote the worldwide exchange of information and experiences in the field of sexual and reproductive health and HIV/AIDS.

Burkina Faso launched last Saturday a three-year anti-malaria initiative with an appeal to international health organisations for more funding for the seven-billion-CFA (US $1 million) programme.

Urging young people to abstain from sex in Zambia may not appear to make sense in a country where 75 percent are sexually active, but an AIDS prevention program sponsored by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) shows young Zambians crave support for their decision to abstain and prevent HIV/AIDS.

Working for our country programme in Zimbabwe, you will be instrumental in ensuring that the reputation we have developed for high quality vulnerability assessments and food aid projects is maintained and built upon.

This E-Newsletter provides regular updates on USAID cooperating agency activities, USAID Office of HIV-AIDS initiatives, and global donor/ government/private sector initiatives to prevent and mitigate HIV/AIDS.

Ten people have been infected with anthrax following a fresh outbreak of the disease in eastern Ethiopia, officials told IRIN last Friday.

Three themes dominated the XIV International AIDS Conference in Barcelona last week: treatment, funding, and the impact of the epidemic on women.

The Kibera Community Self Help Program (KICOSHEP) is a youth center situated in the middle of one of Nairobi's biggest slums. It caters to youngsters who are diagnosed as HIV positive as well as those who are not infected – but who, statistically, are at risk of becoming so. KICOSHEP is also one of the best examples in Africa of a homegrown, privately-funded AIDS prevention program.

Auditors at Korle-Bu, the nation's premier teaching hospital, have uncovered corruption in the hospital's procurement process that may be a cue to massive undetected embezzlement in which supplies that would last 17-years were ordered.

The first supercomputer in Africa devoted specifically to research was officially switched on at the University of the Western Cape on Monday by Education Minister Kader Asmal.

The Kenyan authorities have given details of an outbreak of highland malaria, which has killed a total of 294 people since June.

Zackie Achmat, the ailing South African AIDS activist, has called for drug companies to waive patent restrictions and throw open the doors to a competitive market in generic drugs throughout the developing world. “The partial price reductions and insufficient donations by drug companies will not assist in the long term to deal with the epidemic in a sustainable and an effective manner,” said Achmat, speaking to an Aids conference in Barcelona, Spain.

The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries will give $8.1 million to 12 African nations to fight HIV/AIDS. The money will be awarded to World Health Organization projects in Burkina Faso, Burundi, Central African Republic, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Rwanda, Togo, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia.

The Maureen Mwanawasa community initiative (MMCI) has donated hospital equipment and accessories worth us$300,000 dollars to Kabwe general hospital. The MCCI also donated medicine and mattresses worth K21 million to the children's ward at Kabwe general hospital.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has thrown down a challenge to the international community at the AIDS 2002 conference in Barcelona this week, calling for three million people to have access to antiretroviral (ARV) therapy by 2005. WHO's goal represents half of the six million people who need treatment now, and a fraction of the 40 million currently living with the virus.

The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and the Development Gateway Foundation have launched the Population and Reproductive Health Internet Portal, a community-built database of shared population information, including data, research, projects, ideas and dialogue. Visitors to the website are able to sign up for free membership, which entitles them to receive regular updates on new resources that are added.