Cosatu and the Treatment Action Campaign are to table a national HIV/Aids treatment plan in Nedlac following the first national treatment conference, which concluded in Durban this week. A key aspect of the plan involves making antiretroviral drugs available through the public health system to those infected with HIV.

How do you deal with the stigma and secrecy surrounding STIs and HIV? Could you help people to talk about sexuality without embarrassment or fear? Could you spot the signs of an abusive relationship? A new guide "Programme Guidance on Counselling for STI/HIV Prevention in Sexual and Reproductive Health Settings" to be jointly launched by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) - the world's largest voluntary organisation working in sexual and reproductive health - answers these and the many other challenges facing family planning counsellors and others dealing with STI and HIV in the field.

The HIV epidemic has created an emergency in SA. This emergency threatens South Africa's future by creating more poverty and impacting negatively on the ability to reconstruct and develop SA to the benefit of all of its people. A national HIV/AIDS Treatment Plan is needed to combat this emergency. A treatment plan will strengthen the existing five-year strategic plan, which concentrates mainly on prevention. These were the conclusions of a Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) and Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) National Treatment Congress held in Durban, South Africa, between 27 and 29 June.

Most of Ethiopia's 65 million people are at "high risk" from HIV/AIDS, the world's most far-reaching-ever sexual survey has established. According to the study, most Ethiopians still fail to take precautions against contracting the disease which is devastating their country.

From painkillers to antibiotics, just about any medicinal drug can be had on the streets of Mali’s towns and villages. Chances are the vendors know absolutely nothing about the chemicals from which the pills are made, or about potential side effects since none are pharmacists nor do they have any licenses to sell drugs. Yet, they and their counterparts elsewhere in West Africa administer a large percentage - estimates range from 30 to 60 percent - of the drugs sold in the subregion.

Twenty girls have been admitted at Ortum Mission Hospital in West Pokot after undergoing female genital mutilation (FGM). And among them, 10 have successfully been operated on by a team of doctors from University of Nairobi led by Dr Hillary Mabeya. The girls aged between 10 and 16 were rescued from bleeding to death by a local NGO, Setat Women Group - North Rift Chapter.

Africa's development goals would remain an "impossible hope" until the HIV/AIDS pandemic was addressed, despite initiatives such as NEPAD, warns Stephen Lewis, the UN special envoy for HIV/AIDS. Speaking at the opening of the People's Summit, an alternative to the G-8 Summit taking place this week, he said: "How can you talk about the future of sub-Saharan Africa without AIDS at the heart of the analysis?"

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.

Not treating HIV-positive people was more expensive than buying them medicine, the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) said in Johannesburg on Monday. "That's the thesis that our experts are testing and they are looking at hard figures to support it," TAC secretary Mark Heywood told reporters in Johannesburg. Heywood was speaking ahead of a HIV/Aids congress due to take place in Durban.

The Zambian government's Disaster Management Unit is "doing its best" to cope with the country's food crisis, but the situation remains dire for Zambian villagers in affected rural areas.

More than 28 million Africans are now living with HIV/AIDS and in some countries over 30 percent of the adult population is infected, a UNAIDS statement warned on Tuesday. "The devastating impact of HIV/AIDS is rolling back decades of development progress in Africa," said Peter Piot, UNAIDS executive director.

On the eve of a meeting of rich country leaders in Canada, President Bush has brought out a "new initiative" promising $500 million to prevent transmission of HIV/AIDS from mothers to children. Intended to stave off the embarrassment of coming empty-handed to a summit trumpeted as focusing on Africa, the White House initiative is in fact a cynical move to derail more effective action against AIDS.

Tuberculosis is claiming more lives in Ghana than any other diseases including AIDS and kills about 20,000 people each year, Ghana News Agency reported Monday. Dr Mohammed Bin Ibrahim, director of Western Region of Health Services, made the remarks when launching the regional TB campaign on Monday. About 40,000 cases were reported in the year 2000 in the west African country, Ibrahim added.

A new study on child mortality in Kenya says that newly-born underweight babies admitted to the country's leading public hospital are at a higher risk of dying within the first month than Nigerian children were more than 25 years ago. According to the study, which is another damning indictment of the poor standards of healthcare at Kenyan public hospitals, low birthweight babies admitted to the Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH) - the country's biggest and most advanced hospital - are also more likely to die than those admitted to the institution more than a quarter of a century ago.

Many Malawians living with HIV/AIDS are forced to rely on illegal drugs in a bid to treat opportunistic illnesses, ease suffering and prolong their lives.

The female condom has not been well received because it interferes with certain cultural sexual practices, a monitoring and evaluation specialist has said.

Although efforts are being made to integrate STI services into family planning clinics in Zambia, these efforts need reinforcement. The educational levels of both providers and their clients may be barriers to a successful transfer of STI prevention information during client-provider interactions.

South African researchers have made a breakthrough in malaria research that will enable more effective drugs to be developed to treat the parasite-based infection, a medical researcher said on Sunday. The breakthrough was based on identifying how the malaria parasite handles iron in red blood cells, said Giovanni Hearne, a doctor at the Wits University's Medical School in Johannesburg. Malaria is transmitted to humans through the bite of an infected female anopheles mosquito and is a huge problem worldwide, particularly in Africa.

High numbers of people in Africa and other developing countries do not realise that HIV/Aids can kill. Even in countries with high infection rates a large majority of men and women believe they are not at risk of contracting Aids, the UN Population Division says in a new report.

Of the total number of children under the age of 15 who had lost their mothers or both parents to AIDS by 2000, 90% were in sub-Saharan Africa. Most of those infected with HIV are people in their economically active stages of life (15-49). It is grandparents who have to care for their sick or HIV-infected children and raise and support their orphaned grandchildren. In most cases, they provide this care with little or no state or other support.