Zimbabwe, a country where at least 2,000 people die of AIDS-related illnesses each week, will soon begin to manufacture 300 generic drugs, including AIDS drugs, Health and Child Welfare Deputy Minister David Parirenyatwa announced on Tuesday, Xinhua News Agency reports. The generic drugs -- which will include rifampin, an "essential" tuberculosis medication, and ketoconazole, a treatment for fungal infections in the lungs and esophagus -- will be made with the free technological help of Thailand and its Zimbabwe-based drug companies.

The number of AIDS-related deaths could be cut by 25% by 2010 and deaths from malaria and tuberculosis could be halved over the same time period at a cost of about $12 billion per year, according to a new report by the World Health Organization and several U.N. agencies, the Washington Post reports.

Hospitals in Malawi have run out of antiretroviral drugs for AIDS patients because the state treasury delayed depositing the necessary money into the state-sponsored fund designated to purchase the medications, Agence France-Presse reports. Wesley Sangala, chief technical adviser to the health ministry, did not give a reason for the glitch but said that the government is treating the "serious matter with urgency so as not to put the AIDS patients at higher risk," adding that it is "extremely crucial" to get the patients back on medication "as soon as possible."

The Treatment Action Campaign, a South African HIV/AIDS advocacy group, on Tuesday filed papers with the Pretoria High Court requesting that the court force the government to comply with its earlier ruling to institute a "comprehensive program" to reduce vertical HIV transmission, even while the government appeals that ruling, the Associated Press reports.

The Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs (JHU/CCP) is establishing an AIDS Resource Center (ARC) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. This Center will serve as the hub for AIDS information for journalists, health providers, government departments, and HIV/AIDS organisations and programmes.

Training of trainers and promoters on the administrative and financial management of health micro insurance schemes.

They are the forgotten victims of the HIV/AIDS virus that is devastating Africa. Amid the terrible social and economic destruction, all too often it is the elderly who are left to pick up the pieces.

Current food crop surpluses have helped improve the food security of important, vulnerable groups in Eastern Africa and the Horn of Africa in the short term, but could have serious negative effects later if farmers, reacting to lower prices, reduce the area planted with cereals, according to a new report from the Famine Early Warning System Network.

For the first time, donors and developing countries have a source of critical and accurate information for formulating better health policies, thanks to a study released during a conference taking place this week at the Ghion Hotel in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The study – the first in a series produced by the international network INDEPTH – fills a void in health care planning where statistical models are used as substitutes for real data.

The first ever Global Forum of Food Safety Regulators has opened, seeking ways to improve the safety of food worldwide at every step of the food production chain — from farmers, through processors and retailers, to consumers.

The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis & Malaria is holding its first board meeting in Geneva from 28-29 January. The Board will finalize procedures to ensure that funding can be rapidly disbursed to fight these three diseases, which collectively cause 25% of deaths worldwide. WHO and UNAIDS made a joint presentation which shows that immediate needs of countries far outstrip the current resources of the Fund.

AIDS -- which has already killed 25 million people worldwide -- will overtake the bubonic plague as the "world's worst pandemic" if the 40 million people currently infected with HIV do not get access to life-prolonging drugs, according to a public health expert, Reuters/Contra Costa Times reports.

The Anglican archbishop of South Africa, Njongonkulu Ndungane, on Friday called the South African government policy that prevents HIV-positive pregnant women from receiving the antiretroviral nevirapine to prevent mother-to-child HIV transmission a "sin," Reuters reports.

The Kenyan government has contracted six foreign companies to supply 300 million condoms to the country over next three years in its war against the HIV/AIDS pandemic, the East African Standard newspaper said on Saturday.

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Lindy Morrison and Richard Holden, both officials of the Mvula Trust, a water and sanitation NGO working in rural and peri-urban communities, suggest how to tackle cholera in South Africa.

About 3 400 people in KwaZulu-Natal have been infected with cholera over the past six weeks and Sapa reports a further outbreak in the Eastern Cape.