The Nigerian government will distribute at least 1 billion condoms to Nigerians in the next five years in an attempt to curb the spread of the HIV/AIDS pandemic in the country.

Every year on December 1st we reflect on HIV/AIDS. This year Zimbabweans joined the rest of the world to commemorating World AIDS Day. The theme for this year’s campaign is “I Care, Do You?”, with a focus on young men and HIV/AIDS. Zimbabweans marked World AIDS Day with concerts, marches and fundraisers. Activities of the day were preceded by a national launch held at Murambinda growth point in Buhera District in Manicaland Province.

The "precarious humanitarian situation" in southern Somalia has been worsened by a United States clampdown on Islamic money-lending institutions accused of being channels for terrorist funds, an official with a leading British charity said today.

The death toll from Ebola haemorrhagic fever in Gabon and the Republic of Congo was 24 as at 6 January, the World Health Organisation (WHO) reported on Monday. It said 17 of the deaths were in Gabon, where the Ebola outbreak was first reported last month.

According to the East African Standard,a special software, Consumer Insight has started monitoring Internet usage in Kenya just like any other media outlet. The results, says Consumer Insight's managing director, Ndirangu wa Maina, now give a "complete picture of the demographic characteristics of Kenyans using the Internet and the web sites they visit."

The Bambisanani Project involves development and implementation of home-based care systems in an area of the Eastern Cape strongly affected by high levels of migrancy-related HIV/AIDS prevalence. The study was conducted in primary (ave. age 13) and high schools (ave. age 18), with the addition of a household survey (ave. age 40) in each of 3 areas. It reports on community responses in terms of a wide range of indicators, and outlines the problems of developing an integrated response to HIV/AIDS in deep rural areas. Recommendations for project implementation, and for monitoring and evaluation are presented in the report.

The Catholic Institute of Education is looking for a fieldworker for KwaZulu-Natal who will be responsible for implementing, monitoring and evaluating the CIE's HIV/AIDS prevention programme in Catholic primary schools.

Informania Ltd, the world's largest electronic publisher of biomedical journals from the Third World, announced that it would provide the ExtraMED full-text database to developing country users for free or at very low cost, under the same terms as those announced last week by six leading medical publishers.

A consistent theme in many articles in 2001 was the amazing growth of cyber-cafes in the main cities of African countries. Below we have two special reports - one from Ghana, the other from Kenya - that provide a more detailed look at this phenomenon. The success (or otherwise) of African cyber-cafes provides an interesting prism through which to look at how quickly the use of e-mail and internet might grow in Africa and where the key constraints lie. Both articles identify a common problem: the over-supply of cyber-cafes. Russell Southwood asks which cyber-cafes willsurvive in 2002 and why?

Denial is always dangerous. But in South Africa, it has proven deadly. Some 4.7 million people there are HIV-positive. That is the highest number living with the prospect of AIDS, or with the disease itself, of any nation in a world where 40 million people are infected.

President Thabo Mbeki used his New Year's message to call on South Africans to stop a wave of rapes of babies and children.

Zambia's new president, Levy Mwanawasa, has vowed to fight the AIDS epidemic gripping his country, declaring it a national disaster and promising to look at securing cheaper drugs to help treat the disease.

Stephen Lewis, the United Nations special envoy for AIDS in Africa, said that 2002 could be "the turning point" for Africa's fight against the disease if wealthy nations demonstrate a financial commitment to combatting the virus in the developing world, the Washington Times reports.

An innovative partnership between the International Council of Nurses (ICN), the US-based pharmaceutical company, Merck & Co., Inc. and Elsevier Science (formerly Harcourt) will deliver state-of-the-art medical information to thousands of nurses in remote clinics and health centres in developing countries. The nursing Mobile Library, housed in a transportable trunk resilient to moisture, insects and hard knocks, was officially launched in London, where the first 23 units will ship from the Elsevier Science warehouse.

The Health Services Research Projects in Progress (HSRProj) database contains more than 6,200 descriptions of ongoing health services research grants and contracts funded by government agencies, state agencies, foundations, and private organizations. Researchers, policymakers, managers, clinicians, and librarians can have access to information about health services research before results are available in a published form. Contact: Virginia Van Horne.

Throughout the developing world, poor people subsist on diets consisting of staple foods such as rice or maize and little else.The lack of diversity in the foods they eat often leads to micronutrient deficiencies. Almost one-third of the children in developing countries are affected to some degree by vitamin A and iron deficiencies. Food-based approaches are an essential part of the long-term global strategy to alleviate micronutrient deficiencies, but their real potential has not been explored adequately. This report reviews a number of recently published studies of food-based interventions to reduce vitamin A and iron deficiencies in developing countries. It summarizes the current state of knowledge and identifies the lessons learned and the enormous gaps in knowledge that remain.

This document discusses the consequences for regional development of the widening demand and supply of agricultural economists and proposes solutions to the problem. Prepared by Marios Obwona and David Norman for the 2020 Vision Network for East Africa, in collaboration with The East and Central Africa Program for Agricultural Policy Analysis (ECAPAPA) and The African Economic Research Consortium (AERC), with support from The Rockefeller Foundation (Nairobi). November 2001.

Established to honor Jonathan Mann and help to call continued attention to the vital links between health and human rights. Three international health and human rights organizations; Association François-Xavier Bagnoud, Doctors of the World, and the Global Health Council have come together as partners to support the award. Presented annually to an individual or organization, leading in health and human rights. The Award is a substantial cash prize, to allow its recipients a measure of freedom to pursue their work in this important area. Deadline February 1 2002.

The Health Department has decided to appeal against a court ruling compelling the government to provide the anti-retroviral drug Nevirapine to HIV-positive pregnant women.