In a letter sent to United Nations secretary-general Kofi Annan last month, Barry R. Bloom, dean of Harvard's School of Public Health, proposed the creation of a "global HIV/AIDS pharmacy" that would help facilitate the purchase and distribution of AIDS drugs in African countries, the Boston Globe reports.

A new book — Challenging Inequities in Health: from ethics to action — draws together all of the GHEI studies into a 21 chapter resource on health equity. This volume provides new perspectives on the concept of health equity, empirical evidence on the scale and nature of health inequities in 13 countries and assessments of relevant policy developments and their implications.

UWC's School of Public Health provides health and welfare personnel with the necessary tools to facilitate the process of transformation in the country's health and welfare sectors. The UWC SOPH has established itself as a national leader in public health teaching, research and service development: Its innovative educational and research activities focus on the implementation of district health systems. Closing date for applications: 3 August 2001.

People accessing Soul City are significantly more likely to discuss HIV/AIDS with someone close to them. The more elements [TV, radio, print] of Soul City that people access the more likely they are to have a dialogue and debate on HIV/AIDS issues. 39% of people accessing 3 elements of Soul City discussed HIV/AIDS with friend or family and 36% of those that accessed 2 elements. This compares with 21% of those with no exposure to Soul City.

As the Zimbabwe government slowly begins to face the reality that in six months time the country could run out of food, UNDP told IRIN that donors might support a UN-administered food aid initiative.

A serious shortfall in the food aid pipeline to Ethiopia may develop within six weeks if donors do not respond soon to an appeal for more resources, Wagdi Othman, information officer for the UN World Food Programme (WFP) in Addis Ababa told IRIN on Thursday.

The launch of the Greater Nelspruit Rape Intervention Project - the inappropriately acronymed Grip - was heartily welcomed by the police, courts and doctors in South Africa's eastern province of Mpumalanga last year. But Grip fell foul of the authorities with another of its services. The organisation ensured that women were swiftly given access to anti-retroviral drugs, paid for by donations. The Mpumalanga provincial health minister, Sibongile Manana, was outraged. She said President Thabo Mbeki had banned the supply of anti-retrovirals and that their prescription was an attempt to poison black people and was "undermining the present government".

In a response pressures from civil society organisations (CSOs) internationally, especially through the People's Health Assembly held in Dhaka in December 2000, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has finally conceded the importance of engaging with CSOs. Commenting on the formation of the WHO Civil Society Intiative, Eva Wallstam, Director, said: "This is a time when the Health for All core values of equity, dignity and human rights, need to be more clearly articulated ... For WHO this means reaching out, beyond the formal health sector to other partners and to a wide range of civil society actors." The full text of her speech is available at the URL shown below.

The following statement presents the outcome of meetings involving civil society organisations held at the UNGASS on HIV/AIDS in June 2001. This
document builds upon "Comment on the draft declaration of commitment for UNGASS on HIV/AIDS -civil society organisations meeting in Geneva, 25-27 April 2001", comments submitted to the Break the Silence forum and meetings among civil society members during the UNGASS itself.

ATCnet has launched an easily accessible Internet database for the African Health and HIV-AIDS Crisis to consolidate information about organizations and individuals that are working to combat the crisis. There is a growing global appreciation of the enormity of the health and HIV-AIDS crisis in Africa. With this database it will be possible to publicize the enormous amount of work that African organizations and individuals are doing in Africa to address the pandemic.

IPS has launched Shaan online, an e-zine on Gender and Human Rights, produced in cooperation with the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM). In this special magazine women tell us, in their own words, how HIV/AIDS and the denial of their human rights have affected their lives.

The following is an article by Stan Houston, a doctor with the University of Zimbabwe's medical school. In response, Helen Jackson, UNFPA has written a comment about Dr. Houston's article. Both the article and the comment were published in SAfAIDS News (June, 2001). We would like to hear your views on the article and publish feedback in the next edition of SAfAIDS News.

After years of lethargy, the international community has declared war on AIDS. Following the G8 summit, a fund is to be set up by the end of the year. But the agreement being negotiated with the pharmaceuticals industry may fail to provide much-needed care for millions in poor countries, argues Philippe Riviere.

Zwelinzima Vavi, the General Secretary of COSATU, was today part of a delegation of international trade unionists who met the Italian Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi - the host to G8 Summit taking place in Genoa. The General Secretary spoke on the HIV/AIDS crisis. He pointed out that no war has killed as many people as the HIV/AIDS epidemic has in Sub Sahara Africa and that projections and statistics tell us that HIV/AIDS is the single most potent threat to humanity.

Kenyan President Daniel arap Moi's suggestion that Kenyans abstain from sex for two years to slow the spread of HIV/AIDS has garnered worldwide press attention. Outlined below is a sampling of some of the opinions.

The Nigerian government has drafted a plan for a national health insurance program that would eventually provide coverage for "all Nigerians," but certain individuals with "[h]igh-cost illnesses" such as HIV/AIDS would not be eligible to join, the Lancet reports.

The 7th Reproductive Health Priorities Conference will be held at the Champagne Sports Resort, Drakensberg, South Africa. The Reproductive Health Priorities Conferences have been a great success in presenting research in this field from the Southern African region, in promoting new research in reproductive health and in enabling a close interaction between researchers and service providers from around South Africa and the neighbouring countries.

OTTAWA - Canada’s International Development Research Centre (IDRC) welcomes the launch of the 2001-2010 Decade for African Traditional Medicine by the Summit of the Organization of African Unity. To the majority of rural populations in developing countries, medicinal plants are a precious resource. To ensure conscientious use of these crucial resources, IDRC is working with a variety of partners in the creation of an African network on the diversity of medicinal plants.