South Africa's Health Department has ordered 1.4 million female condoms, the Chicago-based Female Health Company said yesterday, bringing the number ordered since 1996 to more than 5 million.

A profile on the Bolivian health network, PROCOSI (Programa de Coordinacion en Salud Integral); the first in a series of profiles that traces the history, growth, challenges, accomplishments, and impact of a health network on its members and on the health of the communities they serve.

US pharmaceutical manufacturer Abbott Laboratories yesterday said it would sell its Kaletra and Norvir HIV treatment drugs in Africa at cost. The company will also sell its Determine HIV test at cost on the continent. The two drugs, which sell for about US$ 7,000 each in the United States, are believed to cost less than US$ 1,000 to manufacture.

South African President Thabo Mbeki signed a series of agreements in Havana this week with his Cuban counterpart Fidel Castro, one of which could clear the way for the two countries to cooperate in producing low-cost AIDS drugs while ignoring drug company patents.

European parliamentarians have passed an emergency resolution calling on 39 pharmaceuticals firms to drop their lawsuit against the South African government over a law aimed at opening the way for cheaper AIDS drug production.

Applications are invited for a number of PhD or DrPH studentships to
be held at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM),
the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine (LSTM), the Centre for
Medical Parasitology, University of Copenhagen (CMP) and the Danish
Bilharziasis Laboratory (DBL) as a component of a generous award by
the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Governments should be directly responsible for the conservation of the natural and cultural heritage of their respective countries and people. Nevertheless, what frequently happens in the South is that the authorities act in collusion with powerful internal and external interests, and to the detriment of the country's biodiversity, and thus against the welfare of the population they are supposed to protect. This is what is going on in Kenya.

On 4th January this year, Peter Singer posted an article on 'HIF-net at WHO' on the subject of 'Global Alliance for Health Information'. The following letter is from this week's BMJ (17 March) under the title 'Vision is needed to address problem of global health information'.

Willie Koen, head of the transplant unit and the 'Berlin Heart' Surgeons at a Cape Town hospital implanted an artificial heart into the chest of a man who was rushed into their unit after cardiac failure last night.

DATELINE HEALTH NIGERIA is a health communication initiative of the Centre for Health Policy and Strategic Studies (CHPSS), Lagos, Nigeria. Critical comments on format, quality and content are welcome.

On 31st January, the New York Times writer Eric Nagourney wrote to 'HIF-net at WHO' for input on how the internet is affecting access to medical journals in developing countries. The resulting article is now available online.

The School of Human Genetics and Population Health (SOHGAPH) Kolkata along with Gana Unnayan Parshad (GUP) Kolkata, India is coming up with a new manual called 'Guidelines for Facilitators and Grass Root Workers in Reproductive/Sexual Health Projects of the Third World'.

THEME: Donation and distribution of physical health information materials: books, journals, newsletters, CD-ROMs...

March 21 headlines include:
* One in Nine South Africans Living With HIV, Government Survey Shows
* Some Catholic Priests Sexually Abuse Nuns, Sometimes to Avoid HIV
Infection, Reports Say
* TAC 'Demands' HIV/AIDS Treatment Plan from South African Government

The March 2001 issue of Immunization Focus, an "e-published" quarterly from the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI) is now available on the GAVI website.

Several newspaper editorials this week have addressed the price reductions and patent relaxations on AIDS drugs by Merck & Co. and Bristol-Myers Squibb, as well as the need for developed nations of the world to offer more humanitarian aid to African nations in order to assure the purchase, distribution andmonitoring of such drugs.

The application form and further details can also be downloaded from the International Development pages of the Nuffield Institute for July 2001 Nuffield Institute for Health Leeds, UK

Achieving water security for the sustainable production of food and the support of rural livelihoods while preserving natural resources and ecosystems is one of the key challenges of the early 21st century. The Dialogue on Water for Food and Environmental Security attempts to bridge the gap between agricultural and environmental sectors and to forge agreed-upon, workable solutions to this challenge.

As a follow up to Dr. Neufeld's request on AFRO-NETS (dated 17 Jan. 2001) regarding African health research networks, please find attached a preliminary listing of inter-country health research networks.