Wracked by decades of political insecurity, HIV/AIDS simply wasn't a priority in Chad for many years. A chronic lack of health workers and uncertain funding delayed efforts further, but the government of Chad is finally starting to take action. Chad covers around 1.3 million square kilometres and has a population of less than 10 million.

In sub-Saharan Africa, the management of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) remains a cost-effective strategy for controlling HIV in a number of different scenarios, report an international team of researchers in the March 1st edition of the Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes. Even in mature epidemics with substantial condom use, their study found that more than half of new HIV infections may be attributable to STIs.

Last December, some civil society and farmers’ groups took for testing maize seeds grown in different parts of the country. They were confirmed to have been genetically modified. Maize is our national staple, yet we are now growing and consuming a variety that is potentially harmful to our heath.

I've finished reading Prof. Campbell's comments [http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/46809], and I can see that he is enthusiastic, encouraged, and hopeful regarding the candidacy of Barack Obama. But I had to wade through way too many words to find his actual points, and many of those words were confusing. I long to read clearly expressed incisive thought, and this just doesn't qualify. Perhaps there is an in-crowd who shares a common understanding of some of the terms that are opaque to me, and I'm not part of that group.

I'm left wondering, what are "new self-organizing tools for self-emancipation" (is this a reference to robotics?), and "self-similar processes being developed in spaces of peace, spaces of hope and non-racialized spaces"? Not only what, but where, are such spaces found?

And this statement: "Decent Christians are now seeking the gospel of peace and love instead of hate and religious fundamentalism." Is that "decent Christians" as opposed to "indecent" Christians? I've met some Christians, as well as non-Christians, who've been seeking the gospel of peace and love for a long time now. If this is a change, is Prof. Campbell suggesting that it's been brought about by Barack Obama?

What is "this methodical organizing like the repetition of self-similarity"? What is the "scaling pattern of Obama"?

"This leap has been reinforced by the nested loops of new social networks wired through the spaces of the information revolution". Perhaps I'm to understand this as poetry.

"Safe and clean neighborhoods, children who are reared to respect all human beings and a society that support (sic) repair of the planet earth awaits these new self-organizing forces." Exactly which forces are those? In my view, these requirements wait for no politician or political force, but are the direct responsibility of individual citizens. No parent can put off teaching respect for all humanity until the right politician appears on the scene. If our neighborhoods are unclean and/or unsafe, it's our fault, not the fault of "politics". In my view, each individual is responsible for the space s/he occupies.

My message: reading this piece was largely a frustrating experience.

Benin has decided to renew for period of five years, the moratorium on the import, marketing and use of Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) and GMO by-products on its territory, official sources told the PANA. The renewal of the moratorium, introduced in 2002, was based on the lack of a legal, technical and scientific framework on the threat of transgenic products from some member states of the West African Economic and Monetary Union (UEMOA) invading the sub-regional market.

Admitting to being HIV-positive is a difficult task for anyone, but David Balubenze was faced with some special challenges as the pastor of Deliverance Church Nankandulo, in Kamuli, about 100 kilometers from the capital, Kampala. Balubenze knew he was HIV-positive for a year before he told church elders and it was several more years before he informed his congregation.

Becky Mugisha* had been ill with a hacking cough for three months before she was admitted into one of Kampala’s busiest tuberculosis (TB) wards, but she recognised the symptoms long before that. It was her second bout with the disease. The last time Mugisha had had TB, about a year before, she was put on a sixth-month course of treatment.

Ethiopia is again facing food scarcity that has put the lives of over eight million Ethiopians at risk, particularly those in the South-West Oromia region where 11 people died of hunger and lack of clean water. The food insecurity, caused by a long period of drought in Oromia region, affected close to half a million people, the National Disaster, Prevention and Control Commission confirmed.

A study of nurses and HIV/AIDS patients in five African nations has found that stigma is decreasing, but burdens both HIV patients and their nurses. The researchers say that this is limiting care options for HIV patients and strategies are needed to prevent stigma.

There have been few experiments as reckless, overhyped and with as little potential upside as the rapid rollout of genetically modified crops. Last month, the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA), a pro-biotech nonprofit, released a report highlighting the proliferation of genetically modified crops. According to ISAAA, biotech crop area grew 12 percent, or 12.3 million hectares, to reach 114.3 million hectares in 2007, the second highest area increase in the past five years.

The Egyptian government’s new indictments against several men arrested apparently on suspicion of having HIV violate their basic rights and deeply undermine Egypt’s fight against HIV/AIDS, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch has said. Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International called on Egyptian officials to quash the indictments and overturn the convictions of four others who were sentenced in February 2008 to one-year prison terms.

Mothers and children in South Africa are dying in alarming numbers. Far from being on track to meet the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) of reducing child mortality by two-thirds, the country is among only a dozen worldwide where child deaths are rising. In 2000, South Africa committed to eight MDGs set by the UN, which included reducing child and maternal mortality and reversing the spread of HIV/AIDS by 2015.

A billboard showing traditional and religious leaders holding hands in the fight against AIDS is a common feature in Blantyre, Malawi's commercial capital, but overzealous church leaders claiming to cure HIV with prayer are now causing more harm than good. A pastor in southern Malawi recently hit the headlines when he told five HIV-positive people in his church to stop taking antiretroviral (ARV) medication because they had been treated by prayer.

Women who have sex with other women (WSW) were yesterday revealed to carry high prevalence of HIV in South Africa despite that it was known of them to have less HIV infection rate than gay men. Preliminary research findings about HIV testing and HIV status between South African men who have sex with other men (MSM) and WSW was presented by a New York based research scientist, Theo Sandfort, in Tshwane.

Despite real advances in China, India, South Africa, and several Latin American and Caribbean countries, overall there has been little progress in reducing the number of victims of hunger and malnutrition around the world, the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to food Jean Ziegler said Tuesday.

The South African health department has called on drug manufacturers to submit bids to supply the government's antiretroviral (ARV) treatment programme, just days before the current ARV tender is due to expire. AIDS experts and activists said decisions on which drugs to include were made with little consultation.

Violence against officials and members of the opposition has intensified, despite the arrival of a regional observer team in Harare on Wednesday. At least 5 supporters of the Tsvangirai MDC were hospitalised on Wednesday after they were attacked by a gang of youths known to be ZANU-PF members in Mbare high-density suburb of Harare. One of the victims, Simba Maringwa, is reported to be in intensive care battling for his life.

Rising global food prices have led to outbreaks of civil unrest in West and Central Africa. While the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank plan their responses to the growing crisis, Cameroon, site of worst strife, relaxes IMF policies on wages and prices.

The world's food situation is bleak, and shortsighted policies in the United States and other wealthy countries - which are diverting crops to environmentally dubious biofuels - bear much of the blame. According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, the price of wheat is more than 80 percent higher than a year ago, and corn prices are up by a quarter. Global cereal stocks have fallen to their lowest level since 1982.

Reclaiming the Resources for Health, a new book by the Regional Network for Equity in Health in Eastern and Southern Africa is a godsend and could not come at a better time. It offers analyses of many key issues in an easily-accessible format, digesting complex concepts into pictures, graphs and bullet points, but without leaving out the "meat" of its research from the text. Thus, the book will be a valuable resource for the average activist, but also those who want to go deeper and more fully understand what is happening in the region.