The positive impacts of antiretroviral programmes in several African countries and other resource-poor areas were highlighted in a series of oral presentations to the Fifteenth Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections in Boston on Wednesday. These studies, which represent some of the first longer-term data on treatment response in low-income countries, pointed toward successes in patient retention, immune recovery, and reductions in mortality

Five districts in the country will soon benefit from a health service project, themed "strengthening district health services in Sierra Leone", funded by the African Development Bank - AfDB- and the government of Sierra Leone. This was disclosed by the Sierra Leone Ministry Of Health and Sanitation (MOHS) during the launching on Wednesday January 30, this year, at the Miatta Conference Hall in the capital Freetown.

A series of arrests in Cairo sparked by one man’s admission to police that he was HIV-positive endangers public health as well as human rights, Human Rights Watch has said. Human Rights Watch called on Egyptian authorities to overturn the convictions of four men for the “habitual practice of debauchery,” and to free four others who are held pending trial. The government should end arbitrary arrests based on HIV status and take steps to end prejudice and misinformation about HIV/AIDS.

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is giving $306 million to six farming programs as part of a broader expansion by the charity into agricultural development. The grants, into projects for creating higher quality coffee, rice and better irrigation technologies as well as other projects, will nearly double the amount to date that the Gates Foundation has given to agricultural projects.

A meningitis outbreak that a number of deaths Burkina Faso this month has spread to other countries in the West Africa region, the UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has confirmed.The World Health Organisation declared meningitis epidemic in the region this year.

They left the country in search of jobs to better their lives, but village elders in rural Tsholotsho, say young men who left home to fend for their families are losing their lives at alarming rates to HIV/AIDS related ailments. Tsholotsho, about 150 kilometres south-east of Bulawayo, is one of many rural outposts in Matebeleland that have seen thousands of young men making the trek to neighbouring South Africa and Botswana in search of jobs.

Samples taken over the past ten years indicate that HIV prevalence in rural northwest Tanzania increased steadily from 6.0% in 1994/1995 to a little over 8% in 2000/2001, levelling out thereafter. Incidence rose sharply from 0.8% to 1.2% per year over the same periods, remaining at 1.1% per year as of 2000/2003. Most recently, HIV incidence has been declining in Tanzanian roadside rural areas, especially among women, but has continued to rise slightly in more remote rural areas.

HIV is becoming most prevalent among sub-Saharan Africans at the lowest educational levels, according to a systematic review of published studies. Most data from before1996 indicated that HIV prevalence was either unrelated to education, or higher among more the highly educated. Since 1996, prevalence has been falling among the most educated while rising in the least educated. The review was published in January 30th edition of AIDS.

After years of stalling and much criticism from the HIV/AIDS sector, the Policy Committee of the National Health Council on Friday finally adopted new guidelines for the prevention of mother to child transmission (PMTCT). At the heart of the new policy is the addition of second antiretroviral drug, AZT, for pregnant women with HIV and their babies to the current treatment with nevirapine only.

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is dramatically expanding its efforts to help the world's poorest farmers, with goals every bit as ambitious as its better-known global-health work fighting diseases such as AIDS and malaria. But the foundation's nascent agricultural program is encountering more resistance than much of its other work, with critics concerned that its market-oriented, technology-centric approach will open the door to big agribusiness interests and genetically engineered food.

South African AIDS activists have called on doctors and nurses to act in the best interests of HIV-positive pregnant women and their unborn children by not waiting any longer for an official directive to switch from single antiretroviral (ARV) treatmentto more effective dual treatment for the prevention of mother-to-child HIV transmission (PMTCT).

In their attempts to reduce the rate of HIV/AIDS infection in the country, Rwanda authorities have voluntarily asked all uncircumcised men to be circumcised. Health experts proved that circumcision reduces the risk of heterosexual infection of the disease. Most people wonder how the government will succeed in its new campaign, especially in a pre-dominantly Christian society where very few people go through the operation.

AZUR Development and the Reseau Sida Afrique based in Congo which includes 230 institutional and individual members in 17 African francophone countries. The project aims to set up a media campaign and system of alert on malaria and the creation of a partnership between the press and member organizations of the Africa AIDS Network in 10 countries, Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, Central African Republic, Mali, Togo, Ivory Coast, Niger, Djibouti, Cameroon, and Benin.

A rising concern with personal and environmental health in the world's richer countries is influencing lifestyles and public debate alike. One significant trend is the increase in the consumption of organically grown produce - a significant proportion of which is imported. International trade in organic food and beverages currently has a value of more than £15 billion ($30 billion) per year; the United States, Britain and Germany account for two-thirds of imports.

When UNHCR staff arrived in the market town of Mogotio in western Kenya earlier this week they found some 500 people sleeping in the grounds of the police station without shelter, blankets or basic supplies. The UN refugee agency has found similar scenes in other parts of Rift Valley Province since violence between rival communities swept through the area after the December 30 presidential election. In recent days UNHCR has been able to reach out to the most vulnerable in the countryside as the prospect of stability returns.

Cast out by their families and often fired for no valid reason, Algerians with HIV/AIDS are turning to NGOs for help. The El Hayet Association for People Living with HIV has been working since 1998 to dispel taboos about the illness and help HIV-positive men and women find ways of earning a living.

Attending secondary school might help reduce the risk of HIV among youth in rural South Africa, according to a study published in the February issue of the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, the South African Press Association reports. James Hargreaves of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine Infectious Disease Epidemiology Unit and colleagues from the Wits School of Public Health examined the behavior and HIV prevalence among 916 young men and 1,003 young women ages 14 to 25 in rural South Africa.

Africa is a continent in rapid flux. The systems that served it in the pre-colonization era still have deep roots. Although the old systems are wanting in serving the needs of a new era, many of the new systems imposed in the advent of the colonial era have not served the continent well. One of Africa’s greatest challenges is therefore to find compromises between the old and the new that work for it. The Africa of today is a sometimes awkward mix of the old/new and the imported/ indigenous.

Two cases of extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis (XDR-TB) have been confirmed in Botswana, health officials said. "The two cases were picked up during a routine survey for multidrug- resistant TB (MDR-TB)," Setshwano Mokgweetsinyana of the Department of Public Health, told IRIN. The survey also confirmed 100 cases of MDR-TB.

The Moroccan government has announced an ambitious programme to reform its health care system to provide better care in all regions of the country. Health Minister Yasmina Baddou said the ministry hopes to make more affordable treatment available to the country's least privileged.