Among the more than one million people malaria kills annually are hundreds of thousands of children. Most are under age five, their immature immune systems failing to control the aggressive disease. The majority of these children are from the developing world. Almost 90 percent are from sub-Saharan Africa. Killing children is not all malaria does. Economically, malaria drains the wealth of nations and households. Recently W.H.O. reported that malaria costs Africa alone $12 billion a year.

Uganda is highly credited for fighting HIV/Aids, however, a new report now says that infected pregnant mothers face the highest form of stigmatisation, discrimination and abuse. The rights report launched last Thursday by the Foundation for Human Rights Initiative documented several testimonies from Mama Club at Mulago Hospital in Kampala. Mama Club is a psychosocial support group formed by The Aids Support Organisation (Taso) to bring the HIV positive mothers together to fight stigmatisation and to complement the Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission of HIV (PMTCT) treatment offered to them.

The Global corruption report 2006 documents corruption on a vast scale in both rich and poor countries, and its enormous cost to public health, reports the Bulletin of the World Health Organisation. "Each year hundreds of billions of dollars are siphoned from the world's US$ 3.1 trillion annual health spending into private pockets, according to the report published on 1 February. The Global corruption report, now in its sixth edition, draws attention each year to corruption in a particular industry or sector as well as providing a broader overview of corruption across the world."

Three people have died and nine others admitted to hospital following a cholera outbreak on Tanzania's semiautonomous Island of Zanzibar, government officials said on Friday. The deaths occurred in Pemba Island, a sister island of the mainland of Unguja Island that forms Zanzibar. By Friday nine patients had been admitted to the cholera special centre, two in critical condition, Zanzibar's minister of health and social welfare, Sultan Mohamed Mugheiry, told a news conference in Stone Town, the Zanzibar capital.

Samite is a Ugandan singer and instrumentalist who uses his music to reach former child soldiers in the country and encourage them to be tested for HIV. National Public Radio reports that Samite is using his music to reach child soldiers and refugees - many of whom are HIV-positive - by gaining their trust and encouraging them to talk with him.

Kenya is just one of many developing countries worried about the growing loss of healthcare workers, who mainly migrate to industrialised nations, according to a Kenyan doctor, in an interview with the IPS. Most of Africa faces the same problem, which has led to an estimated shortage of around 820,000 doctors, nurses and other health workers throughout the continent.

Modern equipment has been installed in major laboratories countrywide to help detect possible cases of the deadly avian flu in Kenya. "Equipment in Nyeri, Kabete, Mariakani, Eldoret and Kericho laboratories have been improved to help in diagnosing the virus," said Nyanza deputy veterinary officer David Wekesa. He advised the public to be alert and report any suspected cases of avian flu to the nearest veterinary offices.

Incarcerated since 1 March 2006 for publishing an article on the Internet , lawyer and human rights defender Mohamed Abbou has been on hunger strike since 11 March. He is protesting his prison conditions that have worsened since 2 March, when a gathering in front of Kef prison, where he is detained, took place that was blocked by the police and the National Guard.

The Regional Network for Equity in Health in East and Southern Africa (Equinet), through the Health Economics Unit, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa invites applicants for medium scale research grants (of up to £9000 each) for experienced individuals working in the field of health care financing in East and Southern Africa. Interested participants are encouraged to submit proposals for the development of country level case studies and to undertake research on a particular area of resource mobilisation or mechanisms for strengthening cross-subsidies in the overall health system. This area of work contributes specifically to the ‘fair financing’ work which is one of Equinet's priority work areas.

The battle against HIV/AIDS in Zanzibar will not succeed as long as trade in alcohol and commercial sex work continue to thrive on the island, according to Muslim leaders. "Zanzibar would have been free of HIV/AIDS if Muslims stuck to their religious teachings but, mainly, if the government was serious about controlling the spread of pubs, especially in residential areas," said Sheikh Azzan Khalid, deputy leader of the Zanzibar Islamic Propagation Group. "The state television has been a key player in moral decay by showing programmes which promote sex."

The reduction in the price of a key Aids drug, Stocrin, is expected to put pressure on other global multinationals to reduce their medicine prices. UNAids says further reductions are essential to achieving universal access to the life-saving drugs by 2010. The price cut, which was announced recently on the fifth anniversary of the pharmaceutical company Merck Sharp & Dohme's worldwide HIV/Aids pricing policy, will see the price of Stocrin fall by 20 per cent.

Amid the din of swinging cranes and the rattle of heavy trucks, Francis Ruwa weaves through the gang of casual workers who are busy offloading cargo from a ship on the quayside at the port of Mombasa. In his hand, he is carrying a bundle of pamphlets which he distributes to his colleagues as he moves on, occasionally making stopovers to exchange greetings and pass on a word of advice. Unless one pays attention, Ruwa could easily be mistaken for a salesman distributing promotional materials but he is on a campaign trail against HIV/Aids which has already claimed hundreds of employees at the prestigious state corporation.

A vaccination campaign against meningitis is expected in western Sudan following the confirmation of an outbreak in Hamadyia camp for internally displaced persons in Zalinger, West Darfur, according to the United Nations World Health Organization. Some 28 cases of meningitis and one death had been reported through an early-warning system by 10 March, WHO said in a statement. The disease had also been reported in other regions of Sudan.

The ministry of health in Ethiopia says samples from dead chickens have tested negative for the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu, but a nationwide scare about the disease has had an incalculable cost on its economy. Ethiopia sent blood samples from 14 chickens to be tested in Italy after 7,000 died of an unidentified disease in a state-owned farm in southern region. The remaining chickens were incinerated and the government banned movements of poultry products including chickens along a 60-km (38-mile) area surrounding Gubre poultry farm.

An emergency fund to help fight hunger in the Horn of Africa will be set up if Heads of State adopt the proposal during a Summit recently held in Nairobi. The Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) council of ministers proposed that the fund be set up as one way of finding a lasting solution to the disaster. The proposal is to be presented to the leaders who include President Kibaki, Sudan's Omar El Bashir and Uganda's Yoweri Museveni, at the 11th IGAD summit of the assembly of heads of state and government.

Seventy-four antiretroviral therapy treatment centers have been established across Nigeria to help provide antiretroviral drugs to HIV-positive people, Health Minister Eyitayo Lambo said last Thursday in a statement, AFP/Yahoo! News reports. Nigeria in December 2005 announced it would begin a program that aims to provide antiretroviral drugs at no cost to about 250,000 HIV-positive residents.

Almost one in five of child deaths worldwide are caused by pneumonia. A vaccine tested in the Gambia in a study led by the UK Medical Research Council has proven to be effective against pneumonia, thus reducing hospital admissions and increasing survival rates. The researchers recommend the wider introduction of the vaccine across Africa.

Uganda's HIV prevalence has decreased from 6.5% to 6.4%, according to a national AIDS indicator survey, Uganda's New Vision reports. The survey - which was presented on Monday by Wilford Lordson Kirungi, medical epidemiologist for the country's AIDS Control Program - was conducted between 2004 and 2005 and involved 10,437 households chosen at random. The survey finds that HIV prevalence fell in the country, and awareness of modes of transmission increased.

About $4 million is needed immediately for the setting up of national facilities for testing, training technicians and sample collection. The Ugandan Cabinet is set to meet to discuss how to raise the $14 million needed for the setting up of a national plan for preparedness and response to avian influenza (bird flu). Although no case of bird flu has been confirmed in the country, officials are leaving nothing to chance over the H5N1 virus, which has already affected poultry stocks in Nigeria, Egypt and Niger, and which is potentially fatal if passed on to humans.

A survey by the AIDS Control Programme, conducted between 2004 and 2005, and involving 10,437 households randomly selected from 417 clusters, reveals that radio is by far the most vital source of information about HIV/AIDS and that awareness of the modes of HIV transmission is high, with almost 90% of adults knowing that having only one uninfected faithful partner can reduce the chances of getting AIDS. Women topped the overall HIV prevalence in Uganda by sex, with 7.5% between 15-49 years infected compared to their male counterparts with 6.4%.