The national health department has signed off new HIV treatment guidelines, bringing South Africa in line with international best practice and removing a drug responsible for a wide range of side effects. The new guidelines were finally signed off last week after a meeting last November with the provinces, donors, HIV clinicians and other HIV experts.

The health department is redesigning the new ARV tender in the hope of procuring cheaper antiretroviral medicine amid claims that South Africa is paying around 30% more than the global rate for the drugs.

Egypt will invite bids in March for 50,000 acres of land in North Sinai for agro-business projects, the agriculture minister said yesterday. Egypt said this month it planned to lease farmland for agro-business projects during 2010 but was waiting for the agriculture ministry to allocate suitable plots.

Younger teachers in South Africa are taking the lead in talking to students about HIV but are not practicing what they preach, according to new research.

The cause of a measles outbreak sweeping South Africa has not as yet been determined, but initial suspicions point to religious objections and unfounded fears that immunizations against the disease increase the risk of autism in children.

The lack of routine eye care was the likely cause of the unrecognised but significant and preventable vision loss and eye disease among 11% of HIV-infected adults attending an HIV treatment site in Kampala, Uganda, report Juliet Otiti-Sengeri and colleagues in the Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes.

Treating herpes does not reduce the risk of transmitting HIV, a New England Journal of Medicine study has found. The anti-herpes medication is dispensed from all South African Primary Healthcare clinics in the public sector and has been added to the sexually transmitted infection treatment guidelines.

Although South Africa has almost a million HIV positive people on treatment, actuaries tell us that over 300,000 citizens are still being infected with the virus every year. This prompted health economist Professor Alan Whiteside to remark recently that “HIV treatment without prevention is like mopping the floor while the tap is running”.

Officials from the United Nations health agency and the Beninese Government are urging the West African nation’s citizens to be extra vigilant in observing good hygiene amid a recent cholera outbreak that has already claimed several lives. Since the outbreak began in early January, 131 cases have been confirmed of which two resulted in death, according to Léon Kohossi with the UN World Health Organization (WHO) in Benin.

The Winter 2009 issue of Food First News reports that last November the World Summit on Food Security in Rome issued a declaration that the world is now hungrier than ever before. Significantly, this is not the result of food shortage, with world production at 11/2 times that needed to feed every man, woman, and child on the planet.

Jabulile Dlamini* is sweet sixteen and has never been kissed. And she is not expecting to be kissed any time soon or to even receive any gifts this Valentine’s Day.

Venue - Alliance Francaise, 17 Lower Park Drive/Kerry Road, Zoo Lake, Parkview
Time - 2-5pm
Date - 20 March 2010
Guest Artist - Thobile Magagula for Swaziland
The WINNER will TRAVEL to the House of Hunger Poetry Slam, Zimbabwe!
For more info call Linda: 073 081 5194

This guide on positive prevention1 was developed to assist people living with HIV, service providers and policy makers to understand, promote and implement appropriate rights-based strategies for addressing the prevention needs of people living with HIV. The guide includes sections which focus on action points and provides useful information on key issues to consider when developing prevention programmes for people living with HIV.

On February 3, 2010, the Brazilian Congress approved the Constitutional Amendment Project (PEC in Portuguese) 047/2003, to incorporate the Right to Food as a fundamental right in the national constitution. The Right to Food will be included in article 6 of Brazil’s supreme law that already contemplates other social rights such as the right to work, health, education, and social security.

The deadline for submitting your nomination for the 2010 Red Ribbon Award is February 28, 2010. The award honours and celebrates outstanding community leadership and action that has helped curtail the spread and impact of HIV and AIDS. Twenty-five community-based organisations will be selected through a community-led process and invited to attend the XVIII International AIDS Conference (AIDS 2010) to be held in Vienna, Austria, July 18 – 23, 2010 where they will have an opportunity to showcase their work.

Agriculture as it was practiced in India over centuries relied and depended on nature’s forces, writes Suraj Kumar. But with the advent of colonialism and a surge in the country’s population, the adoption of new methods of farming have lead to widespread soil degradation across the country. As multinational companies offer genetically modified seeds as the solution to hunger, Kumar calls on his fellow countrymen to use locally produced food and native seeds and help preserve Indian wisdom.

The fight against fake medicines requires a united public-private front to overcome people's resistance to health warnings and to dismantle increasingly sophisticated trafficking networks, medical professionals said at a meeting in the Togolese capital Lomé.

Women of Uganda Network with support from the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation ACP – EU (CTA), holds a bi-annual event called the Lango Forum on e-agriculture. This event is held twice a year in Apac District, Northern Uganda. This year the third Lango forum on e–agriculture will be held on the 18th February 2010.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates that around one-third of cancer deaths are preventable, through education programmes, better detection and treatment. As a result, the disease hits hardest in developing countries, where such programmes are rudimentary, if they exist at all.

HIV-positive Justine Kirumira* is a mother torn between doing what is right for her daughters and her own fear of HIV/AIDS. She suspects that her eight and 12-year-old daughters may also have the virus. But she may never know the truth of their status because she refuses have them tested.