HEALTH-SOUTH AFRICA: Returning Sick – HIV, Illness, Death and Migration

It's a Wednesday afternoon at the Joe Gqabi bus terminus in Philippi, Cape Town, and ticket touts scramble to recruit passengers wanting to travel to the rural Eastern Cape, a 1,000 kilometre, 16-hour haul away.

HEALTH-SOUTH AFRICA: Bringing HIV Testing Where It's Needed

In the ten months since the Tutu Tester's mobile clinic began touring Cape Town neighbourhoods offering quick, confidential tests for a number of chronic diseases including HIV/AIDS, more than 7,000 people have climbed into its colourful camper-van for testing and counselling.

HEALTH-SOUTH AFRICA: 'Our Lives Are Most Important'

The Fourth South African AIDS conference ended in Durban Friday with optimism over progress in research and policy on AIDS prevention but serious concerns over finding the resources to effectively implement the country's national strategic plan of action.

SOUTH AFRICA: Nurses Should Be Backbone of ARV Treatment

Effectively scaling up South Africans’ access to antiretroviral (ARV) treatment will require decentralisation of health services from hospitals to clinics and allowing nurses to manage and eventually to initiate ARV treatment and care.

POPULATION: Global Financial Crisis Threatens Family Planning

The spreading global financial crisis is threatening to undermine another one of the U.N.'s major development and health goals: family planning.

HEALTH: Using ARVs to Prevent as well as to Treat HIV

Researchers are now investigating if antiretroviral (ARV) drugs can play a role in not just treating HIV, but in preventing infection. Mitchell Warren, executive director of the AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition (AVAC), called it "a pivotal moment in HIV/AIDS research".

HEALTH-LESOTHO: Migration Calls for Cross-Border Health Policies

The mountain kingdom of Lesotho faces a number of unique hurdles with regard to HIV and AIDS.

SOUTH AFRICA: Activists Lament Lack of HIV/TB Co-Treatment

Despite repeated calls for integrated HIV and tuberculosis (TB) health services from medical experts and AIDS activists, most of South Africa’s public health facilities continue to treat the diseases independently. Co-infection presents a major risk to the lives of people living with HIV.

HEALTH: HIV/TB Convergence Sparks Calls for New Strategy

On World Tuberculosis Day Tuesday, the World Health Organisation (WHO) released a report showing that new surveillance techniques and more complete country reports reveal the incidence of tuberculosis (TB) co-infection with HIV to be almost double what was previously thought.

Q&A: Meltdown a Challenge for HIV/AIDS Programmes

The global financial crisis has created a space for a vigorous debate on the life-prolonging drugs needed for people living with HIV, says Michel Sidibe, the new head of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS).

AFRICA: Pope on Condoms – Out in the Cold

Political leaders, activists, scientists and even Catholic bishops all joined in the chorus of criticism against the stance taken by Pope Benedict with respect to the use of condoms to curb the impact of HIV/AIDS in Africa.

SOUTHERN AFRICA: Politicians Fail to Address HIV

Parliamentarians across the Southern African Development Community (SADC) have failed to put HIV on the political agenda.

Q&A: Why Not Wages for "Women’s Work"?

Caring for children, ailing relatives and neighbours, cooking and cleaning - all of it feels like "work," but without the regular paycheque.

MIDEAST: Women Migrant Workers With HIV Get Raw Deal

Thousands of Asian women flock to the affluent sheikhdoms of the Middle East annually, seeking jobs as domestic workers. For many this quest for a livelihood comes to a humiliating end when they test positive for HIV.

CARIBBEAN: Culture of Sexual Coercion Exposes Women to HIV

The fight against widespread sexual violence in the Caribbean has been joined by a high-profile new women’s coalition that warns it could be a major reason for the spread of HIV among women and girls in the region.

HEALTH-BOTSWANA: HIV Prevalence Remains High

Despite significant financial investments in both prevention and treatment, Botswana has been experiencing only a modest decline in HIV prevalence, especially among women.

HEALTH-BRAZIL: Older Women at Higher Risk from AIDS

The HIV infection rate in women over 50 in Brazil has more than tripled since 1996, making this population group the prime target of the government's HIV/AIDS prevention campaign during the carnival festivities.

HEALTH: U.S. Urged to Pay Fair Share of Global Fund

The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis (TB) and Malaria is facing a critical funding gap of five billion dollars - an amount that could save nearly two million lives in the coming year, leading public health advocates said at a teleconference Thursday.

RIGHTS-ZAMBIA: Vulnerable Children Must Fend For Themselves

There will be as many as one and a half million orphaned children in Zambia by 2010. Deprived of adult guardians by the AIDS pandemic, many of these children will end up living in the streets of the country's major towns and cities.

AIDS-AFRICA: Some Signs of Progress

The latest UNAIDS Report estimated that 33 million people around the globe are living with HIV; 22 million in Sub-Saharan Africa alone. Around 2.7 million new HIV infections occurred worldwide in 2007. However, encouraging new data suggests there have been significant gains in preventing new infections in several African countries with high prevalence rates.

SWAZILAND: Patients Fail to Adhere to TB Treatment

Every five minutes she gives a hacking cough. Ndlaleni Ndzinisa (70) says she has continuously suffered from tuberculosis for the past five years. Because she cannot afford to pay for transport to the nearest hospital, she has repeatedly failed to adhere to her tuberculosis (TB) treatment.