DEATH PENALTY: Uganda Drafts Bill to Execute HIV Infectors

In 1999, an HIV-infected 30-year-old man named Fred Mwanga shocked the country when he raped a three-month-old baby in a Kampala suburb.

HEALTH-SOUTHERN AFRICA: “Extreme” TB Bug Prompts Calls for Rapid Action

For the region in the world worst-affected by AIDS it is, to say the least, an unwelcome development: an outbreak of tuberculosis (TB) in South Africa's south-eastern KwaZulu-Natal province, caused by a strain of the disease that resists almost all forms of treatment.

THAILAND: Pharma Majors Promise Cheap HIV/AIDS Drugs

Suddenly, people living with HIV/AIDS in Thailand are finding hope for a longer life-institutions that stood in the way are now supportive of cheaper, anti-retroviral (ARV) drugs.

HEALTH-KENYA: ‘Break the Silence on Abortion’

Local communities have been urged to act as agents of change and break the silence on illegal abortions fuelling Kenya's maternal mortality.

DEVELOPMENT-AFRICA: Obama to the Rescue?

"Obama must come now; we need help," 75-year-old William Onyango told IPS about four months ago*, at his store in a remote, western village of Kenya. While the senator from the U.S. state of Illinois may not have arrived as quickly as Onyango was hoping, he is in Kenya now as part of an official tour that also encompasses South Africa, Djibouti and Chad.

RIGHTS: A Ghastly Disease Feeds Off a Ghastlier Oppression

Gender inequality has become the main driver of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, especially in Africa, where 70 percent of those infected are women.

HEALTH: Muslims and AIDS

When it comes to responding to HIV and AIDS, Muslims are neither better nor worse than anyone else, but in its progressive form, Islam is certainly better prepared to respond than the Vatican, says Farid Esack.

DEVELOPMENT-SOUTHERN AFRICA: More Women, Please

The annual summit of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) wrapped up Friday with a call to speed up the process of increasing women's representation at all levels of government in the 14-nation body.

HEALTH: Mother’s Milk Saves Lives

Although experts say that breastfeeding gives children the best start in life, protecting them from life-threatening diseases and providing essential nutrients, barely a third of all infants in developing countries are exclusively breastfed for the first six months.

HEALTH: Gov’ts Harshly Berated at Close of AIDS Meet

Action - not promises or pledges or more meetings - is what will bring the HIV/AIDS pandemic under control and save tens of millions of lives, concluded delegates at the wrap-up of the 16th annual International AIDS Conference in Toronto Friday.

CARIBBEAN: HIV/AIDS Goes Primetime

With persistently high HIV/AIDS rates second only to sub-Saharan Africa, the Caribbean is stepping up outreach efforts with a new media collaboration that will use everything from documentaries to soap operas to haul the disease out of the shadows and into public consciousness.

HEALTH: As AIDS Drugs Fail, Few Have Any Alternative

While modest gains have been made in lowering the cost of many life-saving HIV/AIDS drugs, these formulas no longer work for a growing number of people, who now need so-called "second-line" drugs that are still priced far out of reach.

POLITICS: “We Want to Show All Is Not Well in Zimbabwe” – SADC Protestors

As the annual summit of the Southern African Development Community got underway Thursday, Zimbabwean activist Bishop Shumba was on hand in Lesotho's capital - Maseru - to remind regional leaders about the political and economic difficulties in his country.

HEALTH: Campaigns Urge HIV Tests, But What Then?

The promise of new vaccines and more effective prevention programmes will fail to halt the spread of HIV/AIDS unless fear and social stigma can also be eliminated - including among those living with the disease, experts say.

HEALTH: Progress on HIV Drugs Threatened by New Trade Pacts

In the midst of the world's biggest HIV/AIDS conference here, close to a hundred activists launched a noisy protest over bilateral free trade agreements, which they say elevate patent protections above the right to life-extending antiretroviral drugs.

DEVELOPMENT-SOUTHERN AFRICA: Two Days, And Lots of Problems

A call has been made for the Southern African Development Community (SADC) to involve civil society in its decision-making process - in deed, as well as in word. This comes ahead of the annual SADC summit for heads of state and government that gets underway Thursday in Lesotho's capital, Maseru.

HEALTH-BURMA: Regime Resists HIV/AIDS Programmes

While a major international conference on HIV/AIDS opened Sunday in Canada with a message to help those affected by the disease, on this side of the globe, in Burma, the ruling military regime moved to arrest sufferers and campaigners.

RIGHTS-KENYA: Available for Serving Drinks – Not for Sex

When next in Nairobi, spare a thought for the women who will in all likelihood serve you, if you visit a bar or two in search of a drink.

HEALTH-ASIA: Gays’ High Risk for HIV Gains Recognition

When the Thai government accepted men who have sex with men (MSM) as a vulnerable community in the country's fight against AIDS, earlier this year, it gave them hope of being covered under HIV prevention programmes.

HEALTH: Cautious Optimism on Eve of Global AIDS Meet

The world's largest gathering of HIV/AIDS experts and activists will meet in Toronto starting on Sunday with renewed hopes of halting the spread of this devastating disease, which an estimated 40 million people are currently living with.

HEALTH-SOUTH AFRICA: When Putting AIDS in the Crosshairs, Set Targets

Civil society organisations in South Africa are preparing to push government to meet its commitment for setting national targets on HIV/AIDS, made at the recent United Nations General Assembly Special Sessions on HIV/AIDS (UNGASS).