WORLD AIDS DAY: Helping Children to Help Themselves

Millions of children around the world received a lesson, Thursday, in how to deal with something that many will inevitably confront: the AIDS pandemic.

WORLD AIDS DAY: When Living With AIDS Means Living Without Privacy

No matter how great an effort is made to guarantee the privacy of people living with HIV, the AIDS virus, this right continues to be constantly violated in most countries around the world.

WORLD AIDS DAY: Children Teach an Important Lesson

The lesson on AIDS millions of children learnt at school on World AIDS Day Thursday could be the most important lesson of their lives; it could be a lesson also that they taught their elders who have forgotten the lessons taught by AIDS around the world.

WORLD AIDS DAY: How Many Millions More Will Die?

Millions of people living with HIV/AIDS in poor parts of the world could lose their lives in the next few years if governments fail to keep their promises to fight the deadly pandemic, warn U.N. officials and health advocacy groups.

WORLD AIDS DAY: Food on the Table Helps “Keep the Promise” in Kenya

With only a quarter of Kenyans who need anti-retroviral drugs (ARVs) receiving them from government, the race is on to ensure that many more people get treatment to fend off AIDS-related diseases.

HEALTH-BRAZIL: Well on the Way to Eliminating Maternal Transmission of HIV

Brazil is pushing ahead with its widely-praised anti-AIDS programme by setting itself the goal of reducing vertical transmission of HIV, the AIDS virus, to less than one percent within three years.

HEALTH-JAPAN: HIV Breeds on Complacent Attitudes Among Youth

Eri Iwase, 19, a pretty first year university student, says she is not worried about being infected with HIV virus that causes Acquired Immuno Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS), even though she is sexually active.

IVORY COAST: The Kindest Cut of All – Severing a Harmful Tradition

Thirty practitioners of female circumcision in the Ivorian financial capital, Abidjan, have publicly laid aside their blades, knives and scissors. This is the result of an ongoing campaign in the West African country to eradicate the practice, estimated by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) to affect 40 percent of women living there.

HEALTH: AIDS Rises with Carelessness in Western Europe

Cases of AIDS have risen recently in several Western European countries such as France, Germany and Britain on the back of a new laxity in sexual habits, new research shows.

HEALTH-INDIA: HIV/AIDS Is About Wanting to Live, Say Locals

The calendar on the dimly lit wall inside Sushila Patil's two-room home in Hanumantpur village screams out what may be going on inside her head every minute.

CAMBODIA: ‘Beer Brands Ignoring Risks to Women Promoters’

The panel discussions and debates at a regional conference here on sexual health, on the weekend, were a world away from Channa and Sophea’s daily environment-the din of music, clients’ chatter and unwanted advances at the restaurant in Cambodia where they work as beer promoters.

HEALTH-INDIA: Subsidised, but HIV Therapy Only for Rich

India may be a major exporter of anti-retroviral(ARV)drugs but barely 30,000 people are actually on medication in this country which itself has a burden of five million HIV positive cases.

EDUCATION-SOUTH AFRICA: Orphans Face a Double Loss – Parents and Schooling

Ndiphiwe Nyathi's* mother died while her daughter was at school; now the teenage girl is missing classes to nurse her ailing father. When she does attend lessons, "she seems angry," says Valencia Gqaleni, one of her teachers at Manyano High School. "She fought with the other learners one day."

HEALTH-LATAM: Haiti the Sole Exception in Grim AIDS Outlook

In Haiti, the poorest country in the hemisphere, HIV prevalence fell in urban areas due to changes in sexual behaviour. But in the region as a whole, the number of people living with HIV, the AIDS virus, rose in 2005.

HEALTH: Little Countries Show the Way

The Caribbean countries lead the few that have unexpectedly reversed the spread of AIDS, says a UN report released Monday.

ASIA: Divisions Harm Reproductive Health, Anti-AIDS Efforts

What’s the difference between condoms meant to block transmission of HIV/AIDS and those aimed at preventing unwanted pregnancies? None, of course - although you'd never guess as much when looking at the work of AIDS campaigners and those who promote family planning.

ECONOMY-SOUTH AFRICA: Microcredit Viable In the Age of AIDS?

The development of microcredit initiatives has proved a boon for thousands of the world’s poor. But, even the most ardent supporters of these schemes acknowledge that disease may undermine the effectiveness of microcredit, by threatening the ability of people to repay their loans.

/ARTS WEEKLY/FILM-AFRICA: Nile Perch Thrives, as Humans Languish

In the blur of statistics that supposedly gauge the economic impact of global trade, one often forgets the people who are living with the daily realities by such transactions. "Darwin's Nightmare" will not let you do that.

DEVELOPMENT: The Gender Factor to Be Raised

Gender experts will gather here this week for an international conference to examine how changing development policies are affecting efforts to promote gender equality and women's rights.

HEALTH-DRC: An Epidemic Waiting to Happen

A vast forested valley stretches out below the office of Jose Mpindi, an ornithologist at the University of Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

HEALTH: The Thief of Childhood

Kerrel McKay from Jamaica was nine years old when her father was diagnosed with HIV. She became his primary caretaker until his death five years later.