HEALTH: Men – Final Frontier for Education on Sex and Family Planning?

It's not as if men are conspicuous by their absence at 'Countdown 2015: Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights for All'; quite a few have braved the meeting, even though it must be disheartening to hear the shortcomings of their gender so thoroughly dissected.

POLITICS-ZIMBABWE: Media Monopoly Said to Underpin Mugabe’s Popularity

An opinion poll published this week indicates that trust in Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has more than doubled since 1999. Researchers says certain Zimbabweans have benefited from ruling party patronage, but that Mugabe’s higher approval rating can mostly be ascribed to state propaganda.

POPULATION: No Slowdown in Developing World

A newly released survey projects massive population growth in the developing world over the next 45 years, due to its disproportionately young populace and higher birth rates.

RIGHTS-AFRICA: Helping the Continent to Grow Old Gracefully

"If only I can stop sewing for a month, my cough will come down...I spend the money from my sewing for buying food and making sandwiches for my grandchildren to take to school," says an old South African woman captured on video while working at an archaic sewing machine.

RIGHTS-ZIMBABWE: Time’s Up for the "Kerb Crawlers"

A recent crackdown on men who frequent prostitutes in Zimbabwe has left human rights activists there a little confused.

HEALTH-CAMEROON: An Illegal Circulation of Blood

The term "blood money" has come to have new meaning in Cameroon, where certain patients and their families complain that a brisk trade in trafficked blood has led to shortages in hospitals.

PAKISTAN: Sex Workers Come Together to Fight HIV/AIDS

Placing her cell phone on the table, Zulekha runs her fingers through her long, streaked hair and smiles uncertainly. Next to her, Mariam, stifles a yawn and apologises. ''I had a late night,'' she adds, reading the text message on her phone.

HEALTH-SOUTH AFRICA: Like Apartheid ‘We Must Defeat TB’

''To get their freedom, South Africans fought apartheid without backing off. So let's use the same method to defeat TB,'' says a short video clip prepared for the country's anti-TB campaign.

/REPEATING/HEALTH-NAMIBIA: Regional Efforts Needed To Defeat AIDS

Namibia's health officials are grappling with the magnitude of the HIV/AIDS pandemic in the Caprivi Strip, which borders three of the world's worst affected countries - Zambia, Zimbabwe and Botswana.

HEALTH: The New Face of AIDS in Uganda

They meet every week at a small, government-funded health clinic in Kawempe, the poorest and most crowded suburb of the Ugandan capital. They vary in age, but nearly all are married or widowed. Most contracted HIV from a husband or long-term partner.

HIV/AIDS-SENEGAL: Adults Shy Away From Condom

Senegal is a role model in the fight against HIV/AIDS. Along with Uganda and Thailand, the UN Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) says the West African country has succeeded in reducing the spread of the virus.

HEALTH-SOUTH AFRICA: Cost Limiting the Use of Female Condom

It’s bigger and uglier than its male counterpart. Sometimes it even makes a noise. But many South African women who have used it, say they prefer it. Ten years after it was first introduced to South Africa, the female condom, or femidom, is gaining popularity in the country, but cost is limiting its use.

HEALTH-ZIMBABWE: Decent Burial Beyond The Reach Of Majority

Bodies are piling up in Harare’s mortuaries, because relatives of the dead refuse to claim them. Most of these relatives cannot afford the cost of a funeral. While the city council has been giving paupers’ burials to the unclaimed bodies, it is now running out of burial space.

HIV/AIDS-SOUTHERN AFRICA: The War On The Pandemic Reaps Positive Results

Southern Africa is responding to its AIDS pandemic with new programmes that promoters say must be as adaptable as the HIV virus itself.

HIV/AIDS-NIGERIA: School Urged to Re-admit Student Living with Virus

The debate around a journalism school in Lagos, which has withdrawn the admission letter of a new student, after learning that he is living with HIV, doesn’t seem to go away.

HIV/AIDS: Zimbabwe’s ‘Exclusion’ from Global Fund Questioned

The decision to ‘’exclude’’ Zimbabwe from benefiting from the Global Fund to fight AIDS, TB and Malaria has raised a number of ethical questions. Campaigners are asking whether need and desire to prolong people’s lives should prevail over politics and controversies surrounding the legitimacy of President Robert Mugabe’s government.

HEALTH-MAURITIUS: An Army of Volunteers Fights AIDS, Drugs

The tiny Indian Ocean island of Mauritius has assembled an army of volunteers to fight AIDS and drugs that are threatening the country.

HIV/AIDS-SOUTHERN AFRICA: In Death’s Face There’s a Ray of Hope

Strong leadership, access to life- prolonging drugs and reducing infections will be the main challenges facing southern Africa in the next decade, AIDS campaigners say.

HEALTH: Britain Takes Lead in Fight Against AIDS

Britain has become a "pre-eminent global AIDS funder" with the announcement of a 2.8 billion dollar grant, UNAIDS chief Peter Piot said Tuesday.

RIGHTS-SWAZILAND: Churches Overcome Embarrassment to Tackle AIDS

Churches in Swaziland appear to be stepping up efforts to fight the AIDS pandemic – and to help their congregations deal with sexual abuse. This comes in the wake of revelations that this tiny Southern African country now has the world’s highest HIV prevalence.

HIV/AIDS: Once Marginalised Issues Now in the Forefront

While the lack of major medical breakthroughs might have been the hallmark of the just concluded 15th International AIDS Conference, a radical shift that has occurred on another front, however, is hard to ignore.