HEALTH-PAKISTAN: Risk of HIV/AIDS Follows Some Migrants Home

''I call him my failure,'' Dr Ashraf Memon said of Mohammad Wali, ''because even after seven years we have not been able to persuade him to bring his family for testing.''

HEALTH-SOUTHERN AFRICA: AIDS Worsens Food Shortage

Food shortages, facing Southern Africa, will worsen if actions are not taken urgently to stop the spread of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, aid agencies warn.

HEALTH-NIGERIA: Children Excluded from Life-Prolonging AIDS Drugs

Adults living with HIV/AIDS are receiving subsidised anti-retroviral drugs, while children in similar situation are not benefiting from the medicine which the government launched last year, rights activists complain.

HEALTH-BRAZIL: Gov’t Distributes Condoms in Schools

Brazil's ministries of health and education have begun to distribute condoms in schools as part of a stepped-up campaign to prevent unwanted pregnancies and the spread of HIV/AIDS among teenagers.

HEALTH-MEXICO: Street Children at High Risk of AIDS

''When you're on drugs, you're just out of it, and nothing matters. That's how I got sick,'' says Raúl, a young HIV-carrier who spent four years living on the streets of Mexico City.

RIGHTS: Child Slave Rings Rife in Southern Africa

Trade in children, literally slave trading in infants to teenagers, has been a problem that African law enforcement officials thought was mostly confined to the western part of the continent.

HEALTH-AFRICA: AIDS Drugs Slowly Reaching the Needy

It may seem an impossible task to eradicate AIDS amongst children globally but the staff from the U.S.-based Elizabeth Glaser Paediatric AIDS Foundation appears to be committed to this vision.

HEALTH-SOUTH AFRICA: AIDS Activists Wary of Broken Promises

Wary of broken promises, anti-HIV and AIDS activists are keeping a guarded eye on the South African government, despite its most concrete commitment to develop a comprehensive treatment plan for people living with the disease by the end of September.

HEALTH-NIGERIA: A Setback for Polio

A claim by an Islamic group that polio vaccines, being administered on children, contain anti-fertility agents poses serious setback for government's efforts to eradiate the disease by the end of the year, according to health officials.

HEALTH-BALKANS: When AIDS Catches Them Young

Stanko is a lively boy from Belgrade, due to start his fifth grade of elementary school on Sep. 1.

HEALTH-SOUTHERN AFRICA: Sex Workers Join Efforts to Contain Spread of AIDS

Commercial sex workers are not responsible for the rise in AIDS cases regionally, but their activities do contribute, and efforts to contain the spread of HIV now include members of the world's oldest profession.

HEALTH-BALKANS: When AIDS Catches Them Young

Stanko is a lively boy from Belgrade, due to start his fifth grade of elementary school on Sep. 1.

HEALTH-SOUTH AFRICA: AIDS Group Forms Company to Provide Cheap Drugs

AIDS activists have launched a new company to sell cheap anti-retroviral drugs to people living with HIV/AIDS in South Africa.

HEALTH-SOUTH AFRICA: Gov’t Reluctant to Approve Anti-AIDS Drugs

The South African government's efforts to tackle the AIDS epidemic are persistently overshadowed by its apparent determination to delay introducing a treatment programme for people living with the disease.

CULTURE-MALAWI: Hunger Promotes Underage Marriage

Vyalema Mwakasungura (not real name) has always harboured one ambition: to become a nurse.

HEALTH-US: HIV/AIDS Messages Losing Punch, Experts Warn

After years of modest but encouraging victories against AIDS, the disease is again rising in the U.S. population and experts say there are no easy answers to the problem.

/ARTS WEEKLY-MUSIC/UGANDA: Message of Abstinence Getting Through

"Whenever I appear on the stage and confess that I have never had sex in my life, my goodness, people laugh and fall on their knees. Even someone, who initially appeared composed, just bursts out laughing," says 26-year-old Ugandan musician, Richard Kaweesa, who is urging youth to abstain from sex before marriage.

HEALTH-ZAMBIA: Campaigners Call for Heavy Sentence for Rapists

Enraged by the rising cases of child abuse, a member of parliament has called for mandatory castration in all defilement and rape cases in Zambia.

CULTURE-TANZANIA: Breaking the Culture of Silence

Antonia Kilegu, 30, looks like a healthy young woman. But when she told a press conference in the Tanzanian commercial city of Dar Es Salaam that she was living positively with the human immunodeficiency virus that causes AIDS many people, including her own relatives, were horrified.

HEALTH-MALAWI: Quest for Cheap AIDS Treatment Fuels Fake Drugs Boom

Many Malawians living with HIV/AIDS are forced to rely on illegal drugs in a bid to treat opportunistic illnesses, ease suffering and prolong their lives.

HEALTH: U.S. Anti-AIDS Funding Dwindles; Bush Blamed

Two efforts by Democratic lawmakers to boost next year's U.S. contribution to the global fight against AIDS were narrowly defeated in a key Congressional committee Wednesday, spurring charges that Pres. George W. Bush, who just returned from a five-day trip to Africa last weekend, had betrayed the expectations he created while there.