Highly active antiretroviral therapy can reduce the incidence of tuberculosis in HIV-positive people by 80% or more in areas where the two diseases are endemic, with the most protection being afforded to those with advanced immune suppression, according to a study published in the June 15 issue of the Lancet.

The recent development of a treatment for leishmaniasis, also known as black fever, a disease that each year afflicts some 500,000 people globally and kills at least 60,000, offers a ray of hope for thousands of Sudanese who die each year from the disease for lack of treatment.

Yield (Youth Information Education Learning & Development) has launched a new 10-day HIV/AIDS peer education programme for interested organizations. Yield specializes in providing the highest standards of training and development, internationally in sexual health, relationship and gender based programmes to meet the needs of overseas organizations. The new programme aims to develop networks of peer educators and enable as many young people as possible, with their enthusiasm, creativity, energy and newly acquired knowledge to contribute to the reduction of HIV/AIDS problems in their settings.

The Rwandan government is to spend US $14.64 million pledged in April by the United Nations Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, on antiretroviral drugs, the Rwanda News Agency (RNA) reported on Tuesday.

Australia will provide AUS $10 million (US $5.5 million) for projects to improve food security in Southern Africa, the government's aid arm, AUSAID, said in a statement.

Will serve as Regional Advisor for developing, planning and coordination of the regional emergency preparedness and emergency relief programme.

With women contributing 55 per cent of HIV positive adults, gender inequality has become a key variable in the incidence of HIV and AIDS.

The Agreement on Agriculture (AoA) is a product of the Uruguay Round of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) negotiations (1986-94). The AoA provides the rules governing international agricultural trade and, by extension, production. It bans the use of border measures other than tariffs, and it puts tariffs on a schedule of phased reduction. Under the AoA, domestic support programs are categorized as either acceptable or unacceptable, with the latter also scheduled for reduction, and export subsidies, while effectively legalized by the agreement, have also been disciplined and slated for reduction. The content of the AoA reflects the shared agenda of the U.S. negotiating team and the non-European Union (EU) grain exporting countries (known as the Cairns Group) to push for as much liberalization of agriculture as possible.

The South African government has relented, and some say completely reversed itself, with an unexpected April announcement that it would make anti-retroviral drugs available for rape survivors. The government's U-turn on drugs has been widely applauded inside and outside of South Africa. But the Director-General of Health, Dr. Ayanda Ntsaluba, says the government isn't so much changing course as moving to where the evidence takes it.

The recent warning that six million Zimbabweans face hunger could be the final straw for the country, already reeling from high inflation, daily food shortages and political instability. A regional food assessment puts almost half of Zimbabwe's population at risk of having no food mainly because of a drought and the country's land reform programme.

The controversy over genetically engineered crops is disrupting U.S. efforts to provide food aid to starving people. The government of Zimbabwe and citizens groups in Bolivia, Guatemala and Nicaragua are resisting U.S. supplied foods that contain transgenic corn, or maize.

About 2.3 million Zambians are in need of food aid, a Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) and World Food Programme (WFP) joint assessment has found.

An Ethiopian health official has disclosed that about 250,000 Ethiopian children are living with the HIV/AIDS due to mother-to-child transmission (MTCT) of the virus.

A campaign to vaccinate some 3.9 million Burundian children against measles and polio has been launched, with UN agencies appealing to parties at war in the country to observe "days of tranquillity" to ensure health workers can conduct their work in safety, UNICEF announced.

Governments in developing countries should ensure access to reproductive health supplies and strengthen policies to facilitate access to such supplies, a statement from the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) said on Thursday.

Nearly half of the estimated 32 million adults living with HIV worldwide are women of childbearing age. Mother-to-child transmission (MTCT) during pregnancy, delivery and breastfeeding is the primary source of HIV infection among young children. 1600 new infections occur each day, mostly in developing countries. What is the best way to reduce MTCT in regions such as sub-Saharan Africa, where breastfeeding is central to infant health?

The news that young people in the Western Cape are not practising safe sex, sending infection rates spiralling in their age group, is a challenge a group of young men in Gugulethu are preparing to face head-on. The group believes their best hope of contributing to an end to the HIV pandemic is for men to stand together as examples of how "real men" behave in a healthy community.

Of 1,851 women interviewed in three Nigerian hospitals, 45% were circumcised. Circumcised women had significantly higher risks of tearing and stillbirths when all pregnancies were analyzed.

UNICEF and Uganda are expanding a project under which pregnant women with HIV receive drugs preventing mother-to-child transmission of the virus, New Vision reports. The project is to become part of routine prenatal care across Uganda, with all women attending prenatal clinics receiving counseling, testing and, if they are found to have HIV, free drug doses.

Reduction of provider downtime (time absent from the clinic, time spent unoccupied, or time not otherwise used productively) at family planning clinics in the developing world could increase capacity to provide services with a minimal rise in costs. Poorly paid providers, however, may require financial incentives to increase their workload.