Feston Konzani, 27, who is originally from Malawi , was a member of an African band and living in Middlesbrough, when the alleged incidents took place. He faces a total of five charges of inflicting grievous bodily harm with intent on women, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, between February 2000 and May 2003
Islamic leaders say they have outlawed condoms in Somalia , where the vast majority of the population is Muslim. The umbrella Somali Ulema Council has said it will use Sharia (Islamic) Law, including flogging, to punish those selling or using condoms. The council is responding to a United Nations-funded campaign to rai
A South African woman has been beaten to death after she revealed she was HIV positive to five men who raped her. Lorna Mlosana, 21, was punched and kicked after she told her assailants they might contract the virus, said a friend who saw the attack. The men fled the scene - a bar in Khayelitsha township near Cape Town
The report says that in 14 African countries, child mortality is higher than it was in 1990, despite improvements elsewhere in the world. WHO Director General Jung-Wook Lee is warning of a growing gulf in the standard of health care. Next year, he said, was an acid test of world moral commitment to Africa. The 2003
Speaking at a celebration to mark Kenya s 40 years of independence, Mr Kibaki described Aids as the greatest threat to his country. He said the government was making drugs available to Aids victims and providing care for Aids orphans. Let us bring to an end new infections by protecting ourselves and our families from t
The sex disease syphilis adapted from a severe, debilitating illness to a milder form in order to survive, research suggests. Dr Robert Knell, of Queen Mary s College, London, argues the disease was too virulent for its own good. Sufferers became so repellent that they were unlikely to have sex. To ensure that they did
Aids activists say GlaxoSmithKline is to allow the manufacture of cheap generic drug versions in South Africa . Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) says GSK will grant licenses to four generic companies to produce and import AZT andlamivudine - antiretroviral drugs.
The idea was simple enough. Use the creative brains of one of the world s top advertising agencies to combat HIV in three countries where the virus is on the very cusp of running out of control. Create a 30 second radio spot that will have maximum impact. India , China and
Lavisan detox camp on the western outskirts of Tehran is an unusual place. From the road, it is hard to distinguish the huge military-style tents that are scattered amongst the trees. Once inside the cordoned off area you can see seated areas with sofas and rugs, in this temporary home for men desperate to come off dru
A haemophiliac who has been infected with the Aids virus, has lost a High Court battle against a health trust s refusal to fund treatment with synthetic products. Peter Longstaff, 45, who says he has very little if any trust in assurances that proposed treatments with human blood products will be safe, had his case rej
Fears about the rising HIV infection rates in Asia prompted one Birmingham health worker to make a mini Bollywood film. And now Karamjeet Ballagan s film is set to tour the villages of Bangladesh , India and Pakistan to help educate the population there. Ek Pal, Hindi for One Moment (of regre
A Teesside man accused of deliberately passing on the HIV virus has been charged with further counts of causing grievous bodily harm with intent. Feston Konzani - an African musician originally from Malawi - was charged initially on three counts of causing grievous bodily harm with intent last month. After he appea
On the roof of their home in the Nepalese capital, 29-year-old Surendra Shaha and his mother are sitting with a Hindu priest, known as a pandit. Incense sticks smoulder and pots of coloured powders and oil lie in careful array. The priest mutters verses from Hindu scripture, smears red paste on Surendra s forehead then
South Asian religious leaders are meeting in Nepal to discuss how to tackle the rise of Aids in the region. More than 100 leaders from five major faiths are at the conference, which was organised by the United Nations agency for children, Unicef. A Unicef official said religious leaders were uniquely placed to rais
Cindi John, BBC News Online's Community Affairs Reporter
The young woman proudly shows off her sleeping baby to her visitor but this is not just a social call. For Elena is HIV positive, one of a large number of Africans living with HIV in Luton. Her boyfriend, from whom she probably contracted the virus, has abandoned her, and she now lives in a cramped bed-sit with her mon
It s now more than three years since I met Pepile, but I still think of her often. She died of Aids soon after I met her. I ll be thinking of her even more than usual over the coming weeks as the BBC launches a two-week season of programmes and online coverage devoted to the HIV epidemic. Pepile was seven years old, an
Tamil works as a peer educator in Trichi, India . She describes how she lost her husband and child to the disease and how she came to terms with her own infection. My name is Tamil and I am HIV positive. I knew very well what my husband s character was like. I frequently advised him not to have sexual contact with so m
Seven global companies with operations in developing countries have pledged to step up their HIV/Aids prevention and treatment programmes in communities where they operate. The multinational companies will invest millions of dollars in infrastructure and healthcare training programmes to help support the public sector.
Brazil is not a country for beginners, the late Bossa Nova songwriter Tom Jobim once said. When it comes to explaining the success of the Brazilian Aids programme, the country s contrasts and unique aspects seem to stand out even more. Fale is a village outside the modernist 1960s capital, Brasilia, with a fluctuatin
Natasha from Russia has found her calling in life since being diagnosed with HIV. I m 19 years old, although there are times when I feel like I m at least 30. A year ago I found out that I was HIV-positive. To say that I was shocked would be a big understatement. At that time I was still a child. Now I feel as though I
Take an evening stroll down the Malecon, Havana s crumbling seafront promenade, and you will eventually come across a large crowd. Get a little closer, and you will see that it is made up of young Cubans. All men. The spot, just in front of the grand Hotel Nacional, has become the main meeting point for Havana s homose
Feuding politicians from Bangladesh s ruling and opposition parties set aside their differences on Tuesday to receive Aids patients in parliament. The patients had lunch with the MPs and discussed ways of improving Aids prevention and care programmes. The lunch was extraordinary for having united politicians who have n
Six-year-old Vita lives in a specialised orphanage for toddlers with HIV in Ukraine s industrial eastern capital, Donetsk. She should have moved two years ago to an orphanage for older children, but none would have her. If you are a child with HIV in Ukraine your options are limited, or to be more accurate, you have no
Uganda is one of the few nations to have turned a burgeoning Aids crisis into a relative success story. When Florence Mohoro was diagnosed with HIV in the early 1990s, HIV prevalence in Uganda was well above 10% and reported as up to 30% in some urban areas. Doctors gave her two years to live. Eleven years later, liv
Robert James has been living with the HIV virus for 19 years. He is among over 1,200 British haemophiliacs given HIV-infected blood products in the 1980s - some of the early and unexpected victims of the global Aids epidemic. Fewer than 400 of them are still alive. Robert, 37, was 18 months old when he was diagnosed wi
A man with HIV has been jailed for 10 years for raping an Aids counsellor. Linkoy Muhuri, 34, of Ranelagh Road, Tottenham, north London, had claimed the woman encouraged him to have sex with her. She endured months of uncertainty before test results showed she had not been infected with the virus. Judge Richard Hawkins
Lavisan detox camp on the western outskirts of Tehran is an unusual place. From the road, it is hard to distinguish the huge military-style tents that are scattered amongst the trees. Once inside the cordoned off area you can see seated areas with sofas and rugs, in this temporary home for men desperate to come off dru
Juan, a Cuban emigre who has lived in the US for 20 years, describes the isolation he has experienced since finding out he had HIV. I contracted Aids because I had sex with prostitutes. I used to pay them to have sex in hotels and that s how I got infected. Nine years ago I had tuberculosis and my weight dropped to 90
Philip, who lives in the UK, faces eviction from his accommodation after Christmas, but he still thinks there is room to look on the bright side. There is a wonderful scene in an old Bette Davis film called Dark Victory - she s been having health problems and her doctor/lover has rather carelessly left her chart out wh
Huang is a taxi driver who lives in a village in Henan, China , and who contracted HIV through blood donation in the 1990s. He says life in the village can be tough, and exacerbates the impact of the virus. I donated blood several times in 1992 and 1993. And then I went to work in southern China for a few years. During
Pakistani Shukria Gul, a 33-year-old, HIV positive mother, explains why she was motivated to try to combat ignorance about the disease through a centre she set up in Lahore. My husband had spent three years working in South Africa . After a car accident, he was given contaminated blood. In 1995, he became ill and w
Global health chiefs are to spell out plans to ensure three million people with HIV get the drugs they need by the end of 2005. The campaign, being launched as part of World Aids Day on Monday, will target those in the world s poorest countries. An estimated 40 million people are now infected with HIV around the world.
Tony Blair says fighting HIV/Aids is not just a moral duty but is in the UK s national interests . His comments came on World Aids Day 2003, as the UK issued a call for action to tackle the HIV/Aids epidemic that has infected 40m people worldwide. Minister Hilary Benn announced funding to UNAids would double to £6m for
Physiotherapist Nicki Pearson works at an Aids care centre in Uganda . She describes the difficult task of helping choose 10 out of more than 1,000 children to receive life-extending anti-HIV drugs. I have been working at Jajja s Home at the Mildmay Centre just outside Kampala, which provides care for more than 1,000 c
The number of cases of HIV infection in Devon and Cornwall has doubled in 10 years. According to the Health Protection Agency, the number of cases has risen from 67 in 1993 to 125 in 2003. The news comes at the start of World Aids Week, along with figures which say that the biggest rise in cases is amongst heterosexual
Events are being held across the North West to mark World Aids Day. A candlelit vigil will take place on Monday evening at the Beacon of Hope - the UK s memorial for people who have died from Aids - in Manchester. And a vigil will also be held at Liverpool s Anglican Cathedral. Earlier this year, the Health Promotion A
The relentless spread of Aids is making a mockery of one of Africa s key development goals: to overcome poverty by stimulating new business. Indeed, there is growing fear that Aids will result in quite the opposite, with some companies scaling back their operations or deserting the worst-hit areas altogether. In southe
The American Health Secretary, Tommy Thompson, has warned that the world is losing the fight against Aids. Speaking in Zambia on World Aids Day, Mr Thompson called on the international community to intensify its efforts to combat the disease. To mark the day, the United Nations unveiled ambitious plans to supply three
The Indian Government is to provide low-priced drugs for treating HIV/Aids, it has been announced in Delhi. Health Minister Sushma Swaraj said more than $40m would be allocated from next April to provide drugs in government-run hospitals. More than 4.5 million people have been diagnosed as HIV positive in India - only
Beyonce Knowles and Bono were among global stars who performed at Nelson Mandela s South Africa gig to boost the fight against Aids. The five-hour charity show, at the Greenpoint Stadium in Cape Town was broadcast on the web. The duo sang American Prayer, accompanied on the guitar by U2 s The Edge and Eurythmics Dave
The president of Botswana has acknowledged that the stigma attached to HIV/Aids is hampering efforts to fight the disease. President Festus Mogae made the remarks in a BBC interview. He said because of the stigma, people are not willing to talk about sexual matters and the HIV/Aids pandemic . But the president said
The Red Cross has launched a programme to help its own staff and volunteers with Aids or the virus that causes it. The Masambo Fund - honouring a Zambian Red Cross volunteer who died of Aids in 2001 - marks the first time the body has raised money for its own staff. The organisation said it had at least 200,000 workers
An Indian family attempted to bury a relative who was suffering from Aids just hours before he died. Jaffer Dhari Sadiq, a 32-year old van driver, had slipped into a coma while undergoing treatment at a hospital in Madurai city in Tamilnadu state. As neighbours of the rented house where he lived objected to his return
Egypt could be making its own anti-HIV drugs within a year to fight the country s small but potentially explosive HIV and Aids problem. In an exclusive interview with the BBC, Health Minister Dr Mohammad Awad Tag El-Din said the country is negotiating with international pharmaceutical companies to produce cheap antir
Briony Hale, BBC News Online business reporter in Gaborone
In Botswana - where more than one in three adults is HIV positive or already has Aids - no company is immune from the ravages of Aids. A generation of workers is dying. Some companies are tackling the disease head on and providing healthcare and education. Some are still doing next to nothing, trying to pretend the pro
Zambian members of parliament have called for child rapists to be castrated to curb a growing problem. Police say that 400 cases of child rape were reported in the first half of 2003 - a 68% increase on the previous year. Some men say they rape children in the belief that having sex with a virgin can cure Aids. Some 20
Some 800 of Africa s leading church men and women have been tested for HIV at a meeting in Cameroon . They lined up to take the tests at the eighth assembly of the All Africa Conference of Churches to encourage others to know their HIV status. The AACC secretary general told the BBC that anyone who tested positive woul
In its annual report on HIV and Aids, the United Nations agency, UNAids, once again highlights sub-Saharan Africa as by far the worst affected region. Of the estimated 40m people worldwide living with HIV, about two-thirds are in sub-Saharan Africa, with young women particularly at risk. Although the UN says it detects
In the 20 years since the Aids pandemic began, it has claimed the lives of 20 million people. Many agencies working in the developing world believe that increasing the use of condoms globally would dramatically cut the death toll. Yet the Catholic Church, a powerful presence in many of the worst-affected countries, con
Global HIV rates at record high A record number of people were infected with HIV around the world this year, a report says. Figures from UNAids and the World Health Organization put the number of new infections at five million. The report also estimates that three million people died from the disease this year. But
As the music world gears up for the weekend s Nelson Mandela Aids benefit concert, BBC News Online looks at the showbiz world s long-standing commitment to the fight against the disease. Saturday will see Beyonce, Queen and U2 s Bono star in what is being hailed as the highest profile event of its kind ever staged.
India s health minister has said that there will never be an Aids epidemic in the country. I will prove all experts wrong. We are taking on the disease from all fronts. We are tackling it very bravely, Minister Sushma Swaraj told the BBC. India s Health Ministry estimates that 4.58 million people - or roughly 0.8% of t
The number of HIV positive people in Jersey has trebled over the past two years. Health organisation ACET says the number of cases has gone up from three to nine. Now ACET is hoping to remind people of the need to practice safe sex as part of World Aids Day. In Jersey, the number of people infected with HIV as well as
One of the fastest growing Aids problems in China is hidden from view in the far north-western province of Xinjiang. Xinjiang sits at the crossroads of ancient trade routes like the old silk road which bore caravans of silk and spices to central Asia. Now juggernauts shuttle across from
Leaders from Christian churches in Africa are meeting in Cameroon focusing on the fight against HIV and Aids. The eighth assembly of the All Africa Conference of Churches is being attended by 800 leaders from more than 150 churches. It is six years since the last meeting and this is likely to be a colourful affair.
The number of people infected with HIV in the UK is increasing rapidly, says a report. The Health Protection Agency says that, as at September 2002, there were 49,500 people in the UK living with HIV. This was up nearly 20% in a year - and a third of these people do not know their HIV status. Minsiters have responded b
1988 was a catastrophic year for Avinoff Frumer. He was 19. He had been in the Israeli army for nine months when he found out he was HIV-positive. Confused and terrified, he sought help from the army psychologist. After three days I was expelled without any psychological or financial help, he remembers. I was feeling l
In the early 1980s scientists isolated HIV and established it as the cause of Aids. The discovery paved the way for an international effort to defeat the disease. It was said that an effective vaccine would be developed in five years. Yet 20 years on the results of the first large-scale trial of a candidate vaccine wer
More than six million people living with HIV in the developing world need the potent drugs which can significantly extend their lives, but only 300,000 receive them. Ninety-five percent of the 42 million people worldwide who are infected with the virus which causes Aids live in poor countries. As more of these people r
Chris Bain had a unique opportunity this week - the chance to meet US President George W Bush. As protests over the president s visit took place in Trafalgar Square, the director of aid agency Cafod was in Downing Street talking to Mr Bush and Tony Blair about the battle against Aids. Here he reveals his impressions of
Eighteen months ago Botswana became the first African country to offer antiretroviral drugs to everyone for free. A huge amount of cash has been dedicated to the cause, but money cannot buy the workers so desperately needed. It s 5am in Gaborone and people are already queuing outside the gates of the Princess Marina Ho
One of South Africa s top judges has called for a continent-wide effort to battle HIV discrimination in the workplace. Ignorance about many aspects of HIV is causing many Africans to lose their livelihoods because company managers believe they are a health risk, South African High Court justice Edwin Cameron told the B
Leaders announce Aids task force A joint task force on HIV/Aids has been agreed by Tony Blair and US President George Bush. The announcement came as they met ministers from Ethiopia , Kenya , Nigeria , Zambia and Uganda in Downing
South Africa s best-known Aids activist Zackie Achmat tells the BBC of his reaction after years of campaigning to the government s historic decision to distribute free Aids drugs to all HIV-positive South Africans. I danced the whole morning. I am a black man without rhythm so it was very difficult for me. It really is
Fighting Aids in Haiti has meant confronting traditional beliefs in magic and tackling a culture in which many children start having sex around the age of 12. The Caribbean nation is one of the countries hit hardest by Aids outside of sub-Saharan Africa. In the early 1980s Haitians were held responsible for the spread
Many of us may have wondered how our working life would be affected if we discovered that, for whatever reason, we contracted the HIV virus. When I worked for an international development agency operating in South Africa , I saw just how important a role an organised workplace can play in creating awareness and support
The powerful drugs needed to treat Aids patients may make them more vulnerable to a heart attack, research suggests. A study of 23,000 patients by researchers in Copenhagen found the heart attack risk rose by 26% per year for people taking the drugs. However, it is unclear whether HIV itself, or the drugs heighten risk
As part of a BBC series on Aids, people living with HIV from around the world tell their own stories in their own words. Bogdan (not his real name), a 14-year-old Romanian, lives in the St Mary Centre for HIV-positive children who have been abandoned. He describes how he became infected, the prejudice he experiences an
Misha stuffs a small rucksack with clean syringes and leaflets in a smoke-filled basement office. He is an outreach worker with the non-government project Return to Life - a group that is spreading the word about HIV and Aids among drug users in Russia . The HIV virus is still young here. The epidemic really took hold
The new military in the Democratic Republic of Congo faces a huge battle against Aids. There is no accurate estimates of the prevalence of HIV/Aids in the eastern South Kivu region - but during almost a decade of conflict, health workers say it has risen sharply. The armed groups which have ruthlessly battled for contr
A number of traditional sexual practices may be significantly assisting the spread of Aids cases across Africa, experts say. Many women in particular are risking contracting the virus, as some practices involve artificial drying of the vagina. The reasons behind the practices are varied - some are to do with tribal bel
Pakistan has launched a big programme to tackle Aids after denying that the country has a problem. Recorded cases of Aids and HIV infection are small compared to Pakistan s neighbour, India . Until recently many government and religious leaders argued that was because of the moral and ethical values enshrined in the
A group of 29 Kenyan women - all of them HIV positive - have formed a club to fight the culture of wife inheritance, which they blame for the spread of Aids in the area. The Obwanda Distress Relief Club was formed by the women - all of them widows - in the small sleepy village of Obwanda in the western Kenyan district
A breakdown in the school environment in Africa has led to growing number of cases of HIV amongst young girls being caused by teachers, academics believe. Two thirds of those affected by HIV and Aids in sub-Saharan Africa are women between 15 and 25 years old. And one of the crucial reasons for this rise is the number
The purpose of an army is to defend a nation s borders. But just how feasible is this when HIV infection rates among military personnel in Africa are reported, in the worst cases, to be as high as 80%? In Kenya , a senior member of the army told reporters that at least six to 10 soldiers were dying each week as a resul
The United Nations food relief agency is switching the focus of its humanitarian relief effort in Southern Africa away from emergency aid. The World Food Programme says it will concentrate on distributing nutritional supplements to HIV/Aids sufferers. Millions of agricultural workers in Africa are dying from Aids, in c
A group of widows in western Kenya have formed a club to fight against wife inheritance, blaming the age-old tradition for spreading the HIV virus. According to the custom - widely practised by the Luo community - a widow remarries a brother-in-law or a suitor chosen by village elders. Most members of the Obwanda D
Tens of thousands of people have died in the last two years as drought has hit southern Africa - far more than a harsher drought a decade ago wiped out. These people were victims of food shortages. They were also, directly or indirectly, victims of HIV and Aids. The drought killed so many people, particularly in
A couple are preparing to take an early Christmas to a group of children orphaned by Aids in Africa. Geoff and Geraldine Booker, from Hailsham, East Sussex, formed the Quicken Trust to help the orphans after their daughter went to work in Uganda . They began the project after seeing for themselves the poor housing and
Three-year-old Vinod Kumar runs up to visiting Uncle Nagaraj who tickles his chin. Vinod wriggles in delight as the room echoes in laughter. It could be a typical Indian household scene. But it isn t. Vinod, his mother, Rama, and his eight-year-old sister, Jayashree, are all HIV-positive. The visiting uncle is, in fac
Amir Reza, an Iranian who contracted Aids through transfusions for a blood disorder, describes the contrasting reactions he receives when he reveals he has the virus. I was born with Thalassemia Major, a condition which leads to anaemia, in 1971. I went for an HIV test at a special medical centre for Thalassemic patien
American Secretary of State Colin Powell has said the US is making a greater contribution to fighting HIV/Aids than any other country. Mr Powell told the BBC that the Bush administration was not backtracking on its commitment to spend $15bn on Aids over the next five years. He said Aids was a national security issue, b
Fadl Mehrez, a 48-year-old Tunisian who has had the virus for 18 years, describes how important the transition from Aids victim to Aids activist has been to him. I used to be a student in France . I got married and I had a daughter. After a few years we got divorced amiably and without problems. A few years later I con
Niza, 32, lives in Mexico City with her parents and her beloved 10-year-old son. One of the best things I ever did was to become a mother - my son is the beautiful result of unprotected sex. But it wasn t just having a baby. With his birth came responsibility - his upkeep, his education, taking care of him and bringing
Australian Lincoln Andrews describes how he has re-gained his sense of self since first being diagnosed with HIV as a 23-year-old in the late 1980s. I was diagnosed with HIV in 1988 a little after my partner, then 30, was diagnosed. He was the first for me in regards to penetrative sex. I had met the right person, who
Not everyone cheerfully greeted this year s first day of school in the small town of Kutina in central Croatia . Some 40 parents staged a protest rally outside Stjepan Kefelja Elementary School this September after they pulled their children out of the otherwise cheerful 2b class. The talk of the town had become an
Twenty years after Aids began its sweep across the continents, citizens around the world still do not believe their governments are doing enough to fight the disease. The BBC commissioned a survey in 15 countries, testing people s views on Aids and HIV. Only in Bangladesh was the government given a convincing vote of
A report by UK-based organisation Panos says in the African countries worst affected by the Aids pandemic, girls are five to six times more likely to be HIV positive than boys of the same age. Indeed, some two-thirds of new HIV infections are among women between 15 and 25 years. As part of Africa Live s Week on Aids we
At a clinic in North West Washington, Ed Harris is getting a check up. A nurse takes his pulse, his temperature, and checks his weight and breathing. Mr Harris comes here for treatment five time a week. Today he will swallow 24 pills. He will also need leg braces to walk from room to room. Mr Harris is one of the growi
As part of a BBC series on Aids, people living with HIV from around the world tell their own stories in their own words. Mally, 52, lives near the town of Nelspruit in South Africa . He describes his full life with his Swazi foster child Fanikie, a Border collie cross called Jack and a foul-mouthed parrot called Goenk.
It seems almost grotesque to worry about the economic consequences of a disease which is fatal. Yet one of the biggest social and human consequences of the disease is precisely through its effect the economies of the countries affected by it. In the rich nations of the west, it is clear that economic issues are a conce
Sexual partners of patients with HIV should be routinely offered drugs which could prevent them becoming infected, say researchers. The drugs might stop the virus getting established, even if a non-infected person is exposed. However, there are some fears it might discourage the use of condoms - or cause long-term side
Former US President Bill Clinton has urged China to do more to combat Aids at a conference in Beijing. He said the Sars crisis, which hit Asia hardest, had shown that countries must work together to fight disease. We cannot escape each other s fate, he said at the meeting, which launches a fresh campaign against the d
Green tea could form the basis of a new generation of HIV drugs, say experts. Scientists in Japan have found a component of green tea can stop HIV from binding to healthy immune cells, which is how the virus spreads. Their laboratory tests suggest a chemical called Epigallocatechin Gallate (EGCG) protects cells.
If there is a cause there will probably be a lapel ribbon for it. Pink for breast cancer. Red, white, and blue to support America. Green for Irish Republicans. Blue for online freedom of speech. But it all started with the ribbon for Aids awareness. Patrick O Connell has a red ribbon on every single item of clothing. H
Women infected with malaria are more likely to pass HIV on to their unborn child, according to experts. The finding is based on a study of 746 HIV positive women in Uganda . It found HIV was transmitted to babies in 40% of cases where the mother also had malaria. This compares to 15% for those without malaria. Wri
Brazil has pledged to build a plant in Mozambique to produce anti-retroviral drugs for HIV/Aids sufferers. President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva gave his support to the project on a visit to the southern African state. We intend to produce anti-retroviral drugs here... in the shortest possible time, said the leader w
Organisations from Brazil are helping Angola tackle its potential Aids crisis. Brazilian journalists are running a media campaign on the state channel Naao Coragem (Brave Nation), including regular radio programmes, TV spots and in-depth reports on different aspects of the virus. Angola, like several other southe
A despicable man who deliberately infected two women with the HIV virus has been sentenced to eight years in prison. Mohammed Dica was convicted at Inner London Crown Court on 14 October of two counts of biological grievous bodily harm. Dica, from Mitcham, south-west London, had told police both women knew of his cond
Testing a spot of dried blood on a piece of paper could help monitor HIV patients in developing countries. The test, developed by researchers from University College London, could replace existing expensive methods. Using the filter paper test would make it easier for doctors to monitor patients on anti-retro viral the
The Brazilian Government has launched a national campaign to encourage more people to take HIV tests. The initiative which uses the slogan, Get informed, is aimed at those who are carrying the virus without realising it. It is estimated that 600,000 Brazilians are HIV-positive, but two-thirds of them are carrying the v
Three years ago Yusuf K Hamied, head of Indian drugs company Cipla , stunned a European Commission medical meeting in Brussels by offering to sell anti-Aids drugs at a fraction of the going rate. He announced that he could sell a three-drug anti-retroviral combination for around $800 per patient per year. Big bran
Four UK health workers have died after being injured with needles used on patients infected with HIV, according to official figures. Another nine are living with HIV after suffering similar needle-stick injuries while working in the NHS. There are hundreds of reported incidents each year in which NHS staff are exposed
Four companies that produce generic Aids drugs have agreed to reduce the cost of the drugs for millions of people in developing countries under a deal brokered by former US President Bill Clinton. The companies in India and South Africa say they will provide the medication to several nations in Africa and the Caribbea
With 40 million people around the world infected with HIV/Aids, the potential market for a vaccine or cure is enormous. The financial rewards for the drug company that makes the breakthrough could be huge, too. So far, the human and economic costs of Aids have been starkest in Africa, where average life expectancy is p
Antiretroviral drugs are the only effective way to treat HIV, a virus which has killed millions around the world, and infected millions more. However, they have been denied to millions of people, particularly in developing countries. What are they? Antiretroviral drugs are specifically designed to block the action of
The ministry of health in Saudi Arabia has announced that the kingdom has registered more than 6,700 cases of Aids. Of these, it says just 1,509 are Saudi nationals. The first Aids case was reported in Saudi Arabia in 1984. The UN says that by the year 2000, the cumulative total was 436.
Hundreds of people have been diagnosed with a strain of HIV that is resistant to all of the commonly prescribed drugs, a report reveals. Figures from the Health Protection Agency also suggest the number of people whose treatment is failing in this way may be increasing. In 2001, 154 people were told they were resistant
Burma s HIV/Aids problem is particularly acute among long distance truck and bus drivers. Rosemarie North of the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent societies describes a campaign underway to prevent the spread of disease. The life of a long distance truck or bus driver can be a lonely one.
Beyonce, Queen and Bono from U2 are to headline a huge concert in Cape Town, South Africa , to raise awareness of Africa s Aids plight. They will be joined by artists such as Anastacia, Ms Dynamite and a host of African acts for the show, which will take place on 29 November. A CD and DVD will be released early in
A new analysis of the Aids epidemic in South Africa suggests that fewer people are becoming infected with HIV than in previous years. The research also predicts that the total number of HIV-positive people in South Africa will remain constant for the foreseeable future. About 5m South Africans carry the Aids virus - m
Drugs giant GSK could face fines after South Africa s competition watchdog ruled that the firm failed to make life-saving Aids treatments available to the poor. The Competition Commission recommended that the firm pay a penalty equivalent to 10% of its annual Aids drugs sales in South Africa. It also recommended that G
The vast majority of HIV patients taking the latest combination treatments survive at least a decade, say researchers. Trials across several European countries found death rates from Aids have fallen by 80% since 1997, when the regime was introduced. Older people infected with HIV no longer have a reduced life expectan
One of the women deliberately infected with HIV by Mohammed Dica has said her sentence has just begun . Dica was found guilty on Tuesday of two counts of biological grievous bodily harm. The woman, who can only be identified as Deborah, first met Dica at a south London nightclub. I was just in the wrong place at the wr
A man diagnosed with HIV has been found guilty of callously infecting two women with the virus in a landmark legal case. The jury at Inner London Crown Court found 37-year-old Mohammed Dica guilty of two counts of biological grievous bodily harm on Tuesday. Father-of-three Dica, from Mitcham, south-west London, had tol
Just a few years ago Gus Cairns was preparing to die. He is HIV positive and after a particularly bad bout of illness doctors told him he had only three months to live. He planned his own funeral and wrote his obituary. To test the health of the immune system, doctors measure the number of specialist CD4 cells in a cub
The Catholic Church has been accused of telling people in countries with high rates of HIV that condoms do not protect against the deadly virus. The claims are made in a Panorama programme called Sex and the Holy City to be screened on BBC One on Sunday. It says cardinals, bishops, priests and nuns in four continents a
A young person is infected with HIV every 14 seconds, a report from the United Nations Population Fund reveals. Around 6,000 people between the ages of 15 and 24 catch the disease every day. Half of all new infections are now in people under the age of 25 and most of these are young women living in the developing world
The Aids virus disables one of the human body s defensive systems which would normally disrupt its attempts to attack healthy cells, say researchers. It is hoped the discovery, by scientists in the US and London, could lead to fresh ways of treating HIV. The scientists believe HIV releases a protein which counteracts t
Thousands of Zambian men and women have staged an angry protests at the rising trend of the rape of children. Almost every day local newspapers report on the cases of children who have been sexually abused, often by their own relatives and by men who mistakenly believe they will be cured of Aids if they sleep with a vi
India s health minister has publicly hugged two HIV positive children, in an attempt to dispel myths and remove some of the stigma attached to the condition. Minister Sushma Swaraj was photographed embracing HIV-infected sister and brother Bensy and Benson Chandy, in a village in the southern state of Kerala. She sa
Despite the fact that South Africa is home to more people living with HIV that any other country in the world its President Thabo Mbeki denies knowing anyone affected by the disease. On Friday Mr Mbeki s spokesperson Bheki Khumalo reportedly confirmed that the president had made the controversial remark in an interview
A man who was stabbed with a blood-filled syringe after disturbing a car thief says he faces an agonising wait to hear whether he has contracted HIV or hepatitis. John Johnson, from Crosby, Merseyside, said the thief laughed as he stabbed him with the syringe needle. The father-of-two, who was taken to hospital for tre
Drinks firm Diageo has promised to provide its HIV-positive workforce in Africa with free anti-retroviral drugs for life, The Guardian newspaper reported. The British-based group, whose brands include Guinness and Smirnoff vodka, has taken the decision for commercial and humanitarian reasons, says the newspaper. N
A vaginal ring that releases antibiotics could be used to prevent HIV infections, researchers claim. The ring s primary use would be to treat sexually transmitted diseases. But researchers from Queen s University Belfast said such diseases could increase the risk of people contracting HIV. They told the British Pharmac
A type of scan may be able to pick out areas where the Aids virus is active - allowing doctors to plan new treatments for the infection. The Positron Emission Tomography scan (PET) scan reveals areas where immune tissue is actively fighting HIV. The research, published in the Lancet, indicates that different tissues ar
The United Nations has launched an initiative to deal with the threat that HIV/Aids poses to African states, where 70% of the world s HIV positive people live. The Commission on HIV Aids and Governance in Africa has begun discussions in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa. Nearly 30 million people are living with HIV in
U2 frontman Bono has had a good old row with President George Bush about Aids funding during a White House meeting. The rock star urged the US president to allocate $3bn (1.9bn) to fight the current Aids crisis in Africa. But the Bush administration would not increase its previous $2bn (1.26bn) pledge, citing concern
David Bamford, BBC correspondent, Washington The World Bank has said that it is imperative that governments in Eastern Europe and Central Asia make a greater political commitment to avert a potentially catastrophic epidemic of HIV/Aids. The region of the former communist bloc has the fastest growing number of HIV/Aids
A report says people diagnosed with HIV/Aids often face high levels of poverty and hardship. Paul Fleming was diagnosed with HIV in August 2002. Within weeks he had lost his job and his home. He tells BBC News Online how he rebuilt his life. I d felt a bit poorly, but I thought it was just a summer cold. But it w
People with HIV and Aids face living in poverty as a result of their diagnosis, experts claim. The charities Crusaid and the Terrence Higgins Trust said the problems they face can range from losing their job or their home to debt and depression. They warn that increasing numbers of HIV positive people are forced to app
A simple and cheap drug regime could help prevent mothers giving their babies HIV during birth. It is known that women who take anti-HIV drugs during labour significantly reduce their chances of passing the virus on to their babies. However, research by US and Ugandan doctors has found that taking a certain drug just
Research suggesting that the current smallpox vaccine could protect against HIV does not prove the case for mass immunisation, say experts. The surprising small-scale findings prompted an 10% rise in the share price of vaccine maker Acambis when they were released to the Stock Exchange. However, other researchers are u
There is no good medical reason to bar people with HIV/Aids from taking out life insurance, research has found. A Lancet study finds people successfully treated for HIV have similar death rates to those successfully treated for cancer. Many insurance companies do not offer people with HIV/Aids life insurance because o
Jonathan Amos, BBC News Online science staff, in Salford
Some disaffected gay men in London are deliberately exposing themselves to the HIV virus in the belief that it will give them a badge of belonging, a researcher has claimed. The claim was made by researcher Dr Melissa Parker, a medical anthropologist at Brunel University. Parker is studying sexual networks and HIV tran
The lives of more than 1,200 haemophiliacs treated with HIV-infected blood in the 1980s are being remembered in a woodland memorial. The grove of 1,200 trees at Stratton Wood, near Swindon, Wiltshire, is a living monument to those with haemophilia who were infected with the HIV virus - fewer than 400 of whom are still
Genetically-engineered bacteria could be a cheap and effective method of protecting women from HIV infection. Researchers from Stanford University in the US found a bacterium which occurs naturally in the vagina. By subtly altering its genetic structure, they made it bind onto HIV and prevent the virus from infecting h
In a battle to overcome the stigma that accompanies infection with HIV, Botswana has staged a beauty pageant for women who have the disease. In glamorous evening dresses and traditional tribal costumes of animal skin, beaded necklaces and porcupine quill headdresses, 14 women competed in Miss HIV Stigma Free in the ca
The Brazilian government has warned three major drug companies that they must dramatically lower the price of anti-Aids drugs - or it will break their patents and allow cheap copies of the drugs to be imported. The government took its first official step towards allowing generic drugs to be imported by passing a decree
HIV may have been passed between two sisters who shared a razor to shave their legs, scientists said today. The report, in the journal Aids, is described as a sobering reminder that the disease can be spread in unusual ways. In this case, an 18-year-old girl from Australia caught the disease on the first occasion
The French doctor who first isolated the HIV virus has said a hospital Aids epidemic in Libya was probably caused by poor hygiene, and not by the seven medical workers who are on trial on charges of deliberately spreading the disease. A Bulgarian doctor and five nurses, as well as a Palestinian doctor, are accused of
A new deal to provide cheap anti-aids drugs to the world s poorest countries should not be seen as an act of charity but the responsibility of the developed world, according to Francisco Sumbane, the Health Minister of Mozambique . The deal was reached at the weekend, after United States
A South African health official has accused women of lying that they have been raped in order to get free Aids drugs. But Aids activists are sceptical about the comments by the Northern Cape provincial Health Minister Dipuo Peters. Anti-retroviral drugs are available to rape victims but have not yet been introduced for
Most strategic plans for the NHS make no mention efforts to improve sexual health - or tackle the rise of HIV. Analysis by sexual health charities found that only two in five health authorities made mention of the issue in their official plans for the future. The problem is particularly bad outside London, say pressure
Patients who take a break from their HIV drugs on the instructions of their doctors may risk the condition getting worse, say experts. Some studies have suggested that so-called treatment holidays could actually improve their health. However, researchers from the University of California say that it could be harmful fo
Police brutality towards prostitutes, homosexuals and drug users could trigger an HIV/Aids epidemic in Bangladesh , a new report warns. The US-based organisation Human Rights Watch says these groups, which are most at risk of contracting the HIV virus, are suffering attacks from powerful criminals. And it says he
HIV patients whose medication is no longer controlling the virus are at high risk of developing drug-resistant strains, a study suggests. . It found that the more assiduous these patients were at taking their medication, the faster the virus became drug-resistant. The research did not say taking medication as instructe
The number of heterosexual patients diagnosed with HIV has jumped sharply since the beginning of this year, official figures reveal. According to the Health Protection Agency, 1,094 heterosexual men and women tested HIV positive in the six months to June. This compares to 761 in the first six months of 2002 - an increa
Botswana s efforts to tackle the spread of HIV should serve as an example to the rest of the developing world, a leading expert has suggested. Dr Helen Gayle, head of HIV at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, hailed the African country s attempt to combat the disease. Botswana has one of the highest rates of infe
A medical watchdog has recommended the use of a new anti-HIV drug for patients in Scotland who have become resistant to their drugs. The Scottish Medicines Consortium undertook an assessment of the antiretroviral treatment Fuzeon and has licensed its use. It is the first time that an HIV product has been reviewed for c
Campaigners have welcomed South Africa s decision to introduce anti-retroviral drugs to treat people who are HIV positive, after years of public pressure. The Department of Health has been given until the end of September to develop a plan detailing when and how the drugs will be made available. Some 4.7 million South
One of South Africa s most famous comedians, Pieter Dirk Uys, has been touring the country s schools - on a mission to help pupils fight their fear of Aids with laughter. South Africa has more people with Aids than any other country - one in ten of the population is carrying the virus, and 600 men, women and children d
There is growing concern that the UK health system cannot cope with the demands placed upon it by foreign nationals seeking free treatment. Others believe the UK has a duty to show compassion, and that expelling sick people is flouting European law. The BBC s Today programme highlighted the case of one woman which brin
Aids campaigners say that South Africa s ruling African National Congress (ANC) will lose votes at next year s election unless it provides anti-retroviral drugs to help fight the spread of Aids. The issue has dominated the first national Aids conference, which ended on Wednesday in the east coast city of Durban.
The South African Government is to set up an institute of traditional medicine, as part of its fight against Aids. Speaking at an anti-smoking conference in Iceland , Health Minister Mantombazana Tshabalala-Msimang said traditional medicines did work and their approach would not just be based on anti-retrovirals.
South African criminals have stolen a computer from a United States Scientist holding years of research into an Aids vaccine, South African television reports. Professor James Mullins from the George Washington University was mugged by seven men outside his hotel in Durban, where he was due to release his findings at
South Africa faces a new phase of the Aids epidemic in which mortality will escalate, a conference has heard. South Africa is... entering a period that will be marked by rapidly rising death rates, researcher Quarraisha Abdool Karim told delegates in Durban. The warning came at South Africa s first national conferenc
BBC News - August 4, 2003 At the first national Aids conference in Durban, South Africa, the government is coming in for heavy criticism over its approach to Aids. P BBC News Online looks at the reasons for the row. P What is the scale of the problem? P Aids is the biggest health crisis ever to hit South Africa, affecting almost everyone in some way. P South Africa has the single biggest HIV-positive population in the world, estimated at somewhere between four and five million, roughly 10% of its population. P Researchers say Aids is the leading cause of death in the country, accounting for one in four deaths. P Activists say some 600 South Africans die from Aids-related diseases each day. P What is the government doing about it? P The goals of the government's Aids Action Plan are preventing HIV transmission, reducing the impact of HIV/Aids and enhancing the ability of communities to cope. P They have worked hard to ensure safe sex messages reach young people and making condoms widely available. P But campaigning groups accuse the South African Government of not doing enough to treat those with the virus. P In particular they argue that the government should be doing more to provide anti-Aids drugs, known as anti-retrovirals (ARV), which when used have drastically reduced the number of deaths. P In July an unpublished government study was leaked saying the lives of 1.7 million South Africans could be saved in the next seven years if the government made anti-Aids drugs universally available immediately. P So why hasn't the government made these drugs universally available? P The government says it prefers to emphasise prevention and the importance of nutrition and poverty reduction. P Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang told the BBC recently: "We have never said we don't need anti-retroviral drugs. It is a matter of cost." P The government has maintained this position for some time, despite financial help being offered to provide free and very cheap drugs. P Many campaigners feel that cost is not the only issue and that the government is deliberately dragging its feet by delaying the publication of reports and questioning the safety of ARVs. P They blame President Thabo Mbeki and his handling of the crisis. He controversially queried the link between HIV and Aids, and dubbed anti-retroviral drugs "dangerous". P The row is best illustrated by the long running difficulties over the introduction of the only anti-retroviral drug approved by the government - Nevirapine. P Research has shown it can cut mother-to-baby infection rates by nearly a half. P But it was only approved last year, after the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) pressure group won a court victory forcing the state to provide it to pregnant HIV-positive mothers. P Currently, only about 10% of HIV-positive pregnant women in South Africa have access to the medication. P But even this could now be under threat. P Recently the country's Medicines Control Council (MCC) threatened to ban the UN-recommended drug. P The MCC has given the drug's German manufacturer 90 days to prove the drug is safe, after it rejected a Ugandan study. P The TAC has now voted to resume its campaign of civil disobedience in its pursuit of ARVs for all. P The government has looked into the costs of providing them but is delaying any decisions. P Meanwhile, hundreds of people die every day because they are not being provided with the anti-retrovirals that could treat them. P
A row over the safety of a key anti-Aids drug is dominating South Africa s first national conference on HIV and Aids which began on Sunday. Last week, the country s Medicines Control Council (MCC) threatened to ban the only approved anti-retroviral drug, Nevirapine, even though research has shown it can cut mother-to-b
China s official media has reported what is believed to be the first approved marriage between two HIV positive people. Cao Xueliang, 37, and Wang Daiying, 34, both farmers from Gongmin in the south-western province of Sichuan, were married on Friday in front of more than 200 guests, according to the People s Daily.
A 10-year-old boy has had an HIV test after eating an iced lolly which contained a thick red substance. He has also had the first of three hepatitis injections and been told he needs blood tests in a year s time. The boy s mother believes the cola-flavoured lolly, from Sainsbury s supermarket, contained blood. On
HIV patients living without the benefit of modern drugs are far more vulnerable to several different types of cancer, say researchers. The research reinforces the connection between the virus and cancers. The research, carried out at Glasgow and Strathclyde Universities using the Scottish Cancer Registry, used records
The Indian Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, has called for a concerted national effort against HIV/Aids, as new figures show a sharp rise in the number of Indians infected with the virus. Addressing the biggest forum on HIV/Aids ever held in India, Mr Vajpayee said the epidemic demanded an effective and undelayed
In one of Delhi s charity-run Aids care centres, 20 HIV-infected men, women and children suffer in secrecy and in silence. They re the lucky ones. Most HIV victims in India are shunned by a society that would rather ignore the virus. But India cannot afford to do that anymore. Over four-and-a-half million people a
A UN-backed scheme in Swaziland is under way to teach children made orphans by the Aids pandemic in the region how to grow their own food. There is a massive food crisis in Swaziland, where it is estimated 35% of the population is infected with HIV/Aids. The virus has left many children without one or both parents, and
Two young children are waiting for the results of blood tests after they pricked themselves with used syringes in a Derbyshire village. The two separate incidents happened only yards away from each other in Belper. The children s parents say more needs to be done by Amber Valley Borough Council to tackle the problem of
The economic impact of HIV/Aids may be far worse than previously thought and some African countries may face complete collapse, a report has warned. The study*, jointly authored by economists from Heidelberg University and the World Bank, models the impact of the virus in various scenarios. In Sout
A unique centre in north Wales for people affected by HIV and AIDS is holding a rock concert to boost their coffers in their battle to prevent closure. Tyddyn Bach in Penmaenmawr, Conwy, has started a fundraising campaign to secure the future of the hospice which provides respite care to adults and children living with
A forum of Indian MPs from several political parties has announced that a national conference to plan strategies for the fight against Aids and HIV will be held this weekend. At least 500 elected representatives from different parts of the country are expected to attend the conference in the capital, Delhi. The India
The new director-general of the World Health Organisation says he will provide three million HIV and Aids patients in poor countries with key anti-retroviral drugs within two years. On his first day in office Dr Jong-wook Lee, a tuberculosis expert from South Korea, stressed that tackling the HIV pandemic must be the W
Nathan is gay, HIV positive, and an Orthodox Jew. When he revealed not only his sexuality but also his HIV status to his family and friends, they were appalled and moved quickly to ostracise him. At the beginning it was really hard, he said. Some people found out by accident and some people could not deal with it and
An investigation by an Indian women s rights group into the death of a woman with HIV-Aids has concluded she was stoned after being turned out of her family home. The National Commission for Women (NCW) said they had not been able to determine the exact cause of death, but there were suggestions that she was burned ali
Advice services on HIV and Aids are failing to get their point across to ethnic minorities in Brighton and Hove. A report released on Friday has claimed health organisations in the region have failed to realise the kind of people who now use the service is changing. Report author Ogo Chime said: The problem is they are
A man suffering from haemophilia has won the first stage of a legal battle to force a health authority to fund treatment he regards as safe. Peter Longstaff, 45, from Jesmond, in Newcastle, who has been infected with a range of conditions including HIV, wants doctors to use synthetic techniques that would cut the risk
The international Aids conference in Paris has ended without any major pledges of new money to the Global Fund to Fight Aids, TB and malaria. Activists described the closing day meeting of supporters of the Fund on Wednesday as a fiasco. Scientists, too, were disappointed by the lack of significant new research or fun
The global fund to fight Aids, TB and malaria is facing a shortfall of several hundred million dollars. US Health Secretary Tommy Thompson says the funding deficit could be as much as $800m. On Wednesday, the final day of the International Aids conference in Paris will discuss possible remedies. Mr Thompson will share
The HIV virus is becoming increasingly resistant to drug treatments, researchers have warned. A study of 1,600 patients across Europe found one in 10 patients who have never taken antiretroviral drugs for HIV already had a resistance to at least one of them. Researchers suggest this can only have happened through HIV-p
If President Bush meets his promise of $15bn and the EU follows his lead, this could be the year that real money is finally brought to bear in the battle against HIV/Aids. Twenty years after HIV was discovered by scientists, the rich countries seem to have come around at last to the idea of funding a global campaign, a
The authorities face an uphill struggle in some parts of India as they battle to control Aids by promoting condom usage. With India having the second highest number of HIV infections after South Africa, the government has launched several nationwide programmes to promote condom use. One of the hotspots for transmi
A global shortage of condoms is hampering efforts to stop the spread of Aids, according to experts. An estimated one billion condoms were provided free of charge to people in the developing world last year. However, experts attending a major Aids conference in Paris said the figure falls far short of what is needed.
The lives of 1.7 million South Africans could be saved in the next seven years if the government made anti-Aids drugs universally available immediately, an unpublished government study suggests. A South African newspaper, the Cape Times, says the report was completed five months ago, but has yet to be officially releas
Twenty years ago, Brazil and South Africa registered their first four Aids cases: in Sao Paulo and in Johannesburg. The eight victims were male homosexuals. But the evolution of the disease has been very different in the two countries. While in South Africa the government neglected the spread of HIV for many years - a
Nelson Mandela has called on European leaders to match a United States financial pledge on action against HIV/Aids. The veteran South African statesman told a conference on the disease in Paris that the number of people killed, especially in the developing world, represented a travesty of human rights. President George
Scientists have discovered how HIV manages to avoid being eradicated by the latest antiretroviral drugs. The finding could eventually contribute to more effective therapies. While modern drugs can wipe out most HIV viruses, a few manage to avoid destruction, and form a reservoir somewhere in the body. If antiretroviral
President George W. Bush has praised Ugandan attempts to tackle the Aids virus during his four-hour visit there. Speaking before departing for Nigeria , the fifth and final nation on his tour of the continent, he also underlined his government s commitment to the battle against Aids in Africa saying: When history call
United States Government funds for research on diseases such as Aids are being diverted into procuring anthrax vaccine. This year the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) will divert $145m to buying the experimental vaccine and testing it. Half will come from the NIAID s own bio-defence budge
United States President George W. Bush will come face-to face with Aids sufferers during his brief visit to Uganda on Friday. One of the leading pioneers of HIV-Aids education and prevention in Uganda, Noerine Kaleeba, says the Aids sufferers have no access to life-saving anti-retroviral drugs. And she hopes th
President George W Bush has pledged to help Africa tackle Aids during a six-hour visit to Botswana , the third stage of his five-day African tour. He has now left to return to South Africa , before moving on to Uganda on Friday. The people of this nation have the courage and resolve to defeat
Nelson Mandela, has urged the world to fight the terrible and threatening scourge of HIV and Aids, describing the disease as no less than a war, a world war that affects all of us ultimately . The former South African leader also said on Thursday that he had voiced his sharp differences with British Prime Minister Tony
The government s asylum policies may be contributing to the spread of HIV, according to MPs. The all-party parliamentary group on Aids singles out the practice of dispersing asylum seekers across the UK and detaining those whose applications have been refused for particular criticism. It says these policies mean many p
Medical researchers have found evidence that HIV and other blood-borne infections may be spreading more easily in Pakistan following the war in Afghanistan . A study of more than 200 intravenous drug users published in the Journal of Drug and Alcohol Dependence shows that needle sharing has increased three-fold since t
Randall Randy Tobias has critics on both sides of the Aids debate. But President George Bush insists his new Aids tsar is the best man there is, well placed to run his $15bn programme to combat the epidemic in the Caribbean, and, importantly, in Africa, home to nearly 70% of the world s HIV carriers. He may not have mu
Leaders from southern Africa are meeting in Lesotho to discuss ways of fighting the HIV and Aids epidemic that is devastating the region. It is the first time the regional forum, the Southern Africa Development Community, has focused on the HIV crisis. One in three people in southern Africa is now infected with the vi
A leading American expert on infectious diseases says China and India - the world s two most populous countries - are facing a potential Aids disaster. Speaking at a conference in Singapore , the director of the US Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, Julie Gerberding, said the Aids situation
Customers of a Dundee tattoo parlour are being contacted by health officials and offered precautionary tests for HIV and Hepatitis C infection. The move was made after the establishment was closed down following an investigation into hygiene and cleaning procedures. The Piercing Point in Mains Road, Dundee, opened last
The launch of Fuzeon is an important addition to the arsenal of weaponry used to tackle a disease, which many people in Britain sadly believe has gone away. Drug resistance is on the increase - studies indicate that 20% of newly diagnosed patients have a drug resistant strain of the disease - and that is where this new
A new drug which could offer hope to people with drug-resistant HIV has been launched in the UK. Fuzeon, which is manufactured by Roche, is aimed at patients who are not responding to some existing treatments. Unlike other drugs, it works by blocking the virus and stopping it from entering healthy immune cells. Ot
The World Food Programme (WFP) has launched an appeal for $308m for Southern Africa, warning that at least 6.5m people will still be dependent on food aid for another year. Speaking in Geneva, the United Nations agency said although the major humanitarian crisis they had feared has now been averted, erratic weather pa
Police in Reading are carrying out a witch-hunt against prostitutes, according to a group representing sex workers. In the latest move in a ten-month crackdown, Thames Valley Police have issued a warning that a prostitute working in the town has AIDS. This follows the naming and shaming of prostitutes, the cautioning o
The number of people with HIV or Aids in the North West is at the highest level since monitoring began, health professionals have revealed. Figures published on Wednesday show the number of cases jumped by 24% last year. In 2002, 2,429 people in the region were treated - double the 1995 figure, when regional monitoring
Martin Hutchinson, BBC News Online health staff in Madrid
Many fertility clinics treating HIV positive patients are putting not only their partners, but other patients at risk, according to a UK survey. Only a few have separate storage systems for sperm from HIV positive men - or make sure that treatments to remove the virus from sperm have worked before they use it in IVF tr
The facilities for people with HIV at Jersey s General Hospital are being described as appalling by a Jersey charity. The annual report from the Aids and HIV charity ACET is released on Tuesday. The charity is warning of a crisis in sexual health problems in Jersey. It claims the results of a recent UK government repor
The long hunt for a vaccine for HIV continues as scientists announce another potential molecular weapon which the jab could use. Their latest discovery is an antibody which can bind to sugars which are found on the surface of the virus - and neutralise it. However, many years of laboratory, animal and human testing lie
HIV specialists have called on the government to launch a new hard-hitting campaign to increase awareness of the disease. It follows a continued rise in HIV infections across the UK over the past year. Figures from the Health Protection Agency show 5,338 people were told they had the disease last year compared to 4,965
Up to 15 prison warders are dying of Aids or HIV-related illnesses in Kenya every month, Prisons Commissioner Abraham Kamakil has said. Mr Kamakil says the deaths are exerting pressure on the remaining officers. The prisons department has now set up an Aids control committee to combat the spread of the disease.
A haemophiliac, who contracted HIV and Hepatitis C through infected blood, is taking legal action after being refused the latest treatment for his condition. Peter Longstaff, 45, from Jesmond, in Newcastle, wants doctors to use synthetic techniques that would cut the risk of future infections. But, at present, Newcastl
The unregulated supply of Aids drugs in the non-industrialised world threatens to accelerate the development of drug-resistant HIV strains. That is the conclusion of a study from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, just published in the British Medical Journal. The study urges governments and internatio
South Africa says it has approved the first phase of a human trial to test the safety and side-effects of a prototype Aids - the first trial of an Aids vaccine. It will specifically target the strain of the disease which is killing millions of people across Africa. The proposed testing programme, which was approved b
South Africa s health system will soon offer drugs blocking the Aids virus, the body that advises the government on HIV/Aids has said. The South African National Aids Council (Sanac) made the announcement following a meeting with the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) - a group that has been urging the government to suppl
British actress Emma Thompson has accused Western governments of psychotic detachment over their failure to fund the fights against Aids, TB and malaria. Thompson, an ambassador for UK charity ActionAid, said the Aids virus in particular was the greatest threat to human existence in our history . Thompson, 44, was spea
Many people find it hard to meet the perfect boyfriend or girlfriend - this is especially so if they re HIV positive. But a radio programme in Ethiopia called Yebakal - meaning That s enough - has started a match-making/dating service for people living with Aids. Yebakal, funded by Action Aid Ethiopia, aims to end the
There has been a significant increase in the number of HIV cases diagnosed in Northern Ireland , a senior consultant has revealed. Up until the end of May, there were 24 new cases - double the figure for the same period last year. It brings the total number of people treated in Northern Ireland for HIV since it w
Two different strains of a virus affecting monkeys probably combined to create the form of HIV which has spread around the world, say scientists. They believe the two strains of Simian Immunodeficiency Viruses (SIVs) first came together in chimpanzees who had eaten monkeys carrying the different strains. The viruses D
An Australian woman has successfully sued two doctors after they failed to tell her that her husband was HIV positive. The New South Wales state supreme court awarded the woman, who has now contracted the disease, A$727,000 damages. The court backed the 28-year-old s claim that doctors should not have assumed her part
Award winning American rock guitarist Carlos Santana says he will donate the proceeds from his 2003 US tour, which begins on 13 June to fight HIV/Aids in South Africa . He said he hoped to raise about $3m to go to the Artists for a New South Africa s Amandla Aids Fund (Ansa) to help fight the disease in Africa. Y
Around a quarter of the half million people living in the ramshackle houses and shacks of Khayelitsha township are HIV positive. It s like any other big township in South Africa , but here some people at least have hope as a small project which provides free anti-Aids drugs is turning a swift death sentence into an il
One of Mozambique s leading journalists has become the first media professional in the country to announce publicly that he is HIV-positive. Bento Bango, who writes for the weekly paper Zambeze in Maputo, told a news conference on Thursday that he had decided to break the silence so that people would have no reason to
An HIV-positive man is alive and well two years after getting a new heart. The operation, reported in a leading medical journal, is as much a symbol of changing attitudes among doctors to HIV patients as a technical breakthrough. The prospect that many HIV-positive patients, with modern combination therapies, will live
Bob Geldof has been revisiting Ethiopia , scene of the 1985 famine that spawned his Band Aid idea. The country is once again on the verge of disaster, with 12 million dependent on food aid. Geldof s visit comes ahead of the G8 meeting in France at which he hopes Africa will be on the agenda. The Irishman has been s
Thousands of haemophiliacs have filed a lawsuit in the US against four companies for allegedly exposing them to the HIV virus by selling products made with contaminated blood. The lawsuit alleges the companies continued distributing the blood-clotting products in Asia and Latin America in the 1980s, despite having stop
Millions of dollars are to be pledged to a global fund for the fight against Aids, TB and malaria, the UK government has announced. International Development Secretary Baroness Amos said the fund would receive an additional $80m. That will being the UK s contribution to the fund to two hundred and eighty million dollar
A small study has added further weight to evidence that women who have HIV find it far more difficult to conceive. But it offers brighter news to HIV positive men who want to father a child. The research, carried out in France , found that only one out of ten HIV positive women given fertility treatment managed to get
Martin Hutchinson, BBC News Online health reporter
President Bush has signed into law a $15 billion package of measures to help prevent and treat Aids in poor countries. He hailed the programme as a great mission of rescue - but what impact will the money have? The scale of the HIV epidemic in the developing world is difficult to conceive from the relative safety of th
US President George W Bush has signed an emergency plan to help fight Aids in Africa and the Caribbean, describing measures against the disease as among the most urgent needs of the modern world. At a signing ceremony at the State Department, Mr Bush said Aids was filling graveyards, creating orphans and leaving millio
International Aids campaigners have broadly welcomed a $15bn plan by the United States to fight the disease in Africa and the Caribbean. US President George W Bush signed the emergency plan into law, describing the need to take steps against the disease as among the most urgent requirements of the modern world. Th
Bob Geldof is returning to Ethiopia to renew his campaign to highlight the plight of millions of people facing starvation. As the Irish musician departed from London s Heathrow Airport on Monday, he repeated criticism of Western governments for their pathetic food donations to Africa. The trip comes 20 years after
Organisers of Sunday s concert to raise money for food aid in Ethiopia say they have raised more than $1m. Salome Tedesse told the BBC they she was ecstatic to have raised this amount to help some 14 million people facing starvation. Thousands of people packed an Addis Ababa square on Sunday, swaying and singing along
Ania Lichtarowicz, BBC health correspondent in Geneva
The newly elected leader of the World Health Organization , Dr Jong-wook Lee, has said fighting Aids will be at the top of his agenda. Dr Lee - a tuberculosis expert from South Korea who takes over from Gro Harlem Brundtland - says he wants to tackle HIV and ensure that as many people as possib
Tony Blair has been urged by rock stars Bob Geldof and Bono to work to unite world leaders in the fight against Aids. At a breakfast for Africa on Thursday, the campaigners told the prime minister that international disagreements over Iraq should take a backseat in favour of the battle against the epidemic.
The search for an Aids vaccine could be a step closer. Researchers have discovered that a small group of Ugandans seem to have natural protection against HIV. The two dozen or so individuals have not contracted the virus despite having unprotected sex with partners who are HIV positive. Studying how their immune system
Montse Magadan became HIV positive when she lost her virginity, aged 16. Her boyfriend was a drug addict of 30, who knew he had the disease, but failed to tell her. He is now dead. Montse, who lived in Spain , knew little about HIV/Aids. She thought it was a disease of prostitutes, drug addicts and gay men . She d
In some patients, HIV never turns into full-blown Aids - and now scientists believe they know why. They think a particular genetic mutation that can occur within the virus stops it killing off our immune cells. It is the depletion of immune cells that leaves the body vulnerable to the opportunistic infections that char
The US Senate has approved a $15bn bill aimed at slowing the Aids pandemic ravaging the world s poorest countries. The bill was passed with broad bipartisan support after Majority Leader Bill Frist urged approval, calling HIV-Aids the greatest humanitarian crisis in the 21st century . The House of Representatives has a
Since 1998 the number of registered HIV cases in Russia has increased twenty-fold, and Russia is unique in that 80% of its HIV population is under 30 years of age. BBC journalist Nigel Wrench, who is HIV positive, has been to St Petersburg to report on the spread of HIV there. I sat around a table in a St Petersburg
Scientists believe a form of HIV probably entered the human population in Africa at least 60 years ago - and that war helped it spread. Although HIV is usually spoken of as one virus, in fact it comes in two distinct types, HIV-1 and HIV-2. HIV-1 came from chimpanzees, and has spread globally; but HIV-2, which came fro
Discrimination at work is rampant all over the world, says the International Labour Organisation in the first-ever global report on the issue. The practice deprives women, ethnic and religious minorities and migrants of equal jobs or pay, it claims. There is not one country in the world that can say it is free of this
The southern African country of Zambia has set a new record - one which no country would wish to hold. The average life expectancy in the country is 33 years - by far the lowest in the world - and it is all due to Aids. The illness has been referred to as the viral genocide, cutting down 200 Zambians every day. One
An HIV-positive man has been found guilty of slashing his arms in a pub with a broken glass and then using it to stab another customer. The man was forced to take an HIV test after he was cut on the hand by Michael Ring at the Royal George pub in Boxley Road on 20 September 2002. Maidstone Crown Court heard how Ring, 4
Children in South Africa are being infected with HIV through dirty needles, experts have claimed. Researchers have suggested hundreds of thousands of children may have contracted the virus in this way. The study is the latest to point to contaminated needles as a major cause of HIV in Africa. Some researchers belie
United States lawmakers have voted to triple to $15bn spending on the fight against Aids in Africa and the Caribbean. The money will pay for anti-viral medications for people already suffering from the disease and try to slow the spread of HIV over the next five years. It was passed by a 375-41 vote following amendme
HIV harnesses the body s own immune system to help it spread rapidly throughout the body, scientists have discovered. The same mechanisms which allow the body to respond quickly to infection are inadvertently allowing the virus to become established. HIV scientists know that the virus manages to kill off vital immune c
The Kenyan army has set up an Aids unit, warning that HIV is affecting the armed forces at all ranks. Lieutenant General John Koech, deputy chief of the Kenyan general staff, said that between 50 and 60% of beds at the Forces Memorial Hospital in Nairobi were now occupied by Aids/HIV sufferers. The effects of the virus
A man suffering from AIDS slashed his arms in a pub in Maidstone with a broken glass and then used it to stab another customer, a court heard. One man was forced to take an AIDS test after he was cut on the hand by Michael Ring at the Royal George pub in Boxley Road on 20 September 2002. Maidstone Crown Court was told
Britain has announced a $15.7m contribution to an international programme for action against HIV/Aids in Burma - the biggest to the project so far. The money for the three-year care and prevention initiative will be channelled through a fund managed by the United Nations Development Programme, and administered by a gro
GlaxoSmithKline , the biggest manufacturer of Aids drugs in the world, has halved the price of its leading Aids drug in poor countries. The move comes after intense pressure on the pharmaceutical industry from health activists, investors and charities around the world. British-based GSK, which has previously said it
The Sars virus sweeping China is raising concerns about the effect the disease could have on communities already weakened by HIV/Aids. Around 1.5 million people are infected with HIV in a country which, for a long time, officially denied the extent of the disease. Entire villages, particularly in central Henan province
HIV-positive men who underwent a sperm washing treatment have fathered children without risking their partner s health. Having sex without protection in order to conceive a child would be considered too risky by many HIV-positive men, as their semen can harbour the virus. Approximately 1,000 diagnoses of HIV involving
African countries are stepping up measures at ports and airports to detect travellers who might be carrying the Sars virus. This follows warnings that the pneumonia-like disease poses a particular threat to people whose immune systems have been weakened by Aids. So far the continent has not been affected by Sars, altho
Switzerland has launched its latest Aids prevention campaign with a series of hard-hitting posters aimed at involving all sections of society in the fight against the disease. In the early 1990s, Switzerland had the highest rates of HIV infection in Europe and the Swiss Federal Health Office became famous for using e
It was mid-afternoon and the meeting hall at the Binh Trieu Drug Rehabilitation Centre in Ho Chi Minh City was at its busiest. Relatives of inmates had come to see them and the centre was filled with laughter and noisy chatting. But only a few steps away was a totally different world - a three-storey block, separated f
The largest pension fund in the US has called on British drug giant GSK to make access to Aids drugs easier by cutting prices and easing patent controls. But the California Public Employees Retirement System (Calpers), which holds nearly $760m in GSK stock, stopped short of threatening to sell out. A GSK spokeswoman to
The number of people being diagnosed with sexually transmitted infections (STIs) is now at record levels. Doctors have warned ministers they risk having a major public health crisis on their hands unless they take urgent action to tackle the problem. STIs have jumped sharply in recent years. Syphilis has risen by 486%
Every pregnant woman is offered an Aids test as part of their ante-natal care. But for some women the result is not the reassuring negative for which they had hoped. As well as coping with the reality that they have HIV and how it will affect themselves and their unborn children, the women also have to consider whether
More effort needs to be put into educating young children about the dangers of drugs, as well as Aids and HIV in Jersey, say health officials. A survey, undertaken every two years, asked more than 2,500 children about subjects ranging from their sexual health to drug and alcohol use. The latest report found a decreasin
The head of the United Nation s food agency has accused western countries of ignoring Africa because of the war in Iraq . The World Food Programme s James Morris said that 40 million people in Africa faced starvation and were in greater danger than the Iraqi population of 26 million.
Kenyans should use plastic coffins to help prevent environmental destruction, a minister has suggested. Because of the devastating impact of Aids in the country, more and more trees are being felled for timber to make wooden coffins, says the new Narc government s deputy environment minister, Wangari Maathai. It is now
Two HIV-positive children in India have begun attending a Bible school after being continually being forced out of community schools over the past two years. Seven-year-old Bency and five-year-old Benson shared a classroom with 300 other children in the school in the southern state of Kerala. The two children have
Artist Tracey Emin, novelist Will Self and newsreader Kirsty Young are among celebrities backing an auction for the Lighthouse HIV charity. A number of famous names are donating prizes for the fund-raising drive at Christie s auction house in London on Monday night. Emin is offering a visit to her studio complete with
HIV is running out of control among the ruins of the former Soviet empire. Health workers are desperately worried by the rapid spread of the disease, which has been accelerated through widespread drug use, prostitution, ignorance and official apathy. All over Russia , from St Petersburg and neighbouring
A huge HIV and Aids epidemic is on the brink of devastating former eastern-block countries, according to a report in the medical journal The Lancet. Injecting-drug users and a rise in unsafe sex practices in former communist countries will soon cause a major HIV/Aids epidemic, say experts. Eastern Europe and Central As
A Jersey Aids charity is concerned at the increase in HIV infection in the island. ACET said three new cases of HIV were diagnosed in Jersey in the first six weeks of this year. It follows a 26% increase in diagnoses in the UK last year. The charity says people aged between 20 and 30 are most at risk. Rosemary Ruddy, t
Barnaby Phillips, BBC correspondent in Johannesburg
Aids activists in South Africa have filed manslaughter charges against two government ministers and called for their arrest. They said the minister of health and the minister of trade and industry were failing to prevent the deaths of friends and family because they were not providing enough anti-retroviral drugs.
The number of women becoming infected with HIV is fast catching up with the number of men, research has found. Healthcare analyst Isis Research found that this was mainly due to the fact that 51% of newly diagnosed HIV patients contracted the virus through heterosexual contact, compared with just 36% through homosexual
Domestic workers in South Africa found to be HIV-positive are being sacked by their employers. Aids counsellors and the union representing domestic workers say the practice is becoming widespread, the Cape Times newspaper reports. It is illegal in South Africa to sack an HIV-positive employee or demand they take a test
A new type of HIV drug, designed for people who are resistant to other treatments, has been approved by the US authorities. Roche, the makers of Fuzeon are confident it will also win European approval within weeks. Fuzeon is the first of a new class of drugs known as fusion inhibitors. It is designed to combat the grow
Gladys Sananguray has been living in a shed without electricity or running water, since her husband died from Aids and she herself was diagnosed HIV positive. She and her children were thrown out by her husband s family. But her concerns now are about what will happen to her children if she is not around anymore. T
A senior nurse has been suspended after using a single needle to vaccinate 83 schoolchildren in north-western Botswana . This sparked panic among the parents, in a country where about 39% of adults in the population have HIV, the virus which leads to Aids. Sharing needles is one of the most common ways in which HIV is
The Zambian army s decision to turn away HIV positive applicants has been angrily criticised. Health Minister Brian Chituwo said the new policy was introduced because with the excessive physical military activity recruiting HIV positive staff would be sending them to the grave faster . But this reasoning is rejected by
Cases of HIV infections in Northampton have increased by 300% in the last 18 months. Dr Lynn Riddell, an African doctor based in the town, believes part of the increase is due to asylum seekers from Africa - which has a higher infection rate - who unwittingly bring in the HIV virus. She said: Our big problem is not onl
Two HIV-positive children in India are to be educated at home after facing a boycott in their school. Bency, 7, and her brother Benson, 5, were admitted into a state-school in Kerala state only last week. They had been rejected by several other schools because they were infected with the Aids virus. But the parents
Zambia s army will start screening new recruits for HIV, the virus which can lead to Aids, it has announced. Those who are shown to be HIV positive will be turned away, said the head of the defence force medical service. Some 21% of Zambia s adult population is HIV positive - one of the highest infection rates in the w
Two African mothers who say they contracted HIV after being raped are pleading not to be sent back to their homelands. The asylum seekers, who are living in Glasgow, said returning would be a death sentence for them. Their asylum applications have been refused and they fear losing any hope of proper treatment for their
Officials in the Indian state of Kerala are trying to resolve a dispute in where parents are boycotting a school which admitted two HIV-positive children. Bency, seven, and her brother Benson, five, were admitted to the school 10 days ago after the state s Chief Minister, AK Antony, intervened on their behalf. But prot
Rising global population will be held back by hundreds of millions of deaths through Aids, the UN predicts. Estimates of rampant population growth are being revised down in the latest UN forecast because of the impact of the disease. Three years ago the UN predicted the global population would grow from its current 6.3
Researchers are appealing for healthy volunteers to take part in a trial to find a vaccine against HIV. Volunteers for the eighteen month study, run by doctors at St Thomas Hospital London, must be HIV negative. The team at St Thomas are working with researchers at a hospital in Nairobi, Kenya to test th
Swiss pharmaceuticals company Roche has fuelled the debate over the cost of HIV drugs by setting a record-breaking price for its new drug Fuzeon. The company says charging 18,980 euros ($20,570; 12,905) a year - twice as much as the nearest alternative treatment - is justified by the cost of creating and manufacturing
The first Aids vaccine to be tested on humans does not protect the general population, but may protect black and Asian people, a US biotech company has announced. The company, VaxGen , has completed a three-year study involving more than 5,000 volunteers. Initial results show the vaccine only reduced the rate of HIV in
BBC News has harrowing new evidence of the extent of the Aids catastrophe in southern Africa. According to the United Nations, several countries could be near collapse. They all face one major obstacle: a shortage of affordable drug treatment. This week, the UK Chancellor Gordon Brown stepped in with a hard-hitting mes
The United Nations has disputed the findings of United States researchers which says most HIV infections in Africa result from dirty medical needles. The suggestion that the spread of the virus that can cause Aids is closely linked to unsafe medical care challenges widely held scientific views. The research estimat
A gold-mining company in Ghana says it has managed to reduce Aids and HIV infection rates among its workers by over 75%, by giving staff condoms in their pay packets. Ashanti Goldfields says the number of infections at its Obuasi mine fell from 271 in 1998 to 62 last year. The mine s human resources manager, Elaine Kwa
A Malawi cabinet minister has shocked members of his staff by disclosing that he has personally lost three of his children to Aids during the past 10 years. Thengo Maloya, minister for lands, physical planning and surveys, made the rare emotional disclosure when he addressed his staff at a HIV/Aids sensitisation worksh
Molly Bentley, BBC News Online science writer in Denver
Few stories about HIV/Aids infection bring hope. But in the Caribbean, where communism takes its last gasp, there is encouragement in the fight against Aids. Cuba has a lid on the HIV/Aids problem, said Byron Barksdale, the director of the American Cuban Aids Project, a non-profit organisation that provides humanitaria
Thousands of demonstrators campaigning for HIV/Aids treatment in South Africa have been holding a protest outside parliament in Cape Town, coinciding with the annual State of the Nation speech by President Thabo Mbeki. The head of the Treatment Action Campaign, Zaki Akmad, warned the government it could face civil diso
The government is considering plans to test all immigrants for HIV. A report in The Times newspaper has suggested ministers have already backed the move. But officials have insisted that while the policy is under review, no decision has been made. Ministers are believed to be looking at procedures in
A South Africa ex-convict with HIV has reached an out-of-court settlement after suing the prison authorities. The prisoner, known only as PW, claimed that he contracted HIV, which can lead to Aids, in prison, where he had unprotected sex with a fellow inmate. PW was in prison in 1993-4, when condoms were banned, before
The US ambassador to South Africa has questioned the commitment of the South African authorities to fighting Aids. The ambassador, Cameron Hume, said the government had failed to spend its own Aids budget, bringing into question whether the authorities would use US donations effectively. His comments came two weeks
Scientists believe they could be a step closer to developing a new way of stopping the transmission of HIV without using condoms. Researchers from the US and Britain found for the first time that a microbicide - a chemical that kills microorganisms - can block the spread of the virus which can lead to Aids. Corresponde
The recent conference of the African National Congress was a chance for President Mbeki to outline his vision of South Africa s future, before the party faithful, and a national television audience. But halfway through President Mbeki s speech there was an interruption. Nelson Mandela entered the hall, and was given a
South Asia must act now to bring the spread of HIV/Aids under control, United Nations officials have warned. Immediate action can prevent at least five million new HIV infections by 2010, Peter Piot, head of the UN anti-Aids programme, told a major conference in the Nepalese capital, Kathmandu, on Tuesday. He said ther
A $15bn scheme to fight HIV and Aids will include the distribution of condoms and generic drugs, in two big changes to US policy. The commitment to worldwide Aids relief was outlined by US President George W Bush in his State of the Union address on Tuesday. But details unveiled later may upset the president s supporte
U2 frontman Bono has welcomed US President George Bush s decision to spend more on Aids prevention in Africa and the Caribbean. The US leader is to increase the country s Emergency Plan for Aids Relief budget by $10 billion (6.28bn) to $15 billion (9.43bn) over the next five years. President Bush said on Tuesday the
US President George W Bush has pledged $15bn over the next five years to fight Aids. In his State of the Union address, Mr Bush said the money would provide drugs for two million people with the disease and help to prevent seven million new infections. The money will be targeted at projects in sub-Saharan Africa, where
Girls in Zambia are five times more likely to be infected with the HIV virus than their male counterparts due to widespread sexual abuse, a human rights organisation has reported. New York-based Human Rights Watch described in its report - entitled Suffering in Silence - how young girls who suffer abuse often experienc
HIV charities in Mozambique are trying to change attitudes to polygamy as part of efforts to stop the disease from spreading. More than one in eight people across the country have HIV and rates of infection are rising. Experts believe the tradition of men having many wives is a major factor. Workers with the charit
Many dentists are refusing to treat people with HIV even though there is no risk of transmitting the disease if safety procedures are correctly followed. Experts have warned that continuing discrimination may force people with HIV to keep their condition hidden - which could cause problems if dentists fail to take adeq
US pharmaceutical giant Pharmacia has unveiled plans to expand access to much needed medicines to treat HIV/Aids in the world s poorest countries. It has developed a joint project with a Dutch non-profit-making group, the International Dispensary Association (IDA), to allow generic drug manufacturers to sell cheaper ve
A US marketing consultant who described Aids as the gay plague has withdrawn his name from consideration for a government commission on the disease, amid controversy over his remarks. Jerry Thacker was nominated on Thursday to Presidential George W Bush s advisory panel on HIV and Aids. Friday s announcement came after
People newly diagnosed with HIV or cancer will be protected from discrimination under proposed disability legislation. Current law protects people who have had either condition for more than a year, or whose symptoms are evident. But the proposed extension to the Disability Discrimination Act would cover people from th
Official figures from Taiwan show the number of people diagnosed with HIV increased by 16% in 2002. The Department of Health has expressed alarm at the statistics. More than 4,000 Taiwanese are now HIV positive. The figures show that infection rates among the young have increased dramatically, with the number of carri
MSPs have called on Scotland s justice minister to carry out an urgent consultation on whether to allow the compulsory blood testing of criminal suspects. The Public Petitions Committee has been discussing comments from ministers in reply to the suggestion by the Scottish Police Federation (SPF). The SPF, which represe
It is 1000 on Sunday morning, and a small crowd is waiting by the side of one of the main roads into Addis Ababa, the last leg of Hirut Gedlu s journey. She is a little late and people begin to wonder where she is, but then she is spotted speeding down the hill. Wearing a red, green and yellow striped bandana on her he
Compulsory HIV checks on new doctors and nurses in the UK are to go ahead, the government has confirmed. The move has been prompted by fears that, as tens of thousands of overseas doctors and nurses are recruited, hundreds may be carrying HIV. Ministers have now published a consultation paper giving details of the prop
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