UGANDA: Leading user of antiretrovirals

A total of 10 000 people, or one third of the 30 000 anti-retroviral (ARV) users in sub-Saharan Africa, are in Uganda, the Ministry of Health announced this week. "Uganda has been able to achieve this because it has made a marathon roll-out of Voluntary Counselling and Testing or VCT, which is necessary if drug misuse and eventual resistance is to be avoided," said the Minister of State for Health, Mike Mukula.

Living positively with HIV/AIDS drugs

In a move considered a breakthrough for a country with high levels of stigma and discrimination, Batswana using antiretroviral (ARV) drugs have come forward to tell their stories in a series of educational videos released this week.

The State has an AIDS plan

The following article was written to and published in the Mail & Guardian newspaper as a "Right to Reply", by Health Minister Dr Manto Tshabalala-Msimang:

State places HIV/AIDS advertisements in bid to stop protests

As HIV/AIDS activists promise to intensify their civil disobedience campaign, the government has set out to counter a potentially embarrassing standoff with the Treatment Action Campaign by taking out full-page advertisements in Sunday newspapers.

South Africa to produce its own HIV/AIDS drugs

South Africa's efforts to manufacture its own affordable generic anti-retroviral medicines against HIV/AIDS and other epidemics has at last been kick-started and the first pills are scheduled to roll out by next year.

"We're unable to fulfil our Hippocratic Oath"

The following is an open letter by doctors in the public sector to Deputy-President Jacob Zuma, Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang and Trade and Industry Minister Alec Erwin. We write as a group of doctors working at primary health-care clinics in the public sector.

Babies with HIV/AIDS to get anti-retroviral treatment in Western Cape

Babies and children with HIV/AIDS in the Western Cape are set to get access to life-prolonging anti-retroviral drugs.

HIV/AIDS could threaten democracy

The impact of HIV/AIDS could reverse democratic gains in Southern Africa, according to a report by the Institute for Security Studies (ISS).

AIDS activists cautiously welcome drug price cut

African HIV/AIDS activists have cautiously welcomed GlaxoSmithKline's (GSK) announcement that it will halve the price of its anti-AIDS drugs in poor countries, including all of sub-Saharan Africa.

UNICEF lauds White House leadership on HIV/AIDS bill

UNICEF Executive Director Carol Bellamy commended the White House for its leadership in endorsing a $15 billion emergency bill to tackle HIV/AIDS in Africa and the Caribbean today. The bill promotes an “ABC? prevention package (Abstinence, Be Faithful, Consistently use Condoms) that sidelines efforts by some to keep condoms out of the final legislation.