Niamey- Niger (PANA) -- Niger's HIV prevalence rate dropped slightly from 0. Full text...

New York- US (PANA) -- Former US Basketball star Magic Johnson, who announced 15 years ago he had AIDS, is embarking on an ambitious campaign to reduce HIV/AIDS prevalence among African-Americans. Full text...

New York- US (PANA) -- Outgoing UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has called on world leaders to redeem their promises on the control of the HIV/AIDS pandemic. Full text...

Kinshasa- DR Congo (PANA) -- UN agencies and the World Bank have pledged support to the Congolese government in HIV/AIDS control, especially through free antiretroviral treatment, according to Pierre Sombre, head of the UN system in the country. Full text...

Freetown- Sierra Leone (PANA) – Sierra Leonean Pre-sident Ahmad Tejan Kabbah said here Friday that HIV/AIDS was "disproportionately affecting" young people in the country. Full text...

Dakar- Senegal (PANA) -- The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria and the US President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), announced Friday that they were supporting life-extending antiretroviral treatment for a combined 1. Full text...

Dakar- Senegal (PANA) -- The United Nations Resident Coordinator in Nigeria, Alberic Kacou, has expressed delight at the increased access to antiretroviral treatment (ART) by People Living HIV/AIDS (PLWHAs) in the country. Full text...

Cape Town- South Africa (PANA) -- A team of five Rotary International- sponsored students are participating in a 2,010-kilometre hike from Johannesburg to Cape Town, South Africa, to highlight the plight of AIDS orphans. Full text...

Abuja- Nigeria (PANA) -- Nigeria's President Olusegun Obasanjo was voluntarily tested Friday for the virus that causes AIDS, in furtherance of his administration's campaign against the pandemic. Full text...

Johannesburg- South Africa (PANA) -- The University of Stellenbosch in South Africa is to start a groundbreaking research into the imaging of children under 13 years of age with HIV and TB, it was disclosed Friday. Full text...

Maputo- Mozambique (PANA) -- Some 620 Mozambican police personnel died from HIV/AIDS in 2005, Interior Minister Jose Pacheco disclosed here Thursday. Full text...

Nairobi- Kenya (PANA) -- African should limit over-reliance on the life-prolonging anti-retroviral (ARVs) drugs and instead step up efforts to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS, a former top-ranking US diplomat, Richard Holbrooke, said Wednesday. Full text...

Maputo- Mozambique (PANA) -- The Brazilian government has concluded studies on building of a pharmaceutical plant in Mozambique to manufacture generic anti-retroviral drugs. Full text...

Abidjan- Côte d'Ivoire (PANA) -- Ahead of the 19th World AIDS Day (1 December), the World Health Organisation (WHO) office in Abidjan has donated some equipment, including computers and other materials valued at 80 million CFA francs to the Ivorian AIDS control agency. Full text...

Douala- Cameroon (PANA) – Local NGO, Interdiscipli-nary Centre for Human Development and Rights, CIPAD, has set up two information, monitoring and care centres on HIV/AIDS and sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) in Cameroon, with the support of the Canadian Cooperation AIDS Fund. Full text...

Lilongwe- Malawi (PANA) -- Although the HIV/AIDS pandemic does not discriminate between adults and children, but due to resources constraints most sub-Saharan African nations - the epicentre of the pandemic - do not have anti-retroviral treatment programme for children. Full text...

Port-Louis- Mauritius (PANA) – The Mauritian parli-ament is set to pass on Tuesday two bills on AIDS and the fight against chikungunya, the institution secretariat told PANA on Saturday. Full text...

Maputo- Mozambique (PANA) -- Many companies in Mozambique are unaware of the provisions of the law passed by the parliament in 2002 protecting HIV-positive workers against discrimination, an MP said here Thursday. Full text...

Johannesburg- South Africa (PANA) – The Health Pro-fessionals Council of South Africa (HPCSA) Thursday began disciplinary hearing in Bloemfontein against a medical doctor who entered AIDS on a death certificate. Full text...

Paris- France (PANA) – The number HIV/AIDS patient-s on antiretrovirals (ARVs) increased from 600 in 2000 to 27,000 last September in Cameroon, the World Health Organisation (WHO) representative in Yaounde, Hélène Mambu-ma-Disu said here Wednesday. Full text...

Dakar- Senegal (PANA) -- The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria has welcomed the new UNAIDS/WHO "2006 AIDS Epidemic Update," which indicates that HIV prevalence has declined significantly in a number of African countries, while increased access to antiretroviral AIDS treatment has led to millions of additional years of healthy life. Full text...

Addis Ababa- Ethiopia (PANA) -- Lack of motivation for technical staff and the shortage of diagnostic equipment are among critical constraints crippling anti-AIDS programmes in sub-Saharan Africa, according to participants of a regional World Health Organisation (WHO) meeting underway here. Full text...

Johannesburg- South Africa (PANA) -- The combined efforts of many AIDS communication campaigns in South Africa showed positive impacts on HIV prevention behaviours, increased positive attitudes towards people living with HIV and AIDS, and increased community involvement in response to the epidemic, according to a fresh survey released here. Full text...

Bamako- Mali (PANA) -- The executive secretariat of the Malian National AIDS Control High Council (HCNLS) and its partners plan to stage the first AIDS control Show titled "Espace Info Sida 2006" (EIS-2006) at the Bamako Exhibitions Park 1-2 December, a reliable source told PANA here Monday. Full text...

Dakar- Senegal (PANA) -- The African AIDS Vaccine Programme (AAVP) has invited applications from African institutions for an AAVP Collaborative Centre for Communication and Media. Full text...

Dakar- Senegal (PANA) -- The Board of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria Friday approved a sixth round of 85 new grants totalling US$847 million to fight the three diseases, which kill some six million people yearly worldwide especially in Africa. Full text...

Ouagadougou- Burkina Faso (PANA) – The speaker of -Burkina Faso's parliament, Roch Marc Christian Kaboré, has called for sharing of knowledge and experience among Francophone parliamentarians in the fight against the deadly HIV/AIDS pandemic. Full text...

Paris- France (PANA) – An official of the World He-alth Organisation (WHO), Kevin De Cock, declared Thursday in Paris that 60 to 80% of patients affected by tuberculosis in Southern Africa are also HIV- positive. Full text...

Paris- France (PANA) – One million AIDS patients i-n African were put under antiretrovirals (ARVs) over the past five years, according to Kevin De Cock, head of the HIV/AIDS department at WHO. Full text...

Dakar- Senegal (PANA) -- The Board of the Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria has approved a first US$604 million tranche of new grants to fight the three diseases, bringing the Fund's total portfolio of grants to US$6. Full text...

Dakar- Senegal (PANA) -- The Board of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria is to elect a new Executive Director and approve the 6th Round grant funding at its 14th meeting in Guatemala City 31 October-3 November, the Fund said in a release Friday. Full text...

Paris- France (PANA) – Libyan children with AIDS -are getting treated in several European cities within "a purely humanitarian framework", the spokesperson of the French foreign ministry, Jean-Baptiste Mattei, revealed here Thursday. Full text...

Tripoli- Libya (PANA) -- A nine-year-old girl who was among children allegedly contaminated by foreign health workers with the AIDS virus at the paediatric hospital of Benghazi, 1,050 km east of here, has died, the Libyan Association for assistance to the affected children announced. Full text...

Addis Ababa- Ethiopia (PANA) -- A two-day AIDS experts meeting opened here Wednesday with an African Union (AU) official stressing that Africa, more than any other continent, was in urgent need of an HIV vaccine to protect populations and attain its development goals. Full text...

Nairobi- Kenya (PANA) – The UN Youth Summit 29--31 October in New York, is to give a fresh push to the global fight against HIV/AIDS and malaria, and spur the attainment of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the UN said in a statement. Full text...

Lagos- Nigeria (PANA) -- A four-day workshop on "developing a strategic plan of action on gender and the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the ECOWAS region" has ended in Abuja, with the adoption of recommendations to stem the rising tide of the disease in the region, an ECOWAS statement said. Full text...

Lusaka- Zambia (PANA) -- Visiting US Global AIDS Coordinator, Mark Dybul, here Wednesday, called for increased awareness and intensification of the fight against the incurable disease in Africa. Full text...

Lusaka- Zambia (PANA) -- The United States Government-funded projects on the fight against HIV/AIDS in Zambia come under close scrutiny early Wednesday when Mark Dybul, the newly appointed US Global AIDS coordinator starts an inspection tour of the Southern African nation. Full text...

Kinshasa- DR Congo (PANA) -- The UN Development Programme (UNDP) has granted DR Congo about US$14. Full text...

Paris- France (PANA) – Chairman Sidiki Kaba of the- Human Rights Leagues Federation (FIDH) Saturday expressed deep concern about AIDS being used as "a military weapon" in armed conflicts in Africa. Full text...

Cotonou- Benin (PANA) -- The African Development Bank (ADB) has pledged more than 20 billion CFA franc support for two programmes on HIV/AIDS control and development of health system in Benin, official sources said here. Full text...

Kigali- Rwanda (PANA) -- Rwanda's National AIDS Control Commission, CNLS, Friday launched a campaign to mobilise and empower the population against HIV/AIDS. Full text...

Nairobi- Kenya (PANA) -- The United States government will disburse some 2. Full text...

Port Louis- Mauritius (PANA) -- The Council of religions in Mauritius is to train leaders of all religious groups concerning how to better fight the spread of HIV/AIDS in the island. Full text...

Sao Tome- Sao Tome and Principe (PANA) -- President Fradique de Menezes has launched an appeal for international cooperation and assistance to help Sao Tome and Principe fight HIV/AIDS. Full text...

Sirte- Libya (PANA) -- The steering committee of the Organisation of African First Ladies against AIDS (OAFLA), began a meeting here Friday on the strengthening of the fight against the spread of the pandemic. Full text...

Cotonou- Benin (PANA) -- The 2006 edition of Benin television fund-raiser Telethon, organised between 7 July and 31 August, to boost the national fight against AIDS, Malaria, Tuberculosis, realised about 400 million CFA francs, the organisers said here Friday. Full text...

Harare- Zimbabwe (PANA) -- HIV prevalence rate in Zimbabwe has dropped two percentage points to 18. Full text...

Tripoli- Libya (PANA) -- The Benghazi Criminal Court sitting in Tripoli Tuesday adjourned to 12 September the trial of five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor accused of infecting 400 Libyan children with the HIV/AIDS virus. Full text...

Yaounde- Cameroon (PANA) -- Beginning December this year, the price of antiretrovirals (ARVs) will fall in Cameroon from CFA 3,000 francs to CFA 1,000 francs per person and per month, according to Urbain Olanguéna Awono, minister of Public Health. Full text...