Lagos- Nigeria (PANA) -- Nigerian doctors have decried the low allocation to the health sector in the 2002 budget, which was presented to the National Assembly by President Olusegun Obasanjo 7 November, saying it would worsen the tension in the sector. Full text...

Lusaka- Zambia (PANA) -- The Planned Parenthood Association of Zambia (PPAZ) has shifted focus from Family Planning to youth sexuality and reproductive health, PPAZ secretary general Alice Lungu said. Full text...

Lusaka- Zambia (PANA) -- Zambian authorities have expressed concern at the death from HIV/AIDS of 93 teachers in the Copperbelt region alone, in the last two years. Full text...

Accra- Ghana (PANA) -- Hundreds of children were Saturday vaccinated against five child killer diseases in Accra as Ghana introduced the five-in-one vaccine at a ceremony that brought in several international sports personalities. Full text...

Lagos- Nigeria (PANA) -- Nigeria's efforts to produce its own HIV/AIDS vaccine would formally take off in 2002, when a vaccine plan would be launched, according to a top official of the National Action Committee on AIDS (NACA). Full text...

Ouagadougou- Burkina Faso (PANA) -- The 12th International Conference on AIDS and STDs in Africa (ICASA) ended Thursday evening in Ouagadougou with a recommendation to switch from prevention to treatment in efforts to control the pandemic. Full text...

Ouagadougou- Burkina Faso (PANA) -- An alternate technique for the counting of CD4-lymphocytes in the human body, developed by the Muraz Centre of Bobo Dioulasso in western Burkina Faso, in collaboration with the France's National AIDS Research Agency (ANRS), was presented to the public Thursday. Full text...

Nairobi- Kenya (PANA) -- The government would develop the Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI) to a high capacity to enable it to produce of herbal medicine, health minister Sam Ongeri announced Friday in Nairobi. Full text...

Johannesburg- South Africa (PANA) -- A high court in Pretoria on Friday ordered the South African government to start supplying anti-AIDS drugs to pregnant mothers living with HIV, which leads to the incurable AIDS. Full text...

Maputo- Mozambique (PANA) -- The blood bank at Maputo Central Hospital in the Mozambican capita is currently experiencing a severe shortage of blood, owing to a decline in the number of blood donors. Full text...

Nairobi- Kenya (PANA) -- Kenya's Attorney General Amos Wako Thursday extended for a further six months, the mandate of a task force recently appointed to look into legal issues relating to HIV/AIDS in the country. Full text...

Kinshasa- DR Congo (PANA) -- A dietitian in the Democratic Republic of Congo is advising people to eat more insects to balance their diet. Full text...

Ouagadougou- Burkina Faso (PANA) -- African countries most affected by AIDS need to be aware of the significance of the incurable disease, the chairman of the Global Foundation for AIDS Research and Prevention, Prof. Full text...

Harare- Zimbabwe (PANA) -- A scientific research institute in Zimbabwe said Thursday it had found that a variety of local traditional herbal medicines cured AIDS symptoms, particularly mental disorders. Full text...

Ouagadougou- Burkina Faso (PANA) -- Traditional healers are demanding that all countries promulgate laws to protect the practice of traditional medicine and the participation of healers in bio-medical research. Full text...

Ouagadougou- Burkina Faso (PANA) -- Pharmacists in Burkina Faso have agreed to forgo profits emerging from the sale of antiretrovirals drugs in the country. Full text...

Saint Denis- Reunion (PANA) -- Reunion has launched an active campaign against smoking, aimed at providing concrete help to smokers who want to quit the bad habit. Full text...

Ouagadougou- Burkina Faso (PANA) -- "Accélérer l'Accès", a joint initiative by the World health organization (WHO), the World Bank and five pharmaceutical companies, is improving access to health care for AIDS patients in Africa. Full text...

Yaounde- Cameroon (PANA) -- The government of Cameroon has announced a price cut on drugs, anti-retrovirals, treatment of opportunistic infections and essential medical components in the country's various provision centres and public hospitals. Full text...

Ouagadougou- Burkina Faso (PANA) -- The World Health Organisation (WHO) Tuesday recommended in Ouagadougou the validation of "the efficiency, the harmlessness and the quality" of traditional medicine and remedies which offer an alternative for the management of HIV/AIDS and opportunistic infections. Full text...

Ouagadougou- Burkina Faso (PANA) -- Eric Gbodossou, a Senegal-based medical doctor, who also practices herbal medicine, says traditional medicine can cure several opportunistic infections associated with HIV/AIDS. Full text...

Maputo- Mozambique (PANA) -- Cholera continues to rage in the central Mozambican province of Zambezia, particularly in the provincial capital, Quelimane, reports Tuesday's issue of the Maputo daily "Noticias". Full text...

Niamey- Niger (PANA) -- AIDS patients in Niger will have to wait for some time before they gain access to triple therapy, National AIDS Control Programme director Kari Moukaila has said. Full text...

Ouagadougou- Burkina Faso (PANA) -- Burkina Faso' Human and People's Rights Movement has urged African governments to opt for a curative approach in their fight against AIDS. Full text...

Ouagadougou- Burkina Faso (PANA) -- The African Union against Sexually Transmitted Diseases Sunday in Ouagadougou awarded an honorary distinction on the fight against HIV/AIDS to President Blaise Compaore of Burkina Faso. Full text...

Ouagadougou- Burkina Faso (PANA) -- Speakers at the African Youth forum against HIV/AIDS holding in Ouagadougou Saturday challenged the continent's youth to come up with new strategies against the pandemic by the time the conference ends on 13 December. Full text...

Bamako- Mali (PANA) -- The African Development Bank (ADB) has approved a loan of 13. Full text...

Cape Town- South Africa (PANA) -- Biofield Corporation, a US-based developer of a non-invasive system to assist in the detection of breast cancer, has announced the execution of a three-year distribution agreement with South Africa's Trilogy Critical Care, a leading healthcare distributor in southern Africa. Full text...

Lagos- Nigeria (PANA) -- The start of an ambitious health care project aimed at providing access to anti-retroviral drugs for AIDS sufferers in Nigeria was mired in uncertainty Monday. Full text...

Ouagadougou- Burkina Faso (PANA) -- The head of the Joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS, Dr Peter Piot, has said the commitments made at international conferences this year must be met if the epidemic is to be effectively pushed back in Africa and other seriously affected areas. Full text...

Ouagadougou- Burkina Faso (PANA) -- President Blaise Compaore of Burkina Faso has declared AIDS as a major development crisis in African countries, where it is decimating the most economically active sections of the population. Full text...

Lagos- Nigeria (PANA) -- Nigeria and Libya are to contribute 5. Full text...

Cotonou- Benin (PANA) -- The Benin government has set up a Committee for the prevention of HIV/AIDS in the country's schools and Universities. Full text...

Bamako- Mali (PANA) -- Over 156,000 children aged up to five years have been vaccinated against polio in Burkina Faso's and Mali's adjacent districts of Orodara and Sikasso respectively. Full text...

Luanda- Angola (PANA) -- Angola's deputy health minister, Jose van-Dunen announced Saturday that international donor institutions would fund 80 percent of the polio vaccination campaign in the country. Full text...

Dakar- Senegal (PANA) -- About half a million people in Burkina Faso, close to 10 percent of adults, are infected with HIV/AIDS, according to Burkina Faso Human Development Report 2001, prepared with support of the UN Development Programme. Full text...

Maputo- Mozambique (PANA) -- Mozambique is facing a challenge which, "if not overcome, will compromise the country's social and economic development efforts", President Joaquim Chissano warned on Friday. Full text...

Cape Town- South Africa (PANA) -- South Africa's Road Freight Association (RFA) is injecting three million rand (about 280,000 US dollars) into the country's fight against AIDS, in conjunction with Department of Health. Full text...

Dar es Salaam- Tanzania (PANA) -- Tanzanian health experts have reported a drastic increase of HIV cases in urban centres situated along the 1,000-km Tanzania-Zambia highway. Full text...

Praia- Cape Verde (PANA) -- Health authorities in Praia say they have in the past weeks observed an increase in new cases of malaria in parts of the Cape Verde capital. Full text...

Port Louis- Mauritius (PANA) -- Prices of medicines have gone up in Mauritius by between 4 percent and 10 percent during the past week. Full text...

Addis Ababa- Ethiopia (PANA) -- A funding gap of 60 million US dollars and sustained political commitment are some of the major obstacles to Africa's drive to eradicate polio by 2002, a WHO official said in Addis Ababa. Full text...

Paris- France (PANA) -- "Migrants Against AIDS", "AIDS Info Service" (immigrants' radio), "AIDS Info Immigrants", says a broadcast on Paris-based FM 106. Full text...

Yaounde- Cameroon (PANA) -- Leaders of the Central African Economic and Monetary Community (CEMAC) will launch the synchronised sub-regional polio immunisation campaign in Cameroon as part of their Summit opening Friday in Yaounde. Full text...

Nairobi- Kenya (PANA) -- The Kenyan office of UNICEF Wednesday said that it would lay more emphasis on HIV/AIDS in its programmes for the next two and half years, in a major policy shift that will see 60 percent of the UN body's resources devoted to the scourge. Full text...

Cotonou- Benin (PANA) -- Benin Health Ministry Wednesday launched a mass immunisation campaign against measles in four of the country's Districts. Full text...

Blantyre- Malawi (PANA) -- A World Bank report says that six out of every 10 patients admitted to Malawi's hospitals are HIV positive, a situation that is over-burdening the country's health ministry. Full text...

Nairobi- Kenya (PANA) -- A cartel of American firms are against the manufacture or import of cheap generic anti-retrovirals (ARVs) by Kenyan pharmaceutical companies, a parliamentarian claimed Tuesday. Full text...

Dakar- Senegal (PANA) -- Senegal has been equipped with a second anonymous and voluntary HIV/AIDS screening centre based in Kaolack, the third most populated city. Full text...

Gaborone- Botswana (PANA) -- In a bid to protect unborn babies against infection with HIV, a non-governmental organisation in Botswana Tuesday started teaching HIV-positive women about proper use of anti-retrovirals. Full text...