Cape Town- South Africa (PANA) -- A meeting of the Gauteng AIDS Council on Thursday encouraged pregnant women to go for voluntary HIV-testing as a way of preventing the possible transmission of the lethal virus to the unborn babies. Full text...

Cape Town- South Africa (PANA) -- Canada's International Development Research Centre has welcomed the launch of the '2001-2010 Decade for African Traditional Medicine' by the recent summit of the Organisation of African Unity. Full text...

Gaborone- Botswana (PANA) -- Botswana's ranking in the UN Human Development assessment has fallen to its lowest position in 16 years due to the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Full text...

Windhoek- Namibia (PANA) -- The newly-elected president of Namibia Network of AIDS Services Organisation (NANASO), Eivalastus Kaaronda, said that people living with HIV/AIDS and those who are not infected with the virus have equal rights. Full text...

Nairobi- Kenya (PANA) -- Plans by the government to import 300 million condoms sparked off a furious debate in Nairobi, with President Daniel arap Moi even suggesting that Kenyans abstain from sex for two years. Full text...

N'djamena- Chad (PANA) -- A cholera epidemic is raging in Chad where some 176 cases were reported between 26 June and 8 July, according to health officials. Full text...

Lagos- Nigeria (PANA) -- Nigeria's federal government Thursday started a two-day training for medical officers selected to administer the anti-retroviral drugs it recently ordered, the News Agency of Nigeria reported. Full text...

Niamey- Niger (PANA) -- For the first time since embarking on the fight against HIV/AIDS in 1996, Niger has released data on the actual situation of the pandemic, sources close to the National Programme on AIDS (PNLS) affirmed Wednesday in Niamey. Full text...

Nairobi- Kenya (PANA) -- Kenya's National AIDS Control Council has attributed the alarming rise in the number of tuberculosis patients to the high HIV/AIDS prevalence in the country. Full text...

Dar es Salaam- Tanzania (PANA) -- Government authorities in Tanzania have imposed a ban on the sale of local brews and unsafe drinking water in a move to halt new cases of cholera in the capital, Dar es Salaam. Full text...

Abidjan- Cote d'Ivoire (PANA) -- Lying on a bed, his eyes wide open, young Fidel Ego, a victim of Buruli ulcer, cautiously gazed at his visitors at the Raoul Follereau Institute in Adzope, 120 km north of Abidjan. Full text...

Port Louis- Mauritius (PANA) -- Mauritian Social Security and National Solidarity Minister Sam Lauthan Wednesday launched an anti-influenza vaccination campaign for the elderly. Full text...

Ouagadougou- Burkina Faso (PANA) -- Burkina Faso and the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) have signed several financial agreements to the tune of 3. Full text...

Port-Louis- Mauritius (PANA) -- Against the backdrop of increasing teenage pregnancies, and on the occasion of World Population Day, Mauritius Health minister Ashok Jugnauth Wednesday launched a youth counselling service at the University of Mauritius. Full text...

Dakar- Senegal (PANA) -- A two-day meeting started Wednesday in Geneva where the World Health Organisation (WHO) is trying to convince the private sector to make a 25-fold reduction in the cost of hearing aids in developing countries. Full text...

Brazzaville- Congo (PANA) -- Legalising abortion would be tantamount to encouraging impunity among rapists, perpetrators of incest and unfaithful partners, the Roman Catholic Church in Congo says in a message to the country's transitional parliament. Full text...

Cape Town- South Africa (PANA) -- South Africa's Minister of Social Development, Zola Skweyiya on Wednesday launched the first local capacity-building training course for government planners on HIV/AIDS in Mafikeng. Full text...

Cape Town- South Africa (PANA) -- A South African virologist researching on HIV vaccines, Dr Carolyn Williamson, has won a top award at the World Technology Summit in London for her work. Full text...

Lusaka- Zambia (PANA) -- A Chinese professor Tuesday told a press conference in Lusaka, Zambia that he had developed and manufactured a new retroviral drug against the HIV/AIDS. Full text...

Port Louis- Mauritius (PANA) -- About 731 persons died of several forms of cancer in Mauritius in 1999, the Mauritian League Against Cancer announced Tuesday in Port Louis. Full text...

Addis Ababa- Ethiopia (PANA) -- The Ethiopian Orthodox Church would remain committed to supporting the national HIV/AIDS prevention and control measures alongside its apostolic mission, Patriarch Abune Paulos has said. Full text...

Windhoek- Namibia, PANA -- Health authorities in Namibia have cautioned for prudence in the practice of traditional circumcision, warning that HIV/AIDS could be transmited where a single knife is used on several boys. ) Full text...

Dar es Salaam- Tanzania (PANA) -- Tanzanian NGOs fighting against HIV/AIDS have formed an umbrella body, the Tanzania Network of HIV/AIDS Service Organisations (TANASO), to coordinate their campaign against the scourge. Full text...

Windhoek- Namibia (PANA) -- Namibian Deputy Minister of Defence, Victor Simunja said Monday, that HIV/AIDS is threatening security and military establishments in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region. Full text...

Abidjan- Cote d'Ivoire (PANA) -- A cholera outbreak has killed seven people in Oume location, about 240 kilometres from Abidjan, health officials in the Ivorian capital reported Monday. Full text...

Abidjan- Cote d'Ivoire (PANA) -- WHO Regional Director for Africa, Dr Ebrahim Malick Samba arrives in Abidjan Sunday for a one-week working visit to Cote d'Ivoire, the WHO country office in Abidjan said Saturday. Full text...

Windhoek- Namibia (PANA) -- Namibia spent over 37. Full text...

New York- US (PANA) -- The World Bank approved Friday a loan of 90. Full text...

Dakar- Senegal (PANA) -- Anti-retrovirals, the drugs that make it possible to curb the progress of AIDS, today constitute one of the few weapons Africa has to slow down the advance of a very powerful enemy. Full text...

Cotonou- Benin (PANA) -- The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) has decided to strengthen its co-operation programme with Benin within the next two years. Full text...

Johannesburg- South Africa (PANA) -- The National Council against Smoking has called on the catering industry in South Africa to enforce new smoking regulations in force since the beginning of July. Full text...

Addis Ababa- Ethiopia, (PANA) -- The Ethiopian Organization for Social Service for AIDS in Ethiopia (OSSA) Thursday intimated that some HIV/AIDS carriers in parts of the country have through marriage and prostitution deliberately passed the infection to others. Full text...

Cotonou- Benin (PANA) -- Some 40 traditional healers in Benin have at a workshop in Adjara, 40 km south-east of the capital, Cotonou, been understudying modern methods in the treatment of malaria. Full text...

Brazzaville- Congo (PANA) -- A meeting of the Regional Committee of the World Health Organisation (WHO) for Africa has been scheduled for 27 August to 1 September in Brazzaville. Full text...

Addis Ababa- Ethiopia (PANA) -- In the first of its kind in the country, Ethiopia's Menelik II Hospital has launched a corneal transplantation operation. Full text...

Accra- Ghana (PANA) -- West African Education Ministers will meet in September to adopt a common strategy in combating the spread of the HIV/AIDS pandemic, which is also threatening the education sector. Full text...

Tripoli- Libya (PANA) -- Libya has commended an initiative by a US pharmaceutical group, Fayser, to distribute free of charge HIV/AIDS drugs to 50 poor countries. Full text...

Nairobi- Kenya (PANA) -- The death toll from the cholera outbreak reported in the northern Kenya district of Wajir has reached 17 following the deaths Wednesday of five more people. Full text...

Cape Town- South Africa (PANA) -- Some 150 delegates from 30 African countries and 40 international donors will meet next month in Boksburg, South Africa, to map out strategies to combat the AIDS pandemic in Africa. Full text...

Windhoek- Namibia (PANA) -- You may call it a week of concerted action against HIV/AIDS. Full text...

Dakar- Senegal (PANA) -- WHO Regional Director for Africa, Dr Ebrahim Malick Samba has renewed appeals to African governments to set the conditions for the practice of traditional medicine in the benefit of the region. Full text...

Kinshasa- DR Congo (PANA) -- UNICEF regional director for Western and Central Africa, Rima Salah arrived Wednesday in Kinshasa to participate in the official launching of the National Immunisation Days (NID 2001) in Central Africa. Full text...

Maputo- Mozambique (PANA) -- The Mozambican Christian Council which groups the main protestant Christian denominations, has earmarked five million US dollars to finance a five-year strategic plan to combat the HIV/AIDS pandemic. Full text...

Cape Town- South Africa (PANA) -- South Africa's constitutional and technology minister Dr Audrey van Zyl, has added her voice to calls for the imposition of compulsory HIV-tests on sex offenders as soon as possible. Full text...

Nairobi- Kenya (PANA) -- Kenyan authorities said Wednesday that they are organising a stakeholders consultative forum to deliberate on the plight faced by children orphaned by AIDS. Full text...

Cotonou- Benin (PANA) -- Benin plans to allocate some two billion francs CFA (1 US dollar = 750 FCFA) to its national programme on HIV/AIDS, the Health ministry hinted Tuesday. Full text...

Windhoek- Namibia (PANA) -- Two teenagers who last month watched the partial solar eclipse with naked eyes in Namibia will be permanently blind, eye specialists have confirmed. Full text...

Accra- Ghana (PANA) -- Doctors at Ghana's biggest medical facility, Korle Bu Teaching Hospital in Accra, who refused to work at the weekend in a dispute over overtime allowances reported for duty Tuesday. Full text...

Abidjan- Cote d'Ivoire (PANA) -- More than a million out of the Ivorian population estimated at 15 million are currently living with HIV/AIDS, according to the country's foreign minister, Abou Drahamane Sangare. Full text...

Cape Town- South Africa (PANA) -- South Africa's Health minister Molefi Sefularo Tuesday in Zeerust launched a project aimed at preventing the transmission of HIV from mothers to their children. Full text...