Cotonou- Benin (PANA) -- Benin and the World Bank have signed a financial agreement for the disbursement of 120 million francs CFA (1 US dollar = 750 FCFA) destined for HIV/AIDS NGOs working in rural areas. Full text...

Cotonou- Benin (PANA) -- A high-level delegation led by Planning minister Bruno Amoussou, left Benin Saturday for New York to attend the UN General Assembly's special session on HIV/AIDS billed for 25-27 June. Full text...

Gaborone- Botswana (PANA) -- Botswana government could face court action over an alleged breach of contract with 15 nurses it recruited from the Caribbean two years ago. Full text...

Niamey- Niger (PANA) -- A nationwide anti-polio immunisation campaign started Friday in Niger with health workers striving to meet the national deadline for wiping the disease out of the country. Full text...

Dakar- Senegal (PANA) -- Some 50 African medical experts will attend a three-day training session on the prescription of anti- retrovirals (ARV) starting Monday in Dakar, the Senegalese News Agency (APS) reported Friday. Full text...

Bujumbura- Burundi (PANA) -- Health authorities in Burundi said malaria is the country's "most serious public health problem," killing about 32 percent of the population. Full text...

Praia- Cape Verde (PANA) -- Health authorities in Cape Verde have started developing a national plan to control HIV/AIDS for the period 2002-2006, official sources said. Full text...

Nairobi- Kenya (PANA) -- Kenyan President Daniel arap Moi last evening left for New York, to attend the 26 session of the UN General Assembly on HIV/AIDS, slated for 25-27 June. Full text...

Maputo- Mozambique (PANA) -- Mozambican Prime Minister Pascoal Mocumbi has warned that unless political leaders deal frankly with questions of adolescent sexuality, there can be little hope of stopping the spread of the lethal disease AIDS in Africa. Full text...

Windhoek- Namibia (PANA) -- Aids is no longer a health issue alone, but indeed a developmental issue, the director of Namibian College of Open Learning (NAMCOL), Frances van Wyk, said Thursday. Full text...

Nairobi- Kenya (PANA) -- Kenyan parliamentarians were in uproar Thursday following revelations that the government refused a free offer of drugs to curb mother-to-child infections in HIV positive women. Full text...

Kinshasa- DR Congo (PANA) -- Six Congolese children with heart problems have been flown to Tel Aviv for medical treatment, financed by the Israeli government, official sources said in Kinshasa Thursday. Full text...

Accra- Ghana (PANA) -- Ghana's Trade and Industry Ministry Thursday announced a temporary ban on the importation of beef and beef products from Portugal, Belgium and the Netherlands. Full text...

Port Louis- Mauritius (PANA) -- At least 700 people die each year in Mauritius from diseases associated with tobacco consumption, Health Minister Ashok Jugnauth disclosed said Thursday. Full text...

Moroni- Comoros (PANA) -- As countries prepare for the AIDS conference in New York, Comoros (to be represented by Prime Minister Hamada Madi Bolero) does not appear to shown much interest in the fight against the pandemic. Full text...

Nairobi- Kenya (PANA) -- Two UN agencies Thursday donated over 257,000 US dollars worth of equipment to Kenya's health sector in a bid to strengthen its services throughout the country. Full text...

Windhoek- Namibia (PANA) -- The UN General Assembly will on Thursday convene a special session on HIV/AIDS in New York, USA. Full text...

Dakar- Senegal (PANA) -- If government censors get their way at next week's UN conference on HIV/AIDS, the denial and discrimination that have helped spread the disease will continue unabated, Human Rights Watch charged Wednesday. Full text...

Monrovia- Liberia (PANA) -- The World Health Organisation Wednesday warned that "bloody" diarrhoea and cholera cases might increase in Liberia during this rainy season. Full text...

Cotonou- Benin (PANA) -- Cotonou teaching hospital's paediatric ward accounted for 16,071 out of the 25,307 cases HIV/AIDS among children born in Benin's economic capital. Full text...

Bissau- Guinea Bissau (PANA) -- A score of Cubans doctors recruited to work in Guinea Bissau were on Tuesday introduced to the country's National Assembly. Full text...

Niamey- Niger (PANA) -- Niger's public and private radio journalists Tuesday underwent a day-long training programme to help them improve their knowledge of the HIV/AIDS. Full text...

Nairobi- Kenya (PANA) -- In a move expected to be a boon to Sub-Saharan Africa where infant mortality rates continue on the rise, the World Health Organisation (WHO) in collaboration with the UNICEF have announced a new initiative designed to halve deaths through measles by 2005. Full text...

Conakry- Guinea (PANA) -- Some twenty NGOs in Conakry, Guinea have joint ranks to fight HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases in the country. Full text...

Khartoum- Sudan (PANA) -- A Sudanese anaesthetist doctor has questioned the safety measures followed in the country's surgical wards with respect to the drugs and apparatus used. Full text...

Praia- Cape Verde (PANA) -- Health authorities in Cape Verde say their general health objective is to improve access and health care for the population, increase the level and efficiency of health services and reduce the rate of infant and maternal mortality. Full text...

Cape Town- South Africa (PANA) -- A seven-year-old Russian child has been given the chance of leading a normal life after undergoing extensive heart surgery in Cape Town. Full text...

Addis Ababa- Ethiopia, (PANA) -- The World Health Organisation (WHO) has estimated its programmes in Ethiopia for 2000-2001 at more than 24. Full text...

Addis Ababa- Ethiopia, (PANA) -- The World Health Organisation (WHO) Tuesday said it spent over 24. Full text...

Addis Ababa- Ethiopia (PANA) -- The World Health Organisation (WHO) says it is spending 24. Full text...

Kinshasa- DR Congo (PANA) -- Health Minister Leonard Mashako Mamba has solicited the active involvement of the UN Observer Mission in the Congo (MONUC) staff, in the country's 2001 National Immunisation programme. Full text...

Dakar- Senegal (PANA) -- Senegalese Health Minister, Awa Marie Coll Seck, has unveiled plans to promote bulk purchase of drugs at regional and sub-regional level. Full text...

Bujumbura- Burundi (PANA) -- Concentration of displaced persons in camps and promiscuity are blamed for the increasing rate of HIV infection in Burundi's population. Full text...

Freetown- Sierra Leone (PANA) -- Scabies, bloody Diarrhoea malnutrition and other undiagnosed diseases are rampant among residents returning to Sierra Leone's diamond-rich Kono district. Full text...

Rundu- Namibia (PANA) -- AIDS has turned into a major killer in Namibia's Kavango region where it has rapidly increased mainly among people aged between 15-45 years. Full text...

Lagos- Nigeria (PANA) -- Nigeria's public sector medical doctors have suspended their 18-day strike, called to press for better remuneration and payment of backlog of salaries. Full text...

Nairobi- Kenya (PANA) -- Public service officers in Kenya are to be drilled in dealing with new challenges posed by the HIV/AIDS in the country. Full text...

Accra- Ghana (PANA) -- A Ghanaian medical doctor has cautioned patients against turning to spiritual healers, warning that such clerics do not have the cure for HIV/AIDS. Full text...

Bujumbura- Burundi (PANA) -- A typhus epidemic, reported in several communes of the Muramvya Province in Burundi where 126 cases were declared several days ago, has killed nine people. Full text...

Tripoli- Libya (PANA) -- Lawyers defending six Bulgarian health personnel and a Palestinian doctor accused of infecting more than 400 Libyan children with HIV were expected to wind-up their submission Sunday in the Libyan People's Court. Full text...

Ouagadougou- Burkina Faso (PANA) -- A national network composed essentially of persons living with HIV/AIDS, was Saturday set up in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso at the end of a forum advocating greater involvement of patients in the fight against HIV. Full text...

Maputo- Mozambique (PANA) -- The Mozambican Health ministry has indicated it plans to include, beginning July, Hepatitis B vaccination in the ongoing national immunisation programme. Full text...

Lagos- Nigeria (PANA) -- Nigeria's public sector medical doctors have suspended their 18-day strike called to press for a better remuneration package and the payment of salary arrears. Full text...

Dakar- Senegal (PANA) -- The chairman of the National Order of Pharmacists in Senegal, has appealed for pharmacists across the country to have access to anti-retrovirals (ARV) in order to make them available to needy citizens. Full text...

Dakar- Senegal (PANA) -- Senegalese Health minister Awa Marie Coll Seck will on Saturday in Dakar launch an initiative dubbed 'Secure the Future,' directed at the plight of HIV/AIDS sufferers across West Africa. Full text...

Niamey- Niger (PANA) -- At least 60 percent of people sampled in a survey in Niger recognised the HIV/AIDS pandemic as the most serious public health problem in the country after Malaria, Meningitis and Measles. Full text...

Bujumbura- Burundi (PANA) -- Some 20 barbers in Bujumbura have undergone a training session on HIV/AIDS transmission and prevention in their daily activities. Full text...

Abidjan- Cote d'Ivoire (PANA) -- A sickle-cell control association in Cote d'Ivoire intends to launch an awareness campaign to enable sufferers to live with the disease. Full text...

Niamey- Niger (PANA) -- Niger has launched an information and sensitisation campaign on HIV/AIDS with officials urging the press and NGOs to join efforts at educating the public on preventive measures. Full text...

Nairobi- Kenya (PANA) -- There are growing fears in health and administrative circles in Africa, and especially in Kenya, that the battle against tuberculosis on the continent could be lost as a result of the high rate of HIV infection among its population. Full text...