South African President Thabo Mbeki has reportedly said he will refrain from further public comment on Aids and HIV - a subject which has drawn the president into increasing controversy in recent months. The South African Sunday Times reported that Mr Mbeki had made the announcement to the executive committee of the ru
The Aids crisis in South-East Asia could soon match the severity of the epidemic in Africa, researchers have told a medical conference. Between 360 and 400 new patients are diagnosed with HIV every month in Malaysia , Associate Professor Adeeba Kamarulzaman, from the University of Malaya, told the gathering of medical
Zambia has rejected the offer of a World Bank loan to fund the fight against AIDS. The loan was to have been Zambia s share of a total of nearly four-billion dollars which is being offered to several southern African states. The Zambian health minister, David Mpamba, said the reason for the rejection was the World Ba
A growing number of people in one of Wales s biggest towns are contracting HIV - the virus which leads to Aids. A new report has said health professionals in Wrexham are becoming increasingly concerned about the numbers contracting the virus. Many are thought to have contracted the virus through sexual contact with cur
Aids is at epidemic proportions across Africa The Aids epidemic in South Africa has reached alarming new levels, with 10% of the population now infected with HIV. A national survey of 17,000 women attending pre-natal clinics confirmed that the country has one of the highest rates of infection in the world. HIV cont
A shop manager who was sacked for being HIV positive is to receive thousands of pounds in compensation after reaching a settlement with his former employers. Mark Hedley, who ran the Aldi supermarket in Seaham, County Durham, was asked to leave because bosses said other staff felt uncomfortable around him. Mr Hedley, o
The future of a south Wales centre supporting people with HIV is in doubt. Funding problems for Cardiff Body Positive have occurred as fears grow over an increase in the number of people contracting the virus through heterosexual sex. The incidence of heterosexual cases now outstrips homosexual ones. Now the dispute ov
More people in the UK contracted HIV through heterosexual sex rather than homosexual activity for the first time last year. The number of diagnoses of heterosexually-acquired HIV - 1,070 - in 1999 was higher than the 989 infections acquired through sex between men. The decline in people dying from HIV and Aids in the U
A group of prostitutes thought to be immune to HIV have developed the virus, causing dismay to scientists hoping to develop an Aids vaccine. It was thought that exposure to HIV on a regular basis created immunity, but six Kenyan women previously thought to be resistant are now HIV-positive. The women are all former pro
Scottish NHS workers lives are being put at risk through needlestick injuries, according to health union Unison. The union has identified five health workers who have contracted HIV in the past few years due to needle accidents. Two of those have already died and the union has renewed its call for the introduction of s
Emotions will be running high in EastEnders next week as Mark Fowler - played by Todd Carty - lies critical in hospital with pneumonia. In Monday night s episode, fans of the BBC soap will see Mark fighting for his life as the illness makes him progressively weaker and unable to breathe. At his bedside, his mother Paul
Research in Zambia shows a substantial decline in the number of women testing HIV positive between the ages of 15 and 19. The survey was carried out by the Zambian Department of Health and involved 12,000 women tested at ante-natal clinics in locations throughout the country. HIV/Aids statistics: 33.6 million p
Governments in Southern Africa have broadly welcomed the United Nations Security Council meeting on Aids and HIV infection. During the meeting - the first time the Security Council has ever considered a health issue - the United States promised an extra $110m towards programmes aimed at containing the spread of Aids an
United States Vice-President Al Gore has announced plans for a major financial contribution to the fight against Aids. Mr Gore told a special meeting of the United Nations Security Council devoted to Africa that the US Government will ask Congress to approve an extra $100m to combat Aids. He said the extra money
US Vice-President Al Gore is to announce a major financial contribution to the fight against Aids in Africa at a special meeting of the UN Security Council on Monday. It is the first time the security council has discussed a health issue in more than 4,000 meetings. The vice president will make a major statement of US
Scientists monitoring the spread of Aids say the number of people dying from the disease in Europe is going down. A study by the international Eurosida project of fifteen-thousand people infected with the HIV virus found an increasing number of patients taking a powerful mixture of drugs which stopped Aids developing a
Medication prescribed to HIV-infected patients causes 10% of them to suffer liver damage severe enough to merit ending the treatment, researchers have found. The problem is particularly severe among those taking the protease inhibitor, ritonavir . Researchers from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, US, found
Kenyan President Daniel arap Moi has made the threat of Aids the keynote of his New Year s address. He called on Africans to unite in the face of the deadly epidemic racing across our land . Calling Aids the biggest human disaster in the region since sleeping sickness left several million people dead at the turn of the
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