And would alternative policies deliver in the fight against HIV/AIDS?
This is what Rick Rowden, Senior Policy Analyst at ActionAid International USA, puts forward in his book “The Deadly Ideas of Neoliberalism: How the IMF has Undermined Public Health and the Fight Against AIDS”.

I have not read the book yet but went to the recent UK launch organised by the publisher Zed at the SOAS in London. I can only report on my first impressions about the thesis that IMF policies, by constraining and limiting health policies and budgets in poor …

IRIN/PlusNews has compiled a short list of the ways people refer to HIV/AIDS on the African continent.
Angola (Portuguese)
Pisar na mina – Contracting HIV is like having “stepped on a landmine”
Bichinho – “Little bug” (the virus)
Botswana (SeTswana)
Phamo kate – phamo “a quick snatch”, and kate “buried” (refers to AIDS)
Onale jwa radio – “He/she has the disease talked about on the radio” (radio is the primary method of disseminating HIV/AIDS knowledge)
Bolwestse jo booleng – “The illness that has befallen [us]” (euphemism for HIV and AIDS as a new illness)
Segajaja – meaning …

This is the second part of a true story told through a friend, a first person account of the life of Nhlanhla , a nurse in a Sub-Saharan country afflicted by HIV and AIDS (read part 1 here). Names, places and minor details have been changed to protect people’s privacy. It is a story of fear, stigma, discrimination but also of hope, the everyday story of a young woman whose life, on revealing to her family that she is HIV positive, spirals into hell and despair.

“A few days later I …

This is a true story told through a friend, a first person account of the life of Nhlanhla, a nurse in a Sub-Saharan country afflicted by HIV and AIDS. Names, places and minor details have been changed to protect people’s privacy. It is a story of fear, stigma, discrimination but also of hope, the everyday story of a young woman whose life, on revealing to her family that she is HIV positive, spirals into hell and despair.
“Over the year, Nhlanhla has faced many challenges in finding out she was HIV …

During the opening ceremony of the 2008 AIDS Vaccine Conference in Cape Town, Barbara Hogan who was recently appointed Minister of Health following the demise of Dr Beetroot, said “We know that HIV causes Aids”.
It was a “breath of fresh air” reacted Alan Berstein, executive director of the Global HIV Vaccine Enterprise.
Unfortunately I missed this historic moment but the Cape Times reports that Mrs Hogan is confident that a reform of the health system is possible and will scale up treatment to prevent mother-to-child transmission. She also challenged scientists and researchers to …