South Africa has the highest rate of mesothelioma in the world, as we were one of a handful of countries that extensively mined the most dangerous "blue asbestos".

The newly constituted board of the $1,9-billion Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria yesterday (Tues 29) called for funding proposals from "country partnerships" affected by the three epidemics, saying money would be disbursed from April.

A man who was exposed to asbestos fibres as a nine-year old is suing a leading asbestos manufacturer for R7-million for a rare form of cancer which he believes was caused by the exposure.

In defiance of the Patents Act, the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) and the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) have brought generic anti-retroviral drugs into the country from Brazil, a move that is set to spur another showdown with Government. Three TAC members, including the chairperson Zackie Achmat, as well as Cosatu representative Joyce Pekane arrived from Brazil on Monday with a consignment of anti-retrovirals that will be used for the Medicins Sans Frontieres treatment programme currently running in Khayelitsha.