World AIDS conferences always provide an opportunity for rich countries, aid agencies and international agencies to announce new funding initiatives to fight HIV/AIDS and gain maximum public relations exposure.

What about the "mother" part of mother-to-child HIV transmission (MTCT) programmes? That has been a key question raised over the past few years by AIDS activists concerned that the programmes are saving babies but condemning them to live as orphans.

A traditional African herbal medicine, METRAFAIDS, has shown to substantially reduce the viral loads of HIV positive patients and increase their CD4 (immunity) counts, it was announced at the International AIDS Conference today (Thursday).