More health workers are dying and getting sick, and patient loads are rising, as the HIV epidemic becomes an AIDS epidemic.

Unless a solution is found to the impasse over nevirapine, government may have to use other drugs to treat 80 000 women on its prevention of mother-to-child programme.

The need for new and innovative ways to attract resources to the cash-strapped Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria in developing nations was the subject of discussions at the one-day International Meeting to Support the Global Fund held in Paris, France, yesterday (Wed 16/07/03).

Telling people in the developing world about what the Global Fund to fight AIDS, TB and Malaria can do for their communities, is one of major challenges facing the organisation.

Instead of waiting for resources from national government on how to deal with HIV/AIDS, McCord Hospital in Durban has implemented its own fundraising plans driven by people living with the disease.

Testicular cancer is a cancer of the testicles that can affect males from 15 years of age to 40. According to the Cancer Association of South Africa, testicular cancer rarely occurs in early teens and in men over the age of 40, but boys who reach puberty early at 9 or 10 years of age, have a higher risk of testicular cancer. According to Khaya Nkontso a co-ordinator for the '€œMen As Partners'€ programme of the Planned Parenthood Association of South Africa in Cape Town, men are largely ignorant about the kinds of cancers that can affect them and reluctant to talk about them '€“ something the '€œMen As Partners'€ programme is trying to overcome.

Botswana has one of the highest HIV prevalence rates in the world. It is estimated that around 38.8 percent adults between the ages of 15 to 59 are living with HIV. According to Limpet Mpotokwane, a Programme Development Manager for African Comprehensive HIV/AIDS Partnerships in Botswana, alcohol abuse is one of the key factors fueling the HIV pandemic, along with poverty and the mobility of Botswana between urban and rural areas. She says her government and the communities are ready to take the bull by the horns in formulating a new national forum that will oversee programmes to assist people with alcohol abuse and HIV.

The death of a budding Johannesburg film-maker, Mpumi Njinge, due to AIDS in October last year left sadness and a deep void amongst his friends and family. On a personal level, Mpumi faced a double prejudice, not only was he living with HIV/AIDS, he was also gay. However, instead of the shame and silence that often accompanies HIV, Mpumi's death has brought his friends together to discuss the possibility of preventing further losses to AIDS.