Positive. That'€™s the only way to describe the attitude of Dr Liz Floyd, Gauteng'€™s head of HIV/AIDS, to the province'€™s campaign against the disease over the past year.

White South Africans know less and worry less about HIV/AIDS than other race groups, while young people are more likely to accept having sex in exchange for money.

Since its launch on World AIDS Day two years ago, the Diflucan partnership between the government and the drug company, Pfizer, has brought relief to thousands of South Africans. By Khopotso Bodibe.

While rape survivors country-wide are supposed to be able to get free anti-retroviral drugs to protect them from HIV, the programme is far from easy to implement. Kerry Cullinan reports.

Non-governmental organisations are providing sterling service when it comes to the provision of Home-based care for people living with HIV/AIDS says Dr Fareed Abdullah of the Western Cape Department of Health. In this report we talk to patients who benefit from the Red Cross Society'€™s Home-based Care Project in Khayelitsha.

In a move that could be viewed as another positive step towards the roll out of anti-retroviral treatment for HIV positive adults, activists have reviewed their December 1 deadline and have agreed to give Government until the end of February to adopt a national treatment plan.

Almost every promise made by rich donors to stop the rampant devastation malaria is causing in Africa has become a piece of paper on a shelf, according to Jeffrey Sachs special advisor to United Nations Secretary General Koffi Anan.

South Africa's Medicines Control Council will have to wait until the end of the year for a report from the United States which will guide its decision on whether to review the registration of nevirapine for the prevention of mother to child transmission (PMTCT) of HIV.

Underweight mothers and children, unsafe sex, high blood pressure, tobacco and alcohol are the leading contributors to the global burden of disease, according to the World Health Report.

National Union of Mineworkers president, Mthuthuzeli Tom says efforts by motor industries to combat HIV/AIDS, are welcomed by his organization but added that a lot still needed to be done to curtail the spread of HIV in the work place.

Organisations of people living with HIV/AIDS will as from Monday (28-10-02) gather under one roof in a four-day summit aimed at assessing the way South Africa is responding to the AIDS crisis. The summit, convened by Thanduxolo Doro, representative of the PWA community on the SANAC, is in itself a response to a call made by the national AIDS co-ordinating body for every sector member to hold individual sectoral summits to discuss their future role and scope of work within the AIDS pandemic. Khopotso Bodibe looks ahead at the summit.

The time has come for men to become actively involved in combating violence against women says Bob R F Phato who presented a Men'€™s Forum petition Deputy President Jacob Zuma recently. Phato said the unacceptably high level of HIV infection was also a men'€™s issue and that men should begin to assume greater responsibility for health.

It is still not clear whether people living with HIV/AIDS in KwaZulu-Natal will ever see any of the $72-million granted to the province in April by the Global Fund to Fight HIV/AIDS, TB and Malaria (GFATM). The Global Fund has indicated that from this week it will start to disburse money to projects approved in its first round of applications '€“ but unless procedural problems surrounding the KZN grant are cleared up, this province'€™s money will not come through. Kerry Cullinan reports.