The health department has announced with great fanfare that it '€œmet its target'€ for the year with at least one anti-retroviral service point in each of the 53 districts.

Several private sector pharmacies have run out of the Glaxo-Smith-Kline drug 3TC, an anti-retroviral drug used in combination with others. Indications are that GSK is struggling to meet demand.

As South Africa joins the world in celebrating the 10th anniversary of the commitments made at the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing this week, the threat posed by HIV/AIDS to women'€™s development, particularly in the developing world, continues to grow. Health-e, reports.

It'€™s been a month since she'€™s been the national Chief Director of the HIV and AIDS, TB and STI'€™s cluster. Dr Nomonde Xundu admits that she comes to the job at a time when '€œa lot of work has been done already'€. Her predecessor Dr Nono Simelela, left the post late last year after a perceived '€œfrustration'€ at the government'€™s slow pace in ensuring treatment for people living with HIV and AIDS. In this report, we find out who Dr Nomonde Xundu is.

After the post remained vacant for a couple of months, the national Department of Health now has a new Chief Director for the HIV and AIDS, TB and STI'€™s cluster. Dr Nomonde Xundu'€™s appointment comes at a crucial time when implementation of the Care and Treatment Plan for HIV and AIDS needs to be strengthened. A bit uncomfortable, she spoke to Health-e about what work awaits her.

First, the Catholic Church charged that they encourage immoral sexual behaviour and that they actually contribute to the spread of HIV. Now IFP leader Chief Mangosuthu Buthelezi says '€œif we rely on a piece of rubber for our salvation, then we are already doomed'€. Health-e News Service, explores the issue.

The Ministry of Health has ordered that all references to the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC), gays and pictures of Patricia de Lille and Judge Edwin Cameron be removed from a '€œtoolkit'€ aimed at empowering people living with HIV/AIDS.

A leading scientific journal has criticised Government for being defensive over deaths from HIV/AIDS and urged it to show backbone and courage in tackling "the crisis of its people".

SABC 1 will from this Monday air a two-part documentary, Law and Freedom, narrated and directed by Zackie Achmat, leader of the Treatment Action Campaign, a movement that has brought about significant change via the courts.

New research suggests that starting antiretroviral therapy while the immune system is still relatively strong rather than at the later stages of HIV infection could be beneficial. Up to so far, guidelines on AIDS treatment require that ARV'€™s should be started when a person'€™s CD 4 cell-count reaches the clinically crucial 200 mark or less. Health-e News Service, reports.

Four pioneering doctors who encountered the first cases of HIV and Aids in South Africa look back on the epidemic.

HIV prevalence in the Western Cape is the lowest in the country - 13,1 percent compared to a national figure of 27,9 percent in the 2003 Antenatal HIV Prevalence Survey. However in parts of the province levels are much higher.

The panic, fear and gay backlash caused by HIV/AIDS has subsided in San Francisco and the city is once more celebrating free sexual expression.