A researcher at the Witwatersrand University'€™s Analytical Pathology Department, Dr Zodwa Dlamini, says home-made African traditional beer may not be as toxic as it'€™s recently been reported to be.

A major HIV vaccine trial is underway in five sites across South Africa. As the country and medical research community alike are coming to terms with the abrupt end of a microbicide candidate vaccine trial, Dr Busi Nkala, Director of the vaccine study at the Perinatal HIV Research Unit in Soweto, says the safety of patients is a key priority throughout the trial.

Senior Vice-President of the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative, Dr Wayne Koff, has denied media reports that his organization is using citizens of developing countries as 'guinea pigs' to test ineffective vaccines that have failed elsewhere.

About 208 former employees of the Nuclear Energy Corporation of South Africa (NECSA) in Pelindaba, Pretoria are suffering from asthma, cancer and myetoma. Although the cause of their illnesses is not clear, it is believed that they are suffering from occupational diseases.