More Than Half Of Russian Prisoners Ill, Many With HIV, TB “Almost half of inmates in Russia’s notorious prison system are ill, many infected with HIV or with tuberculosis, the country’s Federal Prison Service said late Tuesday,” Reuters reports. Out of 846,000 prisoners, 55,000 are infected with HIV and 40,000…

Court Accepts China’s First HIV Discrimination Case, State Media Reports  “A municipal court in central China has accepted the country’s first lawsuit alleging work discrimination because of HIV status, state media reported Tuesday,” the Associated Press reports (8/31). “The lawsuit alleges city officials denied the plaintiff, a recent college graduate,…

Food Aid Hindered Progress Of Democracy In Africa “The best way to help the millions of hungry people in countries that receive food aid get rid of their corrupt and incompetent rulers – and to ensure that their children will never go hungry in future — is to starve them now.…

Despite Church’s Opposition, Philippines To Distribute Contraceptives The government of the Philippines “will provide contraceptives to poor couples who request it despite strong opposition from the dominant Roman Catholic church” to which more than 80 percent of the country belongs, Agence France-Presse reports. President Benigno Aquino said during a visit to the United States last…

Experts gathered at a joint meeting of UNAIDS and the WHO last week called for two additional clinical trials to test the effectiveness and safety of a microbicide vaginal gel containing the antiretroviral tenofovir, which previous studies have shown reduces the risk of HIV transmission in women who used it before and after sex by 39 percent, PANA/Afrique en ligne reports (9/5).

“A record 1.2 million people in low- and middle-income countries started antiretroviral therapy for HIV/AIDS in 2009” – a 30 percent increase from the previous year and a 13-fold increase in six years, according to a joint report released Tuesday by the WHO, UNICEF and UNAIDS, Reuters reports. In total, the report found that 5.25 million people received antiretroviral therapy (ART) in 2009, three-quarters of them living in Africa (Migiro, 9/28).

Experimental Dengue Vaccine Enters Final Trials, Could Be Commercially Available In 5 Years A dengue vaccine 10 years in the making could be on the market within five years, according to Australian researchers, the country’s ABC News reports. A team at the Institute for Child Health Research “is about to…

“Ten years after world leaders set the most ambitious goals ever to tackle global poverty, they are meeting again to try to spur action to meet the targets by the 2015 deadline – which the U.N. says will be difficult, if not impossible, in some cases,” the Associated Press reports. More than 140 world leaders are scheduled to participate in the three-day U.N. Summit on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which kicks off Monday.

Catholic Church Critical Of Filipino President’s Stance On Contraception Catholic Church representatives have criticized Filipino President Benigno Aquino’s support for contraception, the Associated Press reports. The Reverend Deogracias Yniguez of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines told AP, “The whole church is against it,” and Reverend Melvin Castro “said church officials…

“African leaders said on Tuesday they could do more to meet U.N. goals to slash extreme poverty and urged stronger leadership among developing countries to tackle hunger and disease and attract investment,” Reuters reports in an article that examines the leaders call for African nations to take greater ownership of their development.