UNAIDS head Michel Sidibe on Monday called for a “prevention revolution” to fight HIV/AIDS and addressed laws he says make high-risk groups more vulnerable to the disease, the Associated Press reports. Speaking to a group of journalists in New York, Sidibe “said ‘it is unacceptable’ that 85 countries still have laws criminalizing same sex relations among adults, including seven that impose the death penalty for homosexual practices,” the news service writes.

Los Angeles Times Examines China’s Health Care Overhaul The Los Angeles Times examines China’s transition to “Western-style privatized medicine” through the government’s “$124-billion overhaul, chiefly to improve service in rural areas.” The article details the efforts of a woman from Inner Mongolia to get care in Beijing for her ailing…

U.S. lawmakers on Wednesday introduced a congressional resolution condemning an anti-gay bill before Uganda’s parliament, “calling it an attack on human rights and an obstacle to battling HIV/AIDS,” Agence France-Presse reports. “The symbolic measure asserts that ‘all people possess an intrinsic human dignity, regardless of sexual orientation, and share fundamental human rights,’ and warns the Ugandan bill, if enacted, ‘would set a troubling precedent,'” the news service writes.

$60M USAID Waste Management Project In Afghanistan USAID will spend $60 million through 2012 on “waste management, drainage channels and roadside ditches, the rehabilitation of city parks and sports fields, and other greenery programmes in Kabul,” Afghanistan, IRIN reports. The article also looks at the health effects of unmanaged waste in…

Government-Backed Gay Bar Opens In China Aims To Educate About HIV Prevention “A gay bar partially funded by the government of a Chinese city heavily affected by AIDS has finally opened after a delay caused by intense media interest which the owners felt may scared off potential patrons,” Reuters Life!…

News Outlets Examine Reaction To Uganda’s Anti-Gay Legislation Effect On HIV/AIDS Efforts The Daily Monitor reports on a statement released Friday by U.S. Senator Russ Feingold (D-Wis.), chair of the Senate’s Committee on Africa, on Uganda’s anti-gay legislation. “Its passage would hurt the close working relationship between our two countries, especially…

A report released Wednesday by the Commission on AIDS in the Pacific region outlines the challenges of preventing the spread of HIV in “22 geographically and culturally diverse countries” of the Pacific and recommends efforts to scale up the region’s fight against HIV/AIDS, U.N. News Centre reports.

U.S. To Give Philippines $10M In Food Aid, Ambassador Says U.S. Ambassador to the Philippines Kristie Kenney said the U.S. will give the country an additional $10 million worth of food aid for people affect by the recent typhoons, the Manila Bulletin reports. This brings “the total amount of its…

Marking World AIDS Day on Tuesday, U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon “warned … that new infections are outpacing the gains from treating people with the HIV virus” and that discrimination against HIV-positive people remains “widespread,” the Associated Press reports.

News outlets continued to examine the 2009 AIDS epidemic update released Tuesday by the WHO and UNAIDS: “The U.N. report said ‘AIDS continues to be a major public-health priority’ and called for more funds to support efforts to curb the epidemic and to distribute lifesaving drugs,” the Wall Street Journal reports. “The U.N. report also suggested that health authorities need to focus resources on those most at risk” (Fairclough, 11/25).