KATIMA MULILO, 23 June (PLUSNEWS) - Almost three years ago, the privately funded Mapilelo ('Place of Survival') project began providing people in the impoverished northeastern Caprivi region with anti-AIDS drugs. Full report

LUSAKA, 22 June (PLUSNEWS) - The low uptake of HIV voluntary counselling and testing (VCT) services in Zambia has forced the government to come up with a national testing day to encourage more people to know their status. Full report

ADDIS ABABA, 21 June (PLUSNEWS) - With an estimated 2.6 million children orphaned by HIV/AIDS over the last decade, Ethiopia faces an uphill battle in its attempts to care for these children. Full report

NAIROBI, 19 June (PLUSNEWS) - Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki's recent announcement that antiretroviral (ARV) treatment will now be free of charge in public hospitals came as a welcome relief, particularly to the East African nation's HIV-positive people. Full report

CAPE TOWN, 19 June (PLUSNEWS) - South Africa's Western Cape province has so far maintained the lowest HIV prevalence rate in the battle against AIDS, but this could be changing. Full report

GABORONE, 13 June (PLUSNEWS) - The sustainability of the national HIV treatment programme in Botswana, and elsewhere in Africa, depends on avoiding widespread drug resistance that could threaten long-term affordability. Patients who miss even five percent of their drug doses can develop resistant strains of the virus, and will need to switch to second-line medication at more than double the cost. Full report

KIGALI, 23 June (PLUSNEWS) - The member states of the Great Lakes Initiative on HIV/AIDS (GLIA) have agreed to strengthen their cooperation on HIV issues in order to reduce the effects of the pandemic in this badly affected region. Full report

NAIROBI, 15 June (PLUSNEWS) - A regional workshop in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, ended on Wednesday with a call for seven states in east Africa to address HIV/AIDS among mobile cross-border populations in the Horn of Africa. Full report

JOHANNESBURG, 14 June (PLUSNEWS) - Senior UN and British officials lauded Malawi's progress against HIV/AIDS at the end of a three-day mission on Wednesday, but warned against complacency. Full report

JOHANNESBURG, 14 June (PLUSNEWS) - Anti-AIDS treatment programmes need to expand dramatically in Africa if we are to reach all those in need, the acting US Global AIDS Coordinator, Dr Mark Dybul, said on Tuesday. Full report

JOHANNESBURG, 14 June (PLUSNEWS) - South African AIDS lobby group, Treatment Action Campaign (TAC), says the government should not dictate how donor funds are spent on the pandemic. Full report

JOHANNESBURG, 13 June (PLUSNEWS) - Financial institutions in Rwanda's western district of Karongi are denying loans to people, based on their HIV status, activists have said. Full report