Since testing positive for HIV six years ago, Cecilia Chinhamo has endured a torrent of verbal abuse from her husband.

An ambitious state plan that will almost double the number of people on antiretroviral (ARV) treatment by the end of 2010 has drawn mixed reactions from AIDS activists, but increased donor funding has made the government quietly confident.

A plan to expand the three percent AIDS levy to include those in the informal sector could have a negative impact on the lives of Zimbabweans, analysts have warned.

New research has found that Voluntary Counselling and Testing (VCT) services in Zambia are squandering the opportunity to reach clients with information about how to reduce their HIV risk.

South African President Jacob Zuma on Tuesday praised the late health minister Mantombazane Tshabalala-Msimang, saying the country should stop "dwelling on the negative" of her AIDS denialist policies.

While South Africa's HIV infection rate may have stabilised experts warn that the country's slow AIDS response has triggered a time bomb that may leave one in three children orphaned.

Sub-Saharan Africa still has the world's highest number of HIV cases, accounting for 67 percent of global infections, a United Nations reports said on Tuesday.

South Africans are dying younger and in greater numbers, and HIV/AIDS is to blame, according to a report released this week by the South African Institute of Race Relations.

GENEVA — In its first study of women's health around the globe, the World Health Organization said Monday that the AIDS virus is the leading cause of death and disease among women between the ages of 15 and 44.

A 22-year-old ban on people infected with HIV entering the US was officially lifted on 2 November, with the new rules taking effect in 60 days. AIDS activists have hailed the move as a major coup in the fight against stigma.

The billions of donor dollars spent on combating HIV/AIDS in the last decade, often at the expense of other fatal diseases, have done little to strengthen weak national health systems, some global health experts argue.

Germany has provided 23 million euros (34 million dollars) to help prevent AIDS in central Africa, the Organisation for the Coordination of the Struggle Against Epidemics in Central Africa (OCEAC) said Tuesday.

New funding for an innovative University at Buffalo program that trains Zimbabwe's clinician scientists and translational pharmacologists will bring additional health care professionals and researchers to Buffalo to be trained to fight the war on AIDS in Zimbabwe.

Janet Mpilime, 32, captain of the ARV Swallows, an all-woman football team based in the informal settlement of Epworth, 10km east of the Zimbabwean capital, Harare, has just led her team to a 2-1 victory over Sporting ART.