Through vivid examples of refused school enrolment, visa denials, and countless negative assumptions in his interactions with other people, Winstone Zulu shares his reflections and experiences of physical disability, discrimination, and the stigma surrounding HIV/AIDS. Though disability rights may have to compete with a wide range of other issues for adequate recognition, the author speaks of his optimism around the prospects for genuine equality for people with disabilities.

“The powerful play goes on and you may contribute a verse”

About a year ago, CNN and Time declared the identification of male circumcision as a preventive measure against HIV infection as the biggest medical breakthrough of 2007. Having worked on one of the studies that led to this “discovery” several years before, I quickly penned something which was published on on the 20th December 2007 .

Reviewing the experiences of blind people living with HIV/AIDS, Elly Macha discusses the development of the African Union of the Blind (AFUB), an umbrella organisation operating in some 50 African countries that addresses issues facing blind and partially sighted persons in relation to the HIV/AIDS pandemic. Aiming to tackle the range of problematic experiences faced by blind individuals, AFUB has undertaken peer education training workshops in ten countries with the aim of empowering visually impaired participants and exploring ways in which HIV programmes and services can be made more accessible for those with impaired vision.

In just 132 pages of text, the book covers the AIDS waterfront, though I suspect the volume's greatest appeal will be for those, like me, who come to the issue from a non-medical, non-scientific background and whose focus is Africa. Most of the book looks at the socio-economic components of AIDS and most of the examples are from southern Africa where, after all, the pandemic is at its most devastating and the needs are greatest. If prevention is universally needed, if all AIDS patients need proper treatment, good nutrition and adequate care, southern Africa needs more of everything, urgently and desperately.

UNESCO’s culture and HIV and AIDS programme is developing and testing a toolkit on the use of arts to address HIV and AIDS-related stigma and discrimination in Zambia. The objective of the toolkit is to generate discussions and exercises facilitating learning and enhancing knowledge of key issues concerning HIV and AIDS related stigma and discrimination through arts.

I moved to South Africa 14 years ago from a very small country in central Africa. I always wanted to give my children a chance to grow up with a father figure since I had been a single mother for the first 15 years of their lives. I started corresponding with an old boyfriend living here in Johannesburg, and in January 1995, I visited him, rekindling the spark.

On 1 December 2008 over 130 media houses in 11 countries in the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) publicly launched HIV and AIDS policies as part of commemorations to mark World AIDS Day. The climax of a three-year Media Action Plan (MAP) on HIV and AIDS and Gender, simultaneous launches will take place in the Democratic Republic of the Congo; Lesotho; Madagascar; Malawi; Mauritius; Mozambique; Namibia; Seychelles; Swaziland; Tanzania; and Zambia.

Grammy Award winning singer and UNICEF goodwill ambassador Angelique Kidjo on Monday called for a relentless fight against AIDS in Africa, the world's most affected continent. "HIV-AIDS has become a huge issue for my continent and the fight against it must be relentless and determined," the Benin-born Kidjo told AFP in an interview to mark the World AIDS Day.

On the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the first observance of World AIDS Day, a new report by UNAIDS calls on countries to realign HIV prevention programmes through understanding how the most recent HIV infections were transmitted, and understanding the reasons why they occurred. “Not only will this approach help prevent the next 1,000 infections in each community, but it will also make money for AIDS work more effectively and help put forward a long term and sustainable AIDS response,” said UNAIDS Executive Director Dr Peter Piot.

The story of Samuel and Stella Malunga* is one of love and forgiveness in a time of HIV and AIDS. They met and fell in love while studying law at a university in neighbouring South Africa. Samuel graduated two years before Stella and returned to Zimbabwe but kept their relationship going until she was able to join him in 2000.

Countries in sub-Saharan Africa are looking at a new way of preventing HIV infections: criminal charges. But experts argue that applying criminal law to HIV transmission will achieve neither criminal justice nor curb the spread of the virus; rather, it will increase discrimination against people living with HIV, and undermine public health and human rights.

The party at a popular restaurant in Nairobi, the Kenyan capital, looks ordinary, but the people attending it - all of whom are HIV-positive - are enjoying a rare opportunity to socialise without feeling like an outsider. The young men and women spent the afternoon relaxing and getting to know each other; by the end of the evening new friends had been made, phone numbers exchanged and there were plans to meet again.

Sixty years after the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and on the 20th anniversary of World AIDS Day, people living with HIV in Mozambique are still experiencing frequent human rights abuses. "There are signs that many people have been the victims of violence, or even lost their lives, for having gone public about their HIV-positive status," said Alice Mabote, president of the Mozambican League of Human Rights.

When Mariana Uchandidhora's husband was killed in a traffic accident in South Africa a year ago, tradition required that she have sex with her deceased husband's brother in order to be purified. Uchandidhora, 36, refused, arguing that her brother-in-law was much younger than she was, but the family found an older man from outside the family to carry out the ritual, known as "khupita khufa". Two months later she discovered that she was both pregnant and HIV-positive.

A groundbreaking study published in mid-November by the Morocco section of the Pan-African Organisation for the Fight Against AIDS (OPALS) focused on an activity that is a major source of sexually transmitted diseases – prostitution. "Prostitution is closely linked with the economic, social and mental situation of those who are involved in it," the November 13th report said.

Universal HIV testing and immediate antiretroviral therapy for everyone diagnosed with HIV in a country with very high HIV prevalence could reduce new infections from 20 per thousand to 1 per thousand within ten years (a 95% reduction), according to findings from a mathematical modelling exercise carried out by the World Health Organization, published on November 26th by The Lancet.

The refusal of the Mbeki government to roll-out antiretroviral therapy and treatment to prevent mother-to child transmission in South Africa resulted in 330,000 needlessly premature HIV-related deaths and 35,000 avoidable case of mother-to-child HIV transmission according to estimates published in the December 1st edition of the Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes.

Over 3000 people are feared to have died so far from a severe cholera epidemic plaguing the country. With Mugabe’s regime keeping a tight lid on the number of people who have succumbed to the illness, the actual number could be much higher. Our Harare correspondent Simon Muchemwa told Newsreel the figure of 3000 dead could most likely be for Harare alone. He said most people did not bother to register the deaths of their relatives and this provided an added challenge to accurate record keeping.

All paracetamol-based drugs prescribed in Nigeria are being tested after the deaths of 29 children, who had taken contaminated medicine, officials say. The children died after drinking a baby teething mixture contaminated with diethylene glycol, a toxic substance normally used in engine coolant.

Zimbabwe's cholera outbreak is "under control," the deputy health minister said Wednesday, rejecting calls to declare a state of emergency after the disease claimed more than 360 lives."The situation is under under control. There is no need to declare it," Edwin Muguti told AFP, and blamed the situation on sanctions imposed by Western nations on President Robert Mugabe's regime.