TB, once thought to be a disease of the past or at the very least a disease restricted to poor countries, has re-emerged as the greatest threat to people living with HIV (PLHIV). It now threatens to reverse the huge gains made in the HIV and AIDS arena over the past 25 years. The HIV epidemic is reviving an old problem in well-resourced countries and greatly worsening an existing problem in resource-poor countries. One of the greatest challenges confronting service providers is that the best available treatments are of limited efficacy and are reaching only a small fraction of people who need them. Universal access to effective TB treatment is unachievable with current tools.

SOUTH AFRICA, 11 August 2008 (Health - e) - The health department has withdrawn two widely-dispensed tuberculosis (TB) drug combination batches after preliminary investigations revealed the drugs became unstable under long-term storage, ultimately placing patients at risk of not receiving their optimal dosage.

The persistent and increasing outbreaks of violence against members of the gay community in Africa are jeopardising efforts undertaken to combat HIV, both within this group and across the population as a whole, AIDS activists warned at a recent meeting in Limbé, Cameroon.

The underlying cause of respiratory infections that cannot be detected using standard sputum tests differs between Asia and Africa, according to French research published in the July 11^th edition of AIDS.

The National AIDS Trust is calling for sex and relationships education in schools to deal with same sex relationships, after figures released from the Health Protection Agency show that the number of young men diagnosed with HIV has more than doubled in the last decade.