Full Coverage: AIDS

31.03.2006 People living with HIV/AIDS are taking on drug major GlaxoSmithKline's efforts to patent its AIDS-medicine Combivir in India.The Manipur Network of Positive People (MNP+), under the aegis of the Indian Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS (INP+) has filed a pre-grant opposition to GSK's patent application at the Indian Patent office in Kolkata.

31.03.2006 HIV infections in southern India have fallen by a third over a four-year period, raising hopes that the tide of the disease could be reversed in one of the country's worst-hit regions. A study published in the Lancet looked at data from the four south Indian states that account for 75 per cent of India's 5.1 million people infected with the virus.

31.03.2006 An Indian group of people living with HIV/AIDS have opposed a patent application filed by global pharma major GlaxoSmithKline for Combivir, a fixed dose combination AIDS drug on the grounds that it would make the treatment unaffordable. A number of Indian NGOs have submitted their opposition, based on technical and health grounds, to a patent application filed at the Kolkata patent office by the company.

28.03.2006 UNESCO releases a new report Education Sector Global HIV & AIDS Readiness Survey 2004: Policy Implications for Education and Development on the readiness of the global education sector to mitigate the impact of HIV/AIDS.

12.03.2006 The AIDS epidemic's impact on families in Namibia has been so great that the government has created a new official category: "Child-Headed Household." A new documentary on OneWorld TV illuminates Namibians' daily struggles.

10.03.2006

09.03.2006 The pre-occupation of U.S. officials with oil and guns will stand in stark contrast to the expressed concern of the American people regarding the ongoing genocide in Darfur and global health challenges like HIV/AIDS and the bird flu, says Washington D.C.-based Africa Action in it annual U.S. policy review.

06.03.2006 Despite her diminutive frame, Hulligamma, once a devadasi in Bellary district in Karnataka, has taken up the role of a dominant spokesperson for bringing HIV/AIDS issues out in the open. From Shruba Mukherjee DH News Service New Delhi.

02.03.2006 The Indian government plans to cut customs duty on 10 AIDS and 14 cancer-fighting drugs, to 5 per cent from the previous 15 per cent. Customs duty on certain life-saving drugs, kits and equipment too will be similarly reduced. These drugs will also be exempt from excise duty and countervailing duty.

01.03.2006 H.E.R.A. – Health Education and Research Association came out in public today with strong condemnation of the manner in which the Macedonian daily newspapers covered the death of an HIV positive patient.