Patent busting: Zimbabwe has declared a six-month national emergency and suspended import restrictions on drugs to treat HIV/Aids. The move, published on Monday by the Ministry of Justice, will allow cheaper generic drugs to be imported without being submitted to the normal testing and registration regime. It is estimated that a quarter of Zimbabwean adults are infected and that 7 000 new infections occur every day. Life expectancy has fallen to 40 from 60 over the past decade.
Tested: Minister of Transport Dullah Omar revealed that he is HIV-negative after publicly taking an HIV test at Cape Town railway station. Omar said he would have revealed the result even if it had been positive. His wife, Farieda, said the couple had been having wonderful sex for 40 years and called for people to be monogamous.
African vaccine: A meeting next week will plan how to raise $233-million for the African Aids Vaccine Programme. The programme would concentrate on strains of the virus found in Africa, some of which are not common in other parts of the world.
Sources: www.redribbon.co.za and news organisations