Babies of HIV-positive mothers are twice as likely to become infected by the virus if they are given formula milk in addition to breast milk, and the risk rises eleven-fold if they are given solid foods, South African researchers have found. Exactly why mixing breastfeeding with other foods increases the risk of HIV infection is still unknown.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) said recently that the global tuberculosis epidemic may be leveling off, but this optimism is undermined by the reality of incomplete detection of the disease, high levels of mortality and poor information about the extent of drug resistant forms of the disease.

Recently, the national consultation conference on the draft HIV and Aids and STI Strategic Plan for South Africa 2007-2011 revealed the long awaited plan, which provides a blueprint for a cohesive national strategy to prevent further infections and alleviate some of the impacts of the epidemic.

At 11.22am, as the needle drew back from 19-year-old Thabo’s arm in a room in Soweto, applause rang out. South Africa’s largest anti-HIV vaccine trial had begun. Researchers hope the MRKAd5 multivalent HIV vaccine will prevent at least 30% of new infections, and may slow the progression of HIV to Aids.

It took just 35 laboratory tests to bring more than seven years and millions of dollars of research to a shocking halt last week — and to dampen the hopes of protecting millions of women against HIV infection. The Ushercell microbicide trial was stopped prematurely after the independent safety oversight committee discovered that more women using the anti-HIV gel.

South Africans have been denied the “biggest advance” in antiretroviral therapy over the last few years because of a lack of urgency in the drug registration process in South Africa, according to the Treatment Action Campaign. The TAC is calling for the urgent registration of Tenofovir, which is considered one of the safest antiretro-viral (ARV) drugs and needs only to be taken once a day.

Mycobacterium tuberculosis is the “mother of all pathogens”, able to create all its essential nutrients, eat its own cell wall without dying, and hide within the cells sent to kill it for decades. Under various names, including the “white plague” and consumption, TB has been around for thousands of years, with Egyptian mummies showing traces of it.