In a debate on whether the global AIDS response has had a negative or positive effect on health systems and services in developing countries, experts at a workshop hosted by the Institute of Tropical Medicine, Antwerp, concluded that the negative effects were outweighed by the potential that AIDS programmes have of strengthening health systems and services.

A weekly health programme on India’s government-run television channel Doordarshan has won an award for the best communication strategy on HIV/AIDS from India. The programme Kalyani was selected by the Asian Media Information Communication Centre (AMIC), Singapore, as the best communication strategy on HIV/AIDS, from India for a project titled ‘HIV/AIDS Prevention in Asia: Communicating the Message’.

A new report, ‘Redefining AIDS in Asia: Crafting an Effective Response’, says that since most men who buy sex are married or are about to get married, significantly “low-risk” women who only have sex with their husbands are exposed to the virus.

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies says it has chosen to focus on HIV/AIDS because the multiple consequences of the disease constitute a long-term and complex disaster.

The Gates Foundation has committed another $ 23 million for HIV/AIDS programmes in India over the next three years, to be channelled through the National AIDS Control Organisation.

Designated medical centres in Delhi, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad and Kolkata will begin dispensing free second-line antiretroviral therapy to eligible HIV-positive people from September 2008. Only 110 HIV-positive people are currently on second-line ART in India.

Although existing legislation punishing those in sex work has been criticised for unfairly targeting the victim whilst allowing the client to go free, activists argue that a proposed amendment that seeks to correct this injustice actually makes sex workers more vulnerable.

The high-level UN meeting on AIDS, on June 10-11, 2008, lauded steps taken to combat the epidemic but emphasised that more accountability of funds and greater access to treatment were among the measures that governments must take seriously.

President of the UN General Assembly, Srgjan Kerim, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon, and several heads of State and over 80 ministers, senior officials, representatives of international organisations and civil society will meet to review progress towards the targets agreed in the UN's 2001 Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS and the 2006 Political Declaration on HIV/AIDS, on June 10-11, 2008, at the UN headquarters in New York.

Pregnant women can be tested for HIV and administered antiretroviral therapy if found to be HIV-positive, to effectively prevent mother-to-child transmission of the disease, says a new international study conducted in India.