NAIROBI, 16 February 2010 (PLUSNEWS) – The Kenya Prisons Service has won praise for its HIV programmes, including education, testing and the provision of anti-retroviral drugs to prisoners, but specialists say unless the issue of unprotected sex is addressed, HIV transmission will continue unchecked.

DAR ES SALAAM/MOROGORO, 22 February 2010 (PLUSNEWS) – Elias Sempindo, 72, thought he would spend his twilight years doting on his grandchildren; instead, the retired medical officer is back treating patients at a clinic in Morogoro, 190km west of Tanzania’s commercial capital, Dar es Salaam.

KIGALI, 26 February 2010 (PLUSNEWS) – Rwandan nurses will soon be authorized to start HIV-positive patients on life-prolonging antiretroviral treatment (ART), a move Ministry of Health officials say will speed up the rollout of ART in the East African nation.

JOHANNESBURG, 23 February 2010 (PLUSNEWS) – New national treatment guidelines are set to make the world’s largest antiretroviral (ARV) programme even bigger as South Africa extends treatment to more HIV-positive infants, pregnant women and people battling HIV-tuberculosis (TB) co-infection.

MOMBASA, 24 February 2010 (PLUSNEWS) – Amina* and Rajab*, in their mid-twenties, spend most of their days getting high on heroin; when broke, Amina injects herself with Rajab’s blood as soon as he has mainlined his heroin, for a second-hand hit.