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When her baby turned blue, Nivetha Biju rushed the child to the emergency room of an Indian hospital and watched helplessly as the baby lost consciousness because the nurses on duty had no idea what to do. Eventually a doctor saved the baby's life, but many patients are not so lucky in India and in other developing countries where a scarcity of doctors and trained nurses means there is often no helping hand in times of need. Health systems [in developing countries] are on the brink of collapse due to the lack of skilled personnel, said Ezekiel Nukuro, an official with the World Health Organization. In some countries, deaths from preventable diseases are rising and life expectancy is dropping, he said.

United States immigration officials on Monday announced moves to ease and speed up visa-processing for HIV-positive visitors to the United States, months after a 21-year entry ban on people with the virus was lifted. Under the new rules, US consular offices overseas will have the authority to grant temporary, non-immigrant visas to HIV-positive applicants who meet all of the other normal criteria for the granting of a US visa, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said in a statement.

AIDS activists are hoping that the country's new administration will make good on promises to urgently improve access to affordable HIV/AIDS treatment and services at state hospitals. The country's three political parties - ZANU-PF and the two factions of the majority Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) - signed a power-sharing deal on 15 September, ending one of the worst periods of inter-party political violence since Zimbabwe gained independence in 1980. Despite scepticism that the three parties will be able to work together, the deal has brought hope to many ordinary Zimbabweans, particularly those living with HIV, who have been battling to cope in the current harsh economic and political environment. Of the estimated 320,000 people in need of antiretroviral (ARV) treatment, only about 100,000 are accessing the medication at public health facilities. Besides the treatment gap, government hospitals are struggling to deliver services in the face of shortages of drugs, medical staff and foreign currency.

South African researchers have shown that deaths among people co-infected with HIV and TB could be more than halved by starting antiretroviral therapy earlier, adding further pressure on government to improve treatment for both diseases. If the government adapts its treatment guidelines in line with the findings -- which were so dramatic that the clinical trial was stopped early on ethical grounds -- it will mean starting 150 000 people living with TB on anti-HIV medicine much earlier than has been planned, and budgeted, for. Professor Salim Abdool Karim, who headed the study, said the research indicated that up to 10 000 lives a year could be saved if people with TB were given antiretrovirals at the beginning of the TB treatment if they had a CD4 count of less than 500. Currently the guidelines are for HIV-positive people to start ARVs when their CD4 count drops to 200, or when this is clinically indicated.

South Africa's newly appointed health minister, Barbara Hogan, has inherited an unenviable to-do list from outgoing minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, but AIDS activists are optimistic that she is up to the job.Hogan has no background in health, but has been a member of the ruling African National Congress (ANC) since 1977 and a member of parliament since 1994. She is known for being outspoken on sensitive issues, including HIV and AIDS. According to Zackie Achmat, a prominent AIDS activist and former chairperson of AIDS lobby group, the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC), Hogan was one of the few members of parliament to speak out against AIDS denialism - the controversial view that HIV is not the cause of AIDS, allegedly held by former President Thabo Mbeki.

The World Health Organization on Monday warned customers not to buy drugs made by Swiss pharma giant Novartis's Sandoz generics unit in South Africa after an inspection revealed more than 40 faults. AFP reported that the WHO said it had sent an official Notice of Concern letter to Sandoz on September 12 after an inspection of the unit's Kempton Park factory in South Africa.

The Department of Health says its policy on the treatment of Tuberculosis patients, especially those who have Multi-Drug Resistant TB (MDR-TB) and Extreme-Drug Resistant (XDR-TB), will not be changed in any way.

It is important that policies and strategies towards equity in service provision are measured in terms of their impact on health service delivery. This would begin to demonstrate the practical impact of health reform. In an attempt to measure in part the progress (or lack of progress) towards equity one step would be to measure in part the quality of service provision at the community (primary care) level. This would give an overview of the disparities between as well as in provinces, and between rural, urban and peri-urban parts of the country.