AMP Energy

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.

Mothers little helper is becoming an increasingly popular way to deal with issues that require deeper scrutiny, writes Adele Shevel. South Africans are drugging themselves to deal with anxiety, sleeplessness and impotence.

Johannesburg - Thirteen infectious tuberculosis patients who forced their way out of Pretoria West Hospital, wanting to be treated as outpatients, have been ordered back to their beds. This follows an interim High Court order as a result of the Gauteng health department having lodged an interdict against them.

Government will increase its spending on a variety of programmes in the social sector including teachers' salaries, health, welfare and public transport, said Finance Minister Trevor Manuel in his annual budget speech in Parliament today.

The cost of crime is escalating - in medical terms. Pretoria hospitals are admitting more people with crime-related injuries.

The Health System Trust in collaboration with the Africa Regional Sexuality Resource Centre and the University of KwaZulu Natal, the University of Fort Hare-Gender Forum and the University of MEDUNSA cordially invite you to the following seminars to be held at the different universities respectively.

Lessons learnt from SARS epidemics in China may help us prepare for new epidemics, such as human avian flu, say experts in this weeks BMJ. Mainland China experienced three outbreaks of SARS between November 2002 and May 2004. The first outbreak resulted in a pandemic and caused huge financial loss and social panic, but rigorous control policies prevented further pandemics.

GENEVA -- Dr. Lee Jong-wook, who spearheaded the World Health Organization's successive battles against SARS and bird flu and was the first South Korean to head a U.N. agency, died Monday following surgery for a blood clot on the brain. He was 61.

The results with antiretroviral treatment (ART) are dramatic and unequivocal, Dr Francois Venter, an HIV clinician who works at Johannesburg Hospital, said on Wednesday.

The test helps a woman gauge her future fertility.