Treating herpes does not reduce the risk of transmitting HIV, a New England Journal of Medicine study has found. The anti-herpes medication is dispensed from all South African Primary Healthcare clinics in the public sector and has been added to the sexually transmitted infection treatment guidelines.

Although South Africa has almost a million HIV positive people on treatment, actuaries tell us that over 300,000 citizens are still being infected with the virus every year. This prompted health economist Professor Alan Whiteside to remark recently that “HIV treatment without prevention is like mopping the floor while the tap is running”.

Britain and Ethiopia will head a new United Nations panel that aims to secure $100 billion every year by 2020 to help developing nations cut emissions and adapt to climate change, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has said.

Madagascar's vice Prime Minister Ny Hasina Andriamanjato has resigned in a sign of growing divisions within the government over how to end the Indian Ocean island's year long political crisis.

African leaders must cast aside a tendency to "manage poverty" and instead pursue basic economic growth if they want to improve the lives of their people, a leading regional development expert has said.