Nation+Beyond

Homeland Security officials in the United States have failed to provide adequate care to immigrant detainees with HIV, according to Human Rights Watch. The agency says that without improved standards, "immigrant detainees with HIV will continue to needlessly suffer and in some cases die in U.S. immigration detention." -------------------- The supreme court in Mexico has ruled that it was unconstitutional for the military to expel five soldiers who tested positive for HIV. The ruling establishes a precedent that dismissed soldiers can seek redress in federal appeals court. In an earlier case, the court had ordered the defense department to reinstate four soldiers who were expelled for testing positive for HIV. -------------------- AIDS has left a generation of pupils in Mozambique without teachers as the pandemic kills more than 1,000 teachers each year, according to education ministry data. The agency estimates that about 19,200 teachers and more than 100 senior education officials will die of AIDS this decade. -------------------- South Africa has recalled millions of locally manufactured condoms after tens of thousands failed an air-burst test, dealing a further blow to the country's campaign to prevent the spread of HIV. The health ministry says the recall involves condoms distributed free by the government. -------------------- The former Soviet states had the largest number of new HIV infections last year in the European region, according to a European Union report. Former Soviet states reported 59,866 new cases of HIV, or 210.8 infections per million people--more than all the new cases in Western and Central Europe combined. -------------------- The percentage of people in Japan who already have progressed to AIDS when they are newly diagnosed with HIV is higher in rural areas than in urban areas--a finding that highlights the discrepancies in the country's HIV control efforts, according to a report by the nation's ministry of health. -------------------- Two studies have found that people infected with HIV in Thailand die from the disease significantly sooner than those with HIV living in other parts of the world. According to the researchers, the shorter survival time suggests that HIV subtype E, which is the most common in Thailand, may be more virulent than other subtypes. -------------------- The number of newly diagnosed HIV cases in Australia has increased by about a third during the past few years--after a period of steady decline that began in the 1980s--according to a report.