South Africa will treat all HIV-positive babies and expand testing, the president announced Tuesday, a dramatic and eagerly awaited shift in a country that has more people living with HIV than any other.

The United States is ready to shift the focus of its global AIDS programs from emergency medical support to building sustainable health systems, U.S. officials said on Monday as they announced that Washington would host the world AIDS conference in 2012.

The Taiwan chapter of the Christian charity World Vision on Monday urged the people of Taiwan to pay more attention to the problem of children becoming infected with the virus that causes AIDS, calling for more efforts in combating the disease among this vulnerable population.

People infected with the virus that causes AIDS should start treatment earlier than currently recommended, the World Health Organization said Monday.

Pope Benedict XVI is calling for prayers and concrete action to comfort all those who are suffering from AIDS.

The virus that causes AIDS is now spreading fastest in China through heterosexual sex, a trend demanding new strategies to stave off a rebound in the epidemic after years of progress in containing it, a United Nations report said.

Diarrhea doesn't make headlines. Nor does pneumonia. AIDS and malaria tend to get most of the attention.

In its first study of women's health around the globe, the World Health Organization said Monday that the AIDS virus is the leading cause of death and disease among women between the ages of 15 and 44.

AIDS experts urged Russian officials to scrap their abstinence-based strategy for curbing the spread of HIV, saying the country's fast-growing epidemic could be entering a dangerous new phase.

Almost one in three people infected with the virus that causes AIDS do not know they have the disease, increasing the risk of infection, the European Commission warned Monday.