There are many benefits to knowing one's HIV status. If you're negative, it's an added incentive to protect yourself. If you have HIV, it's important to avoid being re-infected and to learn how to live positively. This is where good counselling comes in. One organisation offering this service is ATICC, the AIDS Training, Information and Counselling Centre. Sue Valentine visited their offices in Plumstead, Cape Town. Telephone numbers for ATICC offices: Cape Town (021) 797-3327 Johannesburg (011) 725-6711/2; Durban: (031) 300-3104 Port Elizabeth (041) 506-1249

Antiretroviral medicines are costly and complicated to monitor, but this should not put them out of the reach of patients in the public health system. The fledgling antiretroviral therapy programme running in certain hospitals in Khayelitsha is offering these life-prolonging drugs to a small, but growing number of clients. Doctors working with the Medecins Sans Frontieres antiretroviral programme in Khayelitsha are convinced that the drugs can be given in these relatively poor surroundings.