Last week, ahead of Workers'€™ Day 2003 - which is being celebrated today - the National Union of Metalworkers'€™ of South Africa (NUMSA) demanded that employers provide anti-retroviral drugs to HIV positive employees.

The chairperson of the South African Medical Association, Dr Kgosi Letlape, has often said that doctors are ethically bound to serve their patients; that the government'€™s policy of no treatment for AIDS is not acceptable to the medical profession; and that doctors must stand up for the health of their patients. And stand up for the health of their patients is exactly what doctors did at various hospitals and clinics nationwide this past Monday and Tuesday. Doctors at Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital in Soweto also took part in this solidarity action. Khopotso Bodibe was there.

In South Africa the spread of HIV has largely been associated with men'€™s sexual athleticism, their unwillingness to use condoms and the uneven gender relations that often render women unable to negotiate safe sex.