OPINION:Occupational therapist and student Yolande Riekert spent 6 weeks at the East London CHOC house for children with cancer and their mothers as part of her Masters in Medical Anthropology thesis at UCT. She shares her experiences with health-e.

The life expectancy of patients receiving antiretroviral therapy in the UK improved significantly between 1996 and 2008, research published in the British Medical Journal shows. Patients who initiated HIV therapy when their CD4 cell count was in the region of 350 cells/mm3 had an average life expectancy of approximately 75 years.