In the latest South African Airways advertisement the airline talks about the one thing that gives it more pleasure than flying South Africans to a foreign destination: flying them home. "Because the grass may not always be greener on the other side," the narrator says.This is a concept that young community service doctor Colin Wittstock can relate to.
Read More »No place like homeWestern Cape pupils from Grade one are going to be taught about HIV/AIDS as past of the National Life Skills programme that will be implemented at all schools in the province within the next three years. More than a thousand primary school teachers in the Western Cape will undergo life skills training before March next year as part of the province's renewed drive to tackle, among others, the HIV/AIDS epidemic.
Read More »HIV/AIDS education for youngstersGroote Schuur's medical centre for private patients is planning to open its doors in January next year while similar plans at Tygerberg Hospital have been put on hold.The University of Cape Town signed an agreement with a German partner, Rhoen-Klinikum earlier this year, to open a new UCT Medical Centre in Groote Schuur Hospital.
Read More »UCT to open private clinic by January 2001Health minister Dr Manto Tshabalala-Msimang has indicated that role-players are "working with a sense of urgency to apply our minds reasonably and carefully to the possibility of providing drug therapy to HIV positive pregnant women".
Read More »Race is on to provide NevirapineA cheap prophylaxis drug, trimethoprim-sulphamethoxazole (TMP-SMX) cotrimoxazole, has shown to prevent the unnecessary death of many HIV infected infants who succumb to a deadly strain of pneumonia, according to University of Cape Town (UCT) researchers.
Read More »Cheap drug could reduce mortality in HIV infected infantsUniversity of Cape Town researchers have found a less invasive and more reliable method of confirming pulmonary tuberculosis in infants and young children, especially those who are HIV infected.
Read More »More reliable method to diagnose TB in young childrenThe Chamber of Milling, a body representing the maize and flour industry, has come out in support of moves by Government to enrich the staple foods of South Africans, such as maize meal, bread flour and possibly sugar despite concerns over the cost implications.
Read More »Industry in support of plans to fortify staple foodsSouth Africa is considering enriching staple foods such as maize meal, bread flour and possibly sugar following the finding of a health department survey that one in five children between the ages of one and nine years is stunted.
Read More »Adding weight to staple foods may add height to SA childrenBusisiwe Maqungo (28) had her suspicions that she was at risk of being HIV positive long before receiving confirmation via a test. In fact she was told her baby was HIV positive, before undergoing a test herself.
Read More »Death of an innocentAlthough there is no cure for HIV/AIDS it is easily preventable. You can only get HIV if you get infected blood or sexual fluids into your system. To infect someone, the virus has to get past the body's defences such as the skin and saliva.
Read More »ABC of HIV transmissionIt is impossible not to notice how thin Feroza Mohamed is. The several layers of clothing she wears fails to protect her frail and disease-ridden 27-year-old body from the Highveld winter. Mother of six-year-old Ismail, Mohamed arrived at Nkosi's Haven, in December - HIV positive, destitute, shunned by her Muslim family and three months' pregnant. Nkosi's Haven is a Johannesburg shelter for HIV positive mothers and their children.
Read More »Destitute Feroza finds a place to dieWhile government make final preparations to host the final meeting of President Thabo Mbeki's international AIDS panel, tasked with discussing the link between HIV and AIDS and anti-HIV therapies, UNAIDS has revealed that South Africa has the largest number of people living with HIV/AIDS (4,2-million).
Read More »Presidential AIDS Panel to meet next weekBristol-Myers Squibb (BMS) has denied allegations by the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) that the U$100-million HIV/Aids grant made by the pharmaceutical giant last year to five southern African countries, including South Africa, was an attempt to "silence the voice of affordable medicine".
Read More »Silencing the voice of affordable medicineSouth African AIDS Vaccine Initiative (SAAVI) scientists and co-workers will present some 25 papers at the World AIDS Conference to be held in Durban in July with a model-type vaccine developed by 2005, according to Dr Walter Prozesky, head of the initiative.
Read More »AIDS vaccine for SA to come under the spotlight at AIDS 2000South African Airways "is not too sure" whether it is presently carrying out pre-employment HIV testing on prospective cabin attendants.According to a stipulation in the Employment Equity Act all employers need to get authorisation from the Labour Court to carry out pre-employment HIV testing.
Read More »SAA’s HIV policy in contravention of the Employment Equity Act