Health e News
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Last month marked a turning point in the South African government’s response to the AIDS epidemic as the Cabinet approved the final draft of the Operational Plan for Comprehensive HIV and AIDS Care and Treatment. As the stage is now set for the roll-out, new challenges are looming for many sectors of society. The business community is one of these.
While there are no formal surveys, guesstimates are that about 22 percent of South African university undergraduate students are HIV positive. In this special report we investigate how tertiary institutions are dealing with the epidemic.
Three months after the government’€™s delayed authorisation of the release of the Global Fund grants into South African AIDS, TB and Malaria projects, the money has still not reached its destination. The problem? According to the Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, the government has to make a formal request before the institution can make the money available.
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Talita Thekiso is one of two volunteers who received her first dose of the Modified Vaccinia Ankara (MVA) vaccine at Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital, in Soweto on Wednesday. The MVA vaccine is based on sub-type A of HIV, a strain of the virus which is predominant in east Africa. Health-e met Thekiso at the hospital.
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The Phase One trial for the Modified Vaccinia Ankara (MVA) vaccine is now underway. Two of the first 55 volunteers in South Africa ‘€“ 40 in Soweto and 15 in Durban – have received their initial vaccinations. Worldwide a total of 111 people are taking part at research sites in Switzerland, the UK and The Netherlands. As Dr Eftyhia Vardas, director of the HIV Vaccines Programme at the Peri-natal HIV Research Unit explains, the Phase One trials are all about checking the safety of the vaccine in humans.
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The second HIV prevention vaccine to be tested in South Africa began its Phase One trial in Johannesburg and Durban, on Wednesday November 11, 2003. The testing of the Modified Vaccinia Ankara (MVA) follows just a week after the start of the Venezuelan Equine Encephalitis vaccine trial. Dr Eftyhia Vardas, Director of the HIV Vaccines Programme at the Peri-natal HIV Research Unit at Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital spoke to Health-e.
Cabinet has referred the draft “Operational Plan for Comprehensive HIV and AIDS Care and Treatment” back to the technical task team to provide more information on certain legal matters and the “scope of research” during implementation of the roll-out.
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South Africa and other southern African countries are on the verge of eliminating measles thanks to an effective vaccine and solid efforts to innoculate children against the diesease. Dr Greg Hussey, head of Paedriatric Infectious Disease Unit at Red Cross Children Hospital spoke to Health-e.
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More than a month ago Canada announced, to great applause from the developing world and tireless AIDS activists, that it was willing to change its laws and allow generic drug manufacturers to export cheaper anti-retrovirals to poorer countries. Health-e looks at how the announcement came about and when it is likely to start delivering the desperately needed drugs.
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South Africa ushered in a milestone event in the history of HIV/AIDS this week when the first of two human clinical trials of an HIV vaccine started in Durban and Johannesburg. Recent studies have shown that the efficacy of a vaccine can vary between men and women and so there has been a special effort to enrol equal numbers of both sexes for the trials.
A new study has found that prolonged shift-work might be bad for your health. Health-e News investigates. By Adele Hamilton.
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The 2002 Nelson Mandela Foundation/HSRC study shows that most South Africans take HIV more seriously once they know someone who has died of an AIDS related illness. Health-e canvassed the views of some youths and found that they agreed.