Overall, at least 3.5 million South Africans are already infected with HIV, a disease for which there is no cure. The best case scenario predicts six million South Africans will be HIV positive in 10 years'€™ time.

With the prospect of tens of thousands of HIV positive people in its district needing medical help in the next few years, the tiny, 300-bed Hlabisa Hospital has turned its attention to encouraging people to care for terminally ill relatives at home.

Despite the fact that state hospitals cannot afford to care for those dying of AIDS, government'€™s failure to work with non-governmental organisations is undermining volunteer home-care projects in KwaZulu-Natal. Over the past six months, Sinosizo, a home-based care organisation started by the Catholic Church, has closed its operations in the entire Western Region '€“ including Hammarsdale, Shongweni, Inchanga and the inner west.

Policing domestic violence is difficult at the best of times, but virtually impossible when the police officers expected to arrest the attackers also assault their partners. This is one of the dilemmas facing Captain Annette Strampe, head of the Northern Cape's victime empowerment programme.

At what age should children be told about sex? Does talking about sex encourage your children to experiment? In an age of HIV and AIDS, ignorance about sex and sexually transmitted diseases  could be  dangerous to children's health. KERRY CULLINAN takes up the issue

February 7 to 12 is National Condom Week, yet despite the HIV/AIDS epidemic, most people are still not using condoms. Efforts to give teenagers access to condoms are hampered by conservative attitudes. One AIDS educator says although he'€™s conducted workshops at more than 400 schools in Gauteng, only five schools have allowed him to distribute condoms.

Children with learning difficulties not only have to live with their problem, but also the labels that go with them. While some learning difficulties are neurological, some children struggle simply because they have not been exposed to books and pencils.

Sex workers are leading the fight against the spread of HIV/AIDS on the mines around Carltonville. The challenge is daunting -- a recent survey shows 47 percent of women and 40 percent of men from both the township and the shacks are HIV positive, while 28 percent of mineworkers are infected. However, since the Carltonville AIDS project, Mothusimpilo ("working together for health"), started almost two years ago, it has trained 90 sex workers as peer educators. The results have been phenomenal. In a recent survey, eight out of 10 sex workers reported using a condom every time they had sex. Last year, only two out of 10 of the women were using condoms.

"We are burying about three truck drivers a day because of AIDS, and at this rate we will have no drivers left by 2003," says Paul Matthew, acting chief executive office of the Road Freight Association'€™s training board. But even though forecasts for the trucking industry are dire, Matthew says it'€™s a "slow process" getting employers to put money into fighting the epidemic.

Pharmacists will be doing a year's community service by 2001, and the health department may also draft physiotherapists, occupational and speech therapists and psychologists into service.