Prof. Richard Feachem, Executive Director of the Global Fund to fight AIDS, TB and Malaria is concluding a week-long fact-finding mission to South Africa, which is expected to culminate in the signing off on a document that will see the first funds of a promised total of $US 150 million (R1.2 billion) released to the government.

The battle for AIDS treatment is getting escalating with the TAC intensifying its civil disobedience campaign on the one hand and government buying media space in newspapers to do damage control on its confusing position on the protracted AIDS debacle on the other.

The sign-off on the proposed NEDLAC Framework Agreement with government, business, labour and AIDS community on a National HIV/AIDS Prevention and Treatment Plan still remains a bone of contention. In an effort to force government back to negotiations on the plan and to secure its commitment to it, the Treatment Action Campaign has mobilised 600 of its members nationally to participate in a civil disobedience campaign, scheduled to take place tomorrow '€“ Human Rights Day. Khopotso Bodibe of Health-e News Service spoke to one of the expected participants in the campaign and filed this report.

Possibilities of adoption for a child infected with HIV depend on nothing more than compassion, as opposed to a primary need to have a child or give a home to a child who deserves to grow in a stable family unit. In the following report by Khopotso Bodibe, we hear that more and more social services organisations have come to realise that placing HIV positive children in adoptive homes can be a futile attempt.    

The uncertainty around whether long-awaited HIV vaccine trials scheduled for the first quarter of this year will eventually take place in South Africa, appears to have been cleared up. That'€™s if a consultative workshop hosted by the Medicines Control Council (MCC) last Friday (21-02-03) is anything to go by. At the workshop, attended by pharmaceutical company representatives, clinical researchers, scientists and ethicists, the MCC unveiled a draft document of guidelines and ethics for anticipated HIV/AIDS Vaccine Trials. Khopotso Bodibe attended the workshop and filed the following report.

Thanks to donations from the public, government departments and business, the Sparrow Rainbow Village that opened last year is able to provide destitute adults and children terminally ill with AIDS with holistic care in a loving and dignified environment. Last week (Friday 14/02/2003) the centre, situated on the corner of Lola and Nadine Streets, in Maraisburg, Johannesburg, announced that it is extending its services and will now cater for 200 terminally ill people. This makes the Sparrow Rainbow Village the largest live-in hospice for AIDS-infected adults and children in South Africa. Khopotso Bodibe of Health-e News Service visited this unique centre, and filed us this report.

In his recent state of the Union address, the President of the United States, George W. Bush, announced a 15-billion dollar five-year commitment to address HIV/AIDS in Africa and the Caribbean. This large, but still insufficient amount of funds is aimed at preventing seven million new infections of HIV in both targeted regions. However, the question is who, and what, projects will benefit from the promised US funds? As Khopotso Bodibe reports, delegates at the African Women'€™s Sexual and Reproductive Health Rights (AMANITARE) Conference, held in Johannesburg recently, grappled with this question.

In an attempt to understand the nature and spread of HIV, experts have shifted attention from classical epidemiology to a socio-political analysis. In contrast with the developed world, the number of women with new infections in Africa are increasing, exceeding that of men by around two million. There is enough anecdotal evidence that factors linked to under-development such as gender inequity and that are characteristic of the developing world are intricately linked with increased vulnerability to HIV/AIDS. An analysis of the spread of HIV/AIDS in Africa shows that its heightened prevalence amongst women can be traced to patriarchal ideology so prevalent in parts of Africa. Khopotso Bodibe of Health-e News Service, explores this system and its grave consequences.

In November, mining company Anglo-Gold reached a critical milestone in its fight against AIDS in the work place with the first administration of anti-retroviral therapy to employees who qualify for treatment and are willing to participate in the pilot project. The plan will be implemented in phases and is expected to be complete by April 2003, thereby reaching about 200 of the company'€™s HIV positive employees in less than a year of existence. Khopotso Bodibe reports.

As 2002 dragged on, debate around the HIV/AIDS crisis in South Africa centred largely around the provision of anti-retroviral drugs in the public sector. As the year drew to a close there were a few positive indications that there might be some genuine movement on the issue. Khopotso Bodibe reports.