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.

Gauteng province has been hailed as the most proactive in its drive to implement PEP services to prevent HIV infection in survivors of rape and sexual abuse. In the following report by Khopotso Bodibe, we hear about the province'€™s progress in the roll-out of this potentially life-saving programme.

We continue to explore PEP services for rape survivors in our Living with AIDS slot. Without this service the South African public health system would be failing our children, many of whom also experience the sexual abuse and rape that continues to plague our communities. Khopotso Bodibe looks at the services available for these most vulnerable members of society.

Parallel to the review programme on nevirapine currently taking place in Uganda under the guidance of the United States'€™ National Institutes of Health, the MCC in South Africa is conducting its own investigations locally at sites where nevirapine is being used for PMTCT. In our second and last instalment on the review effort, Khopotso Bodibe, explores the local segment of the investigation.

The Medicines Control Council held an urgent council meeting on the 5th of November, following its receipt in October of an interim report from America'€™s National Institutes of Health (NIH) on the on-going review programme of nevirapine. The report, received more than a month later than expected, provides details of Phase One of the two-stage investigation. In the following report by Khopotso Bodibe, the Registrar of Medicines Precious Matsoso, couldn'€™t reveal details of the council meeting, nor the contents of the preliminary report from the NIH, citing a secrecy agreement.

The question that AIDS activists have been asking is: Are the vaccines that will be tested in South Africa specific to sub-type C, the virus that is predominantly circulating in the country and the southern African sub-region? Khopotso Bodibe put that question to Dr Eftyhia Vardas, Director of the HIV/AIDS Vaccine Division at the Peri-natal HIV Reseacrh Unit at Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital, in Soweto.

Three years after the establishment of Nkosi'€™s Haven in Berea, Johannesburg, and one year after the death of the celebrated young AIDS activist Nkosi Johnson, a new home for HIV positive mothers and their children has been opened in Berea, in honour of the late Nkosi.

Despite delays caused by protocol, preparations for the AIDS vaccine trials in South Africa are still underway and clinical researchers and scientists are hopeful that the Phase One tests will start early next year. This sense of optimism follows months of discussion and debate amongst the Medicines Control Council, the government as well as the vaccines'€™ developers. It is hoped that the extensive consultations will help accelerate the onset of the vaccines trials '€“ the search for the ultimate hope in HIV prevention. Khopotso Bodibe went out to seek clarity on the outstanding issues.

Since its launch on World AIDS Day two years ago, the Diflucan partnership between the government and the drug company, Pfizer, has brought relief to thousands of South Africans. By Khopotso Bodibe.

Organisations of people living with HIV/AIDS will as from Monday (28-10-02) gather under one roof in a four-day summit aimed at assessing the way South Africa is responding to the AIDS crisis. The summit, convened by Thanduxolo Doro, representative of the PWA community on the SANAC, is in itself a response to a call made by the national AIDS co-ordinating body for every sector member to hold individual sectoral summits to discuss their future role and scope of work within the AIDS pandemic. Khopotso Bodibe looks ahead at the summit.