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.

In its recent workshop in Cape Town, the South African National AIDS Council (SANAC) agreed that the body should undergo massive restructuring in order for it to have a clear response to the HIV/AIDS challenge. SANAC has drawn criticism from a range of AIDS organisations, which accuse it of not representing the interests of people living with HIV/AIDS. The organisations have called for more representation on the SANAC of civil society as well as business organisations. Khopotso Bodibe filed this report.

Have you ever heard about sexual rights? If you have are you denying others their sexual rights because you are simply too macho to care? Or, you can'€™t negotiate your sexual rights because you feel powerless to insist on them? Well, the Women'€™s Health Project '€“ an NGO that works in the field of women'€™s health promotion '€“ is currently running a workshop called '€œThe Sexual Rights Campaign'€ in an attempt to educate men, women and the youth about sexual rights and how they can be attained. Khopotso Bodibe reports.

In this audio report by Khopotso Bodibe, we hear how the unwillingness of many South Africans to speak openly about sex and HIV/AIDS is slowing down efforts to market the concept of sexual rights to society.

Over the two decades of its manifestation in sub-Saharan Africa, HIV/AIDS continues to point to a major barrier that has not been addressed. And that is the development of a network of clinicians who can properly diagnose AIDS related infections as well as treat the disease safely and effectively. To fill this gap in South Africa, the South African Medical Association, through its educational arm '€“ the Foundation for Professional Development '€“ has developed an HIV/AIDS Clinical Management Course. The course is aimed at equipping doctors with the knowledge and skills to deal with the challenge presented by HIV/AIDS. Khopotso Bodibe of Health-e News Service, reports.

They say that it takes a thief to catch another thief. Conversely, when it comes to HIV it can be said that it is much easier for a person living with the HI-virus to convincingly offer counselling and support to a recently diagnosed individual, or to one another. Khopotso Bodibe of Health-e News Service, spent time with two AIDS counsellors at the clinic during a debriefing session and spoke with them about the benefits of giving their time to helping other HIV-infected women.

In order for the Medicines Control Council (MCC) to make its final decision on the continued use of nevirapine for the prevention of mother-to-child HIV transmission in South Africa, the National Institutes of Health in the United States has to furnish it with documents detailing the drug'€™s trials in Uganda between 1997 and 1999.

Over the last two weeks in our Living with AIDS slot, we have attempted to piece together the rationale behind the Medicines Control Council'€™s review of nevirapine, the drug used in 18 government pilot sites to help prevent HIV infected women from transmitting the virus on to their babies. In our final instalment we talk to AIDS activists who are confident that the drug '€“ hailed by campaigners, doctors, researchers and scientists around the world as a potential life-saver '€“ will not be de-registered. Khopotso Bodibe of Health-e News Service, reports.

The outcome of the Medicines Control Council'€™s review of the prevention of mother to child HIV transmission drug, nevirapine, is expected to be announced before the end of this month. The review of the drug caused confusion and concern in medical circles and among HIV/AIDS lobby groups after a newspaper report in early August suggested that the MCC was planning to '€œban'€ nevirapine after a '€œsecret'€ meeting with the drug'€™s manufacturers, Boehringer-Ingelheim. But, in this report by Khopotso Bodibe of Health-e News Service, we discover that there has never been any intention to ban or de-register the PMTCT drug.

The United Nations' Global Fund for AIDS, TB and Malaria is committed to ensuring that money reaches community-based and non-governmental organisations as much as it also funds government departments and agencies. This commitment is based on the belief that NGOs and faith-based organisations are strategically placed to deal first-hand with the impact of these diseases. So how does the Global Fund plan to distribute its? Khopotso Bodibe attended a briefing addressed by the chairperson of the Fund, Dr Richard Feacham.

A recent study conducted among a sample size community of 90 pharmacists in the Western Cape indicates that over half of them - 60 percent - diagnose and treat sexually transmitted infections. This, despite the fact that legislation forbids pharmacists - as dispensers of medication - from treating disease as they are not trained to do so. Kim Ward is the researcher who carried out the study. In this report she tells Khopotso Bodibe that even though pharmacists are not trained to treat STIs, people opt for their services because it is affordable and there are seldom long queues.

"Between April and June this year more than 300 000 children were registered to receive social grants." This is according to Dr Zola Skweyiya, the Minister of Social Development. But in this report by Khopotso Bodibe, Skweyiya says that the low number of children who are receiving foster care and care dependency grants is cause for concern. The Ministry of Social Development has earmarked two-billion rands to disburse as arrears payment to grant beneficiaries under these categories between now and August.