In this audio report, the health MEC for Gauteng tells Khopotso Bodibe that post exposure prophylaxis for rape survivors will be available at seven public hospitals by the end of June.

On May 29, the Minister of Health announced protocols for the use of post-exposure prophylaxis against HIV for rape survivors in public health facilities around the country. In this series of interviews, Khopotso Bodibe spoke to a number of provincial health ministers to find out what plans were in place to implement the protocols. The answers he received were mixed. First in line was the MEC of Health in Limpopo, Sello Moloto.

Although the Eastern Cape health department has welcomed the announcement of protocols for the use of anti-retroviral drugs in the treatment of rape survivors, the province will make no clear commitment as to when they will implement the treatment option. The Acting MEC of Health in the province, Max Mamase, says he would have liked the protocols to specify a triple combination therapy to ensure maximum efficacy. Mamase also says, because the drugs have not been proven to be completely effective, it is important that the protocols must exempt government from any litigation.

"From Mothers To Mothers To Be". This is the name of a programme operating out of the maternity section of Groote Schuur Hospital every Thursday. Each week, a group of pregnant women with HIV meet for education and counselling to help them deal positively with their status. Facilitating the programme are other women: happy mothers who want to share their skills and experiences of what they learned through the programme while they themselves were pregnant and newly diagnosed with HIV. The end goal of "From Mothers To Mothers To Be" is to prepare women for an opportunity to be put on a drug programme to prevent them from transmitting HIV to their babies. Khopotso Bodibe of Health-e News Service went along to find out more about this special service.

"Without the intervention of anti-retroviral drugs, a caesarean section or the substitution of breast milk by other supplements, the risk of a pregnant woman with HIV passing on the virus onto her baby is not 100 percent." This is according to Steve Andrews, a doctor who works exclusively with people infected with AIDS, at the Brooklyn Medical Centre in Cape Town. Dr Andrews says a positive pregnant woman has a one in three chance of transmitting HIV to her baby. In this audio report we meet Ms X, a mother of two who stays in KTC township in the Western Cape. She is HIV positive and has two children who were born five years apart. Her eldest child is nine years old and has HIV, the second is five years old and is negative. As she told Khopotso Bodibe, Ms X says had she known that she was HIV positive, she wouldn't have chosen to have children.

In an earlier report, patients on antiretroviral therapy explained how crucially important counselling is when taking such medication. In the third part of this series focusing on the complexities of this treatment for HIV/AIDS, we look at the issue of side-effects experienced by some patients taking the drugs. Like all medidcation, anti-retroviral therapy has certain side effects. Elaine Maane, who withdrew from therapy trials run by the Somerset Hospital HIV/AIDS research unit, told Khopotso Bodibe of her adverse reaction to the drugs.

In this final audio report on the divergent experiences of two women taking anti-retroviral therapy under trials run by Somerset Hospital, in Cape Town, we hear about the social issues related to the provision of therapy.

Taking anti-retrovirals as part of a drug trial requires much more than the desire to recover one's health. It requires commitment to a drug regimen that involves rigorous adherence to swallowing a number of pills. Without the necessary counselling - and psychological and emotional support - it is very difficult to stay on the programme successfully and complete the treatment. In this audio report two women who have been on ARV therapy in a drug trial programme run by Somerset Hospital in Cape Town tell of their experiences. One of them, Elaine Maane, opted to pull out from the research.

The cost of antiretroviral drugs means that many poor people are unable to access such treatment. One way in which some doctors assist their patients is to offer them access to antiretroviral drug trials. At Somerset Hospital in Cape Town some people in Stage 3 of AIDS are offered a combination of registered medicines as well as drugs that are still going through the final stages of development before registration. In this audio report, Khopotso Bodibe talks to two women - one is still participating in the trials and another who has withdrawn due to problems that arose during treatment.

After four days of hearing evidence and going through written submissions from community organisations, NGOs, research institutions and government departments last week on child sexual abuse, a preliminary report on the hearings was discussed in the National Assembly yesterday. In this audio report, the chairperson of the parliamentary task group on child sexual exploitation, Cas Saloojee explains some of their findings.

When there's no one to turn to, or when fear makes it impossible to speak out about one's HIV status, creating a memory box is one of the first steps towards breaking the silence. Memory boxes offer individuals a way to talk about themselves and what its like to live with an infection like HIV. In this audio report, we visit the memory box workshops currently being held at the South African National Gallery in Cape Town.

Last year alone, 1 732 children were raped in the Western Cape. That is according to figures provided by the Child Protection Unit in the province. The CPU says when dissected the figure accounts for 866 cases of rape committed on girls younger than 18, plus an equal number of rapes on boys of the same age group. However, the figure could be higher. The statistics record some 2 469 cases under a category of "Rape and Attempted Rape of females under 18." It's anyone's guess how many girls represented in this figure were actually raped. Yet, these figures only reflect cases that have been reported to the police.