Against the back-drop of diminishing donor support for national AIDS programmes in Africa and the rest of the developing world, the question on many minds is: What role should individual states play to ensure that their citizens continue to receive critical care?
With about 500 000 South Africans estimated to be newly-infected with tuberculosis annually, South Africa is a TB high-risk area for children. Yet, no data exists on the incidence of paediatric TB and very few children are diagnosed.
Health campaigners in east and southern Africa want the United Nations to develop a policy framework to ensure that countries honour and implement the right to health care.
South Africa has a serious TB epidemic and many patients are not even diagnosed. The country also has the third highest TB burden in the world, says head of SA's TB programme.
Despite widely acknowledging that in some parts of the country like Khayelitsha in the Western Cape, about 73% of people with HIV also have Tuberculosis, Health Department programmes have failed to screen HIV-positive people for TB and to protect them from getting the bacterial infection.
Bringing up a child born with HIV can be daunting, especially when the child reaches adolescence and starts being curious about sex. But, finally, there is some help for teens with HIV and their families.
About 40% of high school learners say that they have sex and 19% of these say that they have more than one sexual partner. A significant proportion deny that they are at risk of HIV infection, according to a study by the Foundation for Professional Development (FPD).
The Health Department's plan to introduce HIV counselling and testing in high schools has met with concern from various organisations and individuals. Many fear that the implementation of the campaign will create more problems, including breeding stigma and discrimination.
Finance Minister, Pravin Gordhan, is today (23/02/11) expected to announce an increase in the AIDS budget for the next financial year. About 30% of the allocation will go towards HIV prevention efforts.
In a special submission to the Press Council this week, children spoke of how the news media further perpetuates the abuse and violation of children's rights.
We continue with the story of Katlego and Mpho. This week, the love-birds talk about the reality of being in a relationship where one partner is HIV-positive and how they navigate around making sure that the other does not get HIV infection.
As local and international studies show that new HIV infections have remained static over the last 10 years, dealing with the epidemic now requires the world to give HIV prevention efforts the same attention as treatment to bring down new infections.
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