The effort to prevent Foetal Alcohol Syndrome in South Africa and elsewhere requires strong partnerships among government, non-governmental organizations and communities.

Thembi Zungu is a senior nurse living with HIV in Port Elizabeth. She disclosed her status in 1996 after living in denial for five years. Her decision met with mixed reaction from her nursing colleagues. Thembi says she did so because she has witnessed too many nurses dying from HIV-related illnesses without anyone acknowledging this.

August is women'€™s month and Health-e spoke to one of South Africa'€™s most celebrated women, Dr Mamphele Ramphele, medical doctor, activist, anthropologist, the first black female vice chancellor of a South African university (University of Cape Town) and now one of four managing directors at the World Bank. She stressed the enormous challenges that confront women, especially in the face of the HIV/AIDS epidemic.

Testicular cancer is a cancer of the testicles that can affect males from 15 years of age to 40. According to the Cancer Association of South Africa, testicular cancer rarely occurs in early teens and in men over the age of 40, but boys who reach puberty early at 9 or 10 years of age, have a higher risk of testicular cancer. According to Khaya Nkontso a co-ordinator for the '€œMen As Partners'€ programme of the Planned Parenthood Association of South Africa in Cape Town, men are largely ignorant about the kinds of cancers that can affect them and reluctant to talk about them '€“ something the '€œMen As Partners'€ programme is trying to overcome.

Botswana has one of the highest HIV prevalence rates in the world. It is estimated that around 38.8 percent adults between the ages of 15 to 59 are living with HIV. According to Limpet Mpotokwane, a Programme Development Manager for African Comprehensive HIV/AIDS Partnerships in Botswana, alcohol abuse is one of the key factors fueling the HIV pandemic, along with poverty and the mobility of Botswana between urban and rural areas. She says her government and the communities are ready to take the bull by the horns in formulating a new national forum that will oversee programmes to assist people with alcohol abuse and HIV.

In many parts of Africa, talking openly about matters of sexuality is taboo and there is still a stigma attached to illnesses such as HIV/AIDS. In many traditionally patriarchal cultures, women and young people have little status or power when it comes to decision-making and this affects their ability to negotiate safe sex. Professor Davison Munodawafa, Director of the Guidance, Counseling and Youth Development Centre for Africa in Malawi, says while sex remains a private issue, AIDS has forced some parents to open up and talk about sex.

Can talking about sex to children help them understand the dangers of HIV and AIDS? As a mother and a role model, Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi, Minister for Public Service and Administration, feels it is important for parents to get involved in issues that relate to their children's health, especially when it comes to addressing HIV/AIDS. She says that discussing sexual issues with children should not be a taboo but an opportunity to enlighten children about the various choices they have. She says her own children are keen to talk about HIV/AIDS.

For Thanduxolo Bonkolo of Nyanga, Cape Town, facing up to his addiction to drugs is the only way he can survive. Thanduxolo says his addiction to the drug Mandrax turned him into a thief and that he even stole from his parents to support his habit. But he is trying to kick the habit and turned to the Guguletu Anti-Drug Association for help. Nomfanelo Plaatjie, of the Siyasebenza Clinic in the Phillipi Informal Settlement, says drugs have a negative impact not only on the people who abuse them but on their friends and family as well.