Taking a single antiretroviral (ARV) drug every day almost halves the chances of HIV infection among men who have sex with men (MSM), a groundbreaking international study which also took place in South Africa, has found.
A survey has found HIV infection rates as high as almost 40% among farm workers in Mpumalanga and Limpopo.
UNAIDS is promoting a new approach to HIV treatment, which it estimates could save 10 million more lives than conventional approaches over the next 15 years.
The number of new HIV infections is almost one-fifth lower than it was a decade ago, indicating that the world has 'turned the corner in the fight against HIV/AIDS', according to the UNAIDS Global Report on HIV/AIDS that was released yesterday.
South Africa has to gear itself up for an additional five million people to become infected with HIV during the next 20 years even if the country significantly increases the money dedicated to treatment and prevention. A study requested by government The Long-Run Costs and Financing of HIV/AIDS in South Africa concludes that the country faces a major and mounting financial challenge to confront the AIDS problem and that U$102-million will be needed over the next 20 years to keep the number of new infection at five million. Read the full report here.
Many Free State children need effective pain management for various conditions. The Sunflower Children's Hospice in the Free State province shows that the vast majority of these are children living with HIV and AIDS.
Every five minutes seven children die from pneumonia in Africa. This is according to medical experts who say pneumonia is the leading cause of death in children. But, they say this would not be the case if caregivers ensured that their children got vaccinated before the age of two.
Berlin - Patients are at risk of developing resistance to Tuberculosis medicine due to lack of access to quality treatment, according to a report presented at the 41st Union World Conference on Lung Health.
BERLIN - It is a myth the drug-resistant TB is concentrated in Eastern Europe, with high levels of the disease reported from Khayelitsha in Cape Town, an epidemiologist told the 41st Union World Conference on Lung Health.
BERLIN - An important tuberculosis vaccine trial among HIV-positive participants in Klerksdorp has been paused this year due to funding constraints as governments and donors pull back in the face of struggling economies.
BERLIN ' Unless South Africa takes action to prevent and rapidly treat childhood pneumonia ' the biggest killer of children under five in developing countries ' reducing infant mortality and reaching Millennium Development Goal 4 will remain a pipedream.
BERLIN - Although still a couple of years away - new, effective, affordable, better tolerated, short course ' tuberculosis drugs are in the pipeline and showing promise both for drug sensitive TB and the more complex drug-resistant TB.
Results of the 20th antenatal surveillance survey, which were released this week, show that South Africa's HIV epidemic is not gaining nor is it slowing down. But does this mean that the country's efforts in combating HIV are paying off?
Although the HIV prevalence rate for pregnant women has been virtually the same over the past four years at 29.2%, this was still a 'high and unacceptable' level.
BERLIN ' Unless the money needed for tuberculosis is invested now the world will face a drug-resistant epidemic that will affect everyone in the world, warned Dr Nils Billo, Executive Director of the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease (The Union).
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