Radical approach to AIDS prevention
Reduce malaria, worms and bilharzia, make border posts more efficient ' and HIV rates will drop, argues a US expert.
Reduce malaria, worms and bilharzia, make border posts more efficient ' and HIV rates will drop, argues a US expert.
African AIDS activists at the UN High-Level Meeting on HIV and AIDS in New York are furious over what they see as the overturning of agreed commitments on performance targets and the protection of vulnerable groups by a handful of African governments.
Current research is pointing towards the development of an effective microbicide in a few years time. However, experts believe it could have happened sooner if pharmaceutical companies invested more money in developing a microbicide which could prevent the transmission of diseases, more importantly HIV
It's been seven years since the young AIDS activist Nkosi Johnson's dream was realised. A dream of having a home that houses HIV positive destitute mothers and their children. Now this unique home has more than 90 residents.

Last week, we visited Tumahole, a township in Parys in the Free State, where we met Khomanani Community Action volunteers as they carried out a door-to-door campaign to raise awareness about HIV/AIDS, TB, substance abuse and other STIs. This week, we hear how the Khomanani AIDS and TB awareness programme has become part of the community's structures, such as clinics and schools.

Five years ago today (1 June), Nkosi Johnson died of AIDS at the age of 12 ' but his legacy lives on at Nkosi's Haven, a home for HIV positive mothers and their babies.
Dirt-poor Orange Farm residents may be, but a study conducted in the settlement south of Johannesburg has brought hope to the world ' and features in the UNAIDS report on AIDS.
The AIDS epidemic in southern Africa shows 'no evidence of a decline', according to the annual UNAIDS Global Report for 2005 released yesterday (30 May).
Sketching a crisis epidemic that is already infecting 65 million people, the UN body says 'exceptional leadership' is needed to move beyond crisis management to develop long-term responses.

Over three-quarters of the sexually abused children who seek help from Childline in KwaZulu-Natal have been hurt by other children, with kids under the age of 12 now outnumbering teens as the main culprits.
Amid all the doom and gloom surrounding the AIDS epidemic, a charity project is working vigorously to keep HIV positive caregivers alive, in turn saving thousands of affected children from orphanhood.

Although Nkhensani Mavasa has been invited to address the world at the United Nations in New York this Wednesday (31 May), she is still not welcome in her own father's house ' simply because she is HIV positive.
Activist Pregs Govender admitted this week that AIDS denialism within government had been one of two factors that pushed her to resign as an ANC Member of Parliament in 2002.
The harsh realities of HIV and AIDS are a daily experience for 400 children under the care of the Tapologo AIDS Hospice, in Rustenburg, near Phokeng village, in the North West. And if there's a chance to make them forget about their pain-stricken lives, even for only one day, it's more than welcome.

When words failed them, a group turned to art to articulate their lives with HIV or how the epidemic has affected them as they continue watching loved ones succumb to the virus. Their work is being exhibited at Constitution Hill, in Johannesburg.