Thousands of women in South Africa and elsewhere have volunteered for the world's largest clinical trials to test the efficacy of a range of microbicides, that, if successful, could prevent at least 2,5 million new infections in the developing world, over the next five years.
Thousands of child headed homes in the Eastern Cape suffer because they remain unidentified. These children only depend on their neighbours for living. But the neighbourliness soon wears off ' and the children are seen as a burden.
The long duration of treatment and huge pill doses TB patients must take are seen as the major obstacles to patient compliance. It is for these reasons that scientists are working to discover new and better medicines to cure tuberculosis. We spoke to Professor Valerie Mizrahi, one of the research scientists at the forefront of this quest.
It's not about the physical pain. It's about the emotional pain. That's what I came to learn. When I was raped, they took something away from me. They took my dignity. They took something I can't get back.
The Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) and the National Department of Health are set to lock horns again - and this time it is over the exclusion of the activist group and its allies from the United Nations General Assembly Special Session on AIDS (UNGASS).
A newly established rape centre in Khayelitsha has made a significant impact on a community where rape is a daily reality, from babies to grandmothers.
The South African National Blood Service is considering revising its policy that bars men who have sex with men from donating blood. This follows a similar announcement recently made by the Food and Drug Administration, the medicines regulatory body in the United States.
Every week, a number of mineworkers who fall sick while on duty are laid off work. They are told to go home because they are no longer useful.
As journalists, we are supposed to tell the stories of our time. Some of those stories we tell very well, others we do to death but many we simply ignore.
About 279 000 people were diagnosed with tuberculosis in 2004 - up from 185 000 cases detected a year earlier. But while South Africa's TB detection rates are improving, only a few people are getting cured.
'Orphanage' in Nyanga where Mama Maphosela speaks of TB in her community.
In the absence of new TB drugs a 'trial' is being run in 8 sites in the Western Cape and 16 in Zambia to see whether various public health interventions could make a difference.
The Western Cape has always had a high TB burden with some clinics overwhelmed by the sheer numbers, however, two districts are managing to record excellent cure rates. Health-e spoke to Dr Keith Cloete, acting head of health programmes in the province.
A deadly new strain of drug-resistant TB presents an additional burden for overworked staff at KwaZulu-Natal's only MDR TB hospital.
Minister admits that the country is failing to deal with TB.
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