Dr Loveness Kaunda, Dean of Students at the University of Cape Town, is one of a handful of South African leaders prepared to talk openly about HIV/AIDS. Here she shares the story of her younger brother and how his death affected her family.
One in five teenage fathers admitted to forcing girls to have sex with them, and 30% of these forced sexual encounters resulted in the girls becoming pregnant.
While there are no formal surveys, guesstimates are that about 22 percent of South African university undergraduate students are HIV positive. In this special report we investigate how tertiary institutions are dealing with the epidemic.
Three months after the government'€™s delayed authorisation of the release of the Global Fund grants into South African AIDS, TB and Malaria projects, the money has still not reached its destination. The problem? According to the Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, the government has to make a formal request before the institution can make the money available.
Government'€™s historic announcement this week that all HIV-positive South Africans needing anti-retrovirals will be treated within the next five years could be the much-needed catalyst to uplift the country'€™s struggling national healthcare system.
With Cabinet approval for the rollout of anti-retroviral drugs, the Gauteng government is moving at top speed to ensure that the drugs are available at 22 health facilities within a year, reaching an estimated 10 000 AIDS patients.
Talita Thekiso is one of two volunteers who received her first dose of the Modified Vaccinia Ankara (MVA) vaccine at Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital, in Soweto on Wednesday. The MVA vaccine is based on sub-type A of HIV, a strain of the virus which is predominant in east Africa. Health-e met Thekiso at the hospital.
The second HIV prevention vaccine to be tested in South Africa began its Phase One trial in Johannesburg and Durban, on Wednesday November 11, 2003. The testing of the Modified Vaccinia Ankara (MVA) follows just a week after the start of the Venezuelan Equine Encephalitis vaccine trial. Dr Eftyhia Vardas, Director of the HIV Vaccines Programme at the Peri-natal HIV Research Unit at Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital spoke to Health-e.
The Phase One trial for the Modified Vaccinia Ankara (MVA) vaccine is now underway. Two of the first 55 volunteers in South Africa '€“ 40 in Soweto and 15 in Durban - have received their initial vaccinations. Worldwide a total of 111 people are taking part at research sites in Switzerland, the UK and The Netherlands. As Dr Eftyhia Vardas, director of the HIV Vaccines Programme at the Peri-natal HIV Research Unit explains, the Phase One trials are all about checking the safety of the vaccine in humans.
Worlds apart, yet united by common purpose, two very different South Africans choose to become part of the AIDS solution.
Cabinet has referred the draft "Operational Plan for Comprehensive HIV and AIDS Care and Treatment" back to the technical task team to provide more information on certain legal matters and the "scope of research" during implementation of the roll-out.
South Africa and other southern African countries are on the verge of eliminating measles thanks to an effective vaccine and solid efforts to innoculate children against the diesease. Dr Greg Hussey, head of Paedriatric Infectious Disease Unit at Red Cross Children Hospital spoke to Health-e.
South Africa ushered in a milestone event in the history of HIV/AIDS this week when the first of two human clinical trials of an HIV vaccine started in Durban and Johannesburg. Recent studies have shown that the efficacy of a vaccine can vary between men and women and so there has been a special effort to enrol equal numbers of both sexes for the trials.
Government is likely to compel medical aid schemes to offer their members antiretroviral drugs.
The 2002 Nelson Mandela Foundation/HSRC study shows that most South Africans take HIV more seriously once they know someone who has died of an AIDS related illness. Health-e canvassed the views of some youths and found that they agreed.
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