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.
Worlds apart, yet united by common purpose, two very different South Africans choose to become part of the AIDS solution.
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 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.
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.
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.
Despite being a vaccine-preventable death, 745 000 children under five are killed each year by measles ' 2 000 every day ' and at least half are in Africa. Unicef and the World Health Organisation have targeted 45 countries in the hope of halving the deaths by 2005.
Antibiotics, once hailed as 'miracle drugs' that would rid the world of life-threatening diseases, are losing their effectiveness leaving us vulnerable to bacteria that is resistant to treatment. Health-e News investigates the situation in South Africa.
African diva and queen of funk Angelique Kidjo is more than a musician. She's also a UN goodwill ambassador and on a visit to Cape Town urged girls to refuse to have unprotected sex.
Two South Africans have been appointed to a high-profile Commission on HIV/AIDS and Governance in Africa (CHGA). The University of Natal's
Professor Alan Whiteside and World Bank managing official Dr Mamphele Ramphela are members of the 20-person commission, chaired by Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Africa K. Amoako, and established
at the behest of United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan.
The Commission's mandate is to study the impacts of HIV/AIDS on African state structures and economic development and identify threats to governance. It will report back in June 2005.
Experts told him it was impossible do hip replacements in rural KwaZulu-Natal. But 'Rural Doctor of the Year' Victor Fredlund doesn't understand 'impossible'
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