In Sub-Saharan Africa, teenage girls are five times more likely to be infected by HIV/AIDS than boys, according to UNAIDS figures. In South Africa, one third of all babies are born to mothers under 19 years of age.
The South African Schools Act guarantees the right to education for all children up to the age of seven to eighteen. This includes girls who become pregnant whilst still at school.

The responsibility to implement life skills classes falls on teachers, even if they don'€™t have capacity do so. Although teachers agree that there'€™s a need for this education, those who are not specialised guidance teachers often feel ill-equipped to implement it. This is where community support groups have a role to play. In this audio report, teachers and youth clinic counsellors talk about the challenges they face.

In South Africa, research shows that the brunt of the AIDS epidemic is falling on young people under the age of 35.

The Cabinet statement announcing the go-ahead for an antiretroviral roll-out plan on Friday August 8th came during a fortnight which saw health workers, researchers and activists despair and then rejoice as debate around treatment for HIV/AIDS once again grabbed media headlines.

The Medicines Control Council (MCC) is threatening to de-register Nevirapine unless further studies and appropriate documentation can show its efficacy in the prevention of mother to child transmisssion of HIV. Glenda Grey of the Peri-natal HIV Research Unit at Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital argues that enough evidence has already been presented.

Days before South Africa signed its outstanding agreement with the Global Fund to release money to projects in KwaZulu-Natal, a senior advisor in the Fund, Vinand Nantulya, explained that further delays would jeopardise the funds.

South Africa is on the brink of introducing anti-retroviral (ARV) medication in the public health sector. One of the major challenges is how to ensure adequate delivery of these drugs within existing infastructures. Dr Peter Barron, the Director of the Initiative for Sub District Support (ISDS) of the Health Systems Trust, argues that we must have a national ARV programme, but cautions that we have to do it right.

Thembi Zungu is a senior nurse living with HIV in Port Elizabeth. She disclosed her status in 1996 after living in denial for five years. Her decision met with mixed reaction from her nursing colleagues. Thembi says she did so because she has witnessed too many nurses dying from HIV-related illnesses without anyone acknowledging this.

Researchers believe they have studies that can avert the potential de-registration of nevirapine.

August is women'€™s month and Health-e spoke to one of South Africa'€™s most celebrated women, Dr Mamphele Ramphele, medical doctor, activist, anthropologist, the first black female vice chancellor of a South African university (University of Cape Town) and now one of four managing directors at the World Bank. She stressed the enormous challenges that confront women, especially in the face of the HIV/AIDS epidemic.