The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria allocation for South Africa will be received by April the Minister of Health, Dr Manto Tshabalala-Msimang announced recently. Africa will receive 60 percent of the funding and South Africa fell within this ambit. The minister also explained the process of applying for funds. Thandeka Teyise compiled this report. This audio is in isiXhosa and English.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates that about 80 percent of the world'€™s population uses traditional or herbal medicines and South Africa is amongst these countries. It has taken over six years for the government and traditional healers to come up with a mutually agreeable plan to formally recognise traditional healers. Thandeka Teyise, of Health-E News Service, spoke to Phillip Khubukeli, a traditional healer who has been part of the process. She asked how close the parties were in terms of reaching an agreement and when the final draft of the Traditional Healers Bill could be expected.

The uncertainty around whether long-awaited HIV vaccine trials scheduled for the first quarter of this year will eventually take place in South Africa, appears to have been cleared up. That'€™s if a consultative workshop hosted by the Medicines Control Council (MCC) last Friday (21-02-03) is anything to go by. At the workshop, attended by pharmaceutical company representatives, clinical researchers, scientists and ethicists, the MCC unveiled a draft document of guidelines and ethics for anticipated HIV/AIDS Vaccine Trials. Khopotso Bodibe attended the workshop and filed the following report.

Investigations into the introduction of a national anti-retroviral programme for South Africans living with HIV/AIDS are far advanced and recommendations are close to finalisation, it was announced in this week'€™s budget documents. Anso Thom reports.

CAPE TOWN - The cost of a state supported anti-retroviral programme in its most expensive year could be below R10-billion and still be highly effective, according to calculations by Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) and researchers at the University of Cape Town (UCT).

CAPE TOWN - KwaZulu-Natal should receive the much disputed U$11,4-million (R92,5-m) from the Global Fund to fight HIV/AIDS, TB and Malaria by April and this time around the province will have the full support of the national health department, according to Health minister Dr Manto Tshabalala-Msimang. Anso Thom reports.

Hospital opens palliative care ward to facilitate peaceful deaths.

Drug companies are continuing to sell anti-retrovirals at hugely inflated prices in South Africa with some branded drugs selling for up to eight times more than generic versions available worldwide but that are not yet manufactured locally.

Thanks to donations from the public, government departments and business, the Sparrow Rainbow Village that opened last year is able to provide destitute adults and children terminally ill with AIDS with holistic care in a loving and dignified environment. Last week (Friday 14/02/2003) the centre, situated on the corner of Lola and Nadine Streets, in Maraisburg, Johannesburg, announced that it is extending its services and will now cater for 200 terminally ill people. This makes the Sparrow Rainbow Village the largest live-in hospice for AIDS-infected adults and children in South Africa. Khopotso Bodibe of Health-e News Service visited this unique centre, and filed us this report.

The sharp increase in multi-drug resistant tuberculosis in South Africa can be attributed to the loss of Directly Observed Treatment Short-course Strategy (DOTS) workers to the more lucrative field of caring for people living with HIV/AIDS, health department officials admitted this week. Anso Thom reports.

Government'€™s HIV/AIDS policy is characterised by confusion and public relations blunders.

Department of Health'€™s Director General, Dr Ayanda Ntsabula, has said that while governemnt has not signed any agreement on an AIDS treatment plan, negotiations with all parties concerned would continue. In the meantime Pan Africanist Congress Member of Parliament Patricia De Lille said thousands of people were dying while government stalled. By Thandeka Teyise of Health-e News.

In his recent state of the Union address, the President of the United States, George W. Bush, announced a 15-billion dollar five-year commitment to address HIV/AIDS in Africa and the Caribbean. This large, but still insufficient amount of funds is aimed at preventing seven million new infections of HIV in both targeted regions. However, the question is who, and what, projects will benefit from the promised US funds? As Khopotso Bodibe reports, delegates at the African Women'€™s Sexual and Reproductive Health Rights (AMANITARE) Conference, held in Johannesburg recently, grappled with this question.

In an attempt to understand the nature and spread of HIV, experts have shifted attention from classical epidemiology to a socio-political analysis. In contrast with the developed world, the number of women with new infections in Africa are increasing, exceeding that of men by around two million. There is enough anecdotal evidence that factors linked to under-development such as gender inequity and that are characteristic of the developing world are intricately linked with increased vulnerability to HIV/AIDS. An analysis of the spread of HIV/AIDS in Africa shows that its heightened prevalence amongst women can be traced to patriarchal ideology so prevalent in parts of Africa. Khopotso Bodibe of Health-e News Service, explores this system and its grave consequences.