It'€™s almost two years since the first Living with AIDS programme went out on air. In this audio report, we listen back to some of the voices of people whose lives and work highlight key issues that still challenge our society.
Before 1994, families were murdered and houses burnt in clashes between the ANC and IFP. Once again political tension between the two parties is on the rise, yet the wounds of the past have still not healed.
It is the duty of the parents especially to educate their children about HIV/AIDS and the use of condoms. Boyce Mgcina a traditional healer from Izifo Zonke Traditional Healers and an HIV/AIDS counselor at Zola Clinic in Soweto says in most cases fathers become not just heads of the house but also role models to their children '€“ girls and boys irrespective. Mgcina says traditional healers should talk often about HIV/AIDS during imbizos.
What would make you change your sexual behaviour to ensure you were safe from risk? In this audio report, the head of the Centre for the Study of AIDS, Mary Crewe, talks about the shortcomings of many of the messages that have been used in South Africa to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS. She argues that until messages acknowledge the context in which people are living and recognise the importance that emotions like desire have in motivating sexual behaviour, AIDS prevention messages are unlikely to help people change their risky sexual practices.
There are many messages in our media about how to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS, but there is comparatively little public information on living with the virus. In this audio report we meet the presenters of the latest series of Beat It - the only TV programme that offers practical information about managing HIV/AIDS and ensuring a better quality of life. Nombeko Mpongo and Vuyani Jacobs are both HIV positive and draw on their personal experiences in hosting the TV series. Beat It! is on e-tv on Tuesdays at 4.30pm and repeated on Sundays at 11.30am. It runs for 12 weeks and ends on November 3, 2002.
Spain is  the European country most affected  by the HIV/AIDS pandemic. According to Michael Meulbroek of Projecte Del Noms, an organization that helps people with information and counselling on HIV/AIDS,  the Spanish government  refuses to supply condoms and offers no treatment for people  with HIV/AIDS. The 2001 UNAIDS Report on the pandemic says there are 130 000 people living with AIDS in Spain -  26 000 are women and 1 300 children.
It's been sixteen years since President Yuweri Museveni came to power and throughout this time he has maintained a commitment to fighting HIV/AIDS. HIV/AIDS is listed among the top three priorities of government which include peace and security and economic empowerment. And this commitment is paying off. Uganda has reduced its HIV prevalence rate from a high of 30 percent to between 6 and 8 percent today. The credit for this effort comes from a multi-sectoral response which includes the efforts of non-government organisastions, religious groups, communities and, above all, the political will from the government says Dr Alex Coutinho of the Uganda AIDS Commission.
Creative brilliance by a group at UCT's Mechanical Engineering department has seen the development of novel prostheses for cancer patients at a fraction of the cost. For many patients the alternative is having the limb amputated. Jonathan (19), the first patient to receive a prosthesis recently had a check-up, over a year after receiving the implant. He spoke to Health-e about the experience of having to learn to walk all over again.
Health minister Dr Manto Tshabalala Msimang sent a letter this week to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria requesting that its R720-million grant to KwaZulu-Natal be channelled through the SA National AIDS Council to be disbursed throughout the country.
In Uganda, a concerted effort by political, community and religious leaders as well as the country's health sector has reduced HIV prevalence from a high of 30 percent to between 6 and 8 percent today. In this audio report we talk to Dr Alex Coutinho of TASA - The AIDS Support Organisation in Uganda - about what the country has done to destigmatise the disease and reduce HIV prevalence.
The Special Envoy of the Secretary General of the United Nations for HIV/AIDS in Africa, Stephen Lewis says while  scientists are doing their utmost  to address HIV/AIDS, politicians have shown little  commitment. Proof of this is the struggle to raise the 10 billion dollars needed for the  United Nations Global Fund on AIDS, TB and Malaria to save the lives of more than 2 million Africans.  Only two billion dollars of  the ten billion dollar target has been raised.
The United Nations' Global Fund for AIDS, TB and Malaria is committed to ensuring that money reaches community-based and non-governmental organisations as much as it also funds government departments and agencies. This commitment is based on the belief that NGOs and faith-based organisations are strategically placed to deal first-hand with the impact of these diseases. So how does the Global Fund plan to distribute its? Khopotso Bodibe attended a briefing addressed by the chairperson of the Fund, Dr Richard Feacham.
A recent study conducted among a sample size community of 90 pharmacists in the Western Cape indicates that over half of them - 60 percent - diagnose and treat sexually transmitted infections. This, despite the fact that legislation forbids pharmacists - as dispensers of medication - from treating disease as they are not trained to do so. Kim Ward is the researcher who carried out the study. In this report she tells Khopotso Bodibe that even though pharmacists are not trained to treat STIs, people opt for their services because it is affordable and there are seldom long queues.
In this audio report in English and isiXhosa, Anglican Archbishop Njongonkulu Ndungane says there's a need for religious communities to involve themselves in HIV/AIDS and for government to provide better leadership on the pandemic. Ndungane recently called on the health minister to resign and for wrangling over the Global Fund on AIDS, TB and Malaria to end so that funds can reach those who need them most.
The impasse between the Minister of Health and KwaZulu-Natal over the R720-million grant ($72-million) to the province to fight HIV/AIDS is far from over, despite the "final meeting" on 17 July to resolve the matter.
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