Could there be light at the end of the tunnel? Is the HIV/AIDS epidemic stabilising? The results of the 2001 National HIV Sero-Prevalence Survey show that there was a minimal rise of 0,3% compared to the previous year. Anso Thom reports.
Only about $41-million of an estimated $2,5-billion used on HIV/AIDS research globally, is spent on finding a vaccine for Africa. The need for more money to be injected into research in Africa as well as partnerships with African scientists were among the issues raised at the African AIDS Vaccine Programme's conference held outside Cape Town. Anso Thom was there.
Health minister Dr Manto Tshabalala-Msimang delivered her budget to Parliament this week. Criticised by the opposition  who  accused  her of a lack of leadership in tackling HIV/AIDS, Tshabalala-Msimang announced her priorities. These included a number of issues ranging from the measures to tackle the AIDS epidemic to the improved training of health professionals. But she also highlighted the need for the Global Fund to disburse much needed money and technical support to the least developed nations.
Despite scientists' optimism about the possibility of developing an AIDS vaccine, the world is "not ready" to make and distribute such a vaccine should it become available soon, according to Seth Berkley, president of the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI).
t's nearly a decade since the 12-year long civil war in Mozambique ended. Athough the country is re-building, the challenges are immense. Not least is an official HIV prevalence rate of 13% which in the large cities like Maputo and Beira is thought to be closer to 30%. One of the biggest battles is how to find the resources - human and financial - to respond to the many needs facing the country. When it comes to HIV/AIDS specifically, entrenched cultural attitudes further complicate the equation. In this audio report, the executive secretary of the National AIDS Council Janet Mondlane outlines what they're up against.
Researchers from different parts of the country agree, households affected by AIDS tend to be much poorer than those which are "unaffected". However, the silence about the disease has made it extremely difficult for researchers to document the extent of this damage and therefore to highlight the steps government needs to take to prevent these households from slipping ever deeper into poverty. Kathryn Strachan reports.
Philipp Krebs, a Swiss-born artist who has lived in Cape Town for the past five years, creates unusual and extraordinary public works of art using balloons. In a project called Umbono, a Xhosa word that means vision, Krebs uses larger than life balloons to create awareness and educate people about safe sex and HIV/AIDS. Khopotso Bodibe went to view the Umbono exhibition, and filed this report.
Rape survivors will be offered two anti-retroviral drugs, AZT and 3TC, by public health facilities in a bid to prevent HIV infection from the sexual assault. The drugs will also be available in syrup form for child rape survivors.
Provincial health officials in Mpumalanga and Limpopo may be in contempt of court after refusing to provide the anti-AIDS drug nevirapine to certain hospitals that want to offer it to HIV positive mothers and their newborn babies.
"From Mothers To Mothers To Be". This is the name of a programme operating out of the maternity section of Groote Schuur Hospital every Thursday. Each week, a group of pregnant women with HIV meet for education and counselling to help them deal positively with their status. Facilitating the programme are other women: happy mothers who want to share their skills and experiences of what they learned through the programme while they themselves were pregnant and newly diagnosed with HIV. The end goal of "From Mothers To Mothers To Be" is to prepare women for an opportunity to be put on a drug programme to prevent them from transmitting HIV to their babies. Khopotso Bodibe of Health-e News Service went along to find out more about this special service.
The Children's Team from the South Coast Hospice in Port Shepstone have some 200 children on their books - children who have either been orphaned because of AIDS or who need support because their parents are HIV positive. In this audio report, we visit the home of a family of three on the lower south coast of Kwa-Zulu Natal who live in a tiny, one-roomed shack. When the caregivers give the 13-year old boy a memory box to decorate, he paints his dream - a colourful, five-roomed house for his mother, his sister and him.
"Without the intervention of anti-retroviral drugs, a caesarean section or the substitution of breast milk by other supplements, the risk of a pregnant woman with HIV passing on the virus onto her baby is not 100 percent." This is according to Steve Andrews, a doctor who works exclusively with people infected with AIDS, at the Brooklyn Medical Centre in Cape Town. Dr Andrews says a positive pregnant woman has a one in three chance of transmitting HIV to her baby. In this audio report we meet Ms X, a mother of two who stays in KTC township in the Western Cape. She is HIV positive and has two children who were born five years apart. Her eldest child is nine years old and has HIV, the second is five years old and is negative. As she told Khopotso Bodibe, Ms X says had she known that she was HIV positive, she wouldn't have chosen to have children.
Care givers who form the backbone of home-based care programmes for people sick with HIV/AIDS need support and encouragement as well. In this audio report, experiences from a Soweto AIDS care and counselling group are shared with care givers working in Nyanga, Cape Town. Ideas are exchanged on the responsibilities that people attending the support groups can assume so that the staff don't burn out.
In an earlier report, patients on antiretroviral therapy explained how crucially important counselling is when taking such medication. In the third part of this series focusing on the complexities of this treatment for HIV/AIDS, we look at the issue of side-effects experienced by some patients taking the drugs. Like all medidcation, anti-retroviral therapy has certain side effects. Elaine Maane, who withdrew from therapy trials run by the Somerset Hospital HIV/AIDS research unit, told Khopotso Bodibe of her adverse reaction to the drugs.
In this final audio report on the divergent experiences of two women taking anti-retroviral therapy under trials run by Somerset Hospital, in Cape Town, we hear about the social issues related to the provision of therapy.
Be in the know with our free weekly newsletter. We deliver a round-up of our top stories and insightful reads from across the web.