The only public health programme in the country that offers anti-retroviral therapy to adults living with AIDS is operating in Khayelitsha, Cape Town under the auspices of the international human rights organisation, Medecins Sans Frontieres. In this, the first of a series of features, we hear from one of the doctors and a patient involved in the programme.
Scientists need to take into account that worm infestation could compromise the success of a potential AIDS vaccine as is the case with established vaccines against viral diseases such as cholera and tuberculosis, local researchers have warned.
World Health Organisation (WHO) representatives will visit South Africa next month to assess whether the country qualifies for the hugely reduced multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) drugs being made available.
Pupil enrolment in Grade One in KwaZulu-Natal has plunged by 20% over the past four years - and experts believe a key cause is the direct and indirect effect of HIV/AIDS on already poor households
Earlier this week the Lovetrain was launched in Cape Town as part of the national loveLife campaign to prevent sexually transmitted diseases and HIV among South African teenagers. The campaign, funded by the Kaiser Family Foundation, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the South African government is the largest initiative of its kind in the country. It's aim is to halve the number of HIV infections among South African youth within the next five years. But what are young people themselves saying about the challenges they face socially and sexually?
Despite the fact that TB can be cured, TB infection rates in South Africa have almost doubled in the past five years. Against a backdrop of stark statistics the government has committed itself to a plan of action to achieve a cure rate of 85% in the next four years.
Health workers, researchers and international experts will share their knowledge at a workshop which starts today [Tuesday] aimed at setting clear and achievable goals to cut South Africa's shockingly high TB rates over the next four years.
This audio report looks at the impact of the AIDS epidemic on migrant workers from Lesotho who are retrenched and sent home from the South African mines.
The cost of anti-retroviral therapy as well as the complicated logistics that are involved in administering it have been cited as reasons why it is impossible to implement a national programme of this kind in South Africa. However, others argue that not only is anti-retroviral therapy manageable, even a long patients from poor backgrounds, it offers people hope, an important ingredient in the response to HIV/AIDS. This audio report airs different views on the pros and cons of anti-retroviral therapy.
Scientists are excited by the reaction of monkeys injected with an AIDS vaccine similar to that which is due to be tested in South Africa within months.
Government cannot afford to treat all terminal AIDS patients in state hospitals. But unless the state invests significant funds in home-based care, it will simply be the cruellest form of privatisation. Kerry Cullinan reports.
One in four South African children are stunted by malnutrition. Children's organisations are calling for a basic income grant to be given to all children under the age of 18.
While the rest of country is implementing the new smoking legislation that came into effect on Sunday, Cape Town's South Peninsula Municipality is being accused by the ANC of stalling the process. The municipality  is in the process of rescinding a by-law that takes precedence over national law, but the ANC's National Health Secretary Dr Saadiq Karim says they have been given ample time to make the changes and should be fined.
None of the rape survivors given anti-retroviral drugs by Sunninghill Hospital has become HIV positive, according to Dr Adrienne Wulfsohn who heads the hospital'€™s accident and emergency unit. Kerry Cullinan reports.
Until access to more affordable AIDS drugs becomes a reality, government has responded as best as they can for those living with HIV, according to NorthWest Health MEC Dr Molefi Sefularo.He said the province'€™s aim was to follow urgently on the mother-to-child transmission pilot phase with the expansion of the programme to the rest of the province. "In the end, no child must be born with a lifespan predetermined by HIV and AIDS to be no more than five years."
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