Business should view HIV/AIDS as a tax which could add 7-8% to the cost of doing business, and work to minimise exposure to this "tax". This is according to Professor Alan Whiteside, director of the Health Economics and HIV/AIDS Research Division of the University of Natal.
Around 90% of HIV positive pregnant women in the Western Cape should have access to anti-AIDS drugs to prevent them transmitting the virus to their babies by early next year. The Cape Town Unicity and provincial government have agreed to make funds available to extend the prevention programme to a further nine sites by April next year.
A two-year pilot project aimed at encouraging hospital and clinic patients to go for HIV tests has managed to almost triple the demand for tests at the four test sites.
Few would disagree that there could be a more worthy winner in the health category of the Shoprite Checkers/SABC 3 Woman of the Year than Veronica Khosa, or Mama Khosa as she is known in the Gauteng community of Mamelodi.
Female condoms can be re-used up to seven times and still meet international safety standards, according to a recent study.
The only anti-retroviral treatment programme offered in the South African public health sector is available in Khayelitsha, Cape Town. In this second feature on the pilot programme being run by Medecins Sans Frontieres and the Western Cape provincial government, we focus on the all-important role of the patients' support group. It is in the support groups that patients have the chance to talk about possible side effects and other issues related to consistent adherence to the drug regimen.
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.
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.