The fact that one dose may lead to the creation of an HI-virus resistant to Nevirapine is no reason in itself not to register the anti-AIDS drug, but there should be strict monitoring by the drug companies of this, according to Professor Helen Rees chairperson of the Medicines Control Council (MCC).
Scientists need to resolve how an HIV vaccine can be tested on children before the vaccine is ready for widespread human use, according to Professor Helen Rees, head of the Medicine Control Council (MCC).
Seabelo Kgarose is a young mother living with HIV/AIDS. For a while her youngest son, who is also HIV positive, was in a care centre at a local hospital. On one occasion when she and her other two children went to visit him, she was verbally abused by one of the nurses. However, months later, this same nurse turned up at the AIDS counselling centre where Seabelo works seeking counselling and support to come to terms with her HIV positive status. In this audio report, Seabelo tells the story.
Seeing a simple idea and "storing it because you never know when you'€™re going to use it" is what led to University of Cape Town (UCT) lecturer Dr George Vicatos to design a device which has saved a 18 year old cancer patient'€™s leg. A Senior Lecturer at UCT'€™s Department of Mechanical Engineering, Vicatos and his team worked against the clock to design the endo-prosthetic replacement for  part of the patient's femur and knee.
In green valleys in northern KwaZulu-Natal, hundreds of children are negotiating lives alone as HIV/AIDS claims their parents.
A group of actors in conjunction with the AIDS organisation, Wola Nani, are volunteering their time to run workshops that use the Boal forum theatre technique to inform and equip people with HIVAIDS to understand their rights and to act upon them. By involving the audience in the play to the extent that they re-enact parts of the drama, participants are empowered to change the tone and content so that they are able to practise asserting their interests and concerns.
Every 40 minutes tuberculosis (TB) kills one South African. Some 160 000 people are infected annually in South Africa and worldwide about eight million people suffer from the disease. Former head of the Truth & Reconciliation Commission, Archbishop Desmond Mpilo Tutu contracted TB in 1947, spent nearly two years in hospital, but survived to tell the tale. Today he is part of a campaign to de-stigmatise TB and promote the principle that the treatment and cure of TB is a basic human right.
The AIDS organisation, Wola Nani has contracted a group of actors to run workshops to empower people with HIV in their daily relationships and interactions. However, this is not just another role play by actors in front of an audience. Using the Boal Forum Theatre technique, the actors encourage the audience to take part in the play and to change the way in which the drama is played out. The idea is to build people's confidence and to take charge of the situations in which they find themselves. Sue Valentine spent a day with the Cape Heart Theatre company.
KwaZulu-Natal, Mpumalanga and Gauteng have emerged as the epicentres of the HIV/AIDS epidemic raging in South Africa with the Free State following closely, according to the latest national HIV survey released yesterday(Tuesday). Based on the 16 548 blood samples tested in October 2000, it is estimated that nationally, 24,5% of the women who presented at the public health facilities (for the first time during that current pregnancy) were infected with HIV by the end of the year.
South Africa'€™s welfare system is in the midst of a massive shake-up which stakeholders are hoping could result in government paying out more money to destitute children. At a recent meeting in Cape Town, about 90 roleplayers from the children'€™s sector and government officials, including those from a special committee charged with revising the entire social security system, grappled with how to set up an efficient "safety net" for the children of South Africa.
Three grants are currently available to children, but they reach only a small percentage and it is difficult to access.
Statistics reflecting the "state of our children"
Black Sash and COSATU have made recommendations to the Committee and have called for a grant that is accessible to all children
Mthobisi Simelane (7) has been orphaned and abandoned by his family at Mosvold Hospital in Ingwavuma, rural KwaZulu-Natal. Unless he gets a birth certificate, anyone caring for him will be unable to access any grants.
Sadly, it would seem, that many healthworkers serving in clinics and hospitals around South Africa stigmatise and ridicule people with HIV/AIDS. When one woman in the Western Cape spoke out about it at a meeting recently, the room resounded with echoes of similar stories. Sue Valentine reports. [This feature was first broadast on "AM Live" on SAfm on Thursday March 1, 2001. Speaking on the programme immediately after this report was played, a spokesperson for G F Jooste Hospital denied that staff at his institution discriminated against people with HIV/AIDS. On the contrary, he said, his staff were trained to deal with patients sympathetically and with kindness.]
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