Some mining companies have adopted a controversial new approach to HIV prevention which involves the ongoing use of antibiotics among women at high risk of spreading STDs. The programme translates into a saving of almost R4 million per annum to the mining companies involved.
The Medicines Control Council last week approved a new HIV/AIDS antiretroviral drug that combines AZT and 3TC. But it's going to cost patients over R1 000 per month. By ANSO THOM.
The Gates Foundation will now devote at least two-thirds of its $21 billion charity fund to third world healthcare. "The worlds poorest two billion people desperately need healthcare, not laptops," he reportedly said to the dismay of America's business community. Jo Stein reports.
Sindiswa Gondwana is HIV positive, but lives a full and active life, thanks largely to the support of friends and family. She believes firmly in the value of support groups and is herself a volunteer who visits people who are HIV positive, encouraging them to adopt an optimistic approach to life.
Evidence from over 35 studies is increasingly showing that male circumcision provides significant protection against heterosexual HIV infection and that circumcised males are two to eight times less likely to become infected by women with the virus. Some researchers say the jury is still out on the procedure, others are calling for immediate implementation. Anso Thom investigates
Rapid HIV tests, which allow you to get your HIV test result within a few minutes, should be in use country-wide within the course of next year. But only those rapid tests used in government health facilities have been properly evaluated for reliability. Quality control of the other brands on the market is not yet assured. Jo Stein reports
The health department and the SA Bureau of Standards have been caught with their pants down. Clinics have run out of condoms, while the Department of Health claim they have received no requests for additional stocks from the depots that supply the clinics.
Entering the gates of Luhlaza High School, the oasis of green spinach and buffalo grass bordering the entrance is in stark contrast to dusty and windswept Khayelitsha on the far side of the fence. Encouraged by her love for the environment, science and biology teacher Elizabeth Le Tape started the Luhlaza Environmental Club last year.
Child survivors of rape are being denied access to anti-AIDS drugs following a move by Mpumalanga Health MEC Sibongile Manana to bar rape volunteers from storing or dispensing the drugs on Nelspruit and White River hospital premises. ANSO THOM reports.
Treatment Action Campaign chairperson, Zackie Achmat is often in the news. Most recently he made the headlines for importing a quantity of cheap, generic anti-retroviral drugs from Thailand. It was a deliberate act, calculated to show that access to affordable treatment is possible. But who is the man behind the political campaign, what motivates him and how does he feel about living with AIDS? SUE VALENTINE reports.
Six months after five major pharmaceutical companies and the Joint United Nations Programme on AIDS (UNAIDS) declared their intention to make HIV drugs more affordable to poor countries, South Africa has yet to express formal interest in entering negotiations.
Mpumalanga MEC Sibongile Manana has set her sights on another successful non-governmental AIDS organisation, this time ordering an investigation into the Mpumalanga Project Support Association'€™s (MPSA) operations. ANSO THOM investigates.
Treatment Action Campaign chairperson Zackie Achmat has been both condemned and praised for smuggling cheap medicines into the country as part of his organisation's challenge to drug companies. ANSO THOM tries to find the person behind the controversy.
Almost half of South Africa's 15-year olds will become infected with HIV during the course of their lifetime. And the probability of die before the age of 60. But it is important to unpack these frightening figures in order to make sense of them. Jo Stein reports
New research provides direct evidence that anti-retroviral drugs can prevent HIV infection after sexual intercourse. This research comes amid a series of controversial decisions regarding the provision of AZT to rape victims in South Africa. The new national guidelines for HIV care launched on Tuesday (24th October) deny the use of anti-retroviral drugs to rape survivors but the Western Cape will provide AZT to rape survivors nonetheless. Jo Stein reports.
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