In the past ten years, conservative estimates show that the HIV infection rate has risen from 0,2% in 1990 to 22,4% in 1999. Clearly the prevention message has not been heard. In this week's feature, health workers in the Western Cape speak out about what they think should be said and done.
Mavis Mtandeki is utterly convinced of the importance of talking to her children about sex. 'We can't hide just because our parents didn't want to talk about sex.' Mavis and another parent, sex educator and clinic nurse share their thoughts on talking to children about sex.
It can be uncomfortable talking about sex and sexuality because it's such a private thing, acknowledges psychologist and guidance counsellor, Ingrid Owens, but she has no doubt that children want to talk.
An initiative, aimed at striking a balance between the need to sustain and conserve the natural medicinal plant resources and the growing demand for products from traditional healers, will be launched in Mpumalanga at the end of this month. ANSO THOM reports.
In this programme, we spend a few minutes in the company of satirist Pieter Dirk Uys as he does his one-man AIDS awareness show for school pupils at Simonstown School. In the audience at this performance is the health minister, Manto Tshabalala-Msimang. Sue Valentine reports.
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.
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