It came unexpectedly: the question that most parents try to rehearse the answer to, but inevitably mess up when reality strikes. My six-year-old turned to me out of the blue and said: "But what I don'€™t understand is how the seed from the man gets into the woman'€™s egg."My initial response was to gloss over her question. After all, at six a child shouldn'€™t know about sex, I reasoned. But she persisted, so I had little option but to dive into a quick-'€˜n-basic lesson on anatomy '€“ which both amused and fascinated her.
Read More » Let’€™s talk about sexDURBAN - More than 5 000 scientists re-affirmed their assertion that HIV causes AIDS and endorsed the Durban Declaration at the AIDS 2000 conference yesterday. (Thursday).
Read More » Scientists re-affrim assertion that HIV causes AIDSBusisiwe Maqungo (28) had her suspicions that she was at risk of being HIV positive long before receiving confirmation via a test. In fact she was told her baby was HIV positive, before undergoing a test herself.
Read More » Death of an innocentDURBAN - The South African government should be in a position to make a decision about the provision of Nevirapine to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV/AIDS by this afternoon. (Friday)
Read More » Government should decide on Nevirapine by the end of the conference – Coovadia"If you have a very big elephant and you want to eat it up, you start from all corners. That way you'€™ll finish it up." So says Edith Mukisa, the founder of Uganda'€™s Teenage HIV/AIDS Clinic in Naguru, just outside the capital Kampala.This is the philosophy that lies at the core of Uganda'€™s multi-sectoral response to the HIV/AIDS pandemic. And it'€™s paying dividends. by Carolyn Dempster
Read More » Hope for the future: Ugandan youth turn back the HIV tide
"Very high" medicine prices have prompted HIV/AIDS activist organisation to mount "legal action" against [drug company] Pfizer, to bring generic medicine into the country from Thailand to help treat HIV positive people.
Read More » Campaign for cheap drugs from Thailand"I refuse to be identical to a statistic. I feel, I get sexy, I get hungry. Whatever you feel about your sexuality, I also feel," declared Brigitte Syamalevure, mother of 11 and an HIV positive Zambian.
Read More » HIV positive women speak out at AIDS conference
Law experts are unlikely to recommend that government introduce HIV-specific laws to punish those who knowingly infect others.
Read More » Rape, murder charges for those who infect others with AIDS"Nobody says we shouldn't treat TB or cancer because we don't have the infrastructure or the ability to do so properly," said Dr Andy Grey from the Health System Trust in Durban. This was in response to Dr Mazuwa Banda from the World Health Organization, who argued at the AIDS 2000 conference that antiretroviral drugs should not be distributed in countries where "the basic requirements for [their] safe, effective use" are not in place.
Read More » Drugs are the bottom-lineBrett Anderson never thought he had contracted HIV. "I was as sick as a dog but I never thought of HIV despite having all the symptoms. It never crossed my mind. It simply wasn't real to me. Now, it's in my blood. It's part of my life," says the 28-year-old Capetonian.
Read More » Appreciating every dayThe failure of a special vaginal gel to prevent sex workers from getting HIV means that condoms remain the world's only protection against the disease during sex .
Read More » Women dealt double blow at AIDS conference
Addressing delegates at the AIDS 2000 conference on the role of gender and sexuality in the transmission of HIV/AIDS , Dr Geeta Rao Gupta said that "Empowering women does not disempower men".
Read More » Empower women to combat the spread of HIV/AIDSDURBAN - The Medical Research Council of South Africa has received more than R100 million over five years to establish two new research units for the study of HIV/AIDS prevention strategies and vaccines.
Read More » MRC receives R100-m boost
The South African Department of Health is "very pleased" with the results announced by researchers working on the Nevirapine Trials which showed a significant reduction in mother-to-child transmission of HIV.
Read More » More work before Health Department considers NevirapineDURBAN - If access to HIV treatment does not exist, should government's promote voluntary testing and counselling among its citizens? This was one of the issues debated at the AIDS 2000 conference this week.
Read More » Testing for HIV/AIDS – what’s the point?