Several private sector pharmacies have run out of the Glaxo-Smith-Kline drug 3TC, an anti-retroviral drug used in combination with others. Indications are that GSK is struggling to meet demand.
As South Africa joins the world in celebrating the 10th anniversary of the commitments made at the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing this week, the threat posed by HIV/AIDS to women's development, particularly in the developing world, continues to grow. Health-e, reports.
After the post remained vacant for a couple of months, the national Department of Health now has a new Chief Director for the HIV and AIDS, TB and STI's cluster. Dr Nomonde Xundu's appointment comes at a crucial time when implementation of the Care and Treatment Plan for HIV and AIDS needs to be strengthened. A bit uncomfortable, she spoke to Health-e about what work awaits her.
It's been a month since she's been the national Chief Director of the HIV and AIDS, TB and STI's cluster. Dr Nomonde Xundu admits that she comes to the job at a time when 'a lot of work has been done already'. Her predecessor Dr Nono Simelela, left the post late last year after a perceived 'frustration' at the government's slow pace in ensuring treatment for people living with HIV and AIDS. In this report, we find out who Dr Nomonde Xundu is.
First, the Catholic Church charged that they encourage immoral sexual behaviour and that they actually contribute to the spread of HIV. Now IFP leader Chief Mangosuthu Buthelezi says 'if we rely on a piece of rubber for our salvation, then we are already doomed'. Health-e News Service, explores the issue.
The Ministry of Health has ordered that all references to the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC), gays and pictures of Patricia de Lille and Judge Edwin Cameron be removed from a 'toolkit' aimed at empowering people living with HIV/AIDS.
A leading scientific journal has criticised Government for being defensive over deaths from HIV/AIDS and urged it to show backbone and courage in tackling "the crisis of its people".
SABC 1 will from this Monday air a two-part documentary, Law and Freedom, narrated and directed by Zackie Achmat, leader of the Treatment Action Campaign, a movement that has brought about significant change via the courts.
New research suggests that starting antiretroviral therapy while the immune system is still relatively strong rather than at the later stages of HIV infection could be beneficial. Up to so far, guidelines on AIDS treatment require that ARV's should be started when a person's CD 4 cell-count reaches the clinically crucial 200 mark or less. Health-e News Service, reports.
Four pioneering doctors who encountered the first cases of HIV and Aids in South Africa look back on the epidemic.
HIV prevalence in the Western Cape is the lowest in the country - 13,1 percent compared to a national figure of 27,9 percent in the 2003 Antenatal HIV Prevalence Survey. However in parts of the province levels are much higher.
In the USA it was not until the 1970s that a condom could be purchased legally as a contraceptive measure. For almost a century they were available only as a prophylaxis for disease control. Very little has been written about the history of the modern condom, something Paula Treichler is seeking to rectify. She spoke to Health-e on a recent visit to South Africa.
The panic, fear and gay backlash caused by HIV/AIDS has subsided in San Francisco and the city is once more celebrating free sexual expression.
With the US presidential race too close to call, both candidates are trying to woo black voters, who are the poorest and most disadvantaged sector of American society with the highest burden of disease.
The Durex Global Sex Survey shows that South Africans are careless about AIDS. Fifty eight percent of us have unprotected sex despite living in a country with one of the highest HIV prevalence levels in the world. Health-e spoke to a matriculant living with AIDS about the importance of safer sex.
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