Local advocacy groups and international partners in South Africa'€™s response to HIV and AIDS welcomed the launch of the country'€™s programme to have 15 million citizens tested for HIV over the next year.
The latest newsletter from the health department on the Expansion of HIV Testing and Treatment gives details on the launch which will now take place on April 25.
The Department of Health is currently conducting a national immunization campaign to protect all children living in South Africa from polio and measles.
The official launch of the national HIV Counselling and Testing (HCT) campaign has been postponed, the Presidency has announced.
President Jacob Zuma has announced the postponement of a massive HIV testing campaign that was set to start on 15 April as it collided with scheduled working visits to Brazil and the US. He said new dates for the campaign would be announced soon.
Gauteng clinics and hospitals are ready to start implementing new HIV and AIDS treatment guidelines on Thursday April 1.
We are ready to tackle HIV and AIDS! That was the gist of Health Minister Dr Aaron Motsoaledi'€™s address today (25 March) when he announced plans for a massive national HIV counseling and testing campaign which aims to reach 15 million South Africans. The Minister also spoke about plans with regard to the rollout of new guidelines for AIDS and TB treatment, due for implementation at the beginning of April.
South Africa's antiretroviral treatment guidelines have been updated. The guidelines offer a range of improvements over the 2004 guidelines including new, more tolerable antiretrovirals, immediate ARV treatment for drug-resistant TB patients and improved prevention of mother to child transmission procedures.
Sir Elton John today (23 March) announced from Cape Town, South Africa, the granting of a £984,000 award to mothers2mothers (m2m) to be used to help prevent hundreds of thousands of babies across Africa from contracting HIV and empowering mothers living with HIV.
OPINION:Nathan Geffen'€™s book Debunking Delusions reminds us what can go wrong when AIDS denialists are given the time of day. The book also documents clearly how we can fight denialism in a manner that saves lives and respects science. What is clear given the resurgence of AIDS denialist propaganda is that now is not the time to sit back.
MSF, TAC, City of Cape Town, and Western Cape Province Department of Health show decentralised integrated TB/HIV care results in improved outcomes.
As of 15 March 2010, 21 human laboratory confirmed cases of River Valley Fever (RVF) have been reported in the Free State with two deaths. This brings a total to 22 human cases of RVF in South Africa, with one in the Northern Cape.
HIV stakeholders are calling on the Medicines Control Council (MCC) to speed up the registration of critical anti-HIV medication or face legal action. The Southern African HIV Clinicians Society has sent an appeal to the health minister to intervene and address the MCC registration process which they describe as the single biggest obstacle to getting affordable access to medicines.
OPINION: : Even if Zuma'€™s World AIDS Day speech is matched with sufficient budget allocation, innovative models of providing HIV and TB care will be needed to achieve the targets of the National Strategic Plan. Lesley Odendal reflects on the lessons learnt in Khayelitsha'€™s HIV and TB project as a window into the future.
The Budget and Expenditure Monitoring Forum recently held its second meeting and focused on the upcoming antiretroviral tender and the need to ensure that it is structured and run in a manner that enables the state to procure an adequate supply of appropriate medicines at the lowest possible prices.
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