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.

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.

HIV/AIDS continues to challenge our society at every level '€“ including our schools. How dies a matric pupil cope with hearing that she is HIV positive mid-way through her final year at school and how has this affected her relationships with and preparations for her matric exams?

Improved relations between the sexes and a change in men'€™s attitudes can go a long way towards reducing gender-based violence and the spread of HIV. Creating better men is the goal of the Men as Partners network. Their latest project was launched recently in Hillbrow, Johannesburg.

After the birth and sudden death of her fourth child in 1997 the 27-year-old Nokwanda learnt that she was HIV positive. Writer SUSAN WINTERS tracks the final four years of Nokwanda'€™s life and the emotional and physical journey of the brave Eastern Cape mother and her family.

Naheng tsa Zambia le Uganda ha se ntho esele. E boela e le setlwaedi toropong ya San Francisco, Amerika, pakeng tsa baratani ba banna. Jwale ho se ho etsahala mona Aforika Borwa. Re bua ka hore balekane ba nke mohato wa ho fumana tsebo ka tshwaetso ya HIV le ho itlhatlhoba mmoho ka nako e le nngwe.

It happens in Zambia and Uganda. It'€™s also common practice among same-sex male couples in San Francisco, in the United States. Now it'€™s being introduced in South Africa. We'€™re talking about HIV counselling and testing for couples. Health-e News Service reports.