Somewhere around 1 November 2008 the death penalty was reintroduced in the Free State. Quietly, with the stroke of a pen, an official in the Department of Health in Bloemfontein signed a memorandum introducing a moratorium declaring that no new patients should be put on anti-retroviral (ARV) treatment. This was to be for the next five months ' until the new financial year, April 1 2009 -- when the funds would return.
SA NGOs condemn statements made by former health minister at UN session of the Commission on the Status of Women looking at caregiving in the context of HIV/AIDS
JOHANNESBURG:(PlusNews) - 2009 might just be the year that HIV prevention finally takes centre stage in South Africa. Years of workshops and speeches in which AIDS experts and politicians talked about the need to prioritise prevention are, at last, translating into action.
Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has released a report on the feasibility of a groundbreaking nurse-driven HIV and TB care and treatment programme following a three year stint in Lesotho.
Does having more than one sexual partner form part of tradition? What role does the practice play in the transmission of HIV?
The Bulletin of the World Health Organisation has published an article drawing attention to the little-explored reality of increasing numbers of people over the age of 50 infected with HIV.
At least 30 HIV positive people have died in the Free State every day following a moratorium the province placed on initiating any new patients on anti-retroviral (ARV) drugs, according to conservative figures from the Southern African HIV Clinicians Society.
Today in our series on EVERYDAY HEROES we meet a woman who represents the silent army of heroes countrywide who are in frontline of the fights against HIV and AIDS. Home-based caregivers. Although it's a hard job where patients don't always get better and there's no personal reward, caregivers form the backbone of patient care in a health system that is overburdened and under-resourced.
Thousands of desperate HIV positive patients in the Free State have been thrown a lifeline with news that millions has been secured to procure anti-retroviral (ARV) drugs needed to keep them alive.
Nontskolo Tantiso had been feeling unwell for several months, but attempts to establish whether she may need antiretroviral treatment have seen her being sent from pillar to post.
The young woman slowly slides the neatly folded papers from the envelope and gingerly places the three documents on the rickety table.
Hundreds of patients are being denied antiretroviral treatment in the Free State. During a visit to Welkom's Bongani Hospital last week Anso Thom and Lungi Langa spoke to three young men who are staring death in the face.
In its current TV series, 'One Love', the non-profit health communication project, Soul City, is promoting the value of men and women being faithful to their partners and dedicating themselves to building one committed relationship.
The antiretroviral shortages in the Free State which reached crisis proportions last year when the province ran out of the critical medication are continuing, according to the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC).
KENYA:(PlusNews) - Jane Nyasuguta*, 40, a former teacher living in Nyanza Province, western Kenya, thought she and her husband had a good marriage until she discovered he had a mistress in a neighbouring town. She told IRIN/PlusNews that after his death from an AIDS-related illness, and her discovery that she too was HIV-positive, she was filled with resentment.
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