
Government spends billions on ARVs
The Department of Health has awarded tenders valued at over R3-billion for the procurement of antiretroviral drugs over the next two years.

The Department of Health has awarded tenders valued at over R3-billion for the procurement of antiretroviral drugs over the next two years.

The Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) has vowed to continue using the courts to protect those living with HIV. The Cape Town High Court recently ruled in its favor to stop Dr Matthias Rath from conducting unauthorized clinical trials and promoting his multivitamins to people living with AIDS.

The Cape High Court'€™s ruling against controversial German vitamin salesman Dr Matthias Rath, last week, is the first decisive action against charlatans who claim they can cure AIDS. This judgement should set a precedent for action against many others.

The health department will not appeal Friday'€™s Cape High Court judgment which ruled that German vitamin seller Matthias Rath'€™s scientific trials were illegal.

The failure of several clinical trials to find an effective HIV prevention mechanism has prompted the Minister of Health, Dr Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, to call for a review of research trials.

The KwaZulu-Natal Health MEC recently hosted a bizarre "HIV information workshop" attended by AIDS denialists and opponents of antiretroviral therapy. The health minister was the keynote speaker.
While science battles to find an HIV vaccine, there have been real advances in the field of HIV prevention. So why isn'€™t South Africa taking advantage of these?
Health MEC Peggy Nkonyeni has violated public service regulations as well as the Constitution in her attack on Dr Mark Blaylock, claim the SA Medical Association and the AIDS Law Project
OPINION: Health MEC Peggy Nkonyeni's attempts to portray Dr Mark Blaylock as a racist threaten to undermine a well-functioning hospital and also undermine the ANC's principle of non-racialism.
Top researchers have called for male circumcision and the reduction of multiple sexual partnerships to become the cornerstone of HIV prevention in Africa if a significant impact is to be made on the HIV epidemic.
In a rare study of mortality before and after ARVs, researchers find a drop in deaths of 10 percent.

Despite attempts by both the government and other sectors to encourage testing for HIV, most South African men are still not willing to get tested. We spoke to some of the nation'€™s men'€™s organizations to get more insight on this.

A string of disappointing scientific research results on the HIV prevention front suggests that alternative methods of prevention, besides the condom and femidom, are not on the immediate horizon. What are the implications of this?

With a poor control programme, the development of drug-resistant bacilli, no new drugs to treat it and an increasing HIV case load, South Africa is facing the worst TB epidemic in decades.
Statements made by ANC politicians at the recent national congress of the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) suggest a move towards better relations between the government and the activist group. The relationship between the two has been at an all-time low over the last few years amid confrontation and mudslinging over the anti-retroviral treatment roll-out plan.