
SA ready to produce its own vaccines
After seven years of 'down time' South Africa is back in the business of vaccine production with the formulating and filling of the hepatitis B vaccine at the Biovac Institute, a public-private partnership.

After seven years of 'down time' South Africa is back in the business of vaccine production with the formulating and filling of the hepatitis B vaccine at the Biovac Institute, a public-private partnership.

Contrary to popular belief, it is not entirely difficult to get men to test for HIV. This is according to New Start, a non-profit public health programme offering low-cost Voluntary Counselling and Testing services.

The Treatment Action Campaign has sent a letter to President Thabo Mbeki formally requesting that he appoint a judicial commission of inquiry into the presidency and health ministry's involvement in the promotion and testing of Virodene. Read the full letter here as well as a synopsis of the Virodene affair.

The latest Centers for Disease Control and Prevention News Update focuses on the Caribbean's slow response to the AIDS epidemic, Australia's Hepatitis C epidemic which is fuelled by injecting drug use and London's efforts to get condoms to Olympic athletes come 2012.

Health-e will be posting the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention News Update every week. The Update focuses on news from around the world in the fields of among others HIV, Hepatitis, Sexually Transmitted Diseases and Tuberculosis.

Dance4life is helping learners to campaign against problems at school using dance, drama and singing
There should be a judicial commission of inquiry into the role of President Thabo Mbeki and his officials' in 'experiments on poor African people', according to the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC).
A new therapeutic AIDS vaccine trial designed to slow progression to full-blown AIDS is underway.

The 'grandfather' of AIDS, Reuben Sher passed away on Monday morning following post surgery complications.
In Tzaneen, in Limpopo, denial and witchcraft give caregivers a hard time, as families of AIDS patients believe that their illnesses cannot be treated using Western medicines.
After a two-year study, the Academy of Science of South Africa appeals for all orthodox, traditional and alternative medicines to be subjected to the same scientific tests to prove that they can help people with HIV and TB.

The US Secretary of Health - equivalent of our minister of health - praises a dusty semi-rural area in KwaZulu-Natal for its efforts to fight HIV/AIDS.
AIDS activist group, Treatment Action Campaign, has intensified its call to the Department of Health to move from the current policy of offering only a single drug, Nevirapine, in its Prevention-of-Mother-To-Child HIV programme.
The annual national antenatal HIV and Syphilis prevalence survey released by the Department of Health last week, shows a steady decline in new HIV infections in women under the age of 24. However, the report shows a worrying growth in HIV amongst older women aged 30 ' 39.
The High Court in Chennai, India has upheld India's Patents Act in the face of a challenge by Swiss pharmaceutical company Novartis.