The Limpopo province is one of five provinces that the government says will soon be ready to join the Western Cape and Gauteng in providing AIDS treatment in the public health sector. In this feature Health-e visits Tintswalo Hospital, Limpopo'€™s second largest hospital in rural Acornhoek, and met Dr Paul Pronyk, an American who has been working at the hospital for the last six years as part of Wits University'€™s Rural AIDS and Development Action Research project.

The lure of foreign currency combined with tough working conditions and poor salaries is contributing to the exodus of South African nurses from our health services. The BBC recently reported that South Africa rates second after the Philippines as top supplier of nurses to the UK. Health-e visited the Eastern Cape to find out more about the shortage of nursing staff.

A new concept is gaining momentum in South Africa. After three years of debate and discussion a Charter for Sexual Rights has been adopted enshrining the rights of women to control their sexual and reproductive health. The Charter advocates mutual respect between men and women and it is hoped that this will prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS.

Access to medicines is still a problem in some public hospitals and many clinics in the Eastern Cape. Despite the reassurance of better service for all by the Department of Health and the Batho Pele principle to put people first, this is not happening in many areas. Health-e travelled through the region and compiled this report.

Interviewed by the national public broadcaster the weekend after his state of the nation address, President Thabo Mbeki still seemed determined to ignore and obfuscate the impact of HIV/AIDS on the country. Health-e examines his remarks.