In this audio package Sister Mabuyi Mnguni of the South Coast Hospice in Port Shepstone talks further about their home-based care programme and issues of poverty in the rural areas.

There is a close correlation between how young people perceive their future options and their chances of engaging in risky sexual behaviour and contracting HIV. This is one of the conclusions from a recent survey among South African youth which also shows that although parents see HIV/AIDS as one of the biggest issues facing their children, very few parents are comfortable about talking about sex and relationships with their children.

As more and more families are affected by the AIDS pandemic, and already strained health services are unable to cope, home-based care programmes are assuming increasing responsibility for the sick and dying. In this audio report, the deputy director of the South Coast Hospice in Port Shepstone, Mabuyi Mnguni talks about the work they are doing. The South Coast Hospice has been widely praised as a "best practice model" for its home-based care service for people with HIV/AIDS.  

While Wednesday's national budget speech pledged significant additional spending on HIV/AIDS and included the progressive roll-out of a mother-to-child prevention programme, it is likely that by this time next year, there will be a growing call for government to grapple with the cost of providing antiretroviral treatment for adults. In this edition of "Living with AIDS", people who are currently part of a free treatment programme talk about the difference it has made to their lives.

Health economists have welcomed the R1 billion allocated in the 2002-2003 budget for the national HIV/AIDS programme - although some have cautioned that it will be important to see that this money reaches those provinces worst affected by the epidemic.

A small group of people with AIDS in Khayelitsha, Cape Town are enjoying a new lease on life through access to an antiretroviral treatment programme offered by Medecins Sans Frontieres in conjunction with the Western Cape public health system. In this audio feature, a counsellor on the programme and one of the patients talk about the difference such therapy is making to people's lives, as well as the need to counter much of the confusion sown by government's ambivalent stance on HIV/AIDS and antiretroviral therapy.

Antiretroviral medicines are costly and complicated to monitor, but this should not put them out of the reach of patients in the public health system. The fledgling antiretroviral therapy programme running in certain hospitals in Khayelitsha is offering these life-prolonging drugs to a small, but growing number of clients. Doctors working with the Medecins Sans Frontieres antiretroviral programme in Khayelitsha are convinced that the drugs can be given in these relatively poor surroundings.

There are many benefits to knowing one's HIV status. If you're negative, it's an added incentive to protect yourself. If you have HIV, it's important to avoid being re-infected and to learn how to live positively. This is where good counselling comes in. One organisation offering this service is ATICC, the AIDS Training, Information and Counselling Centre. Sue Valentine visited their offices in Plumstead, Cape Town. Telephone numbers for ATICC offices: Cape Town (021) 797-3327 Johannesburg (011) 725-6711/2; Durban: (031) 300-3104 Port Elizabeth (041) 506-1249

The AIDS helpline exists to offer advice and information to anyone wanting to know more about HIV and AIDS. Should I have an HIV test or not? What can I do if I discover I'm HIV positive? Who can I talk to about any concerns I have? Informed support is literally just a phone call away, on 0800-012-322.

With a prevalence rate of almost 39 percent and some 300 000 of its 1,9 million people estimated to be HIV positive, Botswana has taken bold steps to address the AIDS epidemic in their country. But even with government commitment and so many people affected, stigma runs deep and only a handful of Batswana have spoken openly about living with HIV/AIDS. In this audio package we hear about the origins of stigma, what is being done to support those who are HIV positive and about the antiretroviral therapy programme that goverment is rolling out over the coming weeks.

While the run-up to World AIDS day in South Africa has been characterised by, among other things, a court case demanding that government implement a national plan to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV, in neighbouring Botswana, construction workers are burning the midnight oil to complete a state of the art laboratory to support the introduction of a national antiretroviral therapy treatment programme.