More than a thousand people applauded religious leaders when they urged government to see to the health care needs of its people at an inter-faith service in St George's cathedral in Cape Town last week (Feb 12). The crowd then joined a march to Parliament organised by the Treatment Action Campaign calling for an HIV/AIDS treatment plan by June 16 and for trade and industry minister Alec Erwin to use his powers under the Patents Act to licence the necessary anti-retrovirals for a treatment plan. Sue Valentine followed the march through Cape Town and spoke to its leaders.

In this audio feature, we focus on the value of talking about sex and sexuality. Children and adolescents need to receive appropriate and accurate information to keep them safe and healthy in a society which has one of the fastest growing rates of HIV transmission in the world.

It stands to reason that if something affects you, you're more likely to take an interest in understanding it. Treatment literacy - the process of understanding how a disease affects you and what medication works best - is still relatively undeveloped in South Africa. In the United States, however, AIDS activists have not been content to leave the research into AIDS drugs in the hallo wed halls of scientific institutions. The Treatment Action Group based in New York has made substantial progress in ensuring that safe and effective medicines reach the people living with HIV/AIDS as fast as possible.

Living in denial about HIV/AIDS is not good for your mental or physical health. Three people with HIV/AIDS talk about living with the disease. Linda Sambata, Pholokgolo Ramothwala and Sindiswa Godwana all say that the more they learn about the virus and how to look after themselves, the better they feel about their lives.

Steve Andrews has seen too many patients die of opportunistic infections related to HIV/AIDS that could have been prevented if the drugs were affordable. He respects the right of pharmaceutical companies to make a profit, but in the case of Fluconazole believes that it borders on the criminal not to make the medicine available. That's why he is importing the approved generic, Biozole, in defiance of Pfizer's patent on the drug in South Africa.

2000 was a year all too often fraught with confusion, anger and frustration for those people living with HIV/AIDS. But as we head into the new year, what are people who have the HI virus hoping for? Sue Valentine compiled this report.

As the vigil next to Nkosi Johnson's bedside continues and messages of support flood in from around South Africa and the world, doctors and AIDS lobbyists have applauded the contribution that this eleven year old little boy has made to challenging the ignorance and prejudice all too often associated with HIV/AIDS. Sue Valentine compiled this report and began by asking Treatment Action Campaign leader Zackie Achmat why he thought Nkosi has made such an impact on our lives.

On World AIDS Day, December 1, paediatricians around the country will hand in petitions to their respective MECs for Health. Their call is for government to provide the affordable, anti-retroviral drug Nevirapine to help prevent the transmission of HIV from mothers to their babies. This action is in response to the growing frustration and despondency among doctors who are left virtually helpless in the face of the epidemic and can offer little more than palliative care to their patients. Health-e spoke to a paediatrician who works at Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital.

Mercy Makhalemele has been thrown out of home, fired from her job, rejected and beaten, all because people discovered she was HIV positive. She is now open and outspoken about her life and the virus she lives with. Listen to her talk about living with AIDS.

Mavis Mtandeki is utterly convinced of the importance of talking to her children about sex. '€œWe can'€™t hide just because our parents didn'€™t want to talk about sex.'€ Mavis and another parent, sex educator and clinic nurse share their thoughts on talking to children about sex.

In the past ten years, conservative estimates show that the HIV infection rate has risen from 0,2% in 1990 to 22,4% in 1999. Clearly the prevention message has not been heard. In this week's feature, health workers in the Western Cape speak out about what they think should be said and done.

It can be uncomfortable talking about sex and sexuality because it'€™s such a private thing, acknowledges psychologist and guidance counsellor, Ingrid Owens, but she has no doubt that children want to talk.

In this programme, we spend a few minutes in the company of satirist Pieter Dirk Uys as he does his one-man AIDS awareness show for school pupils at Simonstown School. In the audience at this performance is the health minister, Manto Tshabalala-Msimang. Sue Valentine reports.