South Africa is once again at the centre of an AIDS drug controversy. Emotions are running high and the challenge is to determine what the issues are and the likely consequences for the thousands of women and children who may need the drug.

As a public service, Health-e offers online readers copies of the reports and statements made by the National Institutes of Health, the World Health Organisation and Boehringer-Ingelheim on the status, safety and efficacy of Nevirapine as it pertains to the treatment of mother to child transmission of HIV.

The death of a Mozambican miner after a leg injury is the subject of a complicated legal wrangle with potentially serious implications for the mining industry and workers who are HIV positive.

A potentially precedent-setting court case between Rustenberg Platinum Mines, the Inspector of Mines and the Ministry of Mineral and Energy Affairs and which could have a serious impact on the mining industry with regard to the rights of HIV positive miners has been postponed in the Pretoria High Court until January next year.

How did you learn about sex? From your parents, your friends, books or magazines? South Africans of all cultural backgrounds share a common awkwardness and reluctance to talk about sex. We might all say that sex is normal and natural, but we don't always behave that way. Sex is something that is whispered about, or worse still, never discussed at all. But when a sexually transmitted virus has the potential to decimate our society - it's time the conversation began. In this series of four articles, we speak to parents, a school guidance councillor and a clinic nurse who talk about the difficulty - but the necessity - of talking to children about sex and sexuality.