MDGs exclude the poorest of the poor
Amnesty International has accused governments failing to make a concerted effort to reach the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) of abusing the human rights of the poorest in society.
Women’s Health
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Baby Blues
For the last decade, everyone living and working with AIDS has been preoccupied with securing access to life-saving drugs. Now that just under a million South Africans are on ARVs, there's a new frontier in the fight against the virus: Safeguarding the human rights of people living with HIV.
Secrets and Lies
For years South Africans battled to learn their sexual alphabet- A abstain, B be faithful and C condomise. Sexual behaviour has proved stubbornly resistant to change. The majority of people still do not understand that regular unprotected sex with more than one partner increases the risk of infection dramatically.
Tenofovir gel hailed
Women leaders in South Africa have hailed the outcome of a microbicide gel study, saying it will help protect women who can't negotiate safe sex with their partners against HIV infection.
Moulding men you can count on Living with AIDS # 442
Research shows that men are the main drivers of the HIV epidemic. Men transmit HIV to women, who, in turn, can infect their babies if they fall pregnant. But this can be prevented if men become a part of the woman's pregnancy.
Rape survivors still feel marginalised
Every 17 seconds a woman is raped in South Africa. According to the South African Police Services' 2006 rape statistics, close to 55 000 women reported being raped that year. But how many more rapes go unreported, and why?
Women advised to know their anatomy
Twenty-five percent of all women can develop some kind of vaginal infection. This is according to specialists, who say thrush and bacterial vaginosis are the most common. But, the majority of women are too ashamed to consult their doctors and would prefer to self-medicate, which may aggravate the infection.
‘Step up and fight women abuse’ – men urged
At a week-long international summit in Johannesburg recently, men and women were challenged to step up the fight on gender-based violence.
Millennium Development Goals count-down Living with AIDS # 439
In 2000, the world's leaders committed themselves to the United Nations' Millennium Development Goals to make our planet a healthier place to live in by the year 2015. Two-thirds of the deadline has already passed. Is the world succeeding in its commitments, for instance, to combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases which are endemic in countries such as South Africa?
Help a phone call away for sex workers
The Sex Workers Education and Advocacy Taskforce (SWEAT) and Sisonke have launched a helpline to give sex workers a voice.
Greater strides needed to reduce maternal and child mortality
President Jacob Zuma has declared that African leaders aimed to deliver on their commitments to allocate 15% of their budgets to health care and to allocate an amount for maternal, newborn and child health care.
Abused women at a higher risk of HIV
Women in abusive relationships have a higher risk of being infected with HIV, a South African Medical Research Council study has found.
Saving mothers and children
The death of a child's mother massively reduces the child's chances of survival to age 10 years, whereas the father's death has a negligible effect, a study on child survival in Bangladesh has found.
Microbicides safe during pregnancy – study
Pittsburgh ' A microbicide that researchers are pinning their hopes on is safe for use in pregnant women, according to a study presented at the Microbicide 2010 conference taking place in the United States this week.
Efavirenz safe for pregnant women
A review of available studies on Efavirenz has found no increased risk of overall birth defects among women
exposed to the antiretroviral during the first trimester of pregnancy compared with exposure
to other antiretroviral drugs. The results were published in the AIDS Journal and comes after the South African Government opted not to include the drug due to what specialists described a unfounded fears of birth defects.