Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - December 19, 2001
The government is seeking to head off a slew of future legal attacks that could force it to honour the socio-economic obligations enshrined in the Constitution. The Department of Health will ask the Constitutional Court to overturn last week s Pretoria High Court judgement that it must provide anti-retroviral drugs in
Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - December 19, 2001
Estimated worldwide HIV infections: 44 667 937 as of 1.24pm December 19 2001 In court again: The Treatment Action Campaign won its legal challenge to force the Department of Health to make nevirapine available to all HIV-positive pregnant women attending public antenatal facilities. The government will appeal to the Co
Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - December 14, 2001
South African companies are missing out on lucrative returns by failing to see that money spent on HIV/Aids is an investment, rather than a cost, according to a new study into major Southern African companies. And while many managers may regard HIV as a personal issue, they are still failing to appreciate the business
Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - December 14, 2001
Jaspreet Kindra
The Treatment Action Campaigns crusade for the provision of anti-retroviral drugs to people living with HIV/Aids is to serve as a model for a civic campaign for the expropriation of land from absentee landlords, and of unutilised or underutilised land. Frustrated with what they consider the governments inadequate land
The parallels between Israel and the South Africa of PW Botha grow daily more striking. Since besieged Israeli voters installed militarist Ariel Sharon as leader, security considerations have replaced politics, violence and counter-violence have spiralled out of control, state assassination has been sanctioned, whole c
The government should look at the science and not the myths perpetuated about nevirapine If South Africa wants to save 70000 children a year from a premature death, then the duststorm of confusion about the use of anti-retroviral drugs to prevent pregnant women from passing the HI virus on to their babies needs to be d
Political agendas appear to outweigh scientific evidence in South African government decision-making on the use of HIV drugs in pregnancy, according to a report by a leading international think tank. The report, produced in September under the aegis of the worldwide Cochrane Collaboration, which is locally associated w
The ANC has made its clearest statement yet of the denialist position on HIV/Aids associated with President Thabo Mbeki In a briefing document posted on its website last week, the African National Congress says there are still disputes about whether an infective agent exists, whether it is a virus, and whether a virus
Estimated worldwide HIV infections: Thursday December 6 2:01pm: 44 481 282 Test trial: The Medical Research Council said South Africa s first HIV/Aids vaccine trials may start as early as February next year involving 96 volunteers from KwaZulu-Natal, Soweto and the United States . If the first phase proves successful,
Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - November 23, 2001
The Treatment Action Campaign is seeking an order that nevirapine must be made available to all state hospitals and clinics We see our wards full ... of wasted little infants, struggling to breathe despite oxygen, refusing to feed as swallowing is too painful because of extensive candidiasis
Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - November 23, 2001
The new chairperson of the South African Human Rights Commission (HRC), Shirley Mabusela, kept her head down on the government s HIV/Aids stance this week and stood by the HRC s decision to stay out of next week s court challenge to official policy on anti-retroviral drugs, writes Bongani Majola. This is likely to disa
Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - November 16, 2001
Jaspreet Kindra
Arthur Jokweni (20) wants to take President Thabo Mbeki to rural KwaZulu-Natal where HIV/Aids is killing the community . He wants to show Mbeki the face of Aids in areas where people have to travel more than 30km to access a health centre. This week he wrote to Mbeki inviting him to take the trip to bring hope to these
Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - November 16, 2001
Charlene Smith
Traditional leaders and healers are moving rapidly to amend custom and tradition, and to use herbal remedies in some of the most effective battles against the ravages of Aids. The Medical Research Council (MRC)recently opened a research centre at Delft in Cape Town where traditional healers purvey their craft, and wher
Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - November 16, 2001
Belinda Beresford
Sitting alone behind his lawyers, hands frequently over his face, the director general of health often cut a forlorn figure in court this week. As the most senior civil servant in the Department of Health, Ayanda Ntsaluba had the unenviable task of being the front-line trooper in defending government policy that he did
Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - November 16, 2001
Belinda Beresford
Full-blown Aids cases are remorselessly rising at three of Gauteng s premier teaching hospitals, suggesting that the huge levels of HIV infection are steadily translating into terminal illness. The University of the Witwatersrand revealed this week that the level of medical admissions to Helen Joseph hospital due to fu
Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - November 16, 2001
When Iikka Vehkalahti and Don Edkins took to the main stage at the Baxter Theatre Centre in Cape Town to compere the last of eight screening sessions of about two hours about a month ago, one could not help but feel a palpable sense of satisfaction on their part. They were satisfied, possibly astonished, that a dream b
Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - November 16, 2001
Belinda Beresford
From a virus point of view, HIV is a great survivor. Even the scientists trying to combat the Aids epidemic admire their mutant enemy. HIV is not particularly infectious, it s not very hardy outside its host and it is susceptible to sterilising treatment like bleach. But it has a lengthy, hidden incubation period, and
Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - November 16, 2001
Belinda Beresford
December 1 is World Aids Day, when red ribbons will be sported worldwide, speeches and promises made and learned research released and debated. Heart-rending stories of the dyingand those they leave behind, indignant news items about the high cost of drugs, and hand-wringing about the failure to change human behaviour
Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - November 16, 2001
Thebe Mabanga
Paris is the world s sexiest city, depressingly few people worry about catching HIV, and Americans claim to be the most rampant nation. People prefer to have sex on the beach (a possible explanation for the popularity of the cocktail with the same name), the back seat of the car loses out to the Jacuzzi and the woods a
Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - November 16, 2001
Belinda Beresford
An Anglican clergyman is preparing to tell his congregation that he is HIV-positive. Would you share the blood of Christ with someone who has HIV? Would you support fellow church members with the virus, or would you condemn them as sinful? And would it make any difference if one of those fellow churchgoers was your pri
Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - November 16, 2001
Bongani Majola
Condoms! Condoms! shouts Vusi Fahla (28) as he distributes condoms to the passing taxis. Words such as HIV/Aids, condoms and AZT are an inseparable part of his life. He is the project manager for Friends for Life, an NGO that provides life skills to HIV-infected people, home-based care for patients and pre-test, post-
Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - November 16, 2001
Thabo Mohlala
The rapid spread of Aids, combined with the expense and difficulty in obtaining Western medicine, is forcing more people to consult traditional healers in search of a cure. But do the government and other players in the medical fraternity appreciate their role? Put differently, are there any concrete measures in place
Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - November 16, 2001
Thabo Mohlala
Although there is no cure for Aids yet, many people who are HIV positive advise that speaking out and accepting one s status is in itself a prophylaxis. It not only has a therapeutic effect - so the theory goes - but also prepares one to deal with emotional stress and stigma. More significantly, it enables the body to
Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - November 16, 2001
A personal account of sexual temptations and their terrifying repercussions Aids is poised to curtail life itself, but for many people, life goes on as if Aids does not exist. And any discussion of HIV/Aids inevitably becomes personal. Just pay attention to this detail from real life in the streets. Not that Aids aware
Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - November 16, 2001
Charlene Smith
In a sharp turn from current government policy, the parliamentary Committee on the Status of Women has recommended that anti-retroviral drugs be given to protect rape survivors and to stop mother-to-child transmission of HIV. The African National Congress-dominated committee issued its recommendations after two months
Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - November 16, 2001
Nawaal Deane
The head of a Nelspruit hospital has been suspended, allegedly because of his support for an organisation that helped rape survivors obtain access to anti-retroviral drugs to reduce their chances of catching HIV. The superintendent, Dr Matthys von Mollendorff, is taking Mpumalanga MEC for Health Sibongile Manana to cou
Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - November 16, 2001
Estimated worldwide HIV infections: 1.39pm Thursday November 15: 441 78 522 Badge of honour: Badges costing R5 will be sold at Absa branches to raise money for children affected by HIV/Aids. The proceeds from the badges will go to the Nelson Mandela Children s Fund. Anti-retrovirals: A parliamentary committee on women
Men in rural KwaZulu-Natal constantly said they did not need to change their sexual behaviour because the big man - President Thabo Mbeki - believed sex and HIV/Aids were not linked, according to an Anglican bishop. That is the message that is destroying human lives across this country, and for which President Mbeki is
North American responses to anthrax highlight the apparent hypocrisy of the developed world s position on patents Faced with the threat of a killer disease invading its borders, the Canadian government acted with commendable swiftness, acquiring a stockpile of one of the best antibiotics to treat it. But because the pa
To defend the indefensible one must resort to some twisted logic. To maintain and reproduce its values the apartheid government relied on the big lie of white supremacy. To sustain this big lie it had to marshal other lies. This included misrepresentation of the Bible to provide theological justification of its policie
Estimated worldwide HIV infections: Thursday November 2 2.20pm: 43 977 355 New drug: The United States Food and Drug Administration ( FDA ) has approved a new anti-retroviral drug for treating people with HIV. Viread (tenofovir) is the first nucleotide analogue approved b
The minister of finance also announced an increase in HIV/Aids spending In the government s first move to promote job creation through the tax system, Minister of Finance Trevor Manuel this week announced tax breaks for companies that employ new workers as learners. The announcement was a key feature of the cautiously
A bizarre speech by President Thabo Mbeki at Fort Hare University has been construed as tragic and inexorable evidence that he is a closet Aids dissident. Mbeki s address, at the inaugural ZK Matthews memorial lecture on October 12, makes no direct reference to the disease. However, after referring to medical schools w
And thus does it happen that others who consider themselves to be our leaders take to the streets carrying their placards, to demand that, because we are germ carriers and human beings of a lower order that cannot subject their passion to reason, we must perforce adopt strange opinions to save a depraved and diseased
Please can I have a doll and a dummy for my doll, because then I can play with my doll in my mother s room and near her grave. The doll will be my friend because I don t have friends because they say I am dirty, a child whose mother died of Aids recently told a meeting of government officials and parliamentarians. T
One in five university undergraduates is estimated to be HIV-positive; by 2005 the rate of infection could be as high as one in three. Now university vice-chancellors are mounting an urgent intervention on the pandemic and its threat to the nearly 500 000 students in South African public higher education. Announcing th
As many teachers dying every year of HIV/Aids as qualify to teach; school districts exhausting their annual budgets within two months on transporting deceased teachers to their homes; widespread closure of schools because HIV/Aids has stripped them of their teachers ... These nightmare scenarios afflict
Estimated worldwide HIV infections: Thursday October 25 at 13h50: 43 876 270 Defensive: Responding in Parliament to a multi-party challenge to the government s HIV/Aids policy, President Thabo Mbeki expressed reservations about the use of anti-retroviral drugs to treat it. (See pages 4-5 and 25) Speaking for the poor:
Estimated worldwide HIV infections Free at last: The Medical Research Council (MRC) this week released its report on HIV/Aids and adult mortality in South Africa , which finds that Aids is the largest killer in South Africa. Professor Sam Mhlongo, a member of the Presidential Aids Advisory Council, said the report is
The head of the African National Congress s religious desk, Cedric Mayson, has attacked other South African church leaders for using the HIV/Aids epidemic to make political attacks on President Thabo Mbeki, describing them as a disgusting ploy . Church leaders, including the Archbishop of Cape Town, Njongonkulu Ndungan
Dr Confidence Moloko, the deputy chairperson of the African National Congress health committee, has a reputation among his friends and colleagues as a forthright person. Yet it took two days to get him to talk about the HIV/Aids pandemic. Moloko suspected the motive for this interview was to character assassinate him.
Evidence wa ka Ngobeni and Jimmy Matyu A distraught Eastern Cape family is suing the provincial blood transfusion service and a doctor at a public hospital after their child was allegedly given a transfusion without their consent - and the blood was contaminated with HIV. The family s lawyer, Bantu Njamela, claims the
Watching her willowy teenaged daughter and her gurgling grand-daughter playing together, Veronica s eyes glisten with tears. The soft-spoken woman says simply: When I see them together, so happy, I ask myself time and time again, why did this happen? Her daughter, Sibongile, is HIV-positive. So is her six-month-old gra
The controversial Medical Research Council (MRC)report on the extent of HIV/Aids is to be released to the public next Tuesday - and the MRC is sticking to its figures and methodology despite reservations expressed by an interdepartmental task team and Statistics SA. The MRC estimated that between five and seven million
The government s reluctance to allow release of the Medical Research Council (MRC) report on Aids deaths in South Africa continues its policy of shooting the messengers rather than supporting the research needed to understand and control the HIV/Aids epidemic. This reluctance has some disturbing wider implications. Fir
In a small, dirty room a man rolls over. His eyes are huge in a gaunt face. Next to him is a jug of water and a packet of creamy powder. He puts some into the cup and slowly stirs it. This revolutionary porridge - LifeForce porridge - was developed in South Africa by SMA Technologies and Africa Foods after being approa
Estimated worldwide HIV infections: Thursday October 11 3.30pm 43 675 229 Passing it on: A Malawian court has sentenced a 60-year-old woman to seven years in jail for infecting an 11-year-old boy with HIV. Emmie Nkumbira forced the boy to have sex with her on August 24. The boy told his parents after developing genital
The HIV/Aids epidemic has taken on shattering dimensions and now accounts for one-in-four of all deaths, according to the Medical Research Council s (MRC) report into the virus that has been suppressed by the government. The report, in the opinion of many the most authoritative of its kind into the effects of HIV/Aids
Health authorities in Tanzania have not approved controversial tests of an alleged new HIV/Aids treatment that South African researchers are conducting on Tanzanian soldiers. It has also emerged that the coal-based substance, oxihumate-K, that has been administered to HIV-positive Tanzanian soldiers for the past 18 mon
Excluding HIV-positive pupils from school is unlawful and unconstitutional, Minister of Education Kader Asmal said on Monday. All learners have a right to education and are protected by the Schools Act and the Constitution of our country. Asmal said some surveys indicate that most pupils enter the education system HIV-
The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) leadership is working to forge a common front with South Africa s church leaders to fight the government over its stance on HIV/Aids. Of particular concern to labour is the government s refusal to acknowledge the Medical Research Council (MRC)finding that Aids is the
The HIV/Aids epidemic has taken on shattering dimensions and now accounts for one-in-four of all deaths, according to the Medical Research Council s (MRC) report into the virus that has been suppressed by the government. The report, in the opinion of many the most authoritative of its kind into the effects of HIV/Aids
The war on Aids takes a new turn with local filmmakers involving themselves in the largest HIV-awareness television series to date, writes Jann Turner As the world holds it breath waiting for a response to the September 11 attacks on the United States , I can t help wondering what it takes to stir the people of this pl
Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - September 28, 2001
Nawaal Deane, David Macfarlane and Mungo Soggot
THE South African government s oil agency, the Central Energy Fund, has pumped at least R80-million into an unproven, coal-based HIV/Aids treatment that is being tested on Tanzanian soldiers. There are striking parallels between the drug trials, conducted under the auspices of the University of Pretoria, and experiment
Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - September 28, 2001
Evidence Wa Ka Ngobeni
The Eastern Cape legislature this week reacted with shock at a damning report showing horrific details of sexual abuse, rape and exploitation of teenage pupils at provincial schools. The report, which was compiled by the legislature s standing committee on education, revealed how teachers at a number of provincial scho
Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - September 28, 2001
Belinda Beresford
The South African Law Commission has advised against laws to prosecute people who intentionally expose others to the HI virus, saying such legislation would be impossible to police or implement. Rather, the state should concentrate on using existing laws to punish HIV-positive people who have unprotected sex while fail
Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - September 28, 2001
Nawaal Deane, David Macfarlane and Mungo Soggot
First it was Virodene, now it s oxihumate-K - the University of Pretoria is at the centre of a new saga about another state-backed Aids treatment The South African government s oil agency, the Central Energy Fund, has pumped at least R80-million into an unproven, coal-based HIV/Aids treatment that is being tested on Ta
Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - September 28, 2001
Niki Moore
Lana Oatway is quite smug about the fact that she can work miracles. People arrive here on the back of a bakkie, showing all the symptoms of full-blown Aids, more than half dead, says Oatway, manager of the Aids care facility outside Richard s Bay, the Ethembeni Care Centre. And after three weeks on the Ethembeni regim
Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - September 28, 2001
Estimated worldwide HIV infections: Thursday September 27 2.50pm: 43 473 796 Farewell princess: Hundreds of Capetonians last Saturday bade farewell to five-year-old Sibongile Mazeka, who died of an Aids-related illness. Sibongile s last wish was to have a huge birthday party, and she lived long enough to see it come tr
A COALITION of church, labour and civic groups challenged President Thabo Mbeki and his government on Thursday to acknowledge the scale of the HIV/Aids epidemic ravaging South Africa . No one in our country can afford to deny the terrible extent of this epidemic, the group said in a statement asking Mbeki to declare Ai
Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - September 21, 2001
Trudy Thomas
The Transkei s infant mortality rate speaks volumes about the poverty of the people and their services. One in 10 infants in the Transkei dies during its first 12 months of life, mainly from starvation, according to a study carried out earlier this year by the Health Systems Trust. It is a startling figure in the new
Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - September 21, 2001
Richard Tomlinson
New divides are emerging among the residents of Gauteng: insiders correspond to areas of affluence, outsiders to areas of disadvantage Cities in Gauteng, once notorious for the disadvantages created by apartheid planning, are seeing the creation of still greater disadvantage as the province becomes one of insiders and
Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - September 21, 2001
Belinda Beresford
The release this week of the most up-to-date projection analysing the impact of HIV/Aids on South Africa shows that cumulative deaths from Aids-related illnesses are expected to exceed one million in just three years time if there are no interventions. And it confirms that the epidemic may be too firmly entrenched for
Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - September 21, 2001
Representatives of the Anglican Church, the South African Catholic Bishops Conference, the Congress of South African Trade Unions and the Treatment Action Campaign met on Thursday and resolved to join forces against the Aids epidemic. They say it can no longer be denied that Aids is the leading cause of death for adult
Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - September 14, 2001
Justin Arenstein and Ongeri John
The two South African Aids quacks who were booted out of Tanzania last week left behind a string of debts, including a R68 000 telephone bill. Jacques Zigi Visser and Themba Khumalo were deported last Saturday in the wake of mounting controversy about their role in trials of the discredited anti-Aids drug Virodene PO58
Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - September 14, 2001
Belinda Beresford
As President Thabo Mbeki waded back into the controversy surrounding HIV/Aids, the government was preparing to defend itself in court against its former allies, the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC). The TAC lawsuit accuses the national and provincial health departments of breaching the Constitution by failing to provide
Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - September 14, 2001
Justin Arenstein and Ongeri John
The two South African Aids quacks who were booted out of Tanzania last week left behind a string of debts, including a R68 000 telephone bill. Jacques Zigi Visser and Themba Khumalo were deported last Saturday in the wake of mounting controversy about their role in trials of the discredited anti-Aids drug Virodene PO58
Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - September 14, 2001
Estimated worldwide HIV infections 43 271 892 at 2.27pm Thursday September 13. World praise: Botswana , Brazil , Thailand and Uganda were given awards for their actions against Aids at the beginning of an international conference on the prevention of mother-to-child t
Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - September 7, 2001
An activist has spent two years trying to get an AIDS nappy initiative off the ground, reports Charlene Smith. Yvonne Spain has a dream - of women across Southern Africa sitting at sewing machines making adult nappies for people with Aids. The final stages of Aids is a cruel, hopeless time for those ill with the virus.
Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - September 7, 2001
Nawaal Deane
When given the opportunity children have a lot to say about how the government can improve their lives. People are HIV-positive - you must help them, please, says a seven-year-old girl who lives in the Free State. Another seven-year-old little girl from the Eastern Cape says: Dear persons, Please give us medicine to ma
Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - September 7, 2001
Estimated worldwide HIV infections: Thursday, September 6 3.30pm: 43171782 Legal issues: Governments across the world must pass laws that forbid discrimination against people with HIV, executive director of UNAids Dr Peter Piot said at the World Conference against Racism on Wednesday. Call for help: Minister of Social
Half of all South African adults have a variety of worms huddling in their intestines, crawling under their skin, slithering into their brains - and for the lack of a 60c treatment, these worms could render Aids vaccines useless A failure to spend 60c to rid a person of worms can cost the state up to R100 000 in HIV tr
The Treatment Action Campaign is trying to make the goverment supply anti-retrovirals to pregnant women. A large cocoon of worn baby blankets swaddles a thin, tiny brown body, scowling at light and sucking furiously on his thumb. Baby A is about to become world famous, even if his identity is never publicly known. This
Estimated worldwide HIV infections: 42 868 107 at 1.25pm on Thursday August 16 Roofs over heads: Gauteng MEC for Housing Paul Mashatile this week said his department will implement a pilot project to determine the feasibility of providing accommodation for people infected or affected by HIV-Aids. He said the department
According to the Catholic bishops, the morals of our country are being undermined by lack of self-control and lack of respect for others ... unfaithfulness and irresponsible sexual behaviour ... loose living . In other words, morality equals sexual morality ¤ a decidedly pre-Vatican Council II view of Christian ethics
Estimated worldwide HIV infections: 42 666 747 at 1.50pm on Thursday August 2 Another loony: The Vatican consultant on health matters in Africa, Cecilia Moloantoa, threw her weight behind President Thabo Mbeki, disputing the link between the HI virus and Aids. Speaking at a National Women s Day rally in the North West
Richard*, a part-time employee of very long standing, had been steadily losing weight and suffering from recurrent bouts of illness. When he told me that he had had swollen glands for weeks and they would not go down despite the medication he had been receiving, I didn t have to be a physician to suspect what might be
South Africa s military forces are recording a decline in the levels of HIV infection among soldiers used for international missions, although it is still not prepared to give anti-retroviral treatment to affected troops . Testing of about 11 000 South African National Defence Force (SANDF) members initially revealed 1
Estimated worldwide HIV infections: 42666747 at 1.50pm on Thursday August 2. Continental leader: Nigeria will use cheap generic anti-retroviral drugs when it launches the largest Aids treatment programme on the continent next month. The cocktail of drugs will be given to 10000 adults and 5000 children, out of more than
Gold Fields has released a report on the extent of the HIV/Aids pandemic among its South African workforce that manages quite literally to count the cost of the killer disease: it affects one in four of its 48000-strong labour complement. The study reveals a wealth of facts and figures about the disease and also cuts t
I have never been HIV-positive. I have never had Aids. It was part of a propaganda plot, says Peter Mokaba, who read reports in some newspapers last year about his death. The former deputy minister of environmental affairs and tourism, who was dropped by President Thabo Mbeki from his ministerial berth after the 1999
As we say in Islam, we are brothers and sisters. We must stand together. Don t look down on someone who is sick, especially not this kind of sick, says Fatimah January*. She is living with HIV. Her husband discovered his HIV-positive status years ago. Their child is also HIV-positive. People must get over the stigma,
You, like me, will have heard repeatedly in recent years about how cunning the big pharmaceutical companies are: how adept at manipulating a medical need. The chorus has been particularly loud in the case of the HIV/Aids pandemic. Some have gone so far as to suggest that the HIV virus does not exist. They argue the vir
Poor South Africans can take anti-retroviral drugs to combat HIV as effectively and safely as patients elsewhere in the world, local researchers have proved. A study released this week flies in the face of local and international justifications for withholding antiretroviral drugs from South Africans. Such arguments ha
A Web-based project aims to bring HIV treatment costs down to as little as R8 a person a month. South Africa and Botswana will pioneer the world s largest Web-based HIV treatment and care programme that will slash the costs of HIV treatment and extend care to hundreds of thousands more people.
Facing the challenges of AIDS may be too much for the medical profession, writes a children s doctor at a large hospital I am an ordinary South African doctor working with sick children in a South African hospital. My colleagues -- the doctors and nurses and many other professional people -- are also ordinary. We do ou
Estimated worldwide HIV infections 4.13pm, Thursday June 28: 42 164 219 Still questioning: President Thabo Mbeki told a media briefing in Washington this week that his personal beliefs on whether HIV causes Aids are irrelevant. He said although the link was what the scientists say , ordinary medical textbooks showed ma
Rhodes University has delivered a further blow to hopes of dealing with the HIV/Aids pandemic in its region by slapping a high court injunction on dismissed academic Dr Robert Shell to return computer equipment, without which Shell s research will cease. Any outcome that has the effect of closing down [Shell s] researc
Estimated worldwide infections: 2.11pm Thursday June14: 41 961 386 New chair: Professor Jerry Coovadia became the first incumbent of the new Victor Daitz Foundation Chair in HIV/Aids at the University of Natal medical school. Coovadia, an internationally recognised doctor and researcher, will establish a centre to cons
Mail & Guardian assistant editor Belinda Beresford has been named overall winner of the United States South Africa Health Reporting Awards. Beresford was selected for her piece on HIV/Aids entitled None so blind as those who will not see , one of several submitted. The panel of judges, comprising journalists and US
South Africans mad rush towards all that glitters, tingles and titillates will ensure high HIV/Aids rates for the foreseeable future There is a joke making the rounds among pre-teen girls in KwaZulu-Natal that goes like this: Why is Jennifer Lopez so poor? Answer: Because her love don t cost a thing. With reference to
Lonmin, the world s number three platinum producer, is feverishly researching alternatives to the labour-intensive mining methodologies used in its South African operations before the HIV/Aids scourge rips deep into its productivity. Most mining groups in South Africa -- long dependent on the country s cheap and abunda
The Department of Labour has slammed employers for using racist assumptions as excuses not to hire black people and to test prospective employees for HIV/Aids. In the latest Department of Labour equity report, 31% of employers cited HIV/Aids as a barrier to implementing equity. The equity legislation was formulated by
Estimated worldwide infections: 3.30pm Thursday June 7: 42,748,800 Laid to rest: The funeral of Nkosi Johnson, the child Aids activist who died last Friday, starts at 10am on Saturday at the Central Methodist Church in Johannesburg. Two memorial services were held this week for South Africa s longest surviving person w
On Tuesday, exactly 20 years after the discovery of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), South Africa s minister of health announced the government has no plans to make anti-retroviral drugs available in public hospitals. The country s share of HIV/Aids cases is now approximately 11,5% of the world total The governm
You have to be hard when you know your heart is going to be broken by the death of a child. Gail Johnson does not deserve the treatment she is getting, argues Charlene Smith The problem with Gail Johnson is that she has long red nails and wild red hair, she wears tight-fitting slacks over long legs, she chain-smokes an
Estimated worldwide HIV infections: 3.23pm Thursday May 31: 42 636 725 Declining: The spread of HIV/Aids among teenagers, according to Gauteng MEC for Health Gwen Ramokgopa, as shown by ante-natal survey results. Ramokgopa says the rate of infection is down from 20% to 16%. On the mother-to-child transmission of HIV, R
In the 1950s severe weather caused worldwide death and destruction estimated at $4-billion a year; by the 1990s that amount had escalated into tens of billions of dollars Global warming and its effect on the proliferation of infectious diseases has far-reaching implications for areas such as the economy, interstate tra
Cabinet has approved a new human resource strategy to challenge the high degree of inequality in South Africa -- the second worst in the world. The strategy, tabled in Parliament this week, is intended to improve the country s Human Development Index. It recognises that poverty-related health issues, including HIV/Aids
The need for science to be understood by the public and for scientists to communicate better, as well as the need for the public to make choices about what science has to offer in their daily life and participate in the scientific process, has never been greater than today. No examples illustrate these challenges and d
Johannesburg - Over one weekend recently 80% of patients admitted to Johannesburg hospital were HIV-positive. Sixty per cent of the hospital s paediatric admissions are HIV-infected and at least half of all patients are HIV-positive. The hospital is ill-equipped to deal with the crisis, seriously lacking in both medica
Johannesburg - The challenges facing science and its development today are no longer predominantly technical, but largely social. The future of science lies in three areas: ethics, communication and attending to societal concerns. The need for science to be understood by the public and for scientists to communicate bet
Johannesburg - American fast food giant McDonald s has been dubbed McGreed in Mpumalanga after refusing to supply anti-Aids drugs to a staff member who was raped after working a late shift. The transnational corporation refuses to supply transport for staff who knock off between midnight and 2am, and who are regularly
Britain s efforts to rebuild the Sierra Leone army are being threatened by the spread of HIV/Aids, with a test sample indicating that two out of three soldiers could be infected with the virus, according to a United Nations report. The study suggests that in conditions created by a 10-year civil war Aids has exploded i
Johannesburg - Estimated worldwide HIV infections: 11:55am Thursday May 17: 4 241 0381. Learning: South African Local Government Association councillors are attending courses on how to conduct training on HIV/Aids for local government officials. Alarming: Recent statistics from the World Health Organisation, which indi
The South African government has no intention of buying the antiretroviral drugs that can keep people with HIV/Aids alive in spite of its courtroom victory over pharmaceutical companies that were trying to block the import of cheap medicines, says its health minister. In an interview with the Guardian, Manto Tshabalala
Johannesburg - As HIV/Aids and apartheid-era town planning take their toll on cemetery space, Durban may soon have nowhere to bury its dead. We have a problem. While old-style town planning has played a role, HIV/Aids is making the situation far worse, says Royal Ntombela, director of cemeteries and crematoria in the D
Johannesburg - If you have HIV and cannot afford a private clinic for the treatment of opportunistic diseases, where in Gauteng would you go? Peter Foxcrost, an HIV patient, thought the best place would be Johannesburg hospital, but he was shocked to discover that its HIV clinic is closed to all new patients. The clini
Johannesburg - The government could find itself in court again for its failure to supply promised anti-retroviral drugs. The government is likely to face a new legal battle after temporarily halting the use of a drug, nevirapine , that prevents mother-to-child infection Last year the national Department of Health p
Johannesburg - Aids is the new struggle. Yet again civil society is mobilising to fill the vacuum left by government. Once more the private sector is stirring, recognising that the present situation is unsustainable. Many Aids activists are old hands who learnt their craft in the era of apartheid. But where once they f
Paris, France - A new report by the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation estimates that AIDS related diseases had killed seven million peasants in 27 of the most affected African countries since 1985. FAO predicts that HIV/AIDS could kill an additional 16 million people in the coming two decades and reduce the agricult
Johannesburg - Estimated worldwide HIV infections: 12:22pm Thursday May 10: 42,298,730. No excuse: For the private sector prevarication on setting up workplace programmes to deal with the disease using the confusion in public policy on HIV/Aids. Mark Heywood of the Aids Law Project at the University of the Witwatersran
Johannesburg - South African mining giant Anglo American is planning to provide treatment to all employees in southern Africa with HIV or Aids - about 20% of its workforce - an Anglo executive said on Monday. Anglo American and associated companies employ about 160 000 people in the region. The South African Chamber of
Johannesburg - Providing anti-retroviral drugs and preventing mother-to-child transmission of HIV are not always feasible with South Africa s health-care infrastructure. Now that we ve celebrated a victory over multi- national pharmaceutical companies for access to cheaper medicines, what are we going to do about preve
Johannesburg - Estimated worldwide HIV infections: 1.47 p.m. Thursday May 3: 42 187 644 Law & Order (1): Isaac Khune, a 20-year-old HIV-positive painter, was sentenced to two life terms for the rape of two 11-year-old schoolgirls. Khune raped the girls knowing he had tested HIV-positive. Justice G Webster requested
US vital interests are in the Persian Gulf, Western Europe and Northeast Asia ... but not Africa. But this is no reason for the US to adopt an Africa policy of benign neglect. Former United States president Bill Clinton has said: The worst sin America ever committed about Africa was the sin of neglect and ignorance.
Johannesburg - The government has won its fight with pharmaceutical companies over parallel importation and other methods to reduce drug costs. At the 13th hour the pharmaceutical industry backed down. The law it fought for three years to prevent being enacted will go ahead, unchanged. And the ramifications go far beyo
Johannesburg - Sex work is a major income-generating opportunity but most sex workers want to leave the profession, a recent Hillbrow study shows. In today s insecure job market, any employment that requires no CV, low skills and no education, allows you to be your own boss, work your own hours and even drink on the jo
Johannesburg - The Anglican church is moving to save God s Babies with a programme to cut the level of mother-to-child transmission. The move by the church which is increasingly involved in combating the HIV/Aids epidemic comes at the same time as the news that the government has halted a pilot project to provide an an
Johannesburg - The government is set to move ahead with its current policies on the HIV/Aids epidemic, despite the failure of the presidential Aids advisory panel to agree on many issues, including whether HIV causes Aids. The interim report of the advisory panel is a synthesis of deliberations on HIV/Aids among some o
Johannesburg - Estimated worldwide HIV infections 12.15pm Thursday April 5: 41 738 611 Developing treatment: A proposal to provide anti-retroviral treatment to HIV- positive Africans has been released by Harvard University. The plan, which is estimated to cost about $1,1-billion a year on top of other prevention and tr
Johannesburg - The doctor, staring into the bottom of his coffee mug, had watched a man and a woman decide who was going to die first. In their early 30s and with young children, they have less than a tenth of a healthy person s immune system between them. From their joint income a disability pension and occasional wor
Johannesburg - Thomas Shabalala s tryst with tragedy is helping break the stigma attached to Aids. She had full-blown Aids. She was very ill one day her brother was carrying her out of the house to rush her to the hospital. He slipped, fell and injured his head. Both of them died on the same day within the space of an
THE government is investigating declaring a national emergency to fight Aids, which could speed up access to anti-Aids drugs as the government battles pharmaceutical giants over cheap medicines, the Sunday Times reports. In the Pretoria High Court this week, the government faced 39 of the world s biggest drug producers
Johannesburg - One of the largest manufacturers of copycat drugs in the world kicked the issue of generic drugs into play this week by applying for a compulsory licence to import eight Aids drugs into South Africa . Cipla , a company based in India ,
Johannesburg - Finding the HIV/Aids policy guidelines launched by the Department of Health last November is like trying to find snow in the Kalahari. Coleen McIver, a family practitioner, discovered this when she asked the health department for copies in preparation for an international general practitioners conference
Johannesburg - The Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association left the Pretoria High Court this week bloodied but unbowed in its battle against the government. Who would have thought it would have been so brief, or so brutal? Certainly not the drug companies with their expensive lawyers, reams of legal papers and an atti
Johannesburg - Estimated worldwide HIV infections: 12.45pm Thursday March 1: 41 178 773 Booted out: A Nelspruit-based NGO, which offered support and helped raise money to buy anti-HIV drugs for rape survivors, has been thrown out of its public hospital rooms for the second time. The Greater Nelspruit Rape Intervention
Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - Friday, February 16, 2001
Sarah Boseley
A CRITICAL battle is about to begin in the Pretoria High Court, where 42 pharmaceutical companies, including the British giant GlaxoSmithKline , are attempting to block the government from importing the cheap medicines its people so badly need to survive treatable diseases like diarrhoea, meningitis, Aids and TB. T
Mail & Guardian (Cape Town) - Thursday, February 15, 2001
Own Correspondent, Cape Town
SOUTH Africa and other poor countries are being frustrated by pharmaceutical companies delays in announcing what price cuts they are prepared to offer on anti-Aids drugs, says Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang. We are just wallowing in a sea of uncertainty not knowing what the pharmaceutical companies are offeri
Mail and Guardian (Johannesburg) - February 9, 2001
Johannesburg - The Forum for Debating Aids in South Africa responds to All the president s scientists - diary of a round-earther . On September 8 2000 the Mail & Guardian published an article entitled, All the president s scientists diary of a round-earther . On December 14 2000 the Appeal Panel of the Press Ombuds
Mail and Guardian (Johannesburg) - February 9, 2001
Johannesburg - Free anti-fungal drugs widely needed by people with HIV/Aids may be distributed within a few weeks, in line with an agreement signed two months ago by the Department of Health and the donor, drug company Pfizer . The Medicines Control Council has said it will decide next week whether to register the anti
Mail and Guardian (Johannesburg) - February 9, 2001
Johannesburg - South Africa is soon to get its first Aids village the second country after Botswana to provide a space for people with the deadly disease to live out the rest of their lives as productive people. Construction will start this month in Roodepoort outside Johannesburg on land donated to an interdenominatio
PRESIDENT Thabo Mbeki has given the go-ahead for South Africa to begin implementing a massive programme to provide free anti-retrovirals and milk powder to HIV-positive pregnant women to retard the transmission of the virus to babies. In a dramatic move, the government, while not officially changing its policy stance o
Dissing the AIDS dissidents has become a favourite sport. It s so easy. And such fun. If AIDS wasn t so tragic. David Rasnick s article in the Daily Mail and Guardian - The AIDS blunder saw a slew of chat mail responses begging Rasnick to finally honour his promise to be injected with the AIDS virus. Imagine the money
Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - January 24, 2001.
David Rasnick
David Rasnick is a member of Thabo Mbeki s AIDS Advisory Panel ( South Africa ). The contagious, HIV hypothesis of AIDS is the biggest scientific, medical blunder of the 20th Century. The evidence is overwhelming that AIDS is not contagious, sexually transmitted, or caused by HIV. I have come to realize that embarrassm
Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - Monday, January 15, 2001
Own Correspondent
A REPORT warning that Aids would become the leading cause of death among teachers this year was deeply flawed and based on questionable assumptions, Education Minister Kader Asmal said on Sunday. Speaking on the SABC programme Newsmaker, Asmal said the report was not a department document, and that he rejected it becau
Mail & Guardian (Cape Town) - Friday, January 12, 2001
Own Correspondent
A SOUTH African actor on Saturday brought a controversial consignment of generic HIV and Aids drugs into the country, which will be used by the Cape-based Treatment Action Campaign (TAC). Morne Visser, was met by a an emotional group of activists at the Cape Town International Airport as he brought in the consignment o
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