Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - December 19, 2002
Undeserving: A Swaziland government official says the government might stop providing medical support to HIV/Aids patients. Senator Walter Bennett, a senior adviser to King Mswati III, told a rally in the commercial capital of Manzini it was unfair to continue taking care of people with HIV/Aids because others were mor
Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - December 12, 2002
Marriage test: A village in the western Indian state of Maharashtra has made HIV/Aids tests compulsory for all prospective brides and grooms, according to a recent report. The quick test for HIV has been made a precondition for marriages for the 1 200 people in Hiware Bazar village, the Indian Express reported. I kno
No follow-up: Traditional healers are battling to get patients to go for follow-up tests after they have tested HIV-positive. Many patients fear the stigma associated with HIV/Aids and want as few people as possible to know their HIV status, so they refuse to have additional tests, according to the president of Progres
Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - November 30, 2002
Otjandjamuenjo, Namibia
Aids has been ravaging Africa for 20 years now, with 2,4-million people dying of the disease last year and close to 30-million people infected by its precursor HIV, but some communities maintain it does not affect them. In Namibia , the Himba hunter-gatherers, the women daubed with ochre and wearing skins, shells and i
Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - November 28, 2002
Affordable drugs: Plans for a two-tier system for drug pricing, which will supply cheap medicines to poor countries though they will remain far more expensive for the rich, will be launched this week by the United Kingdom s International Development Secretary, Clare Short. The move is a bid to reduce the numbers of peo
Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - November 21, 2002
Safe oral sex: The risk of a gay man acquiring HIV from oral sex is very low, according to a United States study published in the November edition of the journal AIDS. Investigators recruited 239 gay men seeking anonymous HIV testing in San Francisco between December 1999 and 2001. The men had to complete a questionnai
Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - November 14, 2002
Early detection: A new diagnostic device that can detect HIV in as little as 20 minutes has received government approval in the United States in what officials described as a major step toward curbing the epidemic. The OraQuick diagnostic test kit uses less than a drop of blood and is 99,6% accurate, said health offici
-- With the help of big business, a centre has been set up to help patients and their families It sounds crass to call it a one-stop Aids shop, but that is exactly what it is. Amangwe village, about 30km north of Richard s Bay in KwaZulu-Natal, will become an integrated Aids care centre that looks after both the people
India red alert: The United States ambassador to India, Robert Blackwill, warned this week that India could soon surpass South Africa as the country with the highest number of people with HIV/Aids in the world. He quoted a US government report at a conference on Aids pre
Uneducated: China s young people are grossly unaware of how Aids is spread. According to a survey, many believe people can contract the disease from mosquito bites. Two-thirds of secondary school students surveyed in Beijing did not know mosquitoes were not to blame and half were unaware that proper use of condoms can
One literacy trainer simply bursts into tears when asked about her experiences since being trained to give counselling and home care to people with Aids and their families. She says she cannot sleep or eat and that she is scared. The role that had taken its toll was assisting a teenager in the final stages of Aids who
Cut-price drugs: A major drug company announced this week in New Jersey, United States , that it would cut the price of its Aids drug Stocrin to less than R10 a day in poor countries that are hardest hit by the pandemic. Merck & Co said a new 600mg version of the drug, known generically as
Mail & Guardian (King William's Town) - October 23, 2002
HIV/Aids is destroying the country s most valuable resource -- the people of South Africa , former president Nelson Mandela warned at Mngqesha Great Place near King William s Town in the Eastern Cape on Tuesday. Without people we cannot steer this country to sustainable development, he said. Mandela was addressing
Choosing the best medical scheme plan is a life-and-death choice if you are HIV-positive and face long-term anti-retroviral treatment and extensive hospital bills. Peter Stevens*, whose partner died of Aids, says: When we changed over to another medical scheme we were promised full cover. But in the first three months
Rich countries drag their feet on meeting pledges to fight the three big diseases of poverty The Global Fund for Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria will not have enough money to cover proposals for next year if pledges made by countries are not paid. At its third annual meeting in Geneva last week the board of the Global F
Rapid testing: A new rapid HIV-testing kit has been launched in Kenya . The Rapid HIV Infection Diagnosis System test provides results in 30 seconds. HIV tests that are now used in Kenya take several days to produce results. The test is accurate and has met requirements set by the World Health Organisation, said Ernes
The state is battling to provide a welfare safety net for families affected by HIV/Aids HIV causes Aids, but creating an epidemic on the scale of South Africa s needed fuel in the form of poverty, gender inequality and ignorance. Stopping the epidemic means not only preventing people from getting infected but also impr
A Médécins sans Frontières pilot project operating in southern Malawi to promote Aids awareness and HIV testing has had an almost 100% success rate in its mother-to-child transmission prevention programme. The project, which is run from the local hospital in the rural Thyolo district and provides
Aids activist organisations and civil groups have hailed the Cabinet s statement this week announcing that the government is considering universal access to anti-retroviral drugs. The move is one of several proposals to strengthen the government s efforts to fight HIV/Aids. Mark Haywood, the Treatment Action Campaign s
- A scientist has proved that lemon juice kills the HI virus on contact After investigating traditional contraceptive techniques, an eminent Australian-based scientist has proved that lemon juice diluted five to one with water kills HIV and sperm within seconds. Roger Short s findings will be made public in a scientifi
The Inkatha Freedom Party has decided to invest in Hypo-Plus, a controversial product that claims to be effective in the treatment of HIV/Aids. The Mail & Guardian revealed last week that the African National Congress s Umkhonto weSizwe Military Veterans Association was linked to a company involved in marketing Hyp
A moratorium on the registration of new children s homes in Gauteng has forced the Johannesburg Child Welfare Society (JCWS) to come up with innovative ways to help children in need of support. The JCWS has expanded its care and shelter programme for abandoned and neglected children with the launch last weekend of a pi
The irony of our failure to halt the rapid spread of HIV, is that this very failure will halt the rapid spread of HIV. With more than half of all deaths now attributed to Aids-related illnesses, those returning from funerals are now acknowledging a new disease is the cause of death. Some people have now come to see the
The Mpumalanga Department of Health announced last week that it has begun a programme to prevent mother-to-child-transmission of HIV, days after the Mail & Guardian exposed provincial inaction in complying with a court order to provide anti-retroviral drugs to HIV-positive pregnant women. Mpumalanga has one of the
South Africa s future is being eroded by the suffering of its children as the Aids epidemic takes away their hope along with their parents. Children are traumatised by losing those who should be nurturing them, first to illness and then to death. They also lose their chance of a secure future as Aids drains the financi
Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - September 27, 2002
Nawaal Deane
Activists say the national council has taken no action to fulfil its mandate Aids activists and health care workers slammed the South African National Aids Council (Sanac) for excluding them from a restructuring workshop. Deputy President Jacob Zuma is Sanac s chairperson, but his office could not confirm that the work
Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - September 27, 2002
Cheaper to treat HIV/Aids: Three million Aids deaths can be averted and more than 2,5-million HIV infections prevented by 2015 through the implementation of voluntary counselling and testing, mother-to-child transmission prevention, improved management of sexually transmitted infections and highly active anti-retrovira
Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - September 20, 2002
Graham McIntosh
Our Aids debate has been characterised by evasion, political correctness and inconsistencies. The Constitutional Court judgement on the issue of mother-to-child transmission of HIV and nevirapine has highlighted some of the issues. One welcome element in President Thabo Mbeki s controversial speech at Fort Hare on Octo
Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - September 20, 2002
Skyrocketing: HIV and Aids infection rates in much of Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, with young people comprising the majority of new cases, the United Nations Children s Fund warned in a report released on Wednesday. Nearly 80% of newly registered infections from 1997 to 2000 in the Commonwealth of Indepe
Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - September 20, 2002
Drew Forrest
Former president Nelson Mandela has thrown his considerable weight behind an R80-million private sector plan to extend free anti-retroviral drug treatment to thousands of poor people with HIV/Aids. The plan is spearheaded by the South African Medical Association (Sama), representing 16 000 doctors. It throws down the g
Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - September 20, 2002
The Cabinet s April 17 statement on HIV/Aids policy -- widely hailed as a crucial change of heart -- is looking increasingly threadbare. Was it, as some maintain, merely a tactical manoeuvre to deflect international condemnation in advance of the G8 meeting in Canada due to consider the New Partnership for Africa s Dev
Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - September 6, 2002
Justine Nofal
The International Federation of the Red Cross says the famine in Southern Africa is the worst food emergency in the world since the Balkan crisis in the 1990s. Yet the food emergency affecting Lesotho , Malawi , Swaziland , Zambia ,
Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - September 5, 2002
A breakthrough this decade? This is the decade in which the world s scientists will find a cure for Aids, said Stephen Fuller, a professor with the School of Clinical Medicine at Oxford University. Fuller said he had no doubt that a breakthrough in the treatment of Aids would be found, given that thousands of scientist
One of the reasons Aids was such a low priority at the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) was possibly that it had to do with sex, and a lot of political leaders did not understand sex, UNAids ambassador Mechai Viravaidya said on Friday. Viravaidya, nicknamed Mr Condom in his home country
The fuss about nevirapine has little relevance in the rural areas of KwaZulu-Natal -- the area hardest hit by the Aids pandemic. Researchers and doctors working with HIV-positive patients are concerned issues regarding the spread of the disease are being overshadowed by the controversy around the drug.
Transnet is no longer turning a blind eye to the effect HIV/Aids is having on its workforce after being faced with the rising costs of employees getting sick and dying. In May Transnet launched an HIV/Aids lifestyle management programme, which includes an anti-retroviral component for employees. Transnet is not the fir
Pilot programme: This week De Beers announced it would start making anti-retroviral treatment for HIV and Aids available to its employees, but it will first have to consult with the government, trade unions and other stakeholders. All permanent employees, spouses or their life partners would be allowed to join the prog
A higher risk: A Kenyan study has found that HIV-positive men with low CD4 counts are at a higher risk of reinfection with bilharzia. Taken with other evidence, including resistance to reinfection that appears with age and after treatment that kills the flukes that cause bilharzia, researchers argue that a preventive v
The World Health Organisation estimates that six million people in the developing world are at risk of dying within two years if they do not receive antiretroviral therapy soon. This is one of the baldly shocking statistics with which we are bombarded almost daily as the HIV/ Aids epidemic runs riot through all sectors
Tourist threat: Aids is posing a serious threat to Kenya s tourism sector because of the large number of visitors who come into the country without being screened. Ali Korane, Permanent Secretary of the Tourism Ministry, said the government found evidence that new infections come about through sexual interaction betwee
A new book sheds light on the lives of schoolchildren from different backgrounds We want to warn school children against the danger of Aids. That is why AIDS KILLS is written on the wall of the school, writes Bukekile Banjwa, a 13-year-old author from a south Soweto squatter camp , in a glossy new book entitled The Sto
The Ministry of Health has not officially informed the Global Fund to Fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria that its grant allocated to KwaZulu-Natal is welcome and accepted, thereby further delaying the province s receipt of the grant. The fund does not acknowledge press releases as confirmation that Minister of Health
Anglogold and five mining unions have clinched a unique deal that paves the way for company-funded anti-retroviral treatment for HIV-infected miners for the first time. Unofficial estimates put levels of HIV infection in the mining industry at between 25% and 30%. The agreement at Anglogold, announced in Carletonville
The Global Fund for Aids bypassed the national government when donating R600-million to KwaZulu-Natal, Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang said on Saturday. She said the process of money allocation was done incorrectly, and according to the original agreement with the fund, the money should have been given to the
The demand by Minister of Health Manto Tshabalala-Msimang for the rerouting of a $72-million United Nations Aids grant to KwaZulu-Natal has split the UNGlobal Aids Fund, the agency concerned. A row has erupted after Tshabalala-Msimang asked for the grant to be re-routed through the South African National Aids Council (
Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - Saturday, July 13, 2002
BARCELONA - Former president Nelson Mandela and his United States counterpart Bill Clinton on Friday urged world leaders to step up the fight against Aids through personal action. Speaking at the close of the International Aids Conference in Barcelona, Mandela said that in the next 20 years, 70 million people would die
Poisonous: A United States newspaper quoted Minister of Health Manto Tshabalala-Msimang this week as saying that the drugs used to prevent transmission of HIV from mother to child are poisonous. I m forced to poison my people, Tshabalala-Msimang reportedly told Newsday. The newspaper said she would only make
HIV/Aids activist Zackie Achmat is no stranger to struggle -- but he has come face to face with one of his biggest challenges: to take the drugs that can keep him healthy, or to put his life at risk because of his moral convictions. Four years ago Achmat took a controversial stance that he would not take anti-retrovira
The government is now legally obliged, without delay , to implement a comprehensive nationwide programme for the prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV. This must include the provision of nevirapine , which is an anti-retroviral drug. But there are five other conse-quences of the Constitutional Court s j
Minister of Health Manto Tshabalala-Msimang s blocking of a R720-million grant to fight Aids in KwaZulu-Natal is causing major ructions between the government, on one hand, and the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC), the province and international donor agencies, on the other. Mark Heywood, director of the Aids Law Projec
Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - Wednesday, July 10, 2002
CAPE TOWN - A 40-minute HIV/Aids awareness video directed at the people in the workplace was launched by Pieter Dirk Uys, alias Evita Bezuidenhout, at the Cape Town Press Club at the Castle in Cape Town on Tuesday night. Uys had the Press Club in stitches when he launched the video entitled Having sex with Pieter-Dirk
Mail & Guardian (Cape Town, Johannesburg) - 05 July 2002
Ben Maclennan, Fienie Grobler
The Constitutional Court on Friday denied the government leave to appeal against a high court order compelling it to provide anti-Aids drugs in state hospitals. Chief Justice Arthur Chaskalson delivered the judgment, saying there was a pressing need to ensure that the loss of lives was prevented. The anxiety of the app
Zackie Achmat of the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) is literally fighting for his life -- as well as for the lives of the roughly five million South Africans infected with HIV/Aids. Achmat has vowed to forgo using anti-retroviral drugs until they are more widely available to poor South Africans. This week he was repor
The South African Communist Party (SACP) has released a document highly critical of President Thabo Mbeki s stance on HIV/Aids and his renaissance plans for the African continent. Without naming the president, the current edition of the SACP s central committee bulletin Bua Komanisi! takes an implied dig at him in its
Zambian authorities have developed a novel way to continue the country s war on Aids Garish coloured lights advertise Livingstone s bars and nightclubs, which cater to an assortment of tourists, truck drivers, army soldiers and scores of brightly painted bar girls. The most popular nightclub is under a big marquee and
There are new questions about links between the African National Congress, the presidency and the so-called anti-HIV/Aids drug Virodene. This follows revelations that prominent businessmen close to the party have helped arrange funding to the controversial research team of Olga and Sigi Visser. Weekend reports said tha
GENEVA -- More than 28 million Africans are living with HIV and in some countries over 30% of the adult population is infected, according to a joint United Nations Programme on HIV/Aids ( UNAIDS ) statement issued on Tuesday. The devastating impact of HIV/Aids is rolling back decades of development progress in Africa,
United Nations -- Twenty years into the pandemic that has killed about 24 million people, ignorance about the causes and effect of HIV/Aids remains high in some developing countries, says the United Nations. In some places, a quarter of people interviewed for a UN study wrongly thought that Aids was rarely, if ever, fa
Millions of South African teenagers appear to be heeding calls to practice safer sex if statistics released recently by health authorities are anything to go by. According to HIV statistics released by the Department of Health, the future of the South African youth may not be as gloomy as most think. A department surve
Peter Mokaba had an obligation to confront, not deny, argues Drew Forrest. If Peter Mokaba did not have Aids, he did everything in his power to suggest the contrary. Is there a single South African who did not raise an eyebrow at the African National Congress s bland account of his death, as being from natural causes ?
Peter Mokaba dies and politicians cluster to express their grief on behalf of an uncaring nation, so giving support to a man who epitomised the Mbekian doctrine that science is a populist tool to be used as necessary. The Mail & Guardian has rightly condemned the notion that HIV does not cause Aids (or that it does
Millions of South African teenagers appear to be heeding calls to practice safer sex if statistics released recently by health authorities are anything to go by. According to HIV statistics released by the Department of Health, the future of the South African youth may not be as gloomy as most think. A department surve
Do you have Aids? I asked. Most politicians would have slammed the phone down, but not Peter Mokaba. No, he said, he was the victim of a propaganda plot by drug companies. I didn t know whether to laugh or cry. Mokaba always embroiled me in marathon discussions, at times in the plush lounge of his Wendywood home. Exha
Last week we erroneously reported that the African National Congress called for HIV/Aids to be declared a notifiable disease. In fact, it was Dr Confidence Moloko, the deputy chairperson of the ANC s health committee, who made the call in his personal capacity. Minister Kader Asmal to the rescue: Of a four-year old gir
Durban - At least 5,7-million children in South Africa , roughly a third of those under 18, would have lost one or both parents from Aids by 2015 unless there were major interventions, the Medical Research Council (MRC) warned on Thursday. Of these, 1,85-million children under 15 would have lost their mothers from Aids
Parliament s slackening oversight of the executive is said to be a key reason the well-regarded chairperson of Parliament s finance committee, Barbara Hogan, has decided to quit. It was just a matter of time before Hogan left Parliament and moved on to other things , according to parliamentary sources. The African Nati
Matthew, a bright alert baby of four and a half months, is practising his elbow jabs. Are you going to be a boxer? Jennifer Ngcobo* coos. She tends to him with the absorption of a besotted first-time mother. Gently pulling up the socks he tries to kick off. And frequently, almost obsessively, pulling down his lower lip
Patent busting: Zimbabwe has declared a six-month national emergency and suspended import restrictions on drugs to treat HIV/Aids. The move, published on Monday by the Ministry of Justice, will allow cheaper generic drugs to be imported without being submitted to the normal testing and registration regime. It is es
Gideon Mendel s new work deals with HIV/Aids in Africa. Photographer Gideon Mendel has spent nine years producing the material that has gone into his remarkable book A Broken Landscape (M&G Books), about people living with HIV/ Aids in Africa. It consists of many black-and-white photographs, accompanied by commenta
Mail & Guardian (Johannesberg) - Wednesday, May 29, 2002
The Health Department on Wednesday said it had reached agreement on protocols for the provision of antiretroviral drugs to rape survivors. This follows Health Minister Manto Tshabalala Msimang s announcement on April 17 that rape victims would be provided with anti-Aids drugs at public hospitals as soon as possible.
Estimated worldwide HIV infections: 46 898 694 at 12.05pm on Thursday May 23. Good offer: By the South African Clothing and Textile Workers Union to provide nevirapine to pregnant members in provinces where the government does not have a programme in place. The union will provide a basic pack of multi-vitamins and cotr
Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - Tuesday, May 21, 2002
Jacques Keet
About 6 000 of the 10 000 prisoners released monthly from South African jails are HIV-positive, according to Judge Johannes Fagan, the inspecting judge of prisons. Briefing the National Assembly s correctional services committee on Tuesday, he said the situation had worsened because HIV-positive prisoners leaving jail
Small business is underestimating the impact of HIV/Aids on the workforce South Africa s private sector is living in a state of bliss, with almost universal ignorance of the real impact of HIV/Aids on their workforce and bottom line. Nor is there any cohesive response to the epidemic, with businesses taking their own s
Households headed by children whose parents have died from HIV/Aids are an increasing problem for banks, which already face high levels of home loans defaults. The traditional route of evicting those who fail to keep up with bond repayments becomes less palatable when the family concerned consists of children, who face
Death count: Statistics South Africa is conducting a mortality study into secondary causes of death in an attempt to assess the true impact of HIV/Aids. The agency said preliminary indications were that there had been a marked rise in the number of people between 20 and 40 dying of natural causes - which includes disea
About 160 000 to 200 000 people have died of Aids-related illnesses in South Africa to date, but four million are infected with HIV. The inevitable disruption by HIV/Aids of all aspects of our society, including the built environment, will be so profound that it is virtually impossible to imagine. The Black Death i
Estimated worldwide HIV infections: 46697638 at 12.58pm on Thursday May 9 Lost teachers: More than 40000 of 350000 South African teachers are living with HIV/Aids, says a World Bank report. It warned that in countries such as South Africa, where 12% of teachers are HIV-positive, this may reverse development gains. The
The head of family medicine at Medunsa is sceptical about the existence of HIV and appears to believe that the use of the notoriously toxic anti-retroviral drug nevirapine is part of a campaign to maximise corporate profits, according to an affidavit he prepared for the Constitutional Court last week.
Mbeki s Aids turnaround is aimed at winning over the West no blows barred Cabinet s decision to provide a comprehensive package of care for survivors of sexual assault and to strive for a complete universal roll-out to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV/Aids has, understandably, been described as a turning poi
The knives are out for Minister of Health Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, as the African National Congress and government move to repair President Thabo Mbeki s damaged public profile on HIV/Aids. Party sources said Tshabalala- Msimang is being targeted as the cause of the miscommunication on Aids policy. However, sources sy
Half a century ago, in a courtroom in Arkansas, a judge uttered some words that changed United States history: It is hereby ordered and decreed that defendant Orval E Faubus, governor of the State of Arkansas; General Sherman T Clinger, Adjutant General of the State of Arkansas; and Lieutenant Colonel Marion E Johnson
Rollout will continue: The government said it would continue with its roll-out of anti-retroviral drugs in state hospitals regardless of the outcome of the Constitutional Court. The minister of health s representative, Sibani Mngadi, said the government was not challenging the roll-out of
Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - Wednesday, May 1,2002
THE Constitutional Court case on the provision of anti-Aids drugs at state hospitals should be dealt with in its proper context , a statement issued by Cabinet said on Tuesday. Government hopes that the hearing will be handled in a spirit of partnership and co-operation, and that it will be treated in its proper contex
Estimated worldwide HIV infections: 46 496 650 at 12.58 pm on Thursday April 25 A testing time: AngloGold says its research data estimates that 29% of its workforce is HIV-positive. The company estimates this will increase its costs in its South African operations by between $4 (R44) and $6 (R66) an ounce. The company
Orange Farm residents are reaching out to HIV-positive people in their community. When Olga Lutu takes to the podium, the audience breaks into applause, song and ululations. The occasion is the official opening of a kitchen that has been donated to Women s Voice by Tikkun, a Jewish outreach programme, to provide meals
The rationale came out of concerns of the economic impact of the Aids pandemic on agriculture. Other organisations that attended the workshop included the Department of Agriculture s Occupational Health and Safety Committee, Standard Bank s Philani project, Potchefstroom University and the provincial departments of edu
Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - Wednesday, April 24, 2002
PRESIDENT Thabo Mbeki has acknowledged that his government had failed to communicate its message on Aids successfully. In an interview with The Star newspaper Mbeki denied that there was a lack of leadership by the government on HIV/Aids, but conceded that there might be a communication problem. Perhaps we are not comm
Electronic versions of two controversial documents promoting the dissident view of HIV/Aids carry embedded signatures suggesting that they were written on Thabo Mbeki s computer. But computer experts have told the Mail & Guardian that this cannot be conclusive proof of authorship. The presidency on Thursday issued
A spate of publications promoting dissident views of Aids has appeared in the week the government reversed its stance on the provision of anti-retroviral drugs - and has turned up in the areas where Aids is most severe. Approximately 100 000 copies were printed of a 24-page supplement entitled The Pulse - The Pharmers
The last days of a young mother s life have highlighted the power and danger of anti-retrovirals, writes Belinda Beresford Sarah H died on Sunday, after suffering a rare side effect of the anti-retrovirals she was taking in an attempt to save her life, in the face of severe Aids. She had been a key public figure in the
Aids dissidence remains a powerful current in South Africa despite this week s shift in government policy on the disease. Drew Forrest analyses the dissident mentality both in its Internet and its South African forms It is a wonder President Thabo Mbeki has the mental endurance to trawl the Aids dissident network on th
The Northwest Women s Agriculture Union s health committee hosted a workshop two weeks ago to map out a joint action plan to stem the impact of HIV/Aids on agriculture and farm-workers. The rationale came out of concerns of the economic impact of the Aids pandemic on agriculture. Other organisations that attended the w
Sanity has prevailed and the real war against Aids can begin, writes Belinda Beresford The internecine strife within the government over the HIV epidemic appeared to swing towards the forces of orthodox science this week. In what looks to outsiders to be a remarkable reversal - but which government spin doctors suggest
Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - Wednesday, April 17, 2002
Mariette Le Roux
PRETORIA - THE country s seven African National Congress-led provinces were on Wednesday gearing themselves to start providing the anti-Aids drug nevirapine to HIV-positive pregnant women at state facilities. A circular giving public hospitals and clinics the go-ahead to prescribe the drug was being sent out by provinc
Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - Thursday, April 17, 2002
AIDS will drive down the life expectancy of a South African woman to 43 in 2005, NMG-Levy s annual report on labour relations and employee benefits said on Thursday. According to the report South Africa s women, with a life expectancy of 54 in 1999, will only survive until the age of 37 in 2010, while men would survive
Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - Tuesday, April 16, 2002
CAPE TOWN - A GROUP of doctors have warned their South African colleagues against becoming accomplice to a new wave of atrocities by refusing to administer antiretroviral drugs. In a statement published in the latest edition of the South African Medical Journal, they say doctors have a moral duty to prescribe the drugs
Old lefties, illiterate township dwellers and a marathon runner are the driving force behind the Treatment Action Campaign Part of the heart of the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) will be pounding its way through the London marathon on Sunday. Ploughing through three-and-a-half hours of pain will be TAC deputy head Mar
Mpumalanga s largest hospital, Philadelphia, broke ranks this week and announced it would provide nevirapine to pregnant women, regardless of the province s policy on the issue. Eighty doctors, nurses and support staff signed a memorandum to MEC for Health Sibongile Manana on Wednesday warning that further delays in pr
Estimated worldwide HIV infections: 46 295 250 as of 1.25pm Thursday April 11 Viva Madiba: Nelson Mandela has again criticised the slowness with which the nevirapine anti-HIV programme is being rolled out to pregnant women, and has repeated his call that the public sector should look to providing anti-retroviral drugs.
Food and Trees for Africa, an NGO involved in re-greening the townships, launched the Thuthukani permaculture gardening project at the Thuthukani clinic in Ivory Park two months ago. The project was started by a group of volunteers working with HIV/Aids patients in home-based care. Their aim was to help themselves, the
Sue Williamson is one of South Africa s most influential and prolific artists. Focusing her work over the decades on the particular social and political stress pot that is South Africa, Williamson draws on intense, personal experiences to develop her conceptual visual art. She was the founding editor of www.artthrob.co
To lose one court battle is a misfortune, but to lose four in a row looks like blind obedience to orders from the top, worthy of the Charge of the Light Brigade. This week the entire Constitutional Court rejected yet another attempt by the Minister of Health, Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, and her provincial counterparts to
After losing a marathon battle over nevirapine the government can no longer use the courts to delay its roll-out of anti-retrovirals. The nevirapine genie was let out of the bottle this week by the Constitutional Court, which effectively forced the government to provide the antiretroviral drug to save unborn children f
Estimated worldwide HIV infections: 46 193 136 at 11:11am on Thursday April 2002 Dropped: Charges of trespassing against 10 members of the National Association of People Living with HIV/Aids (Napwa) by the Johannesburg Regional Court. This follows a sit-in the 10 staged at an insurance company office in Johannesburg on
Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - Thursday, April 4, 2002
Sue Blaine
IT was HIV-positive pregnant women, parents and babies who were the real winners when the Constitutional Court on Thursday refused the government leave to appeal against a Pretoria High Court execution order, Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) representative Mark Heywood said. Heywood was speaking outside the court minute
Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - Wednesday, April 3, 2002
Sue Blaine
THE State did not have the capacity to comply with an interim High Court order that it provide the anti-retroviral drug nevirapine in all State hospitals and clinics, senior counsel for the State, Marumo Moerane, told the Constitutional Court on Wednesday. The court has convened during its recess to hear argument o
HIV can cause dementia , but the events of the past week have shown that it can cause mental confusion even among people apparently uninfected by the virus. It has infected Minister of Health Manto Tshabalala-Msimang who, in an often incoherent broadcast, appeared to say that she would stand firm against a high court o
An innovative project in Pietermaritzburg is using soccer and soccer players to spread Aids awareness in the highly infected province. Gethwane Makhaye of Targeted Aids Intervention first began using soccer as a way of teaching young people about Aids some years ago, after she had finished a pilot study for Unicef that
A series of interviews published in the 2001 South African Health Review underscore concerns that doctors and nurses in public hospitals and clinics are among the major culprits discriminating against people with HIV. Published annually by the Health Systems Trust, the review is the most comprehensive overview of issue
The unrelenting drip of debate about HIV, Aids and anti-retroviral drugs is corroding South Africa s medical and scientific world, with top scientists and institutions coming under private and public attack. A document being circulated within the African National Congress with at least tacit top-level approval contains
Estimated worldwide HIV infections: 46 077 576 at 10.30am on Wednesday March 27 Here we go again: The health minister and seven MECs are to petition the Constitutional Court for leave to appeal against a compulsion order issued by the Pretoria High Court. The order says nevirapine must im
Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - Tuesday, March 26, 2002
PRETORIA - Other provinces could refuse to implement the decision by the Pretoria High Court order compelling government to provide nevirapine to HIV-positive pregnant women at state hospitals with the capacity to do so, Justice Minister Penuell Maduna said on Monday. This is the decision of just one court and pur
Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - Monday, March 25,2002
Jaspreet Kindra
A DOCUMENT - entitled Castro Hlongwane, Caravans, Cats, Geese, Foot & Mouth and Statistics: HIV/Aids and the Struggle for the Humanisation of the African - that is being sent out by the African National Congress to its structures implies that Mankahlana had Aids; it claims he was killed by antiretrovirals. The Mail
Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - Monday, March 25, 2002
PRETORIA - The South African government will hear on Monday whether or not it may approach the Constitutional Court in an appeal against a Pretoria High Court order forcing it to provide nevirapine to HIV-positive pregnant women at state hospitals outside the current pilot sites. Judge Chris Botha heard argument on
Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - Monday, March 25, 2002
PRETORIA - WHILE other countries were managing their HIV/Aids epidemics, we just seem befuddled , Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu said on Monday. Reacting to a Pretoria High Court judge s decision on Monday which compels the government to provide nevirapine to HIV-positive pregnant women at all state hospital
The next bout of legal mud wrestling between the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) and the government over anti-HIV treatment for pregnant women is expected today in the Pretoria High Court. It is the latest in a series of skirmishes between the two sides that looks set to see the government pile appeal on appeal in a le
The late presidential spokesperson Parks Mankahlana did die of an Aids-related ailment. A document - entitled Castro Hlongwane, Caravans, Cats, Geese, Foot & Mouth and Statistics: HIV/Aids and the Struggle for the Humanisation of the African - that is being sent out by the African National Congress to its structure
Estimated worldwide HIV infections: 45 991 989 at 12:55pm on Thursday March 21 Little Support: Men who have sex with men receive little attention in sexual health and HIV/Aids programmes even though there is a high risk of HIV infection, a study conducted in Africa found. Of the 250 men interviewed in Dakar,
Government arguments against extending the provision of anti-retroviral drugs in the treatment of HIV/Aids have shifted from conspiracy theories to seemingly technical concerns about the economy and health infrastructure. The state argued in the recent Treatment Action Campaign court case that extending treatment to pr
Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - Tuesday, March 19, 2002
Zingisile Mapazi
THE African National Congress will on Wednesday announce its plans on dealing with HIV/Aids. ANC secretary-general Kgalema Motlanthe told journalists in Johannesburg that the party had, during its three-day NEC meeting at the weekend, adopted a comprehensive statement on its approach to the pandemic. While not divulgin
Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - Monday, March 18, 2002
A BREAKDOWN in the family structure has been a major cause to health problems such as pregnancies, drug abuse, HIV/Aids and violence among Gauteng youth, a youth health seminar found in Johannesburg on Saturday. The seminar, sponsored by provincial Health MEC Gwen Ramokgopa and attended by youths from 250 organisations
The Ugandans are here! Funded by the United Kingdom s Department for International Development and the British Council, a delegation from the Uganda Prison Services is in Durban teaching South African Department of Correctional Services officials and prisoners how to handle HIV/Aids What better place to push HIV/Aids e
The fight between Aids activists and the Mpumalanga government took an about-turn this week when MEC for Health Sibongile Manana backed down on her decision to evict an NGO that helps rape survivors in the province. Manana withdrew her Pretoria High Court application against the Greater Nelspruit Rape Intervention Proj
CAPE TOWN: THE African National Congress s national working committee concluded its meeting in Johannesburg on Monday night without discussing the HIV/Aids issue, ANC representative Smuts Ngonyama said. It was an ordinary ANC meeting which we discussed (among others) the re-alignment of the structures of the party and
Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - Monday, March 11, 2002
PRETORIA - The Pretoria High Court on Monday ordered the government to provide nevirapine to HIV-positive pregnant women at state facilities with the capacity for testing and counselling, pending an appeal to the Constitutional Court. In December last year, Judge Chris Botha granted an application brought by the Treatm
Nelson Mandela is being careful not to offend the president with his comments on Aids. Former president Nelson Mandela s apparent zig-zags on HIV/Aids policy stem from his sensitivity to fears in President Thabo Mbeki s camp that he is out to undermine Mbeki in the run-up to the ruling party s national conference later
The African National Congress (ANC) dismissed another critical report yesterday by an international journal on President Thabo Mbeki s handling of HIV/Aids as a crusade certain to fail. In a six-page special report on Mbeki s catastrophe , the highly critical article by UK-based Prospect magazine labelled him as an Aid
The lobbyist widely believed to have shaped President Thabo Mbeki s off-beat views on HIV/Aids has now attached herself to another senior African National Congress Aids dissident - MP Peter Mokaba. It emerged this week that Anita Allen, a former journalist at The Star, has been corresponding with Mokaba and sending him
Estimated worldwide HIV infections: 45791 121 at 1.11 pm on Thursday March 7 Honoured: Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni received a Commonwealth award for action on HIV/Aids because he began speaking out about HIV/Aids long before other national leaders and ... put in place the necessary measures to control the epidemi
Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - Thursday, March 7, 2002
SOWETO - FORMER President Nelson Mandela on Thursday praised Gauteng premier Mbhazima Shilowa for his stance on the provision of anti-Aids drug, nevirapine . Mandela was addressing Zola resident in Soweto, where he, Jimmy Carter of the United States of America and William Gates senior -- the
FORMER president Nelson Mandela on Sunday proposed a radical challenge to South Africa s Aids policy, saying people who wanted access to anti-retrovirals (ARVs) should be given the medicines. He said he would like to see anti-retrovirals dispensed while the government s important research was being conducted. People
Days after Deputy President Jacob Zuma called for restraint in tense relations between the African National Congress and the Inkatha Freedom Party, the two parties waged a ding-dong battle over Aids drugs and other issues in the legislature. Zuma flew into Ulundi to try to defuse tensions last weekend. Lauding KwaZulu-
Two lines almost certainly mean an early death; one means life. And the few minutes spent waiting for the telltale marks are often an epiphany for the watchers. They are the women, and the occasional man, being tested for HIV at St Mary s hospital in Mariannhill near Durban, KwaZulu-Natal. Whatever the result, watching
In an acrobatic and aerial manoeuvre, the KwaZulu-Natal government has deserted the Department of Health in its fight against the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC)over curbing mother-to-child transmission of HIV. Instead Premier Lionel Mtshali says KwaZulu-Natal will obey the moral imperative and supply
The first action group for Parents Living with HIV/Aids (Popwha) was launched in Johannesburg this week. The organisation will recruit parents, educate them in workshops and turn them into activists. Parents simply must learn that it is not a disgrace to be living with HIV/Aids and that giving love and support to their
The African National Congress has reacted furiously to a Newsweek report saying Thabo Mbeki s presidency is unravelling over HIV/Aids, branding it a badly written movie script camouflaged as analysis , aimed at destabilising the ANC, its leadership and the government, writes Drew Forrest. In its cover story this week t
Estimated worldwide HIV infections: 45 690 177 at 12.46pm on Thursday February 28 Heroin injection: The United Nations International Narcotics Control Board says that the number of people injecting heroin in South Africa has risen by 40% over the past three years with serious implications for the spread of HIV. Tes
Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - February 22, 2002
Nawaal Deane
The HIV storm has erupted in Aids-wracked KwaZulu-Natal after Minister of Home Affairs Mangosuthu Buthelezi said the province would give nevirapine to all pregnant women, whether or not they could be tested for the virus. Last week Buthelezi criticised national government s Aids policy, noting that KwaZulu-Natal has th
Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - February 22, 2002
Jaspreet Kindra and Drew Forrest
MINISTER of Health Manto Tshabalala-Msimang had the approval of the African National Congress s top leadership in repudiating Gauteng s announcement of a comprehensive rollout of drugs for HIV-infected pregnant women in the province. Well-placed party sources said Tshabalala-Msimang s statement distancing herself from
Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - February 21, 2002
Gordon Bell, Cape Town
FINANCE Minister Trevor Manuel on Thursday warned about the cost of providing antiretrovirals (ARV) nationally, saying the drugs were not the only weapon in South Africa s fight against HIV and Aids. Speaking on SABC radio, he said if government were to provide ARVs countrywide, the cost would use up the entire health
ALL public hospitals in Gauteng will provide the anti-retroviral drug nevirapine to HIV-positive pregnant women this year, premier Mbhazima Shilowa said on Monday in a speech prepared for the Gauteng legislature. Shilowa said: During the next financial year, we will ensure that all public hospitals and our large commun
Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - February 15, 2002
Thabo Mohlala
How many secondary schools should the government plan to build in 2010? Declining human fertility and the impact of the HIV/Aids pandemic probably mean that fewer people will be entering high school then, so that fewer schools will be needed. And South Africa s tax base? As HIV/Aids takes more economically active peopl
Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - February 15, 2002
Nine HIV-positive people, who are taking part in anti-retroviral drug trials in the Cape, tell their stories in internationally acclaimed photographer Gideon Mendel s focus on HIV/Aids in South Africa . My name is Nontsikelo Zwedala. I am from Cofimvaba in the former Transkei. It is a poor rural area and there are no j
Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - February 15, 2002
Khadija Magardie
The debate over the affordability of providing anti-retrovirals free in public hospitals has taken on a new controversial dimension, after President Thabo Mbeki quoted an International Monetary Fund (IMF) study out of context on national television. The study on the economic impact of HIV/Aids in Southern Africa was ci
Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - February 15, 2002
Drew Forrest
The IFP leader attacked the government on Aids, the rand, unemployment and Zimbabwe . In a powerful parliamentary speech full of veiled signals and undercurrents, Minister of Home Affairs and Inkatha Freedom Party leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi gave notice of his anger with his African National Congress coalition partner
Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - February 15, 2002
Estimated worldwide HIV infections: 45 487 353 as of 10.46am on Thursday February 14. Working together: Former rival Aids researchers Luc Montagnier and Robert Gallo have joined forces after a more than 10-year feud over who discovered the HI virus. Gallo acknowledged on Wednesday that Montagnier was the first to find
Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - February 15, 2002
Kevin Scott
Eskom health manager Carl Manser spends more than two of every three of his working days dealing with HIV/Aids. Producing and overseeing counselling services, developing education policies and training staff in ethics, human rights and government policy are all part of Manser s daily routine. Recent research suggests a
Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - February 14, 2002
Kevin Scott
Genital herpes is rocketing in South Africa with the number of infections quintupling over the last five years. Nearly 30% of South Africans have at least one sexually transmitted infection (STI), and half of those so afflicted are thought to have herpes. To raise awareness of the silent epidemic, next week has been de
Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - February 14, 2002
Belinda Beresford
Chloroquine has long been used as a prophylaxis against and treatment for malaria. But this old workhorse is now becoming obsolete because of the increasing proportion of malaria parasites which are resistant to it — up to 90% in some areas. Researchers at the University of Turin have found that chloroquine and the rel
Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - February 13, 2002
CAPE TOWN - THE South African province worst afflicted by Aids must immediately make anti-retroviral drugs treatment available to all pregnant women, whatever their HIV status, Home Affairs Minister Mangosuthu Buthelezi said on Tuesday. Buthelezi said his Inkatha Freedom Party, which shares power in the eastern KwaZulu
Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - February 11, 2002
Khadija Magardie
The office of the MEC said this week that local health authorities were not yet convinced the province had the logistical means to mass-provide the drug at public health facilities. Peters s spokesperson Pota Thabo Lekhu said the department s policy was being informed by results coming from two pilot sites in operation
Outspoken provincial MEC for Health Sibongile Manana is on record saying that all anti-retrovirals are poison and a plot to undermine the African National Congress government. She s sticking to her guns, despite growing consensus that nevirapine could save the lives of thousands of mothers and their newborn childre
Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - February 11, 2002
Jaspreet Kindra
The Eastern Cape and Free State health MECs indicated this week they would not roll out nevirapine provision to HIV-infected women, further highlighting the weakness of last week s tacit deal between Minister of Health Manto Tshabalala-Msimang and provincial ministers. In the past Mpumulanga MEC Sibongile Manana an
Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - February 11, 2002
SOUTH President Thabo Mbeki on Sunday hinted that he might extend anti-retroviral drug treatment for HIV-positive pregnant women beyond the current limited number of test sites. When asked by SABC public television about the risks of a prolonged testing period for the anti-retroviral drug
Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang s tacit licence to provincial health MECs to roll out Aids drug programmes in their provinces might be seen as a cautious step forward by government. It is nothing of the kind. The apparent purpose is to avoid a national climbdown on drugs policy, with its attendant loss of face
The watchdog for doctors in South Africa has refused to state publicly that HIV causes Aids - but invited a leading Aids dissident to address a workshop on human rights and HIV this week. Professor Sam Mhlongo, head of the Department of Family Medicine at Medunsa, is one of the most prominent South Africans to publicly
MDANTSANE medic Dr Costa Gazi said on Tuesday he would continue giving nevirapine to HIV-positive pregnant woman to prevent mother-to-child transmission of the virus and he has dared acting health MEC Max Mamase to do something about it. Laughing off Mamase s threat that anyone caught distributing the anti-retroviral d
THE Eastern Cape will not expand its nevirapine programme because only 30% of babies born to HIV-positive mothers contracted the virus, health MEC Max Mamase said on Monday. Speaking at the launch of the district health and provincial health authorities, held at the Fish River Sun near Port Alfred, he dismissed the per
The vast majority of health MECs are in favour of a rapid roll-out of nevirapine , but the minister will play a pivotal role in the final decision. The government looks set to buckle under remorseless internal and external pressures and allow pregnant women country-wide access to the drug that could save their children
Aids activists ratcheted up the pressure on the pharmaceutical industry yet again this week by publicly breaking patents on medicines and daring the drug companies to sue. The Treatment Action Campaign (TAC), Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), Oxfam and the Congress of South African Trade Unions this week brought non-bran
The spread of HIV/Aids in South Africa has contributed significantly to the decline in foreign direct investment (FDI), according to BusinessMap s investor survey released this week. The HIV/Aids crisis has increased the risk profile for investment in the Southern African region, with investors seeking a premium rate o
Estimated worldwide HIV infections: 45 286 795 as of 12.31pm on Thursday 31 January. Increasing pressure: The Treatment Action Campaign and the Public Service Accountability Monitor have called on the Eastern Cape government to administer the anti-retroviral drug nevirapine to HIV-positive mothe
A Pietersburg NGO is battling to create a home care centre for Aids orphans Joe Funky Ngobeni, the 13-year-old orphaned man of the house featured in the Mail & Guardian s Christmas edition, began ninth grade this week in Ga-Maja, near Pietersburg, unaware that the article has made him a celebrity. The article has a
South Africa has declined an offer by the Thailand government of free technology for the manufacture of 300 generic drugs that will cut prices for HIV medicines up to tenfold. Thailand has pledged not to rest until every African country has generic drugs for HIV - and has vowed to ring South Africa with countries pr
A groundbreaking study by a Johannesburg clinic has provided incontrovertible evidence that anti-retroviral drugs stave off HIV infection in raped women if taken soon after the attack. The findings of the study, conducted on hundreds of rape survivors at the Sunninghill Clinic in Sandton, Johannesburg, over the past tw
The South African Law Commission this week launched its revised discussion paper on sexual offences - radically proposing that the state should assume responsibility for providing the financial means to cover the cost of prescribed medication for victims of rape , including anti-retroviral drugs, writes Khadija Magardi
It has often been said that South Africa has an unusually high scandal threshold. It takes a mass murder, a rape of extreme brutality, or a body count of hundreds on the roads for anyone to pay attention. The same high threshold has begun to apply to right-thinking South Africans opinion of the government s preposterou
A top government official has barred doctors from giving anti-retrovirals - even to raped infants. As South Africa was reeling at the news of an alleged gang-rape and sodomising of a nine-month-old baby in Upington last November, the Northern Cape MEC for health was blasting a Kimberley hospital for giving the infant a
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