Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1998. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Sunday Times, South Africa - Sunday, November 29, 1998
Sharon Hammond
Madalane was appointed by the Mpumalanga health department in August to conduct HIV tests in the Nkomazi area, south of Malelane. Of the 21 people she has tested to date, eight have been found positive, seven of them men.
"The very first person I tested was positive," she says quietly.
Most of the people who arrive for testing have some dangerous misconceptions about the disease.
"Some people think if they are injected with orange juice they will be cured, while others believe if they sleep with virgins they will purify themselves," she says.
Her own friends are only now beginning to take HIV and AIDS seriously.
"When people test positive they are very afraid of discrimination and may not even tell their families about it," says Madalane.
Besides testing people, she also distributes condoms to shebeens and spaza shops after becoming involved in a non-profit women's crisis centre for which her mother works.
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