PROFESSOR Jerry Coovadia, head of Natal University s Department of Paediatrics, and Judge Edwin Cameron, a former Constitutional Court judge, jointly received the prestigious Nelson Mandela Award for Health and Human Rights this week for their outstanding contribution to the fight against AIDS. The two men received the
Hard figures on deaths paint an alarming picture of the epidemic, writes a team led by William Makgoba SOUTH Africa appears to be in a state of profound national denial about the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Is it because the scale is too traumatic to contemplate, the mixed messages from the government or simply the lack of up-t
PRESIDENT Thabo Mbeki has told the ANC s highest decision-making body that he is withdrawing from the public debate on the science of HIV and AIDS. Party insiders said Mbeki told the ANC s national executive committee that his continued participation in the debate was causing confusion. They said there was concern in t
Mbeki won t give illegal AIDS drug to poor rape victims Yet taxpayers must cough up so MPs can get the SAME drug Members of Parliament have access to the AIDS drug AZT , which the government has decreed should not be given to rape victims or HIV infected at public hospitals. The parliamentary medical aid scheme, wh
PRESIDENT Thabo Mbeki told the ANC s caucus meeting in Parliament on Thursday he believed the emphasis placed on the HIV/AIDS epidemic was the result of a conspiracy by US drug firms. He was speaking as the Constitutional Court ruled that HIV causes AIDS. The finding is in stark contrast to the position of the governme
A TOP health official spoke out this week against the South African government s failure to state clearly its policy on HIV and AIDS. Dr Eddie Mhlanga, the director of maternal and child health in the Department of Health, said: We, as a department, need to come out with a message that says HIV causes AIDS and AIDS kil
THE Minister of Health, Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, has circulated a bizarre theory on the origin of AIDS to all provincial premiers and health ministers. It claims that the virus was introduced into Africa by a worldwide conspiracy. The theory claims that the Illuminati - an international conspiracy to take over the wor
Medical Aid Industry In 10 years time between 35 and 46% of costs in the total medical schemes industry will be directed towards HIV and AIDS, predicts a healthcare actuary, but the true impact of AIDS on medical schemes and premiums will depend on three big unknowns. The first of these, says Old Mutual s Adrian Baskir
LIKE the sound of a broken record, the Department of Health s statements on HIV/AIDS have become so mind-numbingly dull and repetitive that minor variations in the tune often go by unnoticed. So it was not surprising that the statement last week by the Minister of Health, Dr Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, calling for the ex
FINAL data from clinical trials in South Africa on the effectiveness of the drug Nevirapine ( Viramune ) in reducing the transmission of HIV from mothers to their babies will be presented to the Minister of Health, Dr Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, for the first time this weekend.
JUDGES have ordered a husband to take back the wife he banished from their home for being HIV-positive. John Michael Midiwa had forced his wife of 10 years, Olivia Akinyi, to live in the servants quarters of their home - an action described by the Kenyan Court of Appeal as traumatising as well as dehumanising . The
More than 2% of white South Africans are HIV-positive, a figure much higher than previously thought. A study by the Medical Research Council has found that the rate of HIV infection is much higher among white South Africans than among white populations in Europe and the United States , where the figure is 0.6%. Th
CLOSING THE 13th International AIDS Conference in Durban on Friday afternoon, former President Nelson Mandela put it in a nutshell: the time for rhetoric was over, it was time for action. Mandela s speech, perhaps fittingly since it came at the close of the conference, finally directed attention at action and away from
Carageenan, a substance derived from seaweed and which is widely used to thicken ice-cream, is undergoing safety tests in South Africa as part of an international microbicide development project. The product, developed by the Population Council in New York, is one of several microbicides - substances which reduce the s
A 10-YEAR-OLD Ugandan girl s account of her rite of passage into womanhood - mutilation with a blunt knife by four drunk women - drew gasps of shock from delegates at an International AIDS Conference workshop this week. One woman sat on the girl s chest to prevent her from writhing; two others held her legs firmly apar
THERE s not one AIDS epidemic ravaging South Africa - it s a number of different epidemics all happening at the same time, scientists say. Professor Salim Abdool Karim, the Director of the Centre for Epidemiological Research at the Medical Research Council, said a number of different strains have been brought into the
Once, AIDS was the global leveller. Now, those from affluent countries are being treated while prevention is the only real hope of the poor. Laurice Taitz reports from the 13th International AIDS Conference in Durban THE world came to Africa this week, and for the first time in the history of the AIDS epidemic, the dev
THE AIDS crisis is the biggest issue facing the country by far. But aside from the intensive coverage leading up to the AIDS conference, you could be forgiven for doubting this is so. One would hardly guess from the meagre attention it gets in parliament, in the media and in public discourse that we live in a society w
Child welfare organisations predict that the number of AIDS orphans in Durban will rise to 200 000 within eight years. As the international AIDS community gathered in the city for a week-long conference, organisations warned that abandoned and orphaned children would have a major impact on health and safety in the city
Shanitha (not her real name) says that she s living proof that HIV/AIDS is not just an African disease . I m 26, I m Indian and I am HIV-positive, says Shanitha, who was diagnosed with the disease nearly four years ago. I m so sick and tired of all these ridiculous Indian people who believe that they can t get AIDS. S
Mbeki: The big debate THE QUESTION THAT CAUSED ALL THE TROUBLE: At the first meeting of the AIDS advisory panel in May, President Thabo Mbeki asked scientists to explain how the disease had come to blight Africa. He said AIDS had developed from one that infected predominantly homosexual men, intravenous drug users and
Tonight President Thabo Mbeki will open the International AIDS Conference in Durban. It will arguably be the most important speech he will make for years to come. As we report elsewhere in this newspaper, the shocking truth about AIDS in South Africa can no longer be denied. Death certificates filed with the Department
A judge of South Africa s highest court held delegates to the world AIDS 2000 conference in Durban spellbound this week as, tears flowing down her face, she told of close friends who had died of AIDS. Judge Yvonne Mokgoro of the Constitutional Court was the opening speaker at an official satellite conference on AIDS an
These shocking graphs (below) show how the number of South Africans who die before they reach the age of 50 almost doubled over the past 10 years - an increase attributed directly to HIV/AIDS. The figures, finalised by the Department of Home Affairs last week, were presented to stunned members of Thabo Mbeki s presiden
HUNDREDS of scientists worldwide are secretly ganging up to confront AIDS dissidents backed by President Thabo Mbeki. They are planning to release a historic document next month, known as the Durban Declaration, to set the record straight on the cause of the disease. It will be signed by doctors and researchers attendi
NON-INVASIVE, anonymous HIV testing could help companies to determine the extent of HIV infection in their workforces and plan for the economic impact. Debswana, the De-BeersBotswana partnership, which mines diamonds, is taking steps to combat the disease by encouraging their workers to take HIV saliva tests known as s
A HIGH-powered delegation representing the government of India and the country s scientific community will attend the 13th International AIDS Conference in Durban next month. The project director of India s National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO), Prasada Rao, said over 100 government officials - including the Minist
Amid concerns that the 13th International AIDS Conference, to be held in Durban next month, could serve as the next stop on the global protest route, organisers have put in place stringent security measures. Besides enlisting the services of police and security companies to protect delegates from possible crime and vio
Fourteen world leaders, including US President Bill Clinton, yesterday backed President Thabo Mbeki s campaign to emphasise the role of poverty in the spread of AIDS, and pledged to raise the issue when they attended G8 and World Bank meetings later this year. Speaking at the conclusion of a two-day conference of left-
Before President Thabo Mbeki made his views on the use of anti-retroviral drugs known, the AIDS movement in the US was enjoying a revival. The disease in the developed world was under control and was fast losing its stigma as celebrities came out about their status. The campaign to make drugs more affordable in the dev
BY AVOIDING the question why the government can t get to grips with AIDS, SA s Minister of Health, Dr Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, inadvertently answered it this week. Tshabalala-Msimang was invited to a debate hosted by the Centre for Development and Enterprise which posed the question: Why is the government struggling t
Do politicians make good scientists? No. Politicians are trained for loyalty whilst scientists are trained for independence. Politicians get promoted for being economical with the truth whilst scientists get fired for bending the truth. Who needs scientific advisers when we ve got the Internet? Good politicians need an
Bodies are piling up in greater Johannesburg due to an alarming increase in AIDSrelated deaths, health authorities warned this week, prompting an official move towards cremation instead of burial. The city s official death rate has doubled over the past five years, according to the latest figures released by the Greate
Reports that major pharmaceutical companies have slashed prices by 85% for poorer countries untrue South Africans with AIDS received a slap in the face this week when it emerged that that the much-vaunted offer of cut-rate medicines was not true. Hopes had been raised after reports said that African countries had been
THE dissident scientists who oppose the view that HIV causes AIDS are said to have thrown their toys out the cot yesterday after scientists supporting the orthodox view appeared to dominate the first day of discussions of the Presidential AIDS Advisory Panel in Pretoria yesterday. Although the meeting of 30 scientists
PRESIDENT Thabo Mbeki opened the first meeting of the Presidential AIDS Advisory Panel yesterday by saying the scientists should explain how the disease had come to blight Africa. He said the disease had developed from one that infected predominantly homosexual men, intravenous drug users and haemophiliacs in the US an
MALAWI s Council of Churches has publicly branded the country s use of condoms in the battle against AIDS as immoral. The council s secretary-general, the Rev Augustine Musopole, on Friday accused the government of encouraging promiscuity by distributing hundreds of thousands of condoms every month and called on non-go
THE HIV/AIDS pandemic is unparalleled in history. The rapid progression of the epidemic and the catastrophic proportions it has assumed in terms of the numbers of people affected and the burden of human suffering it has left in its devastating sweep through Africa and almost all other parts of the world know no precede
CONCERN is mounting in the US that South African President Thabo Mbeki s forthcoming state visit will be overrun by militant AIDS activists reported to be rallying their troops to protest against his stance on the disease. The concerns grew this week after a letter Mbeki wrote to US President Bill Clinton, UN Secretary
IN AN interview soon after her appointment as the Minister of Health, Dr Manto TshabalalaMsimang said she was overwhelmed when she heard the news. I did not expect it, she said. Like other Cabinet ministers, Tshabalala-Msimang got the call from President Thabo Mbeki notifying her some time before dawn on June 17 - the
THE announcement this week by the Minister of Health, Dr Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, implicating the AIDS drug Nevirapine in the deaths of five women has been rejected by the Medicines Control Council. On Wednesday Tshabalala-Msimang told Parliament that the women had died during the course of an ongoing clinical trial i
A LEADING African researcher warns that President Thabo Mbeki s alignment with maverick AIDS experts could unravel the significant gains the international scientific community has made in managing the disease. Dr Ruth Nduati, a University of Nairobi scientist who is involved in groundbreaking research into the preventi
SOUTH Africa s top AIDS researchers have been snubbed by the government in its selection of a distinguished panel to advise President Thabo Mbeki on AIDS issues. World-acclaimed scientists such as Professor Jerry Coovadia, chairman of the 13th International AIDS Conference, Professor Malegapuru Makgoba, president of th
EARLIER this month South Africa s health ministry announced a government plan to convene an international panel of experts to investigate the science of AIDS . This would not have been so contentious a statement had it not followed the October pronouncement by President Thabo Mbeki that the drug
Timothy Buthelezi asked the Minister of Health and Welfare, Dr Phetsile Dlamini, if the government had tried to establish whether dagga could provide a miracle cure for AIDS. He said dagga could cure several diseases, and bemoaned the fact it was being destroyed in Swaziland . He said dagga and other plants used by
Soweto researchers are expected to release the long awaited results of the Nevirapine trials at the AIDS 2000 conference in Durban in July. According to Dr James McIntyre, co-director of Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital s Peri-Natal HIV Research Unit, most of the mothers who enrolled have now given birth. The research i
Johannesburg Hospital s HIV/AIDS Clinic has virtually stopped seeing new patients, referring most cases to primary health care clinics, ill equipped in dealing with HIV/AIDS-related illnesses. This latest revelation follows short on the heels of the closure last year of the HIV/AIDS Clinic at Pretoria Academic Hospital
DEPUTY President Jacob Zuma launched the muchvaunted National AIDS Council last week with a call to African countries to find an African solution to the epidemic . This comes 14 years after Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni acknowledged the gravity of AIDS in that country and, with a pioneering show of commitment, set
Faced with the daunting task of trying to manage an AIDS epidemic which has the potential to overwhelm our services , care givers, doctors, nurses and management from the Gauteng Health Department recently met in Johannesburg, hoping to find answers. Government alone does not have enough resources to offer care to all,
THE first AIDS drug to be approved for once-daily dosing will be launched in South Africa . The drug Stocrin ( efavirenz ), which is manufactured by MSD, has been registered for use in combination with other anti-HIV drugs for both adult and paediatric patients. The drug, used to treat people infected with HIV,
THE US-based pharmaceutical company Bristol-Myers Squibb , which last year made the largest corporate commitment to the fight against HIV/AIDS, has invited KwaZulu-Natal business corporations to join the crusade against the disease. Bristol-Myers Squibb launched the Secure the Future initiative with a 100-million (ove
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