News

More children need to be put on anti-retrovirals as the drugs are rolled out to thousands of adults across the country. University of Witwatersrand Dr Haroon Saloojee revealed that only 31 children were accessing treatment in Mpumalanga.

Bonitas’s decision to courier antiretroviral drugs to its members is “unacceptable”, says TAC.

Government is disappointed that there has been no clear message stemming from the high-level AIDS and Nutrition held this week.

A review of Uganda’s HIVNET 012 drug study has found Nevirapine to be effective and safe in preventing HIV transmission from mother to unborn child.

At the first public forum to discuss the antiretroviral rollout, healthworkers are blunt about their problems.

WHO meeting aims to develop African consensus on nutrition and HIV/AIDS.

Breastfeeding of babies by a non-biological caregiver with HIV is one of the most important factors associated with HIV infection in children. A study released in Cape Town this week also found that there is a potential for health-care acquired transmission of HIV in the maternity, paediatric and dental facilities in the Free State health institutions.

More teachers are dying than ever before and most of them are African and women. These and other findings are contained in a report released this week – Educator Attrition and Mortality in South Africa.

Thousands of teachers have been lost to HIV. An HSRC study has revealed the extent of the epidemic among educators and has called for 10 000 to be placed on anti-retroviral treatment with immediate effect.

Government will be able to supply state patients with three antiretroviral drugs (triple therapy) for around R100 a month.

Scientists agree that a short and relatively inexpensive combination of anti-retrovirals could reduce mother to child transmission rates in Africa more effectively than the widely used single combinations, but less than 10 percent of the women worldwide who need it are accessing the drugs.

Two reports investigating the causes of death in South Africa have been released in the past month. The long-awaited Statistics South Africa report has revealed a 57% increase in reported deaths between 1997 and 2003. A Medical Research Council/University of Cape Town report shows explicitly that most deaths are due to HIV/AIDS.

Central to the many efforts to address poverty is the safety net provide by state grants. However, fraud and corruption amounting to R1-5-billion is taking place every year, especially in the area of disability grants.

Health minister Dr Manto Tshabalala-Msimang has acknowledged that the battle against TB is far from won, at the same time expressing frustration in trying to provide ARVs without a proper surveillance system to monitor numbers. “We are working in the dark and you just give the medicine and hope God will be on your side,” she told journalists in Cape Town.

The Ministry of Health has ordered that all references to the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC), gays and pictures of Patricia de Lille and Judge Edwin Cameron be removed from a “toolkit” aimed at empowering people living with HIV/AIDS.

President Thabo Mbeki has lauded Government’s plan to combat the HIV/AIDS epidemic as among the best in world adding that it was being implemented with “greater vigour”.

A leading scientific journal has criticised Government for being defensive over deaths from HIV/AIDS and urged it to show backbone and courage in tackling "the crisis of its people".

Davos - By the end of 2004, 700 000 people living with AIDS in developing countries were receiving antiretroviral (ART) treatment thanks to the efforts of national governments, donors and other partners. This is an increase of approximately 75% in the total number receiving treatment from a year ago, and is up from 440 000 in July 2004.

HIV/AIDS budgets for national and provincial government at a glance.

HIV is one of the most closely studied viruses in history and yet it continues to outwit scientists in their efforts to find a cure or prevent the onset of AIDS.