2006

It's the end of the foreskin as we know it: Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - December 15, 2006; Belinda Beresford; Another C -- circumcision -- looks set to be added to the Abstain, Be Faithful and Condomise HIV prevention campaigns after conclusive evidence emerged this week that removing a man s foreskin can halve his chances of catching HIV. Two clinical trials, in Uganda and Kenya , have confirmed previ
Have yourself a dreary little Xmas: Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - December 15, 2006; Godwin Gandu; People on antiretroviral treatment in Zimbabwe are struggling with the price of the drugs having risen by 60% over the past year. We are suffering, unemployed and desperate. I can t buy drugs or feed my four children. Christmas doesn t mean anything to me and my family, says Irene Kumbirai (34), a HIV-positive widow fr
Dramatic drop in ARV prices: Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - December 8, 2006; Lloyd Gedye; Antiretrovirals are being procured by the South African government for only 5% of the price it was paying for them in 2001. This amazing decrease in ARV prices is a result of the voluntary licences granted by multi-nationals to generics manufacturers. South African company Aspen Pharmacare currently sells a triple ther
TAC takes a new tack: Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - December 4, 2006; Kwanele Sosibo; The Treatment Action Campaign (TAC), known primarily for its vigorous advocacy for the provision of free antiretroviral drugs, has embarked on a new tack to curb the spread of HIV. It launched its End Violence Against Women campaign at the same time as the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence, but plans to campa
Aids and the media: A love-hate relationship: Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - December 1, 2006; Hila Bouzaglou; Rare cancer seen in 41 homosexuals was the first article published on HIV/Aids, when no one even knew the virus yet. Published in the New York Times on July 3 1981, the article read: Most cases had involved homosexual men who have had multiple and frequent sexual encounters with different partners, as many as 10 sexua
Zackie Achmat on the future: Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - November 30, 2006; Sumayya Ismail; Zackie Achmat, chairperson of the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) and South Africa s most famous purveyor of the slogan HIV-positive has been an activist for 30 years. First fighting the apartheid government since 1976, for the past decade he has worked on improving the lives of people living with HIV and Aids. From hi
Living with Aids, not depression: Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - November 30, 2006; Hila Bouzaglou; Depression is more common than the flu, and its effects ripple into every sphere of life. But in South Africa , it often goes undiagnosed, according to the South African Depression and Anxiety Group (Sadag). This is why 58 traditional healers gathered under the scorching Limpopo sun in Polokwane on Monday to receive a
UKZN wins right for ARV trial on babies: Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - November 9, 2006; Belinda Beresford; The University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) has won a high court application for the go-ahead of a clinical trial that will give an anti-retroviral drug to breastfeeding babies, marking another appearance in court for the n-word -- nevirapine . The researchers, headed by Professor Jerry Coovadia, plan to give nevirapine or
Why Manto is right about smoking: Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - October 31, 2006; Belinda Beresford; Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang has been attacked for her continued anti-smoking focus when the Aids campaign is in disarray. But recent research has confirmed the devastating impact of smoking on the immune system -- including potentially tripling the chances of contracting HIV and halving the effectiveness o
For a secular response to Aids: Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - October 30, 2006; Pieter Fourie**; This is an exciting yet precarious time in South Africa s management of its HIV/Aids epidemic. Exciting because there seems to be some movement away from the infighting between government and Aids organisations that has marked the past decade; precarious because we live in a society that is already fatigued by news abo
Zim's toss-up between ARVs and food: Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - October 22, 2006; Netsai Mlilo; For the majority of HIV-infected Zimbabwean workers payday has become a time to make tough choices. Such workers, many of whom earn less than Z$30 000 (R300) a month, have to decide between buying a month s supply of antiretrovirals (ARVs) or food. Muzanenhamo (not her real name), a primary school teacher in Harare, sa
Resign today, website urges Manto: Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - October 20, 2006; Sumayya Ismail; South Africa s Minister of Health, Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, has been widely criticised by international academics and local activists for her controversial views on HIV/Aids. Now members of the public are also expressing their discontent, and the issue has even reached cyberspace, with the website Sackmanto.co.za call
A stolen childhood: Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - October 5, 2006; Hila Bouzaglou; There is hardly any light in the house at 11am. Pieces of cardboard patch broken windows, there are plates and cups piled high in the sink and a thick layer of dust covers the floral pattern of the main bedroom s duvet. We use [our parents bedroom] to keep stuff in ... no one sleeps there anymore, says Thando*, twin si
Queue another day: Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - October 4, 2006; Matuma Letsoalo; James Rampaodi s skin is peeling off his face and his hair is breaking. He is too ill to walk on his own and relatives have to carry him each time he visits the hospital. Sitting on a wooden bench in a filthy room at Tshilidzini Hospital in Thohoyandou, he leans forward to rest his head against his mother s back. He co
Prison ARV plan lashed: Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - September 23, 2006; Durban s Westville correctional facility, who originally took the government to court in an attempt to get access to antiretroviral (ARV) treatment, have criticised the treatment plan put forward by prison and government officials for its serious shortcomings . In a strongly worded affidavit submitted last Friday, Prof
State shifts stance on Aids, but 'minister must go': Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - September 23, 2006; Belinda Beresford; The government continued repositioning itself on HIV/Aids this week, extending an olive branch to the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) and promising a more vigorous and more inclusive South African National Aids Council (Sanac). But activists and political analysts remain unsure of whether the state s new self-projectio
Aids overload in a mining town: Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - September 22, 2006; Khopotso Bodibe; The impact of HIV/Aids on Rustenburg Provincial Hospital has been enormous. Well over half of all patients display the symptoms of Aids and two-thirds of those tested for the virus last year were HIV-positive. Tuberculosis and pneumonia, both closely associated with HIV, are the most common illnesses. Situated in the h
Roll-out, what roll-out?: Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - September 21, 2006; Fatima Hassan**; Recently, the minister of health, officials in the department of health and in the Government Communication and Information System, President Thabo Mbeki and Medical Research Council head Anthony Mbewu stated that South Africa has the largest treatment programme in the world and the fastest roll-out on the planet .
Focus on Aids at Cosatu conference: Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - September 19, 2006; Hila Bouzaglou; The halls of Gallagher Estate in Midrand, Johannesburg, were on Tuesday packed with delegates from different workers unions, thrashing out issues on HIV/Aids and unemployment, which had been raised by union leaders. Though reluctant to talk to the media, delegates at the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu)
Calls to halt nevirapine: Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - September 17, 2006; Belinda Beresford; Calls are mounting for an end to the nevirapine programme for HIV-infected pregnant women, on the grounds that it is not working and should be integrated into wider healthcare measures. Four years after the nevirapine-based prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) programme was introduced, following the Treat
'This is where children get healed': Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - September 14, 2006; Hila Bouzaglou; While the bitter taste of antiretrovirals may cause some young children to vomit, the lingering taste helps 11-year old Thumi* remember to take her medicine. Thumi will have to take four tablets, twice a day, for the rest of her life. She was very sick. She had swollen glands, chronic diarrhoea and she was very thin ..
Call to isolate TB victims: Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - September 8, 2006; Belinda Beresford; The spread of the world s most lethal TB strain in KwaZuluNatal has triggered calls to consider quarantine and forcible medical treatment for people with drug-resistant strains of the disease. The KwaZulu-Natal strain of extreme drug-resistant TB, XDR TB, is effectively untreatable because it is immune to seven of the
Govt says it will obey the court: Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - September 4, 2006; Nic Dawes and Niren Tolsi; The government has moved to limit the fallout from a warning by Kwazulu-Natal Judge Chris Nicholson that a grave constitutional crisis could occur if it defied court orders. Government wishes to reassure all South Africans in general, and the judiciary in particular, that court judgements are binding on the state and t
ARVs become big business: Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - September 4, 2006; Lloyd Gedye; Africa s largest pharmaceutical manufacturer has five times as many South African patients using its anti-retroviral (ARV) products as it had just more than a year ago. Sixteen months ago Aspen Pharmacare won a 58% stake of the government s ARV tender, worth R1,2-billion in turnover to Aspen over three years. Despite t
TAC turns the screws on Manto: Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - September 1, 2006; Niren Tolsi; What started two weeks ago with Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) activists occupying the Human Rights Commission (HRC) offices in Cape Town may end with the pressure group taking President Thabo Mbeki to court in an attempt to get Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang fired. The lobby group says there are several leg
Zuma camp lashes out at 'old' Tutu: Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - September 1, 2006; Zukile Majova; African National Congress deputy president Jacob Zuma s personal adviser, Elias Khumalo, has hit back at Archbishop Desmond Tutu for publicly attacking Zuma s integrity, saying the archbishop is growing old and suffers from selective amnesia . In what amounts to Zuma s first response to the speech, Khumalo said Tutu ne
A state of emergency: Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - August 29, 2006; An investigation into public hospitals suggests that state health care is in severe crisis. It is an emergency. Over the past three months, a team comprised of Health-e and the Mail & Guardian has visited 26 hospitals around the country and across the system of district, regional and tertiary hospitals. It is a suf
Aids: fantasy and reality: Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - August 29, 2006; Douglas Foster: Comment**; At the 16th International Aids Conference in Toronto, participants were treated to a video portraying a world without Aids. In this hypothetical 2031, a man fuels his luxury car with water, a surgeon conducts non-invasive surgery with magnets, and a bored-looking nurse sits at the end of an empty corridor with nothing
Science: The cure for poverty: Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - August 28, 2006; Hila Bouzaglou; Without science and scientists, Africa is doomed to fail in the implementation of the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDG), Minister of Science and Technology Mosibudi Mangena said at a media briefing on Monday. He was discussing the role of science in helping South Africa deal with poverty, economic growth and sus
The teflon minister: Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - August 28, 2006; Rapule Tabane; President Thabo Mbeki will keep Minister of Health Manto Tshabalala-Msimang in her post, despite mounting calls for her to resign. Mbeki has defied critics over the years by showing confidence in her and re-appointing her for a second term even when she had already antagonised stakeholders during her first term. On T
A study in neglect: Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - August 26, 2006; Kerry Cullinan; Kimberley has one of the best doctor-patient ratios in the country but, a few kilometres away, Warrenton Hospital battles to attract a single doctor. To listen to Sister Gail Davids is to understand why so many of our nurses hotfoot it out of the public health system. At Warrenton, a normal weekend sounds as if it were
ARTs stats: Nothing to be proud of: Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - August 25, 2006; Belinda Beresford; South Africa is proud to boast that it has the highest number of people on anti-retroviral treatment (ART) should be a matter of shame, rather than pride. The state and private sectors have been successful in giving ART to about 220 000 South Africans, but this reflects just 20% of the people thought to need it.
Editorial: System failure: Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - August 25, 2006; South Africans have become vegetally preoccupied with the ramblings of Minister of Health Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, on HIV/Aids. As she tosses her mad Greek salad, we have lost sight of the crumbling of the broader health system. This week, the Mail & Guardian begins publishing the findings of its �hospital project
On leadership and vigilance: Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - August 25, 2006; Desmond Tutu: COMMENT**; Our political atmosphere, which has been remarkably stable given our less-than-propitious antecedents, has recently been convulsed by the succession crisis in the African National Congress, with cries of plots and conspiracies and all the fallout that has resulted in considerable turbulence. I thought it might not be e
TAC tackles Manto's fruity display at HIV conference: Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - August 18, 2006; Belinda Beresford and Sapa; It was groundhog day for the South African government at the 16th International Aids Conference in Toronto this week, when a display of salad ingredients drew attention to the more controversial aspects of the national responses to HIV/Aids. The South African government stand -- decorated with the lemons, beetroot and
State ignores Aids deadline: Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - August 18, 2006; Niren Tolsi; The government s foot-dragging response to a Durban High Court order to provide anti-retroviral treatment to HIV-positive prisoners continued this week when it ignored a deadline to give the High Court proof of its treatment plan for inmates at Durban s Westville Prison. Instead, it applied for leave to appeal against
How to save herstory: Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - August 17, 2006; Pregs Govender; The spirit of the women of 1956, who challenged the might of the apartheid state and won, is with women across our country today as we meet in small and large groups, in rural and urban areas, inside and outside Pretoria. Their song, You have struck a woman, you have struck a rock, reverberates down the generations to
New comic book illustrates deaf rights: Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - August 17, 2006; Hila Bouzaglou; An innovative comic book catering for the deaf community has been developed by the Gay and Lesbian Archives (Gala) to reach out to the deaf community regarding HIV/Aids, sexuality and rights and empowerment. The comic, aptly titled Are Your Rights Respected? , is part of an independent project of the South African Hist
Get tested for HIV, win concert tickets: Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - August 11, 2006; Belinda Beresford; Top South African artists playing in the second Rage for the Revolution concert in October are being approached by sponsor Levi Strauss to go public about having had a recent HIV test. The names of the artists, from genres such as kwaito, hip-hop and reggae, will be released once negotiations have been concluded. In a
Examining the past, for the future: Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - July 31, 2006; Five years ago, in an article titled Scent of the plague , published in the Mail & Guardian (June 29 2001), I summarised my experiences as a doctor working in a health service faced with the plague of HIV infection among children in South Africa . I wrote about how difficult it was to break the news of a deadly inf
M&G editor wins MTN Women in the Media award: Mail & Guardian Online reporter; Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - July 28, 2006 Mail & Guardian editor Ferial Haffajee took top honours at the MTN Women in the Media 2006 awards ceremony in Johannesburg on Friday, claiming the overall award. The awards honour women in the South African media industry who have excelled in their careers. Outstan
'Persecuted' prof denies misconduct: Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - July 28, 2006; Marianne Thamm; Girish Kotwal, suspended head of the University of Cape Town s (UCT) division of medical virology, says the persecution and character assassination he has endured have made him understand how leaders under apartheid must have felt when they opposed government . Answering questions recently, Kotwal said he has been so
UCT acts against professor: Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - July 21, 2006; Marianne Thamm; Girish Kotwal, the University of Cape Town (UCT) professor who allegedly tested an Aids potion on highly infectious viruses without following required procedures, is to face a university disciplinary hearing. The Mail & Guardian has learnt that Kotwal is to be charged with failing to follow procedures in researchin
Circumcision could avert millions of Aids deaths: Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - July 17, 2006; Maryian Alowo; The widespread adoption of male circumcision throughout Africa could avert up to 5,7-million HIV infections by 2026. According to a scientific study published in Public Library of Science Medicine, male circumcision could avert two million new infections and 300 000 deaths over the next 10 years. Circumcision can avert
Law puts HIV prevention at risk: Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - July 14, 2006; Belinda Beresford; South African researchers and doctors are worried that a new law intended to protect young men from death or mutilation as the result of circumcision may weaken the potential use of circumcision to curb the spread of HIV. This month President Thabo Mbeki signed into law the Children s Act, one of whose clauses bans cir
Call to probe Rath's 'food supplements': Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - July 10, 2006; The South African Medical Association (Sama) has called for an investigation into the release -- by Director General of Health Thami Mseleku -- of a consignment of anti-Aids food supplements from the Dr Rath Health Foundation. This follows a Mail & Guardian report on Friday that the consignment of food supplements
Health department DG frees seized Rath drugs: Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - July 7, 2006; Pearlie Joubert; Department of Health Director General Thami Mseleku ordered the release of a shipment of tablets, imported by controversial Aids quack Matthias Rath, after Port Health officials in Cape Town had impounded it about five weeks ago. Mseleku s intervention raises new questions about the Department of Health s close relatio
Lesotho gets tested: Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - July 6, 2006; Belinda Beresford; Leaders in Lesotho have embarked on a revolutionary strategy to reduce the spread and the impact of the HIV/Aids epidemic: test everyone for the virus. It is hoped this will counter the widespread human tendency to consider HIV to be someone else s problem - confirmed by a South African survey released last year that f
Aids, malaria and TB fund 'aims to inspire donors': Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - June 29, 2006; Reesha Chibba and Tisha Eetgerink; In just four-and-a-half years, the Global Fund to Fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria has helped 544 000 HIV-positive people begin anti-retroviral treatment, distributed 11,3-million insecticide-treated bed nets and treated 1,4-million cases of tuberculosis (TB). This is according to a progress report released on Thur
Testing ... testing ... HIV: Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - June 21, 2006; Shani Raviv; Getting tested for HIV is about as enticing as sleeping with a new partner for the first time with a condom that the government distributed. It s a rough ride. Even if you were faithful to your ex-partners and celibate in between. Even if you only had sex using condoms or went to reliable clinics for blood tests or don
Soweto's field of dreams: Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - June 16, 2006; Tisha Eetgerink; One day prior to June 16 the pupils of Inkwenkwezi Primary School in Soweto gathered in the assembly area. They are asked to think about the day thirty years ago when police opened fire on schoolchildren protesting in the streets of the township. The headmaster of Inkwenkwezi tells them how, back in 1976, young people
Young ... and free: Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - June 15, 2006; Thandiwe McCloy; By taking to the streets with courage and a strong sense of defiance, those brave young people involved in the Soweto uprisings helped to bring down apartheid and usher in the democracy we enjoy today. Although young South Africans can stop focusing on liberation and enjoy more freedom of expression than ever before, t
Aids coalition accuses SA of 'bad faith': Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - June 2, 2006; Belinda Beresford; South Africa has been accused of aligning itself with Egypt and Gabon in undermining a continent-wide agreement committing African nations to firm targets to counter the HIV/Aids epidemic. In a statement released on the second day of the United Nations Special Assembly on HIV/Aids (Ungass) in New York,
Uganda meets UN Aids target: Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - June 1, 2006; Maryian Alowo; Uganda is among six African countries that have met the 2001 United Nations Declaration of Commitment on HIV/Aids and reduced HIV prevalence among young people by 25%, a new report indicates. In the UN declaration, leaders from 189 member states agreed to reduce the prevalence of HIV/Aids among young people aged 15 t
Storm over Dutch 'Aids quack': Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - May 26, 2006; Belinda Beresford; Tine van der Maas, the Aids healer accused of indirectly causing last week s Aids-related death of Nozipho Bhengu, also provided nutritional support and treatment to Yfm DJ Fana Khaba, known as Khabzela. Khabzela stopped taking anti-retrovirals (ARVs) and died as a result of Aids at the age of 35 in January 2004. A boo
EDITORIAL: We must kill this cancer now: Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - May 26, 2006; The revelation that National Police Commissioner Jackie Selebi appears to have been drawn into the orbit of the late Brett Kebble is deeply disturbing. Kebble moved through South Africa s political and business system like a dark star, radiating a cloying but toxic miasma of gifts and favours, while gobbling up resourc
Bigger than Brazil? Not quite: Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - May 24, 2006; Yolandi Groenewald; Aids activists have questioned the government s boasts that it has the largest anti-retroviral (ARV) treatment programme in the world. Recently, Cabinet spokesperson Joel Netshitenzhe said 134 473 people were on ARV treatment in the public health sector at the end of March, and an estimated additional 80 000 were on tr
Tale of two compartments: Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - May 24, 2006; Jonathan Berger; For a gay man with little knowledge of -- or if truth be told, interest in -- the vagina, the recent international conference on microbicides in Cape Town represented a personal turning point. To be honest, my knowledge of the rectal compartment -- as the arse is euphemistically referred to in scientific circles -- was
A plague of inequality: Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - May 19, 2006; Hein Marais**; Shelve the abiding fiction that disasters do not discriminate -- that they flatten everything in their path with democratic disregard. Plagues zero in on the dispossessed, on those forced to build their lives in the path of danger. Aids is no different. In South Africa , where at least five million people are living wi
Testing stigma: Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - May 16, 2006; Belinda Beresford; Edwin Cameron, the HIV-positive Supreme Court of Appeal judge, has called for HIV/Aids to be treated as a normal disease in order to counteract the stigma surrounding the virus, and to encourage people to be tested and to seek treatment. In a speech that is already stirring heated debate, Cameron suggested that in some
De Lille in privacy suit: Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - May 12, 2006; Belinda Beresford; Politician and Independent Democrats leader Patricia de Lille and journalist and rape activist Charlene Smith faced the Constitutional Court this week in a legal battle that could have important implications for the right of privacy. The case is the final episode in a protracted struggle over De Lille s biography, penn
Sunny with patches of cloud: Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - May 9, 2006; Rapule Tabane; The peer review system established under the African Union cracks the mould of continental politics. For the first time, African leaders agreed to submit governance to internal and external checks and balances. Recently South Africa tabled its first self-assessment report at a meeting in Kliptown -- the venue at which
Mixed reaction to Zuma's court victory: Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - May 8, 2006; Tisha Eetgerink, Reesha Chibba and Sapa; The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) has expressed disappointment at the acquittal on Monday of axed deputy president Jacob Zuma on a charge of rape. Whilst the NPA is disappointed with the judgement, it respects and accepts it, the authority said in a statement. It said the court proceedings and evidence led vindi
Prisoners take fight for ARVs to court: Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - May 5, 2006; Niren Tolsi; Fifteen inmates of Durban s Westville prison have gone to court to force the prison to provide them with HIV/Aids treatment, including anti-retroviral (ARVs) drugs. According to papers they have filed in the Durban High Court, 78 inmates of the Medium B prison have died of Aids-related diseases in the past year. The
The Blob: Unlikely Aids hero: Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - May 3, 2006; Christina Scott**: COMMENT; Okay, so abstinence hasn t worked very well, featuring more in conversations than in bedrooms. Male condoms mean trusting men both to display foresight and to eat the proverbial banana with its peel on , while female condoms are scarce, awkward and apparently noisy. A vaccine against that quick-change-artist, the Aids
Fresh tack for TAC: Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - April 29, 2006; Belinda Beresford; People have been surprised to learn that the new leader of the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC), Sipho Mthathi, is a woman and HIV-negative. Mthathi has been in her job for almost seven months but she has only been propelled into the limelight now because of a fight with the government, which wants to exclude the TAC fr
23 days that shook our world: Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - April 28, 2006; Vicki Robinson, Rapule Tabane and Ferial Haffajee; In 23 days, the Jacob Zuma rape trial has shaken our world. Regardless of the outcome, we are in an altered state. The political damage is incalculable, with the ruling African National Congress now an openly divided and faltering movement. This has had a domino effect on the South African Communist Party and the Congr
TAC: Government statement is an 'outright lie': Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - April 25, 2006; Tisha Eetgerink; The Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) has rejected a claim by the Department of Health that it is reconsidering the government s invitation to attend a United Nations General Assembly Special Session (UNGASS) on HIV/Aids next month in New York. This statement by the Department of Health is an outright lie and a distortio
New vaginal gel 'can kill HIV cells': Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - April 20, 2006; Reesha Chibba, Johannesburg, South Africa; A major breakthrough in the fight against the HIV/Aids epidemic may be likely as research into a revolutionary new type of technology, known as microbicides, gains momentum. Professor Helen Rees of the Reproductive Health and HIV Research Unit at the University of the Witwatersrand said in a statement to the media that
Govt rejects TAC's meeting demand: Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - April 19, 2006; Mail & Guardian Online reporter and Sapa; The Department of Health has rejected a demand for the inclusion of the Aids Law Project (ALP) in South Africa s delegation to next month s special United Nations session on HIV/Aids. The demand was made by the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) as a precondition for its acceptance of its own inclusion on the list. The
Testimony pushes back Aids battle: Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - April 8, 2006; Dan Strumpf; When former deputy president Jacob Zuma took the stand to defend himself against rape charges this week, he gave an explanation that one doctor and activist said took 20 steps back in the campaign to increase awareness of the risks of HIV/Aids. Zuma told the court on Tuesday that he was HIV-negative and that he had unp
EDITORIAL: Terrible twins: Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - April 7, 2006; There was a time, as President Thabo Mbeki dabbled with denialist Aids dissidents, when former deputy president Jacob Zuma was the voice of reason. While careful never to come out openly against Mbeki, Zuma did not buy into the denialism of the late Nineties and pushed the ABC: to abstain, be faithful and condomise.
Barring TAC from Aids session is 'attack on society': Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - April 4, 2006; Tisha Eetgerink; The government s barring of the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) and the Aids Law Project (ALP) from the United Nations General Assembly s special session on Aids later this year in New York has evoked outrage from the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) and deep disappointment among the Aids-fighting NGOs.
Unity against HIV: Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - April 1, 2006; The South African Democratic Teachers Union (Sadtu) has attacked the government for its poor handling of HIV/Aids and President Thabo Mbeki for ongoing mixed messages on the pandemic, following a meeting of its national executive committee in Johannesburg last month. Sadtu s national executive committee (NEC) is profou
A is for arrogant, B is for brazen: Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - March 31, 2006; Jonathan Berger*: COMMENT; I have found Jacob Zuma s defence in his rape trial quite disturbing because, if true, it raises difficult questions regarding sexuality and HIV prevention. Who chooses to have condomless and unlubricated sex with a person who is known to be living with HIV? Someone already living with HIV, who should know the risks an
'If you are HIV-positive, nothing can stop you': Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - March 30, 2006; Reesha Chibba; In overcoming apartheid, South Africans showed themselves to be a nation of activists. Now this spirit of activism is being used to overcome HIV/Aids. Nathan Geffen, spokesperson for the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC), says the struggle against apartheid has influenced our tactics in our struggle . For people with HIV
HIV/Aids barometer - March 2006: Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - March 29, 2006; Estimated Aids-related deaths in South Africa : 1 741 808 at 1.15pm on March 29, 2006 Compulsory Aids tests: Former United States president Bill Clinton this week said he supports mandatory HIV testing in countries with high prevalence, provided people are willing to participate in the testing programmes and that the c
Zuma's rubber raspberry: Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - March 29, 2006; Khadija Magardie; There wasn t one handy. And so it came to pass that The Elephant himself, u-Msholozi, departed the real world. He is now said to be keeping company with the Tooth Fairy and the Easter Bunny -- in the Land of the Tall Tale. They also say his days of financial woe are over, with at least one confirmed sighting of leprec
Red tape bedevils R2bn drugs trial industry: Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - March 28, 2006; Belinda Beresford; Clinical trials are pulling in up to R2-billion a year into South Africa , yet researchers fear the industry may be compromised by the slowness of regulatory authorities to approve, or reject, potential trials. The issue was thrown into relief by an incident in the United Kingdom , when six clinical
The new pandemic: Acquired humanity deficiency syndrome: Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - March 24, 2006; Tom Eaton: VIVA GAZANIA!; Ten years and a fortnight ago, Minister of Health Nkosazana Zuma, then not yet sporting a Dlamini, dropped in on the 19th Congress of the ANC Youth League in Durban. Giving them a taste of the firecracker repartee that has set embassies ablaze from Maseru to Benoni and back to Maseru, the minister razzle-dazzled the de
Blood service fears effects of HIV 'joke': Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - March 22, 2006; Reesha Chibba; The South African National Blood Service (SANBS) says it fears people will stop donating blood after one of its employees told a donor recently that she was HIV-positive as a joke . Nicolette Duda, communications officer for the SANBS, told the Mail & Guardian Online on Wednesday: We definitely don t want this thin
HIV remedy storm: Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - March 17, 2006; Belinda Beresford; The Minister of Health, Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, distanced herself from a controversial herbal remedy for HIV/Aids that is taking KwaZulu-Natal by storm, and which she had reportedly endorsed. Ubhejane Immune Booster hit the news recently when Tshabalala-Msimang reportedly recommended use of the substance, a concoctio
You have struck a woman, you have struck a rock: Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - March 17, 2006; Pregs Govender; March 8 is a day of solidarity between women. It is a day when women across our planet unite against misogyny - the unspoken hatred of the female. Misogyny manifests in the horror of infant rape, in the everyday humiliations experienced in sweatshops and offices, in streets and homes. It results in women and girls bear
HIV/Aids barometer - March 2006: Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - March 15, 2006; Estimated Aids-related deaths in South Africa : 1 728 643 at 4pm on March 15, 2006 Drugs not widely available: Major drug companies are still not making life-saving drugs available to millions of people with HIV/Aids in the developing world, according to the charity Medicins sans Frontieres (MSF). Basic three-drug
Rath defies order to remove web slander: Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - March 10, 2006; Yolandi Groenewald; A vitriolic attack on the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) as fronting for the pharmaceutical industry, drug-money laundering and pushing toxic drugs still featured on the website of controversial vitamin peddler Matthias Rath -- in violation of a recent court order forbidding him from further defaming the TAC. Our lawy
HIV/Aids barometer - March 2006: Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - March 8, 2006; Estimated HIV infections in South Africa : 1 721 839 at noon on Wednesday March 8, 2006 Street-smart: HIV/Aids and human rights activists have called for commercial sex work to be decriminalised as a means of tackling the spread of HIV/Aids. The call came as International Sex Worker Rights Day was observed for the firs
HIV/Aids barometer - March 2006: Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - March 1, 2006; Estimated HIV deaths in South Africa : 1 715 276 at 2pm on Wednesday, March 1, 2006 Budget bottleneck: With billions of dollars pouring in to fight Africa s HIV/Aids epidemic, and despite a huge jump in overseas assistance and government Aids budgets, the cash earmarked to fight the epidemic is often not making it to t
Speaking to facts, not hearts: Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - February 24, 2006; David Harrison*: COMMENT; For a campaign whose tagline is talk about it , retracting the billboard was a bitter pill to swallow. It wasn t so much about loss of face as trying to reconcile the public response with the concerns expressed by organisations within the sector. Last weekend in the town of Paul Roux in the eastern Free State, 1 000 pa
HIV/Aids barometer - February 2006: Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - February 22, 2006; Estimated Aids-related deaths in South Africa : 1 708 589 at 1pm on Wednesday, February 22, 2006 From NY with love: New York s health department is to release what may be the world s first municipally branded condom. The city, which distributes one million free condoms a month, wants to create its own packaging to help
Blood service agrees to study of gay population: Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - February 21, 2006; Reesha Chibba; The South African National Blood Service (SANBS) has confirmed that gay people are still not permitted to donate blood -- this after it agreed to a study of the South African gay population during a meeting held with gay and lesbian organisations last week. Until such data is available which can enable SANBS to review
Party quiz: Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - February 17, 2006; A series of questions about local government issues (and a few more general ones) to help you decide which party to vote for in the municipal elections on March 1 2006. Question 10. What plans do you have to combat Aids and boost the anti-retroviral roll-out? ANC The ANC has a comprehensive and practical plan to combat
HIV/AIDS Barometer - February 2006: Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - February 15, 2006; Estimated Aids-related deaths in South Africa : 1 701 922 at noon, Wednesday, February 15, 2006 Government backs free will South Africa s Ministry of Health has put its support behind people choosing to use traditional HIV/Aids treatments instead of scientifically proven anti-retroviral drugs. Although the Democrat
The HIV-herpes link: Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - February 10, 2006; Belinda Beresford; Researchers at Johannesburg s Chris Hani Baragwanath hospital are homing in on the link between HIV and the genital herpes virus, which is thought to infect more than half of South Africa s adults. A team from the hospital s reproductive health and HIV research unit, led by Sinead Delany-Moretlwe, is running three rese
HIV/AIDS Barometer - February 2006: Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - February 8, 2006; Estimated Aids-related deaths in South Africa : 1 695 281 at noon on Wednesday, February 8, 2006 Dramatic fall in Zimbabwe HIV infections: Changes in sexual behaviour are believed to have triggered a striking decline in HIV in eastern Zimbabwe, according to a team of British scientists. Blood tests show that HIV pr
Editorial: Altered states: Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - February 3, 2006; President Thabo Mbeki presents an extraordinary State of the Nation address this year: he is politically weaker than he has ever been, and paradoxically, because of the economy, stronger too. In this context, he should ditch the usual format of his address, lose the PowerPoint presentation of numbers of homes electrifi
Milk of human kindness overflows: Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - January 31, 2006; Riekje Pelgrim; The upmarket suburb of Manor Gardens in Durban may look serene, but is home to ground zero in the fight against Aids. The iThemba Lethu Milk Bank is the first in the world to provide breast milk exclusively for babies abandoned or orphaned by the virus. The initiative is designed to help boost the fragile immune system
Ombudsman rules against newspaper over gay blood: Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - January 27, 2006; Riaan Wolmarans; The press ombudsman has ruled against the Saturday Star newspaper regarding its report on the gay blood debate that started two weeks ago when the discredited Gay and Lesbian Alliance (GLA) claimed that gay men had donated blood without disclosing their sexual activities. The GLA issued a statement claiming that it had
HIV/Aids Barometer - January 2006: Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - January 25, 2006; Aids-related deaths in South Africa : 1 682 004 at noon on Wednesday, January 25, 2006 Zim children at risk: The worsening humanitarian situation in Zimbabwe is making children more vulnerable to abuse, according to child rights NGOs. For instance, because of the hike in schools fees many children are visiting schools
Muddling the message: Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - January 24, 2006; Kristin Palitza; Voluntary counselling and testing (VCT) services are meant to help HIV-positive people cope with the disease, but some counsellors are doing more harm than good, particularly in KwaZulu-Natal. Nurses, NGOs and Aids activists in the province say many HIV-positive patients could live healthier and longer lives if provide
One in nine -- it's official: Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - January 20, 2006; Christina Scott**; Two separate studies, using different techniques, have for the first time reached the same conclusion about how many South Africans are infected with HIV. The research has raised hopes of reconciling feuding government departments and eventually of a more effective war on HIV/Aids. The Actuarial Society of South Africa
HIV/AIDS Barometer - January 2006: Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - January 18, 2006; Estimated Aids-related deaths in South Africa : 1 675 362 at noon, Wednesday January 18, 2006 Bush s ABC: American first lady Laura Bush on Sunday began her four-day trip to West Africa full of praise for the continent�s first elected woman president, but irritated by criticism of promoting abstinence to help combat Ai
A role model for positive living: Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - January 13, 2006; Written by Peter Busse's friends; Peter Busse, who died last Friday, was one of the foremost Aids activists in South Africa , Africa and internationally. Living with HIV for 20 years, he was one of the first people in South Africa with the courage to disclose his HIV status. In this he became a role model and enabled many other people living with HIV t
Documents contradict loveLife: Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - January 6, 2006; Tumi Makgetla; Documents released to the Mail & Guardian by the Global Fund to Fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria contradict recent loveLife claims that its funding was cut primarily because of United States-led right-wing ideology and pressure from progressives critical of the South African government. The documents reveal tha

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