Adherence: The Achilles Heel of Anti-retroviral Therapy

Introducing the speaker for HIVAN's first Invited Presentation (held in the Athlone Skinner Conference Room at Natal University's Durban campus), the Centre's Director of Social and Behavioural Sciences, Professor Eleanor Preston-Whyte, welcomed Professor Gerald Friedland of Yale University's School of Medicine.

March 2002 Interdepartmental Public Health HIV/AIDS Journal Club

Community Health Registrar Dr Elizabeth Lutge and paediatrician Professor Jerry Coovadia presented at the second session of the 2002 series of Journal Club meetings, which was held on Friday 1st March 2002 during the lunch-hour in the Nelson R Mandela School of Medicine's Staff Dining Room. Co-hosted by the Department of Community Health, HIVAN and the Harvard Enhancing Care Initiative (ECI), the forum attracted a sizable audience.

HEARD GIS Workshop - 31 January 2002

This workshop was convened to present the use of GIS (Geographic Information Services) as an adaptive management tool to specify the problem of risk and to prioritise management interventions.

Priorities for HIV/AIDS Research in Africa

A preparatory brainstorming session on "Priorities for HIV/AIDS Research Programmes in Africa" was convened in October 2001 by HIVAN's Biomedical Director, Professor Hoosen (Jerry) Coovadia, in order to coalesce a broad range of perspectives on HIV/AIDS issues from and across academic disciplines.

May 2002 Interdepartmental Public Health HIV/AIDS Journal Club

The fourth session of the Interdepartmental HIV/AIDS Journal Club was held on 5th May 2002 in the Staff Diningroom, Nelson R Mandela School of Medicine, Durban. Co-presenting on the potential effects of HAART on population level transmission dynamics were Max O€™Donnell and Jennifer Zelnick, both Associate Researchers at the Centre for HIV/AIDS Networking (HIVAN). The second presentation, a paper entitled €œMbeki€™s Denialism and The Ghosts of Apartheid and Colonialism for Post-apartheid AIDS Policy-making€ was delivered by Mandisa Mbali, Research Intern at the Centre for Civil Society, based on the University of KwaZulu-Natal€™s Durban campus.

April 2002 Interdepartmental Public Health HIV/AIDS Journal Club

The third session of the 2002 series of HIV/AIDS Public Health Journal Club meetings was held on 5 April in the Steve Biko Lecture Theatre, Nelson R Mandela School of Medicine. Co-hosted by the Department of Community Health, HIVAN and the Harvard Enhancing Care Initiative (ECI), the meeting was opened by Dr Robert Pawinski, who introduced the two guest presenters: Professor Sharon Cassol, Honourary Professor in Anatomical Pathology at UND Medical School and Principal Investigator in the Africa Centre€™s Molecular Virology and Bioinformatics Unit, and doctoral student Michelle Tarin, Senior Laboratory Technologist, also from the Unit. The session focused on HIV treatment studies.

Coherence and synthesis will strengthen research on HIV/AIDS

A comprehensive scan of research activities conducted at the University of KwaZulu-Natal on and around the HIV/AIDS pandemic would ensure cohesion and opportunities for synthesis in research, said Professor Jerry Coovadia, addressing an HIV/AIDS Research Summit held on the Durban campus last week. "This would strengthen our efforts and increase momentum in combating the disease syndrome in our province and further afield."

June 2002 Public Health HIV/AIDS Journal Club

The fifth session of the 2002 Interdepartmental HIV/AIDS Journal Club series was held on 6 June in the Staff Diningroom, Nelson R Mandela School of Medicine, Durban, and featured two presentations from HEARD (Health Economics and HIV/AIDS Research Division). Research Director Professor Tim Quinlan's "From Impact Assessment to Management of HIV/AIDS: Socio-economic Methodological Considerations" reviewed the general framework of integrated research in which most HIV/AIDS scientists are attempting to work, while Research Fellow Ryann Manning's presentation, "HIV/AIDS and Democracy - What Do We Know?" offered a literature review linking the epidemic's effects on governance and the implications of these links for the medical community.

August 2002 Public Health Journal Club

The August session of the Journal Club was devoted to a selection of reportbacks from the AIDS 2002 Conference in Barcelona. Opening the meeting, Victor Daitz Chair of HIV/AIDS Research Prof Jerry Coovadia observed that with the gathering in Barcelona being the largest to date,(with over 14 000 delegates), it had offered researchers a valuable opportunity to share information. South Africa had been well represented at the Conference.

Care of the Caregiver - some practical measures

The final session of a national workshop on HIV/AIDS Management and Care, hosted by the University of KwaZulu-Natal's School of Nursing in July 2002, dealt with "Care of the Caregiver".