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University of KwaZulu-Natal - Ronald Louw Memorial Campaign 2nd - 5th May 2006
Student Counselling and Careers Centre, UKZN.
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Professor Ronald Louw died on 26 June 2005 at the age of 47. He had been a much loved and valued member of the university community since 1993 when he joined the Law faculty. He established himself as an acclaimed researcher and teacher. In addition, he served as Assistant Dean (1997-1998), Head of the School of Law (2002 - 2004), and University Proctor (1997 - 2005).
He was an ethical and principled person who fought for equality and social justice. His untimely death was a huge loss to his family, friends, colleagues, students and to the university as a whole.
In early May 2005 Ronald fell ill with pneumonia. When he did not respond to treatment, his doctor recommended that he test for HIV. The results came back positive and it was established that Ronald had full-blown AIDS. This was only six weeks before he died. The tragedy is that Ronald need not have died at this time. If he had tested sooner he could, potentially, have lived for many more years. He said that he regretted not having tested earlier and, during the last week of his life, he expressed a wish to run a campaign at UKZN, encouraging students and staff to get tested. Almost one year later, his wish for a campaign is now being fulfilled, even though he is not here to participate as he had wanted to.
Why did Ronald not have a test sooner? Before he fell ill, he told his friends that he did not need to. Often when people say that they do not need to test for HIV, the real reason is that they are afraid. Ronald wanted to spread the message that, even though testing for HIV can be scary, it should be an essential part of everyone's health care routine.
Testing for HIV is available at all UKZN campuses at the Campus Health Clinics. Treatment for HIV-related illness, as well as guidance regarding health management is also available.
For more information on this campaign, please visit the hyperlink on the righthand side. |
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