The Second South African AIDS Conference 2005 will be held at the International Convention Centre in Durban from 7 to 10 June 2005. For more information on the Conference, please click here
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 TB and HIV/AIDS: The intertwined epidemics
Along with many other poorer countries, South Africa is witnessing the disastrous intersection of the HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis (TB) epidemics. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that the annual incidence of TB in South Africa is 536 cases per 100,000 and that 61% of patients diagnosed with TB are also infected with HIV/AIDS. For more on this story, please click here
Highlights from the 2nd SA AIDS Conference
South Africa's second national HIV/AIDS conference draws to a close in Durban today. Kerry Cullinan reports on the highlights at the conference which drew a record number of delegates. Despite the fact that, for the past 18 months, government has been providing antiretroviral (ARV) drugs in some public health facilities, this week?s national HIV/AIDS conference showed that the tension between the health ministry and many HIV/AIDS activists and scientists was as intense as before the ARV rollout. For more on this story, please click here
2nd SA AIDS conference draws to a close
South Africa's second national AIDS conference ended with a televised speech by former South African president Nelson Mandela, in which he reminded delegates of the great strides the country has made since the last national AIDS conference two years ago. The government has begun providing free antiretrovirals (ARVs) at public health facilities since the first AIDS conference in Durban in 2003, but the long-running debate over antiretroviral drugs continued during the conference this week, pitting HIV/AIDS activists against the government once more. For more on this story, please click here
Teenagers join the battle against HIV/AIDS
They should be out playing with their friends, but 13-year-olds Sifiso Khumalo and Sherman Molele have something more serious on their minds. The two teenagers were among a group of children who last week attended the second South African AIDS conference in Durban, hoping to make an impact on the HIV/AIDS pandemic. They also gave a presentation at the conference. In blue tracksuits, with bandannas on their heads, the group stood out among all the experts attending the conference, but it didn't bother them. "HIV/AIDS kills, it is a destroyer, it is an enemy of the nation... and we have to do something about it," Sifiso said confidently when asked why he was attending the conference. For more on this story, please click here
Communities play a vital role in promoting ARV adherence
The WHO target of providing antiretroviral (ARV) drug treatment to three million people living with HIV/AIDS in poor countries by 2005 ('3 by 5') is falling far short of the mark in many places This is especially so in South Africa, where - according to the country's Minister of Health - around 53,000 patients have been enrolled in treatment programmes to date. With the 3 by 5 deadline looming, there are bound to be attempts to dissociate from what looks like an increasingly frail target. Reiterating similar comments she made during a UN General Assembly meeting in New York last week, the health minister took the opportunity to repeat that the 3 by 5 goals are not South African targets, and that the country would determine their own in due course. For more on this story, please click here
Living With HIV/AIDS - Yes! It is possible!
At a satellite meeting held at the 2nd South African AIDS conference, a small but committed group of delegates discussed some of the most personal and heartfelt aspects of living with HIV/AIDS in African nations. The satellite meeting was held to debate the recently launched AIDS-Care-Watch (ACW) campaign, a civil society initiative focusing on the need to keep people alive until antiretroviral drugs (ARVs) become available - which in some areas may take up to 5 years or more. The opening speaker, Dr Ian Hodgson from Health and Development Networks (HDN), a partner organisation to the campaign, highlighted the campaign's main premise: Many people are dying unnecessarily as they wait for ARV programmes to deliver on their promise - as a result of inadequate access to comprehensive care services, incidence of preventable and/or treatable conditions including tuberculosis (TB), and a general lack of literacy on health-related issues and needs. For more on this story, please click here
Invisible 'condom' for women available soon
Invisible "condoms" for women who cannot make choices about safe sex could be as little as four years away. Huge advances in the field of microbicides - effectively a gel or cream which when inserted into a woman's vagina will protect her from HIV infection - have resulted in five major human trials, the earliest results expected at the beginning of 2007. This was the news from Professor Salim Abdool Karim, clinical infectious diseases epidemiologist and interim Deputy Vice-chancellor of the University of KwaZulu-Natal in Durban, who said the need for "women-controlled methods" (for protection from HIV) was urgent. For more on this story, please click here
Impact of HIV/AIDS on women raised at national conference
South African Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang this week urged the public to focus on diseases other than HIV/AIDS, and reiterated her view that antiretroviral drugs were not the only answer to tackling the HIV/AIDS pandemic. However, on Thursday, Prudence Mabela - the first black woman to publicly reveal her HIV status - explained to delegates at the HIV/AIDS conference in the east-coast city of Durban why the disease should continue receiving global attention. "Many obstacles are still presented to people trying to access the government's free antiretroviral treatment programme; the lag in treatment targets has also forced those in need of immediate medication to seek alternative means of care, or die trying," Mabela pointed out. For more on this story, please click here
Business response to HIV/AIDS draws mixed reaction
Delegates at the South African AIDS conference in the port city of Durban heard mixed views from experts on Wednesday as to where business was heading in terms of addressing HIV/AIDS in the workplace. During the Africa Economic Summit in Cape Town last week, the World Economic Forum (WEF) said local companies were leading the continent in their HIV/AIDS response, with up to 91 percent having policies in place. For more on this story, please click here
Do you know your HIV Status?
Do you know your HIV status? Many people are still unable to answer 'yes' to this important question. A pioneering South African programme called 'New Start' sets out to change that. What prevents us from taking the HIV test? Is it fear of the result or the implicit belief that HIV only affects others? Sadly, these sentiments are equally misguided. Voluntary counselling and testing (VCT) is a strategy designed to empower people to make informed choices about their lives by knowing their HIV status. It is also the entry point for HIV/AIDS-related care, treatment and support. For more on this story, please click here
National HIV/AIDS conference warned to scale up efforts
South Africa's response to the HIV/AIDS pandemic still leaves much to be desired, delegates heard on Wednesday at the 2nd South African AIDS Conference in Durban. Speaking during a plenary session, chairman of the Anglo American Chairman's Fund, Clem Sunter, cautioned that the country faced a "national wipe-out" if it did not scale up its fight against HIV/AIDS. For more on this story, please click here
"HIV/AIDS keeps teachers from their classrooms"
A "blistering" report highlighting the disease burden facing education in South Africa shows that between 10 000 and 23 000 teachers now require treatment for HIV/AIDS to save their lives. The highest prevalence of the disease was recorded in KwaZulu-Natal, where 21,8 percent were infected, followed by Mpumalanga (19 percent) and the Eastern Cape 13,8 percent. The least affected was the Western Cape, where 1,1 percent of teachers were infected. Gauteng's figures was 6,4 percent. For more on this story, please click here
South Africa takes a critical look at its HIV/AIDS response
"HIV/AIDS is the mirror in South Africa's face," said Dr Mamphela Ramphele, former Vice Chancellor of the University of Cape Town. "It forces us to examine the contours of our face as it really is, and not just as we would like it to be." Dr Ramphele was speaking at the opening session of the 2nd South African AIDS Conference taking place in Durban this week (7-10 June 2005). The four-day conference opened today amid lively drumming and the buzz of almost 4,000 delegates. The opening session conveyed a sense of hope and optimism, but also pointed to the challenges that South Africa faces in dealing with its HIV/AIDS epidemic, and the difficult - often contentious - issues that will be discussed during the course of the meeting. For more on this story, please click here
PEPFAR under the spotlight at national HIV/AIDS conference
The United States government made their presence felt at South Africa's second AIDS conference on Tuesday with a delegation led by US Ambassador to South Africa Jendayi Frazer presenting an overview of the local US response to the pandemic. South Africa is one of the beneficiaries of the US President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) - a US $15 billion programme launched by President George W Bush in 2003 to tackle HIV/AIDS in 12 African countries and the Caribbean region over five years. For more on this story, please click here
National HIV/AIDS Conference opens
Delegates attending South Africa's second HIV/AIDS conference are expected to confront the challenges facing the country as it pushes ahead with its treatment programme. More than 4,000 HIV/AIDS researchers, activists and politicians turned up for the four-day meeting, which kicked off on Tuesday in the port city of Durban. Conference chairwoman Lynn Morris confirmed that the event would "look at issues like: how treatment programmes are progressing, where the successes lie, and what the obstacles are"; the results of programmes in poorer rural areas, as well as those in the private sector would be also be presented. For more on this story, please click here
HIV/AIDS experts unite at Durban conference
The cream of international and South African scientists will gather on Wednesday for the second ground-breaking HIV/AIDS Conference at Durban's International Convention Centre. More than 1 000 delegates, many from overseas and other parts of Africa, are expected to attend the conference, which ends on Friday. Among the key issues will be the evaluation of South Africa's anti-retroviral treatment rollout plan implemented last year, the emerging orphans of HIV/AIDS crisis and ways to address stigma and discrimination. For more on this story, please click here
Largest National HIV/AIDS Conference in Durban next week
South Africa?s biggest ever national meeting to address the HIV/AIDS epidemic takes place in Durban next week, when more than 4,000 delegates attend the 2nd South African AIDS Conference (ICC Durban, 7 ? 10 June 2005). This number of delegates represents a more than 20% increase in participants from the previous conference held in 2003. Registrants include scientists, medical professionals, social workers, people living with HIV/AIDS, activists, government, media and NGOs. For more on this story, please click here
South African AIDS Conference programme released
South Africa's foremost HIV/AIDS experts will present their experience to more than 4,000 delegates in Durban next month (7 - 10 June 2005) at the country's second national AIDS Conference. A highlight of this year's conference is the Nkosi Johnson Memorial Lecture, dedicated to South Africa's youngest AIDS activist, who gave a moving opening address to tens of thousands of people at the XIIIth International AIDS Conference in Durban in 2000. "Nkosi represents the brave face of HIV, not only because he was 11 years old at the time, but also because he boldly declared and confronted his status. We hope that by hosting this memorial lecture, his bravery and courage will live on. He also represents a terrifying feature of the South African AIDS epidemic - that HIV is robbing our youth and that we need to do more to arrest this," said conference chair, Prof Lynn Morris. For more on this story, please click here
Important Dates for the 2nd South African AIDS Conference
28 February 2005:
- Closing date for scholarship applications
- Abstract submissions close
- Closing date for early registrations
- Regular registrations open
- Closing date for registration cancellations with 90% refund
31 March 2005
- Abstract notifications Scholarship notifications
- Closing date for registration cancellations with 50% refund
24 May 2005
- Closing date for pre-conference registrations
- Delegates may only register at the conference from this date onwards
For more information in this regard, please visit the Conference website by clicking here
Second South African AIDS Conference Announcement
The 1st SA AIDS Conference held in August 2003 became the largest medical conference - and, perhaps South Africa's largest all-inclusive conference. Successfully hosted at Durban's International Convention Centre, with 3 522 people participating, it's no surprise that 2005 has been marked for the gathering of all interested parties at the 2nd South African AIDS Conference! The International Convention Centre in Durban will again play host to the 2nd SA AIDS Conference scheduled for 7 to 10 June 2005. For more on this story please click here or visit the official website, by clicking here
First South African AIDS Conference 2003 Coverage:
HIV/AIDS and the plight of food insecurity within the SADC region
HIVAN Researcher, Anam Nyembezi presented at the SA AIDS Conference, held in Durban from 3 to 6 August 2003. Anam's paper, "HIV/AIDS and the plight of food insecurity within the SADC region" concluded with some recommendations for improving food security within the SADC region in light of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. For more on this story, please click here
Workplace is frontline in the HIV/AIDS battle
It's time to "revolutionise" the workplace and use the hard-fought constitutional rights to ensure that the impact of HIV/AIDS does not destroy the fabric of South African society. Addressing the SA AIDS Conference at the International Conference Centre in Durban this week, Alan Whiteside, director of the Health Economics And Research Division (HEARD) at the University of Natal, said there was a "controlled range of legislation, regulations and agreements" pertaining to the workplace that now needed to be used in order "to level the playing fields". For more on this story, please click here
Government makes dramatic HIV/AIDS pledge at closing of SA AIDS Conference
An anti-retroviral treatment programme for the millions of people infected with HIV/AIDS is "a reality" - and not a matter of if, but when. In a dramatic closing statement at the South African AIDS Conference in Durban on Wednesday, the MEC for health in KwaZulu-Natal, Dr Zwele Mkhize, said the government was committed to a comprehensive plan of HIV/AIDS treatment for the country. For more on this story, please click here
AIDS Conference ends with emotional appeal
South Africa's first national AIDS conference came to an emotional end on Wednesday when AIDS activist Prudence Mabele made a passionate plea to end the "political game" being played with the lives of HIV-positive women and their babies. Mabele was speaking during a special plenary session on the safety of Nevirapine, where she asked the government to give HIV-positive pregnant women the choice of continuing to use the drug in the prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT). For more on this story, please click here
SA AIDS Conference gets off the ground with a bang
The South African AIDS Conference opened this weekend at the International Conference Centre in Durban in the heat of controversial issues surrounding the epidemic in the country. Some of which are the call for a treatment campaign, questionable nutritional stances from government and the latest questioning of the efficacy of Nevirapine. For more on this story, please click here
South African National AIDS conference opens
South Africa's first national AIDS conference kicked off on Sunday with a somewhat subdued opening ceremony even the activists' shouts for access to treatment were muted. For more on this story, please click here
Scenes from the SA AIDS Conference
Scenes from the SA AIDS Conference can be found in the HIVAN Photo Gallery. This can be accessed by clicking here
Dr Peter Piot addresses the SA AIDS Conference
Dr Peter Piot address the SA AIDS Conference 2003 on 3 August 2003. For more on this story, please click here
South African AIDS Conference - Webcast by Health-E News Service
Health-e News Service will be webcasting the plenary sessions of the South African AIDS conference in Durban from August 3-6, 2003. For three days, South African scientists, AIDS activists, health workers and public servants will come together under the theme Dira Sengwe, a seTswana phrase meaning Take Action. Health-e News Service will webcast the opening and closing ceremonies as well as the plenary sessions, enabling the worldwide online community to follow these proceedings. The webcast will be available approximately nine hours after the live delivery of the plenary sessions. Further information on the webcast can be found on the Health-E Website, this can be accessed by clicking here.
SA AIDS Conference 2003 - The AIDS Conference with a difference, to make a difference
Prof Jerry Coovadia, Chairperson of the XIIIth International AIDS Conference held in Durban July 2000 announced the launch of the South African AIDS Conference 2003. The Conference is being held at the ICC Durban from 3 to 6 August 2003.
Now Chairperson of the first South African AIDS Conference 2003, Prof Jerry Coovadia, says, "There is a complaint, probably justifiable, that there are too many meetings and conferences on HIV/AIDS. While this may seem to be so, we in South Africa are exposed to a catastrophe of massive proportions. This conference aims at nothing less than providing a comprehensive, holistic and precisely relevant programme for all stakeholders, including community representatives, business and the media. There is no equivalent meeting serving such a purpose. This conference leads directly from the hugely successful and landmark AIDS 2000; and one has the organisers promise of a worthy successor to the 2000 conference." For more on this story, click here
Comprehensive programme for SA AIDS Conference 2003 released
The organisers of South Africa's first national AIDS Conference announced the programme for the Conference, and opened the call for papers and registrations on 17 March 2003. Chair of the South African AIDS Conference, Prof Hoosen M Coovadia, said the organisers of the SA AIDS Conference were committed to providing a programme of high quality, embodying the rigours of science and firmly focusing on the major advances in prevention and treatment of HIV/AIDS. It would further examine the socio-economic realities of the epidemic. The programme, which is made up of five tracks, consists of various formats including plenaries, parallel sessions and symposia. For more on this story, click here
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