Medicines Control Council approves first HIV vaccine trial in SA

The South African AIDS Vaccine Initiative (SAAVI) announced on 19 June 2003 that the South African Medicines Control Council (MCC) has approved the first human clinical trial for a phase I HIV vaccine trial in South Africa.

Doris Duke Research Institute to open in July

Top HIV/AIDS academic at the Nelson Mandela Medical School at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, Professor Jerry Coovadia, is hoping a new R40-million research institute will create jobs to counteract the medical brain drain from South Africa.

JSE will not demand HIV/AIDS disclosure

The JSE Securities Exchange would not make it mandatory for firms on the mooted social responsibility index to disclose the prevalence or cost of HIV/AIDS, Russell Loubser, the chief executive of the bourse, said yesterday.

There is hope for HIV/AIDS in Botswana

Last December doctors from Botswana, in partnership with Harvard University in the United States, were piloting treatment with antiretrovirals of people with HIV/AIDS from a tiny room at the Princess Marina Hospital in Gabarone.

HIV/AIDS prevalence in South Africa

The Report on the Survey on the Prevalence of HIV and Syphilis amongst Women Attending Public Health Sector Antenatal Clinics has been finalised and is due for official release. The survey is conducted in October every year and the results are released within the second quarter of the following year.

Project launched to educate NGOs

A campaign to educate international and national NGOs on HIV/AIDS prevention kicked off this week in Angola, a country slowly waking up to the HIV/AIDS epidemic.

New eForum on HIV/AIDS Stigma and Discrimination

HIV/AIDS-related stigma and the resulting discrimination is a barrier to effective care and prevention. "You can live with HIV but you can't live with the stigma that surrounds it" (Anon, Tanzania 2001).

Early diagnosis can help stem the tide of HIV/AIDS

The HIV/AIDS epidemic in South Africa was killing 1 000 people a day, the chairman of the Board of Health Providers, Brian Brink, said in Durban yesterday.

Working for and with the community - an Eastern Cape NGO focus

"Please don't lose your temper here, I have no time looking for it".The slogan on the office wall speaks for itself. Veliswa Ndidi is an auxiliary social worker at the Afrikaanse Christelike Vroue Vereeniging (ACVV) Community Centre at Kleinskool, in the northern areas of Nelson Mandela Bay. The ACVV, subsidised in bulk though the Department for Social Development, is an NGO operating seven branches in the Bay.

Mandela delighted with HIV/AIDS educational television

Television was never this good - at least as far as Nelson Mandela is concerned. Mindset Network, a new R225-million multimedia satellite television network, is to address educational and HIV and AIDS challenges, issues which are both very close to Mandela's heart.