October 2003 Public Health HIV/AIDS Journal Club

The October 2003 session of the HIV/AIDS Public Health Journal Club featured presentations by two prominent academics who are colleagues of long standing:

Medical schemes may be soon be compelled to cover anti-retroviral therapy

Government is likely to compel medical aid schemes to offer their members antiretroviral drugs.

Foster parents needed

The Durban Children's Society is appealing to people who have the ability to offer secure and loving care to children abandoned and orphaned, as a result of HIV/AIDS, to act as foster or adoptive parents.

We have seen the light

The Lesedi-Lechabile project, based in and around the mining towns of Virginia and Welkom, is a beacon for HIV prevention in the mining industry. This community intervention has proven to be successful in the prevention of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and, although it cannot be directly attributed to decreasing the transmission of HIV among miners, evaluation of the project has strongly suggested that it has an impact on the spread of HIV among these men. It has also changed the lives of the vulnerable women residing and working in €œhotspots€ near the mines.

Volunteers all set for HIV/AIDS vaccine trials

South African volunteers will roll up their sleeves this week and make HIV/AIDS history.

One jab for man, hope for mankind

It was a historic moment - but all Father Kieran Creagh felt was a pinprick. Yet that little jab could change lives all over the planet.

Bead art book gets positive on HIV/AIDS

It's an art book with a positive HIV message, featuring colourful beaded art made by unemployed Khayelitsha women. Add a CD, made by the same women and a Norwegian group, and you have a multi-media creative collaboration that's a feast for the senses.

US initiative provides free treatment in Umlazi

In the absence of a clear-cut policy from the South African government, a United States-backed community initiative is forging ahead and is treating 250 people with HIV/AIDS free of charge with anti-retroviral drugs at the Ithembalabantu Clinic (Place of Hope) at Umlazi in Durban.

UNAIDS welcomes Canada's move to implement WTO pact on generic medicines

UNAIDS today welcomed draft legislation introduced by the Canadian government that would amend the country€™s patent laws to allow drug makers to manufacture and export lower-cost generic medicines to developing countries.

First meeting of the new SA National AIDS council held

The new and reconstituted South African National AIDS Council (SANAC) met for the first time on 1 November 2003 at the Union Buildings in Pretoria.