Taking the antibiotic doxycycline after condomless sex can reduce the risk of contracting three different sexually transmitted infections (STIs), according to a study presented last week at the AIDS 2022 conference in Montreal, Canada. Elri Voigt unpacks the study findings and asks local experts what it might mean for combatting STIs in South Africa.
Over the last three decades, Dr Fareed Abdullah has been at the coalface of South Africa’s response to HIV, tuberculosis, and more recently, COVID-19. Biénne Huisman chatted with Abdullah about providing antiretrovirals in the time of AIDS denialism, National Health Insurance, working as a medical doctor, and the toll HIV has sadly taken on his own family.
Data collected by the Ritshidze community-led healthcare monitoring project is now being shared through a new, publicly accessible online dashboard. Authors involved with the project explain the kinds of insights this rich new data source can give on healthcare services in South Africa.
From March to July this year, the Gauteng Department of Health recorded 57 848 TB tests – a decrease of about 30 000 tests compared to the same period last year. The province performed better with HIV testing, although the HIV response has faltered in other areas. Melissa Javan makes sense of the province’s numbers and speaks to activists and community health workers about the impact of lockdown on their services and plans to get things back on track.
Two decades since Doctors without Borders (MSF) started its HIV programme in Khayelitsha, the organisation will start wrapping up its operations. Siyabonga Kamnqa spoke to some people living with HIV who benefitted from this programme and who now work as activists about developments over the last 20 years.
The HIV epidemic is far from over and we will not reach key UNAIDS targets and control HIV unless we end HIV-related stigma, argues Prof Linda-Gail Bekker.
The U=U campaign is based on a simple message – an undetectable viral load in people living with HIV equals an untransmissible virus. The U=U campaign, argues Mandisa Dukashe, has the power to motivate people living with HIV to adhere to ARVs, achieve viral suppression, and subsequently lead long and healthy lives while preventing HIV transmission to sexual partners and their babies.
Thanks to community-led monitoring in South Africa, we now have the data to back up the stories we have all heard about – early morning queues that last all day long when clinics fail to open on time and then also close early, writes Anele Yawa and Lotti Rutter.
Over the last decade there have been significant decreases in the rates of new HIV infections, HIV-related deaths, and mother-to-child transmission (MTCT) in South Africa. Yet, there are still staggering gaps between different subsets of the population.
A special edition of the NSP Review published in September 2013 bore witness to the collapse of the Eastern Cape public health system. Death and dying in the Eastern Cape:…
South Africa’s Constitution states clearly that all citizens have the right to access health services. This means that our government has a constitutional responsibility to provide healthcare, and an obligation…
[caption id="attachment_1843" align="alignnone" width="567"] (Photo by Robert Hamblin)[/caption] Sex workers face significant barriers to accessing health services, experience a disproportionate burden of disease, and are subject to daily human rights…