By Professor Salim S. Abdool Karim & Professor Quarraisha Abdool Karim – AIDS Conferences are unique in being a cross between a scientific meeting and a community engagement forum. People from all walks of life attend these meetings and they are a far cry from the usual rigid structure in scientific conferences in order to cater for the range of interests.
By Professor Linda-Gail Bekker & Professor Robin Wood – The June 2000 UNAIDS global report on AIDS painted a sombre picture: already South Africa had the greatest number of people living with HIV than any other country in the world and life expectancy had fallen rapidly to historical levels.
Over the years, HIV and the ensuing global epidemic has resulted in millions of deaths. With the advent of antiretroviral therapy, and the advocacy efforts of civil society, HIV-related mortality has significantly decreased, as has mother-to-child transmission.
By Vuyiseka Dubula – I was just months away from knowing my own HIV status when, in the year 2000, the people took over the streets of Durban marking a revolution to come. Although I was not present in Durban for that year’s AIDS conference – I was already connected to the struggle.
By Professor Hoosen Coovadia – I was thrust into the vortex of International AIDS Society’s 13th International AIDS conference in 2000 as chairperson by my close colleagues Professor Quarraisha Abdool-Karim and Dr Gustaaf Wolvaardt, presumably due to the absence of any suitable alternatives, because of my academic record (such as it was at that time) and my leadership roles in the struggle for freedom.
By Professor Peter Piot With over 3 000 people dying from HIV infection every single day and 5 500 becoming newly infected, AIDS is not over by any means. [caption…
Dr Fareed Abdullah & Kanya Ndaki – As the global HIV community returns to South Africa for the International AIDS Conference, there is no better time to take stock of the progress the country has made.
By Professor Chris Beyrer, Professor Linda-Gail Bekker & Professor Françoise Barré-Sinoussi There has been remarkable progress in the AIDS response. We have come a long way since the 13th International…
By Ntsiki Mpulo – Health minister Dr Aaron Motsoaledi sat down with Spotlight in an exclusive interview. He shares details on how the department plans to target vulnerable groups in efforts to stem the incidence of HIV. He speaks passionately on plans to target adolescents, a little less forceful on decriminalizing sex work and is thin on detail when it comes to men who have sex with men.
By Justice Edwin Cameron – It has been almost 35 years since AIDS was identified. Thirty-five long years, since the disquieting realisation that young men in North America, in the prime of their lives, were dying from a hitherto unknown virus.
By Nomatter Ndebele – Ten years ago, the International AIDS Conference was held in Durban in KwaZulu-Natal. Nkosi Johnson, who died a year later at the age of 12 – the longest-surviving HIV-positive born child at the time – addressed the plenary and made a plea to the government to make antiretroviral treatment available to pregnant women with HIV.
By Kerry Cullinan – Every day, I passed three funeral parlours on my 5km drive to work in central Durban. Shiny hearses lined up in the street, one behind the other. Fetching, taking, waiting.
A full version of the special edition of Spotlight will be released during the International AIDS Conference in Durban which starts on 17 July. This is an article which will be published in Spotlight.