While South Africa is doing well on some of the UNAIDS HIV targets for 2020, one target we are set to miss is ensuring that 90% of people diagnosed with HIV are on antiretroviral therapy. Partly in response to this problem, the ‘Welcome back’ campaign started by Doctors without Borders aims to make it easier for people who have stopped taking treatment to restart. Tiyese Jeranji reports.
HIV medicines for children often taste bitter, pills are large, and for many children there is a lot of medication to take. This makes it hard to take treatment as prescribed. Tiyese Jeranji looks at the challenges with currently available HIV medicines for children, what innovations are in the pipeline, and how HIV treatment is being tailored to suit the needs of children.
Voluntary Medical Male Circumcision (VMMC) has been shown to reduce the risk of female-to-male HIV transmission by 60%. But with the COVID-19 pandemic and the associated lockdown, health authorities and organisations conducting VMMC in South Africa, say the numbers of men and boys being medically circumcised have dropped dramatically. Siyabonga Kamnqa reports.
While men account for only a third of South Africa’s roughly 200 000 new HIV infections in the year ending mid-2019, they account for more than half of the approximately 74 000 HIV-related deaths in the same period. This is according to new estimates released on Tuesday from the Thembisa mathematical model of HIV in South Africa.
Dr Thembisile Xulu was recently appointed as the new CEO of the South African National AIDS Council (SANAC). On her second day in office, Bienne Huisman spoke to Xulu about her new role, her love of medicine, and growing up in a family of strong women.
The effective functioning of local AIDS councils can be hampered by something as basic as taxi fare members need to attend meetings. Now one Mpumalanga municipality is giving grassroots activists financial support to help with the basics they need to mobilise, organise and implement the local AIDS council’s action plans. UFRIEDA HO reports.
Dr Sandile Buthelezi, the new Chief Operating Officer of the South African National AIDS Council (SANAC), lays out his vision for SANAC and explains the need for a “prevention revolution”.
Dr Sandile Buthelezi was recently appointed as the new head (CEO) of the South African National AIDS Council. His appointment follows the suspicious non-renewal of the previous CEO’s contract Dr Fareed Abdullah and unsuccessful attempts to lure Eastern Cape head of health Dr Thobile Mbengashe to the post.
The Treatment Action Campaign’s (TAC) 6th National Congress held in Sterkfontein, Gauteng concluded today with the re-election of Anele Yawa as General Secretary and the election of Sibongile Tshabalala as Chairperson.
By Marcus Low, Spotlight Editor – At the end of this year South Africa’s big plan to fight HIV and tuberculosis (TB) comes to an end. The National Strategic Plan (NSP) for HIV, TB and STIs 2012-2016 will be replaced by the 2017-2021 NSP. It is vital that the new NSP avoids the mistakes of the past and fully incorporates new scientific evidence.
On Friday 31 March 2017 South Africa’s National Strategic Plan (NSP) for HIV, TB an STIs 2017 – 2022 was launched in Mangaung, Free State. However, as of noon on Monday 3 April the final plan has not yet been made public.
