2000

Aids will destroy SA economy, say experts: Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - November 29, 2000; Steven Swindells; SOUTH Africa s rampant Aids epidemic could stall population growth within 10 years and devastate the country s economy, new studies have showed. Africa s biggest economy faces slower economic growth, shrinking GDP, increased household poverty and the loss of its most economically active people as HIV-Aids takes more li
Anti-Aids drug gets the green light: Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - November 15, 2000; Steven Swindells, Johannesburg; SOUTH Africa s top medical body has approved the use of a combination anti-Aids drug which contains the drug AZT - but despite the endorsement, AZT will still not be available in the public sector other than for health workers who are occupationally at risk of becoming HIV-positive. The regulatory Medicines Control
Government reaches out to queer South Africa on Aids: Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - November 13, 2000; Own Correspondent; The Aids Foundation last week met with representatives from some twenty lesbian and gay organisations to form the Queer Health Crisis Forum, an organisation that is set to combat the spread of Aids in the GLBT community. Durban - Government reached out to the lesbian and gay community for the first time in South Afrian
Er ... got any bigger condoms?: Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - November 8, 2000; Khanyisile Maepa, Mbabane; CONDOMS donated to Swaziland from the East and some American countries are too small for Africa s well endowed men and tear during sex, Swaziland parliamentarians told a HIV/Aids crisis committee meeting in the small kingdom this week. Parliamentarian Majahodvwa Dlamini told the conference in Swaziland s industrial cen
Survival Guide for AIDS Orphans a World First: Mail and Guardian (Johannesburg) - October 20, 2000; Paul Kirk; The University of Natal s psychology department has helped produce a guidebook that teaches children how to cope when HIV/Aids wipes out their parents and leaves them in charge. As the Aids pandemic sweeps through South Africa large numbers of households may soon be headed up by children too young to even vote. Thi
HIV/AIDS Barometer: Mail and Guardian (Johannesburg) - October 20, 2000; Estimated worldwide HIV infections 12.45pm Thursday October 19: 38 533 689 Defiant: The Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) has launched a defiance campaign with the illegal importation of a generic drug used to treat opportunistic infections. So far the TAC has bought 5 000 capsules of a generic form of fluconozole - used
President tells party caucus that Western interests are seeking to discredit him and South Africa: Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - October 6, 2000; Howard Barrell; President Thabo Mbeki believes the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is part of a conspiracy to promote the view that HIV causes Aids. Mbeki also thinks that the CIA is working covertly alongside the big US pharmaceutical manufacturers to undermine him because, by questioning the link between HIV and Aids
Lies, damned lies and noseweek: Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - October 06, 2000; A recent article has highlighted how Aids statistics can be manipulated by dissidents to prove their point of view Belinda Beresford There are damned lies. There are statistics. And then there is noseweek. That venerable organ of expos s and investigative journalism has itself been used in a malicious distortion of fac
Myths and disinformation about the virus: Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - October 06, 2000; Belinda Beresford answers some of the most frequently raised claims put forward by the so-called dissidents A virus cannot cause a syndrome The orthodox viewpoint is that the human immunodeficiency virus - HIV - causes acquired immunodeficiency syndrome - Aids. HIV is just another virus. Different viruses tend to have
None so blind as those who will not see: Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - October 06, 2000; Bolstered by President Thabo Mbeki s prevarication, the Aids dissidents arguments are fuelling confusion in South Africa - but they have little scientific merit Belinda Beresford HIV does not exist. If it does exist it does not cause Aids. The disease Aids does not exist. There is no epidemic nor are there deaths. Ther
What Leon and Mbeki had to sayWhat Leon and Mbeki had to say: Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - October 06, 2000; President Thabo Mbeki and Tony Leon have been writing to each other again, arguing over HIV/Aids. They found a lot else to disagree about. Their latest correspondence, 54 pages of it, much of it technical medical and legal argument, was tabled in Parliament on Thursday. We publish excerpts You may ... be unaware of the
Call for clear stance on HIV/Aids: Mixed signals from government are undermining HIV/Aids education.: Mail and Guardian (Johannesburg) - October 4, 2000; Khadija Magardie; THE HIV/Aids waters are being increasingly muddied, as the debate about the exact relationship between the virus and the disease echoes all the way from President Thabo Mbeki s office to the ordinary folk on the street. And unless some kind of consensus is reached soon, education and awareness campaigns about HIV/Aids
Cabinet On Aids: Ja, Well, No Maybe: Daily Mail and Guardian, Johannesburg, South Africa - September 15, 2000; Nawaal Deane, Jaspreet Kindra and Belinda Beresford; The Mail & Guardian this week asked all Cabinet ministers whether they were working on the assumption that HIV causes Aids. On Tuesday Minister of Foreign Affairs Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, who had been one of 13 female foreign ministers who signed a letter to the United Nations Secretary General, Kofi Annan, called o
AIDS Incubation Site Said To Be Discovered; 'This Is Where Aids Started': Daily Mail and Guardian (Johannesburg) - September 15, 2000; John Vidal and James Meek; The Belgian Congo, 1959. The winds of change are sweeping through Africa. There are riots for self-determination in the capital, Stanleyville (now Kisangani, Congo), and chaos everywhere. In Europe and America concern is at its peak over the most feared Western disease of the time - polio. Poliovirus is common enough.
ANC Tries to Limit the Fallout: Mail and Guardian (Johannesburg) - September 15, 2000; Belinda Beresford, Jaspreet Kindra and Nawaal Deane; The African National Congress has launched a damage- limitation exercise to counter a groundswell of criticism in the scientific community, divisions in the ANC-led alliance and public bewilderment about its stance on HIV/Aids. Triggered by an interview with President Thabo Mbeki in the international news magazine, Tim
OPINION AND ANALYSIS: A Startling Level of Scientific Ignorance: Mail and Guardian (Johannesburg) - September 15, 2000; Denise Ford; President Thabo Mbeki appears to confuse the causes of immune deficiency and the specific syndrome associated with HIV/Aids in his interview with Time magazine. If he is quoted correctly in the article, he betrays a startling level of scientific ignorance. He says: But the notion that immune deficiency is only acquired
OPINION AND ANALYSIS: Aids Tragedy Turns to Farce: Mail and Guardian (Johannesburg) - September 15, 2000; Timothy Trengove-Jones; We are all familiar with the details of the case Minister of Health v John Robbie. We also all know the theory that history repeats itself, first as tragedy, then as farce. Since the past week has seen this nation s pre-eminent emergency reduced to the level of farce, I hazard the guess that history must be repeating i
Reality Hits the Road Alex Sudheim: Never Before in Human History Has a Virus: Mail and Guardian (Johannesburg) - September 8, 2000; Since the scourge of HIV/Aids raised its lethal head over a decade ago, its insidious reach has been fought every step of the way in song, dance, drama, film, art and literature. Providing physical meaning to the term public art is the new project of a Durban-based international art initiative, the Artists for Human Ri
AIDS: It's an Illuminati Plot: Daily Mail and Guardian (Johannesburg) - September 5, 2000; Staff Reporter; A storm has broken over the head of Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang for distributing to senior officials throughout the country a document which claims international conspirators introduced HIV/AIDS to Africa in a bid to reduce its population. Tshabalala-Msimang distributed copies of a chapter of William Coope
Aids campaigns still have a long way to go: Ignorance characterises some young South Africans' understanding of HIV/Aids.: Daily Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - September 4, 2000; Nawaal Deane, Pule Waga Mabe, Ntuthuko Maphumulo and Roshila Pillay; A young woman with a box full of condoms is having fun on the rocky streets of Soshanguve, north of Pretoria, handing out free condoms to passers-by. It is Saturday morning, and most people are still suffering from their Friday hangovers. As the woman enters a spaza shop to give out condoms, she is mobbed by a group of
'It will not happen to us': Few young people in South Africa believe they could become infected with HIV/Aids.: Daily Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - September 4, 2000; Nawaal Deane and Ntuthuko Maphumulo; The first in-depth investigation into the efficacy of South Africa s Aids awareness campaigns on the country s youth shows that while the information is getting through, few believe it applies to them. The survey, conducted by the Beyond Awareness Campaign, reveals that most young people see HIV as a threat to society,
Brown condoms for clever dicks: The government believes black men find white condoms off-putting.: Daily Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - September 4, 2000; Belinda Beresford; It s all in the packaging! That, at least, is the hope of the Department of Health, which has decided that colour counts in the battle against Aids. In an attempt to make condoms more popular among the majority population, government-sponsored Condom Cans could soon be stocked with brown condoms as well as the white on
'It Will Not Happen to Us': Daily Mail and Guardian (Johannesburg) - September 1, 2000; Nawaal Deane and Ntuthuko Maphumulo; The first in-depth investigation into the efficacy of South Africa s Aids awareness campaigns on the country s youth shows that while the information is getting through, few believe it applies to them. The survey, conducted by the Beyond Awareness Campaign, reveals that most young people see HIV as a threat to society,
AIDS Project To Be Extended: Daily Mail and Guardian (Johannesburg) - September 1, 2000; The Western Cape government has announced it will extend the Khayelitsha mother-to-child HIV transmission prevention project to five new areas. Pregnant mothers in Guguletu, Langa, Bonteheuwel, Paarl, Worcester and George will receive anti-retroviral drugs beginning next year. However, the R6-million programme fails to
AIDS Campaigns Still Have a Long Way to Go: Daily Mail and Guardian (Johannesburg) - September 1, 2000; Nawaal Deane, Pule waga Mabe, Ntuthuko Maphumulo and Roshila Pillay; A young woman with a box full of condoms is having fun on the rocky streets of Soshanguve, north of Pretoria, handing out free condoms to passers-by. It is Saturday morning, and most people are still suffering from their Friday hangovers. As the woman enters a spaza shop to give out condoms, she is mobbed by a group of
It Costs R1,99 to Save a Child ...: Daily Mail and Guardian (Johannesburg) - August 18, 2000; The government has so far ignored its own report on administering antiretrovirals Belinda Beresford The government has been sitting on a report it commissioned that vigorously endorses the use of antiretroviral drugs in stopping the transmission of HIV between mothers and children. The study, commissioned by the Depart
Public Rocked By HIV Infection of Two Children Through Transfusion: Daily Mail and Guardian (Johannesburg) - August 11, 2000; The revelation this week that two children had contracted HIV though a blood transfusion at Cape Town s Red Cross hospital woke South Africans to the reality that blood cannot be 100% guaranteed clear of the virus. The problem is the window period during which the blood of a newly infected person does not show up as po
Prison AIDS Increase: Mail and Guardian (Johannesburg) - August 4, 2000; Barry Streek; A decade from now as many as 45 000 people in South African prisons could die every year from HIV/Aids and Aids-related diseases, according to the inspecting judge of prisons, Judge Hannes Fagan. He told a conference on crime and human rights at the University of Western Cape that five years ago 182 prisoners had died
Women Are Worst-Hit By AIDS: Mail and Guardian (Johannesburg) - August 4, 2000; Khadija Magardie; South African women still have scant choices when it comes to avoiding HIV/Aids Women have unequal power in society, resulting in less control of their lives, particularly their sexual health choices. This has had dire consequences for their susceptibility to HIV/Aids infection. According to the latest UNAids report on
AIDS Testing, Treatment Suggests Human Rights Questions For Women: Mail and Guardian (Johannesburg) - August 4, 2000; Study conducted among 15- to 19-year-olds in some countries, it was found that better-educated young girls tend to start having sexual relationships later. In many parts of the world, especially in the developing world, cultural, religious or other impediments prevent girl children and women from receiving education an
Africa's infants suffer: Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - July 14 2000; Belinda Beresford; The largest number of children living with Aids is in sub-Saharan Africa, where there is the least access to treatment. In the United States mother-to-child transmission of HIV has dropped by about 75%, according to the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC). By far the largest number of infections of children are now in
Lots of talk, not enough action: Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - July 14 2000; Belinda Beresford; South Africa has been one of the sleeping behemoths of sub-Saharan Africa when it comes to Aids. The country has the greatest number of HIV infections in the world, accompanied by a fast growth in new infections. But, as the Aids 2000 conference in Durban has demonstrated, South Africa is a world leader in other ways
Drugs let the rich buy a few more years of life: Daily Mail&Guardian - July 14, 2000; Belinda Beresford reports; Durban, South Africa - Accusations of duplicitous behaviour abound between governments, international organizations and pharmaceutical companies around the issue of access to Aids drugs. The avalanche of Aids deaths flattening economies and smashing people s lives is also rumbling at the heels of the pharmaceutical com
Villages where nine-year-olds head their Households: Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - July 14 2000; Khadija Magardie; In the tiny village of Ovondlo in KwaZulu-Natal, children as young as nine head households devastated by Aids Xolani Zungu (9) smiles shyly and unhesitatingly says, when asked what he wants to do when he grows up, that he wants to be a doctor. Like many boys his age, Xolani likes sweets, and playing with toy cars, and
Beware the body snatchers: Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - July 10 2000; Taban Lo Liyong; In the February 4 issue of the science journal Nature it is reported that HIV probably originated from chimpanzees and that the virus was transferred from these primates to humans. Chimpanzees in Cameroon , Gabon and Equatorial Guinea are supposedly the culprits.
Africa 'needs R20-billion a year to fight AIDS epidemic': Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - July 10 2000; It will cost at least $3-billion (R20-billion) a year to fight the AIDS epidemic in Africa where nearly 25 million people are living with the disease, a leading AIDS expert said at the weekend. The estimated bill is just to provide prevention methods and basic healthcare and does not include the cost of anti-AIDS drugs
Awaiting the Durban declaration: Aids 2000 will be remembered for the document signed by 5 000 people testifying in their belief that HIV causes Aids.: Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - July 7 2000; Breaking the silence surrounding the realities of Aids is the theme of Aids 2000, the international Aids conference to be held in Durban this week. But it is likely that Aids 2000 will be remembered more for the Durban declaration : a document signed by 5 000 people testifying in their belief that HIV causes Aids. The
Africa hardest hit by Aids: Up to 25-million people are infected with Aids in Africa, according to the United Nations Aids Programme.: Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - July 7 2000; Khadija Magardie; The continent with the highest number of people with Aids was chosen to host the 13th International Aids Conference. Altogether, there are now 16 countries in Africa in which more than one-tenth of the adult population is infected with HIV. According to the United Nations Aids Programme (UNAids), up to 25-million peopl
The ever-changing killer: HIV mutates very readily, which means it can rapidly become resistant to drugs, so patients need to be treated with a cocktail of medicines.: Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - July 7 2000; Belinda Beresford; People almost never die of HIV, they die from any number of a wide selection of diseases which overwhelm immune systems ravaged by the virus. Thousands of different mutants of the virus replicate and overwhelm the immune system, until eventually it cannot rebuild its defences fast enough to deal with the common illness
Drugs for Third World tops debate: The high price of anti-Aids drugs, socio-economic issues, wars, disrupted family lives, untreated sexual diseases and now possible genetic mutations - all factors in the epidemic that is Aids.: Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - July 7 2000; Belinda Beresford and Khadija Magardie; The leading scientists who will address the Aids 2000 conference in Durban next week are expected to give much attention to the latest research into adapting First World drug regimes for developing countries. Aids is a socio-economic disease - if you re rich you re more likely to avoid full-blown Aids for longer than i
Getting the Aids politics wrong: Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - June 20 2000; Steven Friedman; Solving most of our society s problems has far more to do with how we handle people and politics than with the fancy techniques we use. Take one of our toughest and most important challenges, HIV/Aids. At first glance the idea that beating a virus has anything to do with getting politics right and handling people well
Still failing to grasp Aids nettle: President Mbeki's second-guessing of science has set back the fight against Aids and it's time he left science to the scientists.: Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - June 9 2000; THE government s attempts to airbrush President Thabo Mbeki s recent blunders in HIV/Aids policy leave a nasty stain on the political and social canvas. The fact that the president flirted with, or even bought into, the dissident position on HIV/Aids, is his business and his business alone. The fact that he left the ma
Boost for Aids fight: Five of the world's largest drug companies have pledged to slash the price of Aids treatment in the developing world: Daily Mail & Guardian - Johannesburg, South Africa. May 12 2000; Andrew Clark, Sarah Boseley and Larry Elliott; THE first glimmers of hope for a solution to the Aids epidemic ravaging the poorest countries in Africa emerged yesterday when five of the world s largest drug companies pledged to slash the price of treatment in the developing world. With one in four people infected in some of the worst hit African countries, and life
The Fool, The Plague And The President: Daily Mail & Guardian - (Johannesburg) May 12, 2000; David Beresford; Johannesburg - A dreadful weekend, spent worrying over whether President Thabo Mbeki is a fool. One is used to describing politicians as fools, just as the referee is always blind - at least until he or she sees things the same way as oneself. But just as one does not expect to see the ref answer jeers from the stands
Shoring Up The President: Daily Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - May 12, 2000; Robert Kirby; Johannesburg - A good deal of last week s SABC current affairs output was given over to Mr. Thabo Mbeki. In two faintly embarrassing appearances he generously donated us the benefit of his wisdom. First up was the annual State of the Nation speech, which turned out to be more a state of the state president s petulance
Africa's Aids fate hangs in balance: More than half the members of President Mbeki's Aids advisory board deny that HIV causes Aids.: Daily Mail & Guardian - Johannesburg, South Africa. May 8 2000; Robin Mckie and David Beresford; TWO British researchers were this weekend enmeshed in one of the most bitter scientific controversies of recent years. Virologist Gordon Stewart, of Glasgow University, and pharmacologist Andrew Herxheimer, from Oxford, have joined an Aids advisory board, set up by President Thabo Mbeki, which concluded its second day
Mbeki's Aids Letter Defies Belief: Daily Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - April 28, 2000; Michael Berger; Johannesburg - Like most scientists, most South Africans in all probability, I have been puzzled and disconcerted by President Thabo Mbeki s involvement in Aids issues. These concerns have been validated by our president s letter to other heads of state, currently available on the Internet in full from The Washington P
Furore over testing on humans: Medical researchers have been slammed for using using human guinea pigs in HIV/Aids tests in Uganda.: Daily Mail & Guardian - Johannesburg, South Africa. April 10 2000; Belinda Beresford; A LEADING United States university has been using human guinea pigs in Uganda to test the rate at which HIV can be transferred from infected to uninfected partners -- without appraising the uninfected partners of the risks involved. The trial, which was conducted by researchers from Johns Hopkins University, has trigge
Aids 'a threat to democracy': A CIA report warns that the HIV/Aids pandemic is likely to lead to political instability in sub-Saharan Africa.: Daily Mail & Guardian - Johannesburg, South Africa. April 10 2000; Jaspreet Kindra; THE CIA has warned that the HIV/Aids pandemic sweeping sub-Saharan Africa will lay waste to the ruling political and military elite in the region, provoking damaging power struggles over scarce state resources. In a recent report, posted on the intelligence agency s website, the CIA warns: In our view, the infectious d
It's the trials, not the drugs: The deaths of five women in HIV/Aids drug trials have been blamed on the handling of the trials rather than the drugs themselves.: Daily Mail & Guardian - Johannesburg, South Africa. April 10 2000; David Le Page; THE deaths of five women in HIV/Aids drug trials were more likely the result of flaws in the handling of the trials than problems with the drugs themselves, researchers working on related trials said last week. The researchers were responding to the controversial decision by the government last week to suspend recruitm
Traditional leaders rescue Swaziland's Aids orphans: A new programme uses Swaziland's traditional community structure to rescue Aids orphans from life on the street.: Daily Mail & Guardian - Johannesburg, South Africa. April 5 2000; James Hall; SWAZILAND S orphans, whose parents have succumbed to Aids, are having their plight addressed by an innovative programme based on the tiny kingdom s greatest asset - its close-knit traditional society. OrphanAid was launched this year by activist members of the clergy and health workers in towns. However the programme d
The self-styled Galileo of the modern age: Peter Duesberg: Aggressively questions the orthodox linkage between HIV and Aids: Daily Mail & Guardian - Johannesburg, South Africa. April 3 2000; Ivor Powell; QUESTION: If you were told tomorrow that you were HIV-positive, what would you do? Answer: I wouldn t get worried about this, not the least bit. The speaker here is German-American scientist Peter Duesberg, professor of molecular and cell biology at the University of California, Berkeley, and doyen of the Aids dissiden
What the president said: PARKS MANKHLANA gives President Mbeki's position in the currenct HIV/Aids controversy.: Daily Mail & Guardian - Johannesburg, South Africa. April 3 2000; Parks Mankhlana*; THE presidency spent considerable time the past week searching frantically for a passage in the president s speeches which said an HIV-positive condition does not lead to Aids. Neither his private correspondence nor a reconstruction of all the discussions with either his ministers or any other authority on the question
Disarray in SA's HIV/Aids policy: Judge Edwin Cameron's criticism of the government's HIV/Aids policies has sparked another round of recriminations, as the rate of infections spirals out of control.: Daily Mail & Guardian - Johannesburg, South Africa. April 3 2000; Timothy Trengrove-Jones; LIKE fashions, responses to HIV/Aids in this country seem to come in waves. And, in recent history, these waves tend to peak in March/April. On March 21 last year, supporters of the Aids Treatment Action Campaign lay down in the streets outside Chris Hani Baragwanath hospital to campaign for affordable and accessible t
Sixty percent of army may be HIV-positive Preliminary testing reveals that 60-70% of South African soldiers may be infected with the HIV/Aids virus.: Daily Mail & Guardian - Johannesburg, South Africa. March 31 2000; Paul Kirk; THE rate of HIV/Aids infection in the South African National Defence Force may be as high as 60% to 70% while in at least one military unit, 90% of the troops are infected with the virus. These extraordinary figures, leaked this week, were taken from preliminary HIV testing being conducted by the SANDF. The 90% infecti
What's behind Mbeki's crusade?: While no one disputes President Mbeki's good intentions, his investigation of dissident views on HIV/Aids has plunged South Africa into a national health crisis.: Daily Mail & Guardian - Johannesburg, South Africa. March 31 2000; Mail & Guardian Editorial; SCIENTIFIC knowledge is only ever provisional. Whatever the rigour applied in trying to establish it, it survives only for as long as it is not falsified or a better explanation for something is not put forward. So there is something to be said for the person who sets out to falsify all or part of an accepted theory. H
Sixty percent of army may be HIV-positive Preliminary testing reveals that 60-70% of South African soldiers may be infected with the HIV/Aids virus.: Daily Mail & Guardian - Johannesburg, South Africa. March 31 2000; Paul Kirk; THE rate of HIV/Aids infection in the South African National Defence Force may be as high as 60% to 70% while in at least one military unit, 90% of the troops are infected with the virus. These extraordinary figures, leaked this week, were taken from preliminary HIV testing being conducted by the SANDF. The 90% infecti
Gazi offers to pay for HIV drugs: Eastern Cape state doctor, Costa Gazi, has challenged the government's Aids strategy by offering to pay for HIV drugs himself after the Dept of Health's failure to supply them to community clinics: Daily Mail & Guardian - Johannesburg, South Africa. March 29 2000; Peter Dickson; COSTA Gazi, the outspoken Eastern Cape state doctor, has offered to personally fund the introduction of Nevirapine, an anti-retroviral drug used to combat Aids, in community clinics if the Department of Health fails to provide the drug. Gazi, the health secretary of the Pan Africanist Congress, said this week he is pre
SA's Aids doubts baffle the experts: Statements questioning the cause of Aids have caused dismay among local and international scientists: The Mail & Guardian - Johannesburg, South Africa - March 17 2000; Khadija Magardie and David Le Page; LEADING international Aids scientists and researchers this week unanimously dismissed the South African government s suggestion that the link between HIV and Aids be re-examined . Head of the Medical Research Council Professor Malegapuru Makgoba also lashed out at the so-called Aids dissidents, describing them as fail
'More die of Aids than war in Africa': UN secretary general Kofi Annan reveals that more people have died of Aids in Africa in the past year than in all the continent's wars put together.: Daily Mail & Guardian - Johannesburg, South Africa. March 14 2000; Victoria Brittain; MORE people have died of Aids in the past year in Africa than in all the wars on the continent, the United Nations secretary general, Kofi Annan, said yesterday in London. This extraordinary statistic includes wars in Angola , Sierra Leone , Congo, Congo-Brazzaville, Somalia ,
Mixed HIV/Aids messages from government: The opportunity to institute a constructive policy to deal with the HIV/Aids epidemic is slipping out of reach as politicians and scientists argue over who knows best.: Daily Mail & Guardian - Johannesburg, South Africa. March 14 2000; Mail & Guardian reporters; MINISTER of Health Manto Tshabalala-Msimang confirmed two weeks ago that her department is busy setting up a panel of approximately 30 local and international experts to explore all aspects of the challenge of developing prevention and treatment strategies [for HIV/Aids] that are appropriate to the African reality .
Politicians unwilling to accept stubborn science: A disregard for science and scientists is behind recent Aids debacles,: Daily Mail & Guardian - Johannesburg, South Africa. March 14 2000; David Le Page; AIDS has attacked the intellectual resources of sections of the body politic as successfully as it has assaulted the immune systems of many South Africans. The heart of the problem appears to be a profound misunderstanding on the part of the president, successive health ministers and their immediate advisers of the nat
'Irrational Aids debate rides rough-shod over patients' All is not well with the Department of Health's strategy to combat the Aids epidemic.: Daily Mail & Guardian - Johannesburg, South Africa. March 14 2000; Mxolisi Ka-Mankazana; SOUTH AFRICA is failing in its fight against HIV/Aids at a time when other countries that have less economic, political and scientific clout than we do, such as Uganda and Tanzania , are gaining ground against it. This is despite the appointment by the previous health minister of a special director to deal with the epi
The majority consensus: The vast majority of clinicians the world over reject the view that HIV and Aids are not causally linked and that Aids does not exist.: Daily Mail & Guardian - Johannesburg, South Africa. March 14 2000; Mail & Guardian reporters; THE National Institutes of Health in the United States , drawing on research from around the world, issued a rebuttal of the dissident view. This rebuttal has the full support of the Southern African HIV Clinicians Society: HIV and Aids have been repeatedly linked in time, place and population group; the appearance of
The economic danger of Aids: The HIV/Aids epidemic will decrease the productivity of labour while increasing its unit costs.: Daily Mail & Guardian - Johannesburg, South Africa. March 2, 2000; Barry Streek; THE HIV/Aids epidemic which has so far infected five million South Africans -- about 11,1% of the entire population -- has serious economic dangers as it would in future decrease labour productivity while increasing unit labour costs, the Department of Finance has warned. The economic and social impact of HIV/Aids is h
Plight of Africa's Aids orphans worsening Extraordinary impoverishment faces whole generations of children, as the number of Aids orphans rockets.: Daily Mail & Guardian - Johannesburg, South Africa. February 17 2000; David Brough; THE number of Aids orphans in Africa is set to rise even if infection rates drop, increasing the burden on women and older people, a senior UN official said on Wednesday. Our fear is for the future. Even if the infection rate drops now, you will have a backlog of infected population, Gary Howe, director of the Africa d
Uproar over Aids council: In the midst of furore: Deputy President Jacob Zuma The composition of the government's new National Aids Council has activists and experts up in arms.: Daily Mail & Guardian - Johannesburg, South Africa. January 31 2000; Ivor Powell; EXPERTS and activists in the fight against HIV/Aids are up in arms over the composition of the government s new National Aids Council (NAC), unveiled last week to spearhead the fight against the pandemic. The NAC -- slotted as a body that will marry efforts by the government and civil society to combat the disease -- e

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