South Africa s former health minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang has died, according to news reports. The former health minister s doctor has confirmed that she has died. Professor Jeff Wing told Sapa Tshabalala-Msimang died in the Wits University Donald Gordon Medical Centre & Medi-Clinic ICU shortly before 3pm.
Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi is supporting Zulu King Goodwill Zwelithini s call to bring back the ancient Zulu practice of circumcision. Motsoaledi s spokesman, Fidel Hadebe, said yesterday that the minister supported Zwelithini s view that male circumcision, believed to reduce the likelihood of HIV infection, shou
Yes, we can defeat the scourge of HIV/Aids in South Africa , said US ambassador to South Africa Donald Gips, announcing that the US will donate about R900-million to the country for antiretroviral drugs. Gips made the announcement at the Tshwane Events Centre, where more than 10000 people gathered to commemorate inter
The Big Read: One indication of South Africa s worsening mortality rate is the fact that, of the 59% of women who died in childbirth between 2005 and 2007 and were tested for HIV, 79% were found to be infected. This is one of the shocking statistics released two weeks ago by the minister of health, Aaron Motsoaledi, wh
S Thembiso Msomi:Nothing, for me, has demonstrated the renewed spirit of unity in the fight against the spread of HIV/Aids than to see activist Prudence Mabele sharing a stage with President Jacob Zuma yesterday. Mabele was one of the gender activists who were at the Johannesburg High Court almost on a daily basis to g
The number of Aids orphans supported in Qunu, home village of former president Nelson Mandela, by a US relief organisation has more than doubled in 18 months. The Olive Leaf Foundation has registered more than 430 children since June last year. It provides food parcels, school uniforms and school fees, Aids prevention
Raenette Taljaard: A few months ago I attended a community conversation on HIV/Aids convened by the Nelson Mandela Foundation. The convener invited us all to pick up a rock from a pile outside and place it on the floor in the hall if we had lost, or known, someone in our circle who had died of HIV/Aids. The racially di
South Africa will mark World Aids Day with greater hope than ever before. President Jacob Zuma will be tested for HIV, and his health minister, Aaron Motsoaledi, has committed himself to doing the same soon, breaking with the previous government s hands-off approach to the epidemic. But there is also hope in the
The scourge of Aids has so ravaged the area around Nelson Mandela s home village of Qunu that primary schools there have introduced compulsory virginity testing to ensure children between the ages of 10 and 15 abstain from sexual activity. The HIV/Aids epidemic, which infects one in nine of South Africa s 48 million pe
Theresa Naidoo can t remember how many times she s been called an Aids bitch . The 34-year-old HIV-positive mother of two, who lives in a one-bedroom flat in Bayview, Chatsworth, said people in her community refused to accept her status. She has experienced first-hand the perception that Indians are not infected by the
Robert Nicolai: I would like to point out why former president Thabo Mbeki cannot be charged with genocide with former health minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang. To commit genocide one needs to act in a manner to intentionally kill a selection of people. A reckless driver cannot be charged with murder if someone dies as
KwaZulu-Natal remains the epicentre of HIV/Aids in South Africa . Almost 16% of people in the province are infected with the virus, up from 11.7% in 2002. The country s second-worst-hit area, the Eastern Cape, has a 9% prevalence rate, up from 6.6%. KwaZulu-Natal also has the highest rate of HIV-infected pregnant women
On a trip to Zimbabwe , James Oatway captured in words and pictures a new phenomenon in that country - a women s soccer league to tackle the stigma of HIV Life in Epworth is tough. The sprawling, densely populated township just outside Harare is a place where people don t live ... they survive. Last year s cholera
South African men should start living each day as if it were International Men s Day, and stop crime, abusing women and children, and other social ills. This was what Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe told a crowd of 5000 at the second annual International Men s Day, marked at Soweto s Orlando Community Centre. Almo
Dutch soccer fans gearing up for some hot off-the-field action during the 2010 World Cup are being urged to bring their own condoms to South Africa by the Dutch government. The Netherlands was the first country to qualify for the World Cup and thousands of Orange Army fans determined to have a good time are expected in
A damning documentary about former president Thabo Mbeki s policies on HIV/Aids will be screened on eTV tonight. The documentary, entitled Price of Denial, investigates the price South Africa is paying for Mbeki s policy of denial about HIV/Aids. It shows how thousands of babies were unnecessarily infected with the vir
Malema was responding to the call made two weeks ago by Young Communist League leader Buti Manamela for Mbeki to be prosecuted for his government s failure to provide thousands of South African Aids sufferers with life-saving anti-retroviral drugs. Addressing the Pan African Youth Union in Kempton Park last night, Male
Motsoaledi s spokesman, Fidel Hadebe, admitted yesterday that the widely quoted figure of 756000 people dying last year in South Africa was now being checked. Recently, Zuma and Motsoaledi have made public statements that a total of 756000 people had died, a staggering 32% more than the 573000 who died in 2007. Both me
Top international designer Vivienne Westwood was so moved by a KwaZulu-Natal women s upliftment project that she has put her name behind it. She even threw in a few gowns, shoes and bags for the women. The Tapestry of Dreams non-profit project is run by Heather Costaras and Roz Thomas. It has assisted 10 women from Khe
South African sports heroes braved the blistering heat as they embarked on a 17-day-long walk from Johannesburg to Limpopo in an effort to raise HIV/AIDS awareness and eradicate the stigma associated with the disease. The Sport Heroes Walk Against HIV and AIDS saw 12 of the country s sportsmen and women joined by hundr
-- Former president Thabo Mbeki came under fierce attack once again as Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi released shocking statistics on the devastation HIV/Aids has inflicted on the country s population. Motsoaledi said South Africans now had an average life expectancy as low as that of the people of a country at war.
-- Former president Thabo Mbeki, together with his controversial health minister, Manto Tshabalala- Msimang, must be charged with genocide, says the SA Communist Party youth league. Young Communists League leader Buti Manamela said Mbeki and Tshabalala-Msimang denied hundreds of HIV-positive people access to antiretrov
Almost 10 years to the day since Thabo Mbeki set the HIV/Aids denialist tone for his government by telling the National Council of Provinces that it would be irresponsible for the state to roll out antiretroviral drugs, President Jacob Zuma told the same house of his administration s determination to lead the fight aga
The modest success of the first HIV vaccine trial has given Aids researchers new impetus, African scientists said. The full results of the controversial RV144 trial in Thailand were released at the Aids Vaccine 2009 conference in Paris this week, which was attended by about 1100 scientists. Professor Malegapuru Mak
-- Another View: We are facing the potential human, social, and economic devastation of Africa s future generations, says Graca Machel All children are vulnerable, no matter the continent or country or community into which they are born. But African children face an additional and terrible challenge that most children
Blocking infection should remain the main goal in the search for an HIV vaccine, said Dr Anthony Fauci, director of the US government s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, at yesterday s closing of the Aidsvac conference in Paris. The renewed emphasis on finding a preventative vaccine after 26 years
South African HIV-vaccine researchers are keen to conduct a large-scale clinical trial here similar to that in Thailand of a vaccine shown to be the first to succeed in preventing infection by the deadly virus. One of the scientists who collaborated in the Thai trials, Col Nelson Michael, director of the US military s
Excitement at the AIDS Vaccine 2009 conference about recent encouraging vaccine trial results and new scientific developments is tempered by the awareness that funding is dropping. Global AIDS leaders at the opening session of the conference in Paris tonight called urgently for a renewed commitment to fund basic scienc
Goldfish, Mzekezeke, Zubz and Oskido will be tested for HIV before they are allowed to perform at the Levi s Rage for Revolution concert at the weekend. The concert organisers have partnered with HIV-Aids testing and counselling organisation New Start and challenged the performers and an estimated 5000 concertgoers to
The prevalence of HIV infections among pregnant teenagers continues to increase, but overall the spread of the virus among expectant mothers seems to be stabilising. This was disclosed yesterday by Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi at the release of the 2008 National Antenatal HIV and Syphilis Prevalence Survey in Preto
The milky brown drink is being tested by scientists at South Africa s Council for Scientific and Industrial Research following a small initial trial in Zambia where HIV-positive patients who had taken the potential remedy recorded a drop in viral loads. The director of the Southern African Network for Biosciences, Prof
BETWEEN 35 and 40 members of only one teachers union are dying every month - most of them from Aids-related illnesses. This shocking figure was released yesterday by Eliam Biyela, the executive director of the National Teachers Union, which has only 28000 members - a small fraction of the estimated 386 000 teachers in
LEVI S uses the sex appeal of its products to sell safe sex and SABMiller SA uses taverns to teach men about responsible drinking in philanthropic programmes that benefit South Africans. The irony of this is not lost on the leaders of corporate social responsibility programmes. Mike Joubert, of the Levi Strauss Foundat
AIDS activists want former president Thabo Mbeki and his health minister, Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, to account to a commission of inquiry for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people. This follows the publication of a study by the Harvard School of Public Health that found that more than 330000 lives were lost bec
AS THE number of South Africans infected with swine flu rose to 47 yesterday, the National Institute for Communicable Diseases warned that people with immune-system deficiencies, including those caused by HIV/Aids, are at increased risk of complications if they contract swine flu. The institute again warned that many m
Many South African youngsters don t believe they are at risk of HIV, a survey has found. MXit, the mobile social networking system popular among 16-to 29-year-olds, asked members about HIV, marriage, contraception and the government s role in sexual health. About 20000 South African users answered the question do you
-- Disagreement over whether prizes should be offered to those who want to learn whether they re negative or positive The Right to Know HIV testing competition has finally come to an end - and during the year-long drive about 50000 people have learned their status, including 23 pensioners in their 80s, but mainly South
Nine groups of South African AIDS researchers will benefit from the Department of Science and Technology s new research platform launched today. South African HIV/AIDS Research and Innovation Platform (SHARP) will provide financial support to South African researchers as they explore every possible avenue to beat the v
People with HIV need to start antiretroviral treatment sooner, according to South African and international specialists gathered for a major Aids conference in Cape Town this week. Dr Pedro Cahn, a past president of the International Aids Society, which is meeting in Cape Town, said: Everyone agrees that a CD4 of 350 s
-- SA scientists helping research towards Aids vaccine HIV scientists in KwaZulu-Natal are helping to crack the puzzle of why some HIV-positive people live for 30 years without drugs and others die within six months if not treated. The research is being done in conjunction with international partners, including the Har
Only about a third of the 9 million people who need treatment receive the life-saving drugs at present. Paediatric specialist Dr Louise Kuhn said that antiretrovirals worked well to prevent infection among infants and she hoped that antiretrovirals to prevent sexual infection among adults would be as effective . Ven
-- Antiretrovirals mooted to prevent HIV transmission A BOLD new HIV-Aids prevention model advocates antiretroviral drugs to prevent the spread of the virus. Until now antiretrovirals have been used to treat people who already have HIV, but a new World Health Organisation model shows that the life-extending drugs could
A Durban reiki practitioner is using the alternative healing method to benefit people living with HIV/Aids. Social worker Vijay Sewduth recently launched her book The Reiki Experience - People Living with HIV/Aids after completing six months of research into how the method affects the lives of such patients. Reiki is a
The son of renowned HIV/Aids expert Professor Jerry Coovadia will this week launch a medical thriller that draws on some of his father s experiences. High Low In-Between took Cape Town author Imraan Coovadia, 39, five years to write. The Durban launch of the book will take place at Adams, Musgrave Centre, on Wednesday.
I believe he let his pride get the better of him, when there is medication out there to help the immune system fight the disease, writes Nomfundo Xulu When I gave my father a call for Father s Day last year, we had a long chat about life, work, my relationship and all kinds of interesting issues. I did not expect that
New HIV infections in South Africa could finally be decreasing - and markedly so among teenagers. This is according to Dr Francois Venter, president of the HIV Clinicians Society of Southern Africa, who based his comments on the third national HIV survey released this week. The survey found that 5.2 million South Afr
With a million people on ARVs, we could be helping each other, writes Pholokgolo Ramothwala It is the voice of a man I met recently. He and his wife are HIV-positive. He is not taking HIV infection very well. During our one-hour conversation, he never laughed or smiled at my jokes. For him, our meeting was a serious ma
FIVE days after the government promised that baby -milk formula would be available at state-run clinics, desperate mothers are having to risk their tiny infants health by feeding them maize meal. After being contacted by The Times late yesterday, Gauteng Premier Nomvula Mokonyane added the formula crisis to the agenda
-- South Africa is central to the global search An HIV toolkit would include a new vaccine -- SA scientists at the vanguard of the quest to find an Aids vaccine, writes Claire Keeton SCIENTISTS now know they need to be smarter than nature to discover an Aids vaccine and recent setbacks have spurred a renaissance in thi
When the starting gun goes off next Sunday, 58-year-old granny Thandi (not her real name) will hit the road for her 11th Comrades marathon. Ten years after she discovered she had HIV, Thandi is remarkably fit and looks about half her age. This is her 10th year on antiretroviral treatment and she is still taking the ver
Sexually explicit photographs of gay men, corpses and painted scrolls depicting an Indian Aids tale are on display at an exhibition in the Durban Art Gallery. Not Alone - An International Project of Make Art/Stop Aids features work from artists in Brazil , the US, South Africa and India. Sout
Claims paramedics infected her at site of fatal road accident. She used to be a happy, healthy and sporty mum from the suburbs. Now her once-athletic body is infected with HIV, her marriage is in tatters and she fears her three children will face the future alone. She traces her misfortune to an accident scene in KwaZu
She gave me the news in a very matter-of-fact way In my search for answers, my ignorance - and that of friends whose relatives have died of the disease - was exposed Until HIV/Aids knocks on your front door, it remains that faraway problem relegated to some remote place for those directly involved with this devastating
Activists glad there s no more Dr Beetroot WHEN Health Minister Barbara Hogan closed the 4th SA Aids conference in Durban on Friday she delivered a powerful, sober speech but she did not grab headlines like her predecessor, Manto Tshabalala-Msimang. Dr Beetroot made headlines for all the wrong reasons at four previous
Claire Keeton, Dominic Mahlangu and Nkululeko Ncana
Aids - We were wrong THE ANC is planning a post-election apology to the nation for former president Thabo Mbeki s disastrous HIV-Aids policy, which has been blamed for the deaths of thousands of infected people. We owe it to the nation. We, as MPs, were there and we failed to rise up, said an ANC MP. The Times has esta
-- ARV moratorium killed 30 people a day, writes Dr Francois Venter When the new minister of health, Barbara Hogan, came into office late last year, there was a collective sigh of relief, especially when she pledged to focus her energy on fixing our dire public health system. But has she been dealt an impossible hand?
DR Molefi Sefularo, the deputy minister of health, promised this week to keep South Africa s Aids treatment programme afloat. Sefularo was speaking at a round-table discussion on HIV/Aids for six political party leaders - COPE failed to pitch up - and an expert panel in Johannesburg this week. Sefularo was responding t
Parents struggle to disclose to children but there are compelling reasons to do it, writes Claire Keeton For 11 years Jo kept a secret from the person she loved most. She was scared of hurting her son and their relationship. When he was eight months old, she had discovered he had HIV, like her. Her ex-husband, who she
Phumela Xanywa went for an HIV test on her birthday - and ended up getting a R100000 present. The 23-year-old banking credit analyst of Cape Town is the eighth winner in the Discovery Health Sunday Times HIV-testing competition, launched in July last year. Xanywa had an HIV test in September last year and was urged by
Mpumalanga Aids clinics show how healthcare can be taken to the people who need it most. In rural Mpumalanga and Limpopo - notorious for their failed health services - are two dazzling examples of how to get it right. An HIV/Aids clinic and a state-of-the-art research laboratory have such high standards that they not o
A desire to be part of something good prompted a young Chatsworth woman to take part in a clinical trial of a product aimed at stemming the transmission of HIV/Aids. Desiree Asoker, 27, an HIV-negative mother from Westcliff, volunteered two years ago to be part of the study, which tested the efficacy of vaginal gels in
A MICROBICIDE gel that reduces the risk of HIV transmission has been heralded as a glimmer of hope in the fight against the Aids virus. But clinical trials of the Pro 2000 microbicidal gel showed only 30 percent efficacy in preventing the transmission of sexually transmitted diseases. Though 33 percent efficacy is need
Carol Hlongwane won enough money to continue her university education this week. And it s all thanks to her grandfather. It was his warning that those who had sex without knowing their HIV status were no better than killers that encouraged the 21-year-old to take an HIV test last year. And his advice paid off in more w
SOUTH Africa continues to advance towards a cohesive society which is underpinned by values of respect for human dignity, the achievement of equality, advancement of human rights and freedoms and the recognition of the supremacy of the Constitution and the rule of law. However, there have been robust engagements on a c
Promiscuous sexual behaviour is making middle-aged married men in Chatsworth vulnerable to HIV/Aids. This is according to Dr Krishna Nair, medical director of the Chatsworth Regional Hospice, a centre dedicated to helping cancer and HIV/Aids patients. Nair s revelation comes in the wake of shocking statistics released
-- COPE: High moral standards; improved transparency in awarding of government tenders -- UDM: Return of the Scorpions; independent judicial commission of inquiry into the arms deal -- IFP: Declare HIV/Aids a national emergency and escalate roll-out of antiretroviral drugs -- ANC: More police; publicly funded national
Johannes Lekgoro has worked on the mines for 30 years. This week he struck gold when he won R100000 after taking an HIV test for the Right to Know competition. Lekgoro, 49, was the fifth monthly winner in the Discovery Health Sunday Times competition, launched in August last year to encourage people to find out their H
Turned down three times, Edwin Cameron has finally been appointed to the country s highest court, writes Chris Barron Judge Edwin Cameron tried for the Constitutional Court so many times, it became a standing joke among his friends. When another vacancy arose last year, the man acknowledged by peers as one of the best
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