Pandemics

Strategies For Hope aims to promote informed, positive thinking and practical action by all sections of society, in dealing with HIV and AIDS. The Strategies For Hope Series is a range of books, videos and a training package designed to disseminate information about practical strategies of HIV/AIDS care, support and prevention in developing countries

Presented by Professor Geoffrey Setswe, chief research specialist, Social Aspects of HIV/AIDS and Health research programme, HSRC.

Venues in Pretoria, Durban and Cape Town.
Date: Monday, 23 November 2009
Time: 12H15 for 12h30 - 13H30
Entrance free

By virtue of the physical nature of their jobs, South African miners receiving treatment for HIV and AIDS are vulnerable to discrimination when they are not at peak performance, because of the drugs' side-effects. This is one of the challenges that workers in the mining sector deal with, as HIV rips through the industry. Benchmarks Foundation estimates that about 16 to 30 percent of mineworkers are HIV-positive, a problem which, according to experts, has yet to receive adequate attention.

More than 330,000 lives were lost to HIV/AIDS in South Africa between 2000 and 2005 because a feasible and timely antiretroviral (ARV) treatment program was not implemented, according to researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health. The study was published online by the Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes (JAIDS). In addition, an estimated 35,000 babies were born with HIV during that same period in the country because a feasible mother-to-child transmission prophylaxis program using nevirapine (an anti-AIDS drug) was not implemented, the authors write. The paper estimates the consequences of the HIV/AIDS policies followed by the South African government for a five-year period when neighboring countries ramped up their HIV-prevention programs. The paper may have broader implications for the evaluation of consequences of public health programs.

United States immigration officials on Monday announced moves to ease and speed up visa-processing for HIV-positive visitors to the United States, months after a 21-year entry ban on people with the virus was lifted. Under the new rules, US consular offices overseas will have the authority to grant temporary, non-immigrant visas to HIV-positive applicants who meet all of the other normal criteria for the granting of a US visa, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said in a statement.

South Africa's newly appointed health minister, Barbara Hogan, has inherited an unenviable to-do list from outgoing minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, but AIDS activists are optimistic that she is up to the job.Hogan has no background in health, but has been a member of the ruling African National Congress (ANC) since 1977 and a member of parliament since 1994. She is known for being outspoken on sensitive issues, including HIV and AIDS. According to Zackie Achmat, a prominent AIDS activist and former chairperson of AIDS lobby group, the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC), Hogan was one of the few members of parliament to speak out against AIDS denialism - the controversial view that HIV is not the cause of AIDS, allegedly held by former President Thabo Mbeki.

MORE than 22 000 of the world's key HIV/AIDS scientists, academics and activists descended on Mexico City at the weekend for the start of the International AIDS Conference.

South Africa has the largest number of HIV-positive people in the world with an estimated 5.7 million living with HIV in 2007. This is according to the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAids) 2008 Report on the Global AIDS Epidemic released yesterday which reported that almost 33 million people were now living with HIV/AIDS worldwide, with 25 million people having died of HIV-related causes since the beginning of the epidemic.

Health authorities in KwaZulu-Natal have put in place precautionary measures after a suspected cholera outbreak on the south coast.

A 2006 study by the Joint Economic AIDS and Poverty Programme revealed that business owners regarded HIV/AIDS as only ninth out of a list of 10 concerns facing their businesses. Many entrepreneurs are too busy focusing on those businesses to devote time or money to educating staff about the disease.