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HST provides free electronic access to over 500 health systems research related reports, publications and papers. Close to 300 of these are publications that have been commissioned and funded by the Trust. Topics include among others district systems development, drug supply management, human resource development, informatics, legislation, finance, environmental health, mental health, lessons learnt, nutrition and sexually transmitted diseases / HIV/AIDS. The main publication of the HST is the annual South African Health Review. From 2005 all HST publications will be available in low resolution only. To explore the range of publications HST offers use the Advanced search to search using a variety of criteria.

This paper is based on a review of relevant literature ranging from academic articles to advertisements appearing in magazines. It offers a critique of intervention strategies aimed at preventing the spread of HIV and in so doing draws, to some extent, on the loveLife media campaigns: love to be there and HIV: Face it. It also makes reference to findings from two research projects. The first was a baseline study completed in 2005, which used qualitative research methods to collect data from learners, educators, principals, school governing board members, district coordinators and managers, and non-Department of Education stakeholders (for example, non- Government Organisations [NGOs] and the Department of Health) as well as provincial leaders. The findings mentioned in this paper concern information elicited from the latter grouping, namely the middle and senior management in the Eastern Cape Department of Education as well as non- Department of Education stakeholders and provincial leaders. A full report of the research appears in a publication entitled IMBEWU II Comprehensive Evaluation Report: HIV/AIDS Baseline Study 2004/5.

Subsequent to, and emerging from, the baseline study, further exploratory research has been planned to investigate sex- and gender-related issues as they pertain to HIV/AIDS prevention strategies. A pilot study, making use of an open-ended questionnaire, was administered to four (4) educators4, currently employed at schools in the Eastern Cape during June 2006. The researcher has been acquainted with all four respondents for between six months and two years and all were contacted and asked to complete the questionnaire, which was done by means of hand-written answers. Although not done systematically, some of the findings of this pilot study, together with the baseline study, are reported on in the paper and used to illustrate themes that emerge from the review of literature.