By Marielle Bemelmans After decades of struggle against HIV, there is still an urgent need to do more to stop needless deaths. Despite effective and largely affordable drugs, tools and models of care, 1.7 million die annually from Aids-related illnesses. This is unacceptable. Earlier this week, the European Commission hosted a Brussels meeting to discuss the […]
HIV
Posted inNews/Politics
Deconstructing ‘sugar daddies’
Mpho, who lives in Alex, tells me how “sugar daddies” hit the townships on weekends in their smart cars. They cruise the streets looking for young flesh. One thing the sugar daddies rely on is the teenage hunger for bling-bling. They know that teenagers crave to feel they are part of the world of glamour […]
Posted inGeneral
Playing the politics of exclusion means everyone loses
By Sharon Ekambaram Elbow tests and “amakwerekwere” — these are some of the new markers of difference in South Africa, but playing the politics of exclusion in public health gives new meaning to the slogan “an injury to one is an injury to all”. Although estimates vary, as many as 3.3 million migrants from neighbouring countries […]
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Raped, again
By Fezisa Mdibi Walking out of the filthy house I realised my eyes were swelling when the tears started stinging. My lip was bleeding and ribs were on fire. I was angry. I stopped crying. I had been raped for the second time in my life before my 16th birthday. At 15 I was raped […]
Posted inNews/Politics
President Zuma is a hands-on leader
By Sydwell Mabasa We read, with disbelief, the tirade by William Saunderson-Meyer supposedly on the performance of government, entitled “The Zuma government is floundering about” (August 18 2012). Saunderson-Meyer tells us that the President “has been preoccupied with ensuring a second term at the African National Congress’s elective conference in December”. The writer provides no […]
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Children are the future
On the occasion of my 28th birthday in March this year, the message from my mother was slightly different from that of years gone past: “Happy birthday son. You know I’m now eagerly anticipating the day you bring someone home and of course, also looking to hold your child in my hands.” From where I […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Secondary victimisation: Rape survivors denied emergency ARVs
The 2007 Sexual Offences Act (SOA) requires that certain services be made available to rape survivors. Among these services, survivors of oral, anal and vaginal rape are entitled to receive post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP), a 28-day course of antiretrovirals for the prevention of HIV infection. This must be provided to survivors – at state expense – when […]
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Budgeting for HIV: Let’s not forget what hangs in the balance
This past week has definitely had us pulling out our calculators and knotting our eyebrows as we tried to scrutinise the numbers, analyse the figures, and work out what the increases and decreases (and haircuts) of the 2012 national budget will mean for our own pockets. Ofcourse, I being the medic that I am (and […]