Archive for December, 2004

SOUTH AFRICA: Poverty, stigma and ignorance blights ART

(December 17th, 2004)

MUSINA, 17 December 2004 (PlusNews) - Two years ago Judith Nkambule (not her real name) gave birth to baby girl, but something was wrong - the child was sickly, vomiting, had diarrhoea, and eventually died.
This year, when she fell pregnant with her youngest child, the fifth of five sons, she agreed to be tested.
“I found […]

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AFRICA: MSF calls for child-friendly ARVs

(December 17th, 2004)

JOHANNESBURG, 17 December 2004 (PlusNews) - Seven months ago, Nomlindelo Nkoninga began giving her four-year-old son a combination of drugs to stem the progress of HIV. But only last month did he weigh enough to take the antiretroviral (ARVs) medication as three separate tablets, instead of the syrups commonly prescribed for young children.
“It’s easier now […]

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LESOTHO: Not enough staff, poor infrastructure, but ART launched

(December 16th, 2004)

MASERU, 16 December 2004 (PlusNews) - The office of the Lesotho’s HIV/AIDS Directorate, on the 6th floor of an office building in downtown Maseru, the capital, has almost none of the amenities of a modern bureaucracy.
The few computers cannot access the Internet; the bathrooms have no toilet paper, soap, or paper towels. Since this division […]

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SOUTH AFRICA: Lusikisiki - a new model for ARV delivery

(December 16th, 2004)

LUSIKISIKI, 16 December 2004 (PlusNews) - When Anoria Samka’s brothers discovered she was HIV positive, they shunned her. But now, when she tells her community that the drugs she takes can stem the progress of the disease, no one ridicules her and no one turns her out. Instead, they listen.
Addressing a hundred men, women and […]

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Healthcare workers struggle under impact of AIDS pandemic

(December 16th, 2004)

JOHANNESBURG, 16 December 2004 (PlusNews) - South Africa’s Western Cape region, in theory, provides free antiretroviral therapy (ART) to all who need it. But in the Khayelitsha township, outside Cape Town, more than 500 people who qualify for antiretroviral (ARV) drugs remain on waiting lists because there are simply not enough doctors and nurses to […]

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