sexual and reproductive health

In a massive breakthrough for poor countries struggling to meet the demand for antiretrovirals (ARVs), the Clinton Foundation has signed an agreement with two key US drug companies to make HIV-AIDS and tuberculosis (TB) treatment more affordable for developing countries.

Former US president, Bill Clinton, says that Maylan and its extension Matrix had agreed to make available a second line therapy for HIV-infected people. The second line package, inclusive of ARVs Azanavir, Ritonavir, Tenofovir, and Lamivudine (3TC), will be sold at less than R4 000 a year.

'An aging world: 2008' is a report that provides detailed information on life expectancy, health, disability, gender balance, marital status, living arrangements, education and literacy, labour force participation and retirement and pensions among older people around the world.

Open Letter
The Honorable Premier Nomvula Mokonyane

Open Letter
The Honorable Premier Nomvula Mokonyane

Judge Fourie today 20 April 2009 handed down his judgment in this groundbreaking case brought before the High Court on behalf of sex workers by SWEAT.

As the 2010 FIFA World Cup approaches and anticipation increases across the globe, a variety of issues and challenges related to the event have emerged which demand the attention of decision-makers. One such issue is that of sex workers and their rights during the World Cup.

Reports on sexual relationships among young people tend to suggest that they are consensual, if not deviant. The various social and cultural contexts in which young people find themselves inform, not only the ways in which they understand and perform their sexualities, but also the ways in which they understand and negotiate the differences between consensual and coercive sex among them.

The Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) has expressed concern over shortages of antiretrovirals and other medicines in the Free State.

TAC spokesperson Andrew Warlick, called on Free State health MEC Sakhiwo Belot to "do his duty as an MEC" and to respond to TAC letters asking what actions would be taken to rectify the situation.

TAC general-secretary, Vuyiseka Dubula, wrote to Belot in December 2008 asking for clarity on a range of issues relating to the Free State's "critical and life threatening shortages of antiretroviral drugs."

The first ever African sex worker-led conference will take place in Johannesburg, South Africa, from 3-5 February 2009. The conference is a response to the denial of human rights and ongoing violence and discrimination against sex workers in Africa.

Sex workers, sex worker organisations, advocates, and supporters from across Eastern, Western and Southern Africa will come together to form an alliance and to share their knowledge and expertise on specific sex worker issues that cut across Africa’s countries and regions. These include but are not limited to:

Civil  society and the state have done a lot in relation to HIV/AIDS awareness. However, we see that what is an obstacle at this point is not neccessarily a black out on HIV/AIDS information but a continuation of high risk behaviours.

What l have come to realise is that human behaviour is not always rational behaviour, hence information dissemination will only work firstly, if people  make rational decisions about sex, and secondly, when they are in control of their  behaviour.