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South Africa: SA Aids 2023 - New Treatments and Guidelines to Benefit Children, With More Advances On the Horizon
spotlight, 4 July 2023
Several sessions at the 11th SA AIDS conference, recently held in Durban, highlighted the worrying fact that key HIV numbers such as treatment coverage are much lower in children… Read more »
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South Africa: HIV Prevention Shots and Vaginal Rings - This Is Why SA Pilots Have Not Yet Started
spotlight, 28 June 2023
Last year Spotlight reported that pilot projects testing out a new HIV prevention injection and a vaginal ring in South Africa would start early in 2023. Yet, as delegates gathered… Read more »
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South Africa: HIV Self-Testing a Gamechanger for the Most Vulnerable Communities
BroadReach Health Development, 26 June 2023
Self-testing kits for HIV/AIDS provide the most vulnerable and hardest-to-reach communities with the hope that they will see an end to the spread of HIV by 2030, according to the… Read more »
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South Africa: Sobering Moments At Opening of SA Aids Conference
spotlight, 21 June 2023
Amid the festivities during the opening ceremony of the 11th SA AIDS Conference in Durban on Tuesday, there were also several sobering moments. Chief among these was when co-chair… Read more »
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South Africa: SA Strengthens Efforts to End Aids Among Children By 2030
SAnews.gov.za, 21 June 2023
South Africa is sharpening up its HIV prevention efforts by focusing on pregnant and breastfeeding women, children and adolescents as part of the Global Alliance to End AIDS in… Read more »
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South Africa: HIV Care for Migrant Women in South Africa - the Gaps and 5 Steps Towards Offering Better Services
The Conversation Africa, 12 June 2023
Around 8.45 million people in South Africa live with HIV - an estimated 13.9% of the population. Of South African women aged 15-49, approximately 24% are HIV positive. Read more »
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South Africa: New Policies Aim to Integrate Mental Health Support Into HIV Services
spotlight, 23 May 2023
South Africa has both high rates of HIV and mental health conditions. Around 13.2% of people in South Africa are living with HIV, according to the latest estimates from Thembisa,… Read more »
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South Africa: Should South Africa Invest in the Latest HIV Tests?
spotlight, 9 February 2023
South Africa's mass HIV testing programme has been a huge success over the last decade, so much so that the country has almost hit the global target of 95% of people with HIV… Read more »
Give South Africa's Young Women a Voice in HIV Strategy - Experts
South Africa has the world's largest ARV treatment programme. According to estimates from Thembisa, the leading mathematical model of HIV in South Africa, around 5.7 million of the estimated 7.8 million people living with HIV in the country in 2022 were on ARV treatment, write Alicestine October and Elri Voigt for Spotlight.
From April to December 2022, KwaZulu-Natal province recorded 26,515 pregnancies among girls between the ages of 10 and 19 and 1,254 of them were in the 10 to 14 age bracket.
A Youth HIV track is being launched at this year's conference that "is run by youth, for youth who will set the tone and agenda on how we end the epidemic, for their sake". There will also be updates on what is new in paediatric and adolescent HIV with respect to long-acting injectables, among others, Dr Gloria Maimela, chairperson of the 11th SA Aids conference that opened in Durban today, June 22, 2023.
Another issue that permeated the speeches during the opening ceremony, was the condemnation of Uganda's recently passed anti-homosexuality legislation. While many of the speakers condemned the law passed by Uganda, Health Minister, Joe Phaahla, however, stopped short of outrightly condemning Uganda but rather focused on South Africa. "I would want to stress again that the South African Constitution forbids any form of discrimination on the basis of a person's sex, gender, or sexual orientation, whether on the part of the state or a private citizen", he said.
InFocus
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The South African Pharmacy Council (SAPC) has been given judicial go-ahead to introduce its Pharmacy-Initiated Management of Antiretroviral Treatment (PIMART) initiative, whi Read more »
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South Africa is expected to begin piloting the HIV prevention injection early next year as one of several projects that experts hope will reveal the answers to some of the biggest ... Read more »
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The South African Health Products Regulatory Authority (SAHPRA) has approved new child-friendly formulations of several important antiretroviral medicines, Thabo Molelekw Read more »
The 11th South African AIDS Conference – the first since COVID-19-related disruptions – kicked off on June 20 in Durban. This year’s theme is, “Act, Connect and End the Epidemic”.
