Blog
“You have brought the sickness:” HIV and a woman’s plight
By Lungi Langa
I was recently paging through a back-copy of the Big Issue magazine when an article titled Teen love gets more complicated, caught my attention. It told the story of a teenager who was born HIV positive. She found out about her status when she was thirteen years old.
Because she had been a sickly child, her mother knew every witch doctor around and took her to all of them.
Her father was also sick, convincing her mother that they were both bewitched, probably by one person. After her father died, the girl’s health continued to deteriorate until she was referred to a health facility where both she and her mother were tested and diagnosed with HIV.
All it’s cut out to be…
By Wilson Johwa
It is now too late for my 14-year-old son to be circumcised - at least that's what he thinks.
The procedure should have been done when he was younger and less aware of the pain. “It’s embarrassing,” he says, refusing to buy into the argument that in 1995 when he was born, the impact of HIV was only just unfolding and there would have been no need for him to be circumcised.
Within medical circles in much of Africa there is now a strong recognition that male circumcision lowers the risk of HIV transmission. The sooner the procedure is performed on a male, the better...
HIV/AIDS and the Media Project fellow Wilson Johwa takes a closer look at circumcision as a means to HIV prevention.
AIDS: a disease of sex, drugs and rock and roll
By Willemien Brummer
Some time ago I went for an HIV test after finding out my love-life wasn’t exactly what I thought it was. In the seconds before the needle pricked my skin I tasted loneliness in a way I hadn’t experienced since childhood....
AIDS is a disease that has forced us to rewrite our sexual fantasies and to rethink love. It has made lies into a murder weapon, torn families and relationships apart. It is a pandemic more than any other that has changed the face of intimacy.
HIV/AIDS and the Media Project fellow Willemien Brummer, gets up close and personal with the virus.Boob-man burns bra
By Dr. Sindi van Zyl
Some of you might remember the Sowetan headline “Man grows boobs”. Who can forget the bizarre photo of a scrawny man who developed perky breasts as a rare side-effect of his ARV treatment? (read more about this case here)
The new South African Antiretroviral Therapy (ART) guidelines, however, suggest that sensational stories about boob-men are a thing of the past. The new guidelines, which are in line with the latest WHO recommendations, have just been launched and perhaps the greatest change has been the inclusion of Tenofovir Disiproxil Fumarate – (TDF) as part of first-line therapy. Finally, Stavudine (d4T), the drug responsible for enlarged breasts in men, will be phased out of the programme.
Fear of rejection is still hampering disclosure
By Dr. Sindi van Zyl
Some of our most treasured memories are from childhood. Those memories mostly revolve around the love between us and our parents. Fast-forward to adulthood. You’re gravely ill, bedridden and your parents have rejected you and banished you to a shack in their backyard. Nobody checks if you’re fine, leaving you there for weeks without any care. Eventually, you die - alone.
