Blog

The Two Faces of AIDS

By Melissa Meyer

Stories on HIV and AIDS in the newspapers this last month make it seem as though South Africa is facing two rather different epidemics.

The first makes ordinary people its victims: a teenager heading a household who is concerned about his younger brothers; an ailing boy who wants a bicycle with a bell; a young singer that supports 200 orphans with her income.

The second epidemic prefers the company of doctors, scientists and politicians. It is all very complicated. Discussions around the issue are laden with technical terms...

Circumcision Season

By Melissa Meyer

It is circumcision season again, and newspapers are telling stories of young Xhosa men who flock to the mountains where they subject themselves to mutilation and a certain risk of death.

The casualties have been dutifully tallied: towards the end of the June season, the Sunday Times reported 44 deaths, 270 maimed genitals and 13 penile amputations.

This has been a particularly gruesome initiation season and whilst there has been intelligent discussion in the media around issues of tradition and manhood, coupled with much-need exposure of illegally operating surgeons, the macabre stories of botched circumcisions seem to speak loudest.

Personalising the pandemic

I didn't know what awaited me when I was asked to facilitate a two-week training course called “Politics of HIV/AIDS Healthcare” on behalf of the Southern African Media Training Trust (NSJ). I came away from the course exhausted, but challenged and inspired by the 18 journalists from around the region who shared in this experience with me.

Manto madness must not sidetrack media

With qualifications to her name such as a BA from Fort Hare University, a diploma in Obstetrics, a Master's Degree in Public Health from a Belgian university and a Health Care Systems Planning certificate from the United Kingdom, Mantombazana Edmie Tshabalala-Msimang is a reasonably qualified health minister. But test public support for this particular politician, and you're bound to get an earful.

Media must provide context when tradition and medicine collide

Two traditions that bear an impact on HIV/AIDS prevention have caught the attention of the press over the last few weeks.