AIDS Denialsm – Media Watch
ART, lies and videotape
It is estimated that over 300, 000 HIV-positive South Africans who could have lived long and healthy lives on ART, died from the effects of uncontrolled HIV infection, during the Mbeki-Manto HIV misinformation era.
The TAC’s campaign which fought and eventually won out against this menace is the subject of ‘TAC-Taking Haart’ a film reviewed in today’s Mail & Guardian by Shaun de Waal.
HIV misinformation and the S.A. nation
The TAC has voiced concerns over research which has connected particular ARVs with diseases resulting from premature ageing. The organisation has pointed out that considering that adherence to treatment continues to be a barrier to effective HIV-care, the report could cause anxiety among ARV users which could result in them going off of their ARVs.South African specifics
The Star falls prey to errors in style as well as content“You have brought the sickness:” HIV and a woman’s plight
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.
Death and a Funeral
The newly appointed Minister of Home Affairs, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma’s public grieving over the suicide of a young man who took his own life after the Department of Home Affairs refused to issue him with an ID, has made for truly moving copy this week.
But there is something disconcerting about this ministerial display of empathy. If only Dlamini-Zuma had been this moved by the deaths of the some 180 000 South Africans who perished from AIDS-related illnesses during her tenure as Health Minister, the South African epidemic may have taken a much less dramatic toll.
