Media Watch
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IN THE NEWS: Doctor blames cops for delay in HIV case
A doctor in Krugersdorp on the West Rand, who sued his wife for infecting him with HIV, is frustrated that the case is not making any progress.IN THE NEWS: Love connection with Dr Khathhide!
He's well-known for telling it like it is - without fear or favour! He's the author of Bone of my bone, a former columnist and is also known as the "sex pastor".Rethinking Risk
With the commendable strides in biomedical intervention garnering the bulk of our already scant HIV media coverage, the Sunday Times’ focus on young South Africans’ behaviour this week presented a welcome change of pace.
But those looking forward to a meaningful engagement with issues around sexual behaviour would have been somewhat disappointed.
The article recounts the findings of a recent collaborative study by the University of the Witwatersrand and the University of North Carolina, which attempted to gauge the sexual risk-taking behaviours of young adults (18 to 24).
Articles on forced jabs choose sensation over information
Reports of contraceptive injections administered to girls as young as 10 at a primary school in Port Elizabeth, have raised a dull hum throughout the news media.
However reports leave questions around rape and HIV and HIV prevention in general unaddressed.
Sundry articles have also reported that girls at a Port Elizabeth primary school were given the contraceptive injections without their parents consent. The articles have also chosen to focus on the fact that the girls were told that the injections would prevent unwanted pregnancy if they were raped.
While shocking and sensational details such as these are common media fodder, they are often the sole focus, leaving other pertinent questions unaddressed. Specifically questions around whether or not messages about HIV prevention were communicated to the girls are left unconsidered.
Sies, Sowetan for failing to address safe sex angle
The Sowetan’s borderline-pornographic coverage of police officers bonking (in their words) certainly has, as the editor predicted, got the nation talking.
But forget drawing any real attention to police negligence or failures of the system, the gratuitous material got tongues wagging about one thing more than any other - sex.
And this is not necessarily a bad thing. In the context of our HIV epidemic, it is about time we have a public and open debate about sex and particularly about risky sex.
But this is not it.
Pregnancy and HIV: Two birds two stones?
Confused head-scratching must have been what greeted an article in The New Age which featured a bizarre and uncontextualised quote from Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi on HIV prevention and teen pregnancy.Not exactly spoilt for Choice™: Government issue condoms scrutinized
The New Age have chosen to highlight striking students’ demand for condoms among a list of other grievances that were laid before the management of Durban’s University of Technology (DUT) during protests that began last week.
This raises questions about the perceptions of government-issue condoms.
Prevention in the prison petri dish
The New Age (TNA) has reported that Leeuwkop prison now has a clinic, which provides HIV counseling and testing, antiretroviral treatment (ARV) and monitoring, as well as other primary healthcare services.
Previously prisoners had to travel long distances to access these services and collect their treatment. Given that HIV prevalence among South Africa’s prison population is standing at roughly 40%, the prospect of more readily available treatment certainly is good news.
But as the adage goes, prevention is always better than cure – a truism the prison system might be overlooking.
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