Prudence Mabele: Tribute We have lost a champion. Prudence Mabele will always be remembered for being the first black woman to openly state she is living with HIV. She became a courageous activist and was a founder member of the Treatment Action Campaign when the government of the day refused to allow the import of…
DetailsIn 1982, the first case of HIV was reported in South Africa. Thereafter the unerring march of AIDS and death ravaged our communities, filled our hospital beds and cemeteries and rendered families bereft of young breadwinners, parents and children. Anti-HIV treatment, known as antiretroviral therapy was the miraculous epidemic game changer – but it was…
DetailsHIV is no longer the death sentence it once was: antiretroviral therapy (ARTs) have become so sophisticated that HIV-infected people have a normal life expectancy. However, now that HIV is a manageable, chronic disease, there is a shift in the focus of HIV research. Jason Baker, an associate professor of medicine at the University of…
DetailsMedical Male Circumcision (MMC) is currently recommended for men living in areas where HIV rates are high and prevention tools are scarce. Some men, understandably, are unwilling to undergo MMC. Nyaradzo Chigorimbo-Tsikiwa, with the Desmond Tutu HIV Centre and the Division of Immunology, is researching the cellular and molecular composition of the foreskin. The goal…
DetailsNew HIV prevention technologies are researched all the time at the Desmond Tutu HIV Foundation. Often, scientists are concerned with how the people using these products will respond to them. But, equally important, is the response from the healthcare workers prescribing them. Robina Momanyi, an IAVI fellow visiting the Desmond Tutu HIV Foundation from Kenya, enlightened…
DetailsWe were very fortunate to have Professor Robin Wood and Dr Keren Middelkoop, both from the Desmond Tutu HIV Foundation (DTHF), update us on the tuberculosis (TB) aerobiology project. The project aims to characterise how airborne TB infects people in different spaces. South Africa is one of the six countries globally with the highest rates…
DetailsThe last research meeting of April was on the subject of medical male circumcision (MMC), hosted by Nathan Beijneveld. He presented research of the acceptability and uptake of MMC in two adolescent populations in South Africa. This is a study with MACHO (Males Actively Choosing Healthy Options). The study investigated the uptake and acceptability of MMC…
DetailsThe final March research presentation was hosted by Andrea Mendelsohn and Shabaana Osman. Mendelsohn presented the first portion of an ongoing research trial in Masiphumelele. They have been testing the efficacy and response of an STI (sexually transmitted infection) check in adolescents using the GeneXpert machine. So far, the results have been positive. The centre…
DetailsWhy is there a March for Science this Saturday? 22 April marks Earth Day and the anniversary of the birth of the modern environmental movement in 1970. This was the first time a voice was given to environmental consciousness and a call to action was made to support environmentally friendly and sustainable processes. In the…
DetailsAt the Desmond Tutu HIV Foundation’s (DTHF) March research meeting, we had the pleasure of not one, but two presentations. The speakers were the University of Cape Town’s (UCT) Ms Monika Kamkuemah and the DTHF’s Dr Emily Krogstad. HIV and Chronic Disease Ms Kamkuemah presented her PhD proposal where she intends to examine HIV in adolescents alongside…
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