UNDP South Africa

1 March 2012 - Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe and Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi are expected to encourage 5 000 workers at Eskom's Kusile power station in Mpumalanga to test for HIV this weekend.

National health spokesperson Fidel Hadebe said their visit would mark the end of the week-long HIV testing and counselling (HCT) campaign, which started on Monday at the power station in Emalahleni.

"The HIV testing campaign is part of the partnership between the Department of Health and national power utility Eskom to fight against the virus. The department has similar partnerships with many other private sector institutions," said Hadebe.

He said Public Enterprises Minister Malusi Gigaba and Mpumalanga Health and Social Development MEC Clifford Mkasi would accompany Motlanthe and Motsoaledi.

28 February 2012 - About 211 field workers will be visiting a total of 15 000 households across the country over the next six months. This is part of the 4th South African National HIV, Behaviour and Health Survey that is led by the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC).

If people wearing dark blue T-shirts with an HSRC logo come knocking at your door, fear not, They are the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) field workers collecting data for the 2012 South African National HIV, Behaviour and Health Survey. HSRC Chief Executive Officer, Dr Olive Shisana, says the study is collecting data that will provide a very comprehensive assessment of the health of the people in this country.

"This is an important study to identify information that is going to be useful for planning services. We have a major problem with regard to HIV in this country - more than 5.6 million are infected with HIV. For that reason, we need to be tracking this epidemic to see Are the programmes being implemented actually helping to reduce new infections or not?" Sishana says.

21 February 2012 - The rate of HIV transmission from mother to child in KwaZulu-Natal has dropped from 22 percent to 2.8 percent in the past four years, Premier Zweli Mkhize said on Tuesday.

"While KwaZulu-Natal has been known as the epicentre of the HIV and Aids pandemic, there are signs that the battle is being won, albeit slowly," he said in his state of the province address in Pietermaritzburg.

The province was slowly winning the battle against the pandemic because of the work of the provincial council on HIV/Aids, he said.

The council includes government at all levels, civil society, labour, churches, the media and traditional leaders.

21 February 2012 - Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi has urged South Africans of all ages to go for HIV testing at least once a year. Motsoaledi highlighted that first-year university students were the fifth high-risk group, with other groups including sex workers, intravenous drug users, men who slept with other men and long distance truck drivers. He warned that HIV and Tuberculosis (TB) were the "biggest crises the country has ever faced". The minister was speaking on Tuesday at the launch of the "First Things First HIV" testing campaign launched at the University of the Western Cape. He warned university students, particularly first-year students, to take extra care of themselves and avoid contracting HIV.

16 February 2012 - The United Nations reiterated today the need to provide women with access to both hormonal contraceptives and condoms to prevent unwanted pregnancies and HIV infection, after a renewed consultation with health experts on the issue.

A stakeholder consultation organized by the UN Joint Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) in Geneva reviewed recent epidemiological studies on the transmission and acquisition of HIV by women using hormonal contraceptives and concluded that the data was not sufficient to change the World Health Organization's (WHO) current recommendation, which indicates that condoms are the most effective method to prevent HIV infection.

"While a range of contraceptives protect against unintended pregnancies, only condoms, male and female, provide dual protection by stopping HIV transmission and preventing unintended pregnancies," said UNAIDS in a press statement.