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South Africa's former Aids chief Dr Nono Simelela recently returned to South Africa to head up the country's national Aids Council She spoke to Khopotso Bodibe of Health-e News Service about her appointment which she descnbes as exciting and a challenge.

The South African Traditional Health Practitioners Act defines traditional health practice as performance of a function, activity, process, or service based on a traditional philosophy that uses indigenous African techniques and principles that include traditional medicine or practice, including the physical or mental preparation of an individual for puberty, adulthood, pregnancy, childbirth, and death.

ORANGE FARM, South Africa - Young men have flocked by the thousands to this clinic for circumcisions, the only one of its kind in South Africa. Each of them lies down on one of seven closely spaced surgical tables, his privacy shielded only by a green curtain.

PROFESSOR Leickness Simbayi has been appointed executive director at the HSRC of the large research programme on the social aspects of HTV/Aids and health, as of June 1.

South Africa has the world's biggest Aids treatment programme and, like the rest of the world, it has recently adopted a renewed, urgent focus on HIV prevention.

Almost a third (28%) of South Africans have not heard about global warming or climate change while over a half considered their knowledge as “hardly anything” or less. The Human Sciences Research Council, a South African parastatal, conducts human sciences research in support of the growth and development of the country.

Mitchell's Plain is a large, sprawling township near Cape Town in South Africa. It contains monotonous rows of houses built about 20 years ago for the "coloured" population.

Mitchell's Plain is a large, sprawling township near Cape Town in South Africa. It contains monotonous rows of houses built about 20 years ago for the "coloured" population - one of the racial groups designated under the aApartheid system to refer to people of mixed-race. A community marked by high unemployment and poverty, there are public schools here that lock the doors during the day and are surrounded by barbed wire to keep out gangs; daily realities among students include drug addiction, pregnancy and HIV/AIDS.

DISASTER AWAITS South Africa and the rest of the world if even only a fraction of various disturbing climate forecasts turn out to be true.

Close to one out of every two people with HIV in rural KwaZulu-Natal believes traditional remedies are safer than Western medicines. And more than 66% believe that they would not be able to live without traditional medicines, more than 60% believe that herbs control their HIV rather than antiretroviral drugs and 96% of participants believe doctors prescribe too many medicines.

CAPE TOWN - South Africans are growing increasingly concerned about climate change but are reluctant to bear the costs of initiatives to curb greenhouse emissions, a survey from the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) shows.

Most South Africans are much concerned about climate change but not willing to use their resources to curb greenhouse emissions, a survey has disclosed. It was conducted by the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC). The 2007 South African Social Attitudes Survey was sampled among 3164 people.

GABORONE - There is need to boldly step out and tackle the link between alcohol and HIV says Dr Samba Nyirenda, co-founder of the Save Haven Counselling Centre in Francistown.

First commissioned by the Nelson Mandela Foundation in 2002, in partnership with the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC), the HIV/AIDS behaviour and health survey was the first household seroprevalence survey of its kind to be conducted in South Africa.

The country's largest study testing South Africans' attitudes to HIV and Aids has run into resistance from Indian and white people, researchers said.

“Playas” who average six girlfriends in three months, people living with HIV and those with sexually transmitted infections who drink alcohol are among the groups being targeted to stop the spread of HIV

They are trendy dressers, drive flashy cars and flaunt their wealth. And they have an insatiable appetite for sex with young women. They are called sugar daddies

He said the F word in front of Archbishop of Cape Town, but satirist Pieter -Dirk Uys has done more to prevent Aids that any other single person in South Africa

UKUSOKWA kwabesilisa kungase kube yingxenye yezikhali zikaHulumeni waseNingizimu Afrika zokulwa nokubhebhetheka kwegciwane lengculazi. Phambilini abacwaningi baveza ukuthi ukusokwa kwabesilisa kuyawehlisa amazinga okuthola igciwane kuze kufinyelele ku-75%. Lokhu kusho ukuthi kwabesilisa abasokile abayishumi, kunamathuba okuthi abayisikhombisa ngeke balithole leli gciwane yize bezihianganise nocansi olungaphephile.

Durban. - Suid-afrika se minister van gesondheid, dr. Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, is nie by die derde Suid-Afrikaanse vigskonferensie nie weens haar ontevredenheid met die posisie wat sy hier sou he.

Young women chasing the three cs - cars, cellphones and cash - were far more likely to end up with HIV instead, Dr Olive Shisana, chief executive afficer of the Human Science Research Council, has warned.

DURBAN. - Suid-Afrika se gesondheidsminister, dr. Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, is nie op die derde Suid-Afrikaanse vigskonferensie nie, weens haar ontevredenheid met die posisie wat sy hier sou he.
Adjunkpres. Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka het gisteraand op die opening van die konferensie na die minister se afwesigheid verwys as 'n "netelige kwessie".

SEXUAL behaviour is not changing in South Africa despite the massive energy and expertise that goes into research. This was the sobering message from Olive Shisana, CEO of the Human Sciences Research Council at the 3rd South African Aids Conference at Durban's International Convention Centre last night.

CAPE TOWN - More than 4 000 scientists, activists and medical experts are due to converge on Durban this week for the third South African AIDS Conference.

IN SURVEYS commissioned by the Nelson Mandela Foundation in 2002 and 2005, the Human Sciences Research Council (FISRC) surveyed national HW prevalence and associated features such as sex, age, race, location, age at sexual debut, awareness of the risk of HIV infection and condom use.

Durban will once again be the venue for the biggest Aids convention on the African continent when the Third South African AIDS Conference is expected to attract more than 3500 participants to the city's International Convention Centre (ICC) between June 5 and June 8.

In last Sunday's City Press, the chief executive of the Human Sciences Research Council, Olive Shisana, is quoted as saying that poorly-paid teachers are forced to have multiple sexual partners to survive. This is not true. What she said was th...

The WK Kellogg Foundation (WKKF) has awarded the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) a $5 million grant over the next five years to undertake an intervention-orientated research project to inform the care of orphans and vulnerable children affected by HIV/AIDS. The three countries participating in the project are Botswana, South Africa and Zimbabwe.

The WK Kellogg Foundation (WKKF) has awarded the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) a $5 million grant over the next five years to undertake an intervention-orientated research project to inform design a research-driven intervention project to assist in the care of orphans and vulnerable children affected by HIV/AIDS. The three countries participating in the project are Botswana, South Africa and Zimbabwe.

The HSRC will be involved in the research and development of interventions to improve the quality of life of these children, and in the evaluation and monitoring of the success of the project. The HSRC will collaborate with relevant research organisations in the three countries to evaluate the effectiveness of these interventions.