Policy, Strategy and Epidemiology

Conversations: HIV and the Family

Conversations is a project that tells the story of families living with HIV. Combining photographs and first-person reflections, it tells of how HIV came into their lives and how they are dealing with the disease.

The concept of ‘family’ has a wide definition, and includes people who live with and support those living with HIV. Whilst living with HIV includes sadness, families speak
of how they are empowered by dealing with the many challenges that are part of HIV. In the face of HIV, there is compassion and courage, openness, sharing and love.

Synthesis on research on prevention of sexual transmission of HIV in South Africa

Date Published:

2012 Jul 1

Authors:

Kevin Kelly, Nolwazi Mkhwanazi, Rethabile Mashale, Nkhensani Nkwashu, & Ravikanthi Rapiti

The USAID Sexual HIV Prevention Programme (SHIPP) was designed in order to assist the Government of South Africa (GOSA) in implementing effective HIV combination-prevention programmes. The goal of this document is to provide a synthesis of what is known about the drivers of HIV infection and an understanding of HIV prevention needs, opportunities, challenges and priorities – for South Africa (SA) in general and for the three provinces of Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) and Mpumalanga in particular.

The document is presented in two sections. The first, entitled ‘Situation analysis’, consists of seven categories of information: 1. The changing profile of the HIV epidemic in South Africa, 2. The epidemiology of HIV in the three focal provinces, 3. The vectors of sexually transmitted HIV infection, 4. Patterns of sexual association driving HIV infection, 5. Social conditions driving HIV infection, 6. Nodes of high HIV incidence, 7. Economic and environmental factors underlying susceptibility to HIV transmission

The second section is an HIV-prevention response-analysis focusing on six categories of information: 1. Bio-medical approaches to the prevention of sexual transmission of HIV, 2. Social and behavioural change communication, 3. Behaviour change, 4. Effectiveness of responses relevant to specific population and age groups, 5. Coverage and effectiveness of responses relevant to most-at-risk populations, 6. Implementation and effectiveness of community and structural interventions

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Talking about AIDS in an informal settlement: Experiences from Orange Farm, Gauteng 2008

Date Published:

2008 Jul 14

Authors:

Warren Parker & Helen Hajiyiannis

Talking about AIDS in an informal settlement: Experiences from Orange Farm, Gauteng 2008

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Microbicides: Nice idea, but what are we doing for women now? Third South African AIDS Conference, Durban

Date Published:

2007 Jun 11

Authors:

Warren Parker & Mark Colvin

Microbicides: Nice idea, but what are we doing for women now? Third South African AIDS Conference, Durban

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The vicious circularity of mental health effects of HIV/AIDS: Symptom and cause of poor responses to the epidemic.

Date Published:

2008 Jul 11

Authors:

Kevin Kelly, Melvyn Freeman, Nkululeko Nkomo & Pumla Ntlabati

The vicious circularity of mental health effects of HIV/AIDS: Symptom and cause of poor responses to the epidemic.

Abstract

In this paper we consider the possibility that psychosocial effects of the HIV/AIDS epidemic may have acted to sustain and entrench the epidemic. After reviewing the evidence for an association between HIV/AIDS and psychological dysfunction in the form of breakdown of coping responses to the point of psychiatric disorder, we suggest that it is not inevitable that this should have happened. We argue that these effects are partially created and certainly sustained by the manner in which the epidemic has been responded to. Reviewing findings from our previous research on mental health effects of HIV/AIDS and analysing interviews conducted with HIV positive respondents, we describe psychological responses to HIV infection and their possible epidemiological consequences. We argue that these have acted with vicious circularity, undermining responses to the epidemic and compounding the predisposing psychosocial vectors of HIV infection. In closing we suggest that particular intervention strategies need to be much more carefully thought through and we make some recommendations regarding the need to respond to the mental health dimensions of HIV/AIDS.