The 2008 AIDS Vaccine Conference will be held in Cape Town (South Africa) from the 13 to 16th of October. Preparation for the event as well as a series of meetings and projects explain the gap in posting here, but there will be plenty of opportunities and a very long flight to prepare some material for the blog! See you in Cape Town, maybe!

Rating 3.00 out of 5

Kgalema Motlanthe sworn in as South Africa’s president replacing Thabo Mbeki has appointed Ms Barbara Hogan as Minister of Health and Dr Molefi Sefularo as the Deputy Minister of Health.
Barbara Hogan who was pushed out of Parliament in 2003 in part for her refusal to accept Mbeki’s denialist stance on AIDS, is taking over Manto Tshabalala-Msimang more commonly known as “Dr Betroot” for promoting the value of lemons, garlic and betroot instead of antiretroviral medicines to combat the spread of AIDS.
In a statement, the Treatment Action Group (TAC) said Barbara …

The 21st century AIDS epidemics in the US is young, Black and gay. This was one of the major outcome of the 2008 AIDS conference. Several reasons have been advanced to explain why this particular population has been and is more at risk of infection. One that has received little attention so far was explored several years ago. In 2005 Laura Bogart and Sheryl Thorburn conducted a telephone survey to assess the relation between the endorsement of HIV/AIDS conspiracy beliefs and condom attitudes amongst African Americans (J Acquir Immune Defic …

In an editorial for Health-e Anso Thom reminds us how People Living with HIV and AIDS (PLWHA) are easy preys for AIDS-revisionists and charlatans who make money on the back of the defenceless and vulnerable.
Thom reports on how South African national health minister Dr Manto Tshabalala-Msimang has been prompt to take off of the selves potentially unsafe conventional medicines but also how she was and still is less prompt to act when it comes to “natural remedies” promoted by charlatans such as Dr Rath and his Health Foundations or Zeblon …