Why HIV “prevention does not work” has been the subject of recurrent discussions during the past weeks. It all started with a thought-provoking article published online by Frontiers in LA, “a one-stop source of content for Southern California’s LGBT community” (welcome to the Ghetto) by Michael Liberatore who wrote that “if pharmaceutical companies were supplying the cash to develop [HIV/AIDS] treatments, couldn’t they just as easily stall the development of newer, less profit-friendly treatments to assure that their bank accounts continue to swell?”
The article is worth reading and raises some …

In a clear and well argumented post (which title I borrowed) for NOMOREPOTLUCKS, Nicholas Little, an HIV outreach worker in bathhouses, bars and online chat rooms explains how stigma attached to being HIV positive puts HIV negative men at higher risk of HIV infection.
There is not much to add to the article but to emphasise the deep contradiction existing in the mind and attitude of like-to-believe HIV negative men: On the one hand, they naively expect and believe that HIV positive guys will disclose their status before sex, but on …

This is the second part of a true story told through a friend, a first person account of the life of Nhlanhla , a nurse in a Sub-Saharan country afflicted by HIV and AIDS (read part 1 here). Names, places and minor details have been changed to protect people’s privacy. It is a story of fear, stigma, discrimination but also of hope, the everyday story of a young woman whose life, on revealing to her family that she is HIV positive, spirals into hell and despair.

“A few days later I …

This is a true story told through a friend, a first person account of the life of Nhlanhla, a nurse in a Sub-Saharan country afflicted by HIV and AIDS. Names, places and minor details have been changed to protect people’s privacy. It is a story of fear, stigma, discrimination but also of hope, the everyday story of a young woman whose life, on revealing to her family that she is HIV positive, spirals into hell and despair.
“Over the year, Nhlanhla has faced many challenges in finding out she was HIV …

The BBC reports on South African Children as young as 15 shooting up with grounded HIV anti-retrovirals sometimes mixed with painkillers and marijuana.
“I couldn’t believe it. I was shocked at first, these were school boys in their school uniforms,” documentary-maker Tooli Nhlapo told the BBC World Service’s Outlook programme.
“They take a pill and grind it, until it is a powder. Some also mix it with painkillers and others mix it with marijuana,” said Ms Nhlapo. “They showed me how they roll it and smoke it.”
The pills are either bought …