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In this paper, we examine a prominent interpretation of HIV risk in a rural South African setting experiencing a severe HIV epidemic well into older ages: the discourse of caregiving HIV transmission. By caregiving transmission, we refer to HIV infection resulting from caring for family members who are living with HIV and may be sick with AIDS-related illnesses. We draw on individual life history and community focus group interviews with men and women aged 40–80+, as well as interviews with health workers providing HIV counselling and testing services at local health facilities in their communities. We illustrate the social and strategic role caregiving HIV transmission discourses play in re-signifying HIV as a sexless infection for older women, thereby promoting HIV testing as well as blameless acceptance of an HIV diagnosis. We further highlight the role of rural health workers who serve as medical epistemic bricoleurs, vernacularising global HIV counselling and prevention messages by blending ideas of gender, generation, and local lived experiences and practices so that they resonate with community norms, values and understandings. Our study highlights the gendered and generational complexities and challenges experienced by rural South Africans aging in a community over-burdened by an HIV epidemic and AIDS-related mortality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we share some personal reflections of straddling different research roles in a doctoral study entitled Queering Sex Work and Mobility in South Africa. We highlight the importance of using a Feminist Participatory Action Research (FPAR) methodology when conducting studies with migrant and mobile sex workers as it offers participants an opportunity to express their lived realities and embodied knowledge(s) beyond linguistic barriers. Through our reflections, we demonstrate that marginalised communities can become co-creators in knowledge production processes, not just the givers of stories (aka 'poverty porn') but integral members of the research team who actively contribute towards the conceptualisation, data collection, analysis, publishing and distribution of scholarship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Informal settlements remain a public health problem as they lack basic infrastructure. Furthermore, it is challenging to enforce public health regulations and protocols to prevent the spread of infection during a pandemic. This paper was set out to explore the impact of lockdown during COVID-19 among people living in informal settlements. An exploratory qualitative design was utilised. Purposive sampling was used to select research participants. In-depth one-to-one interviews were held involving 30 research participants through a WhatsApp online telephone platform. A thematic approach underpinned by the four stages of data analysis in interpretive phenomenological analysis was utilised to analyse the data. The study found that during the the research participants were affected by lack of space to practice social distancing, over-burdened infrastructure, lack of savings, loss of income and shortage of food, hunger and diseases, anxiety and depression and poor access to education. There is a need to prioritise the needs of informal settlers and endeavour to establish permanent homes. Health promotion and communication initiatives and pandemic awareness programmes are needed to mitigate the impact of lockdown during a pandemic in informal settlements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

South Africa has increasing numbers of persons living with HIV on antiretroviral treatment (ART). There is evidence for a relationship between food, food security and HIV. Despite increasing rates of people older than 50 living with HIV coinciding with greater levels of co-morbidity, the existing research is largely limited to those aged 15–49 years. In this paper, we therefore explore how older people living with HIV (OPLWH) in two urban communities within South Africa negotiate and ensure they have sufficient access to food and how food insecurity may affect their retention in care and ART adherence. This study used exploratory qualitative semi-structured in-depth interviews with 23 OPLWH to collect data in isiXhosa. Data were analysed using thematic content analysis. Factors at the community, household and individual levels influence (a) access to sufficient and quality food, and (b) beliefs about ART and food based on (mis)understandings of messaging from health care providers. The results demonstrate the need to explore further and clarify the nutritional guidelines that OPLWH receive from providers to ensure this does not result in reduced adherence or retention in care. They also demonstrate the role that social welfare and family or kin obligations plays in ensuring the food security of OPLWH. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to offer evidence-based feedback about the emotional challenges of cancer in South Africa. The action research photovoice methodology was used to capture accounts of cancer-related challenges via 316 face-to-face interviews with cancer patients and family members (n = 286), and oncology support and medical staff (n = 30). The photovoice contributions constituted qualitative data that were analysed according to inductive thematic analysis whereby nine themes of cancer challenges were identified and photovoice images were descriptively summarised from a phenomenological perspective. The emotional challenges theme was the most commonly reported of these themes, and is the focus of this paper. The findings of this study highlighted widespread emotional distress, anxiety, loss, poverty, physical challenges, traumatic impact of a cancer diagnosis, cancer stigma and low patient empowerment in the medical setting. Four main causes of patient emotional isolation in advanced stages of cancer are also identified, and this extends current understanding and offers new direction for clinical management. Recommendations from these findings include the need for the development and inclusion of psychosocial oncology services, best-practice standards of care, distress screening, patient empowerment and the prioritising of training and support for oncology staff in the South African health-care setting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]