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Copyright of Culture, Health & Sexuality is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Culture, Health & Sexuality is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Young people are among those most vulnerable to HIV/AIDS in South Africa. To date, however, there has been a shortage of fictional narratives appropriate to their needs, and addressing issues of HIV/AIDS. Accessibility to literature is of concern for a variety of reasons, ranging from low levels of literacy among many Black students to the non- availability of books in many schools. This paper aims to extend notions of the meanings of literacy within the context of HIV/AIDS prevention amongst South African youth. It examines the significance of such literacy both to life itself and to what counts as literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Culture, Health & Sexuality is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The HIV and AIDS pandemic resulted in increased demands on the South African healthcare system and contributed to elevated stress levels among healthcare workers, including home-based care workers. The goal of the study was to evaluate a stress management programme for HIV and AIDS home-based care workers in Tshwane, South Africa. Social constructionism was adopted as the theoretical framework of the study. The study implemented intervention research and adopted a qualitative research approach, specifically the instrumental case study. Non-probability sampling, specifically volunteer sampling was utilised to recruit a group of twelve HIV and AIDS home-based care workers (n = 12). The data were collected through semi-structured interviews and administered before and after exposure to the stress management programme. The research findings, based on thematic analysis, revealed that the programme was effective in mitigating the impact of stress experienced by the HIV and AIDS home-based care workers in Tshwane. Recommendations are proffered for the refinement of the newly developed stress management programme for implementation among HIV and AIDS home-based care workers in similar field settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sub-Saharan Africa faces and is severely affected by many conflicts. Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) and Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS) threaten both the physical and financial well-being of individuals in these struggling countries. This research aims to investigate the immigrants' attitudes and beliefs regarding HIV/AIDS in the Mopani district, Limpopo Province. Qualitative and quantitative designs were used, and 200 immigrants were sampled. Data was collected using a questionnaire with closed and open-ended questions. Ethical standards were maintained. The study revealed that many respondents expressed discriminatory practices towards individuals infected by HIV. Many viewed promiscuity and the disease called Makhume (meaning illness caused by the omission of purification rites following the death of a family member) as causes of HIV/AIDS. These attitudes could hinder the achievement of healthy lives and the promotion of well-being at all ages if not addressed appropriately. The collaboration of various departments in the Mopani district is required to change these negative attitudes and beliefs that influence immigrants' behaviours. Also, the use of audio-visuals and peer teaching is most successful in changing attitudes and beliefs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Sahara J: Journal of the Social Aspects of HIV/AIDS is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Sahara J: Journal of the Social Aspects of HIV/AIDS is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Background: South Africa, as an emerging middle-income country, is becoming increasingly influential in global health diplomacy (GHD). However, little empirical research has been conducted to inform arguments for the integration of domestic health into foreign policy by state and non-state actors. This study seeks to address this knowledge gap. It takes the form of an empirical case study which analyses how South Africa integrates domestic health into its foreign policy, using the lens of access to antiretroviral (ARV) medicines. Objective: To explore state and non-state actors’ perceptions regarding how domestic health policy is integrated into foreign policy. The ultimate goal of this study was to achieve better insights into the health and foreign policy processes at the national level. Methods: Employing qualitative approaches, we examined changes in the South African and global AIDS policy environment. Purposive sampling was used to select key informants, a sample of state and non-state actors who participated in in-depth interviews. Secondary data were collected through a systematic literature review of documents retrieved from five electronic databases, including review of key policy documents. Qualitative data were analysed for content. This content was coded, and the codes were collated into tentative categories and sub-categories using Atlas.ti v.7 software. Results: The findings of this work illustrate the interplay among social, political, economic and institutional conditions in determining the success of this integration process. Our study shows that a series of national and external developments, stakeholders, and advocacy efforts and collaboration created these integrative processes. South Africa’s domestic HIV/AIDS constituencies, in partnership with the global advocacy movement, catalysed the mobilization of support for universal access to ARV treatment nationally and globally, and the promotion of access to healthcare as a human right. Conclusions: Transnational networks may influence government’s decision making by providing information and moving issues up the agenda. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

With data from a surveillance system that uses verbal autopsies to identify cause of death in rural South Africa, we investigated whether mortality from HIV/AIDS differs from other causes of death in its effect on household dependency ratio, and to what extent the effect is mediated by the baseline dependency ratio. Findings: (i) the impact of death from HIV/AIDS on the dependency ratio in 2005 is marginally positive compared with other causes of death, but (ii) the impact is overpowered by the effect of death at working age, and (iii) the baseline dependency ratio mediates the effects on the 2005 ratio of cause of death and of the individual's sex and age at death. Migration into and out of the household—anticipating or responding to a death—seems to be a key source of change in the household dependency ratio. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Documentary film has historically been used as a medium of mass education on issues of social import. Although initially employed in South Africa for colonial propaganda, under apartheid the medium was used both to expose and resist state oppression. When the HIV/AIDS pandemic began in the 1980s, western film-makers harnessed the documentary format in order to foster awareness and challenge misinformation about the disease. This was also the case in South Africa, which saw the construction and perpetuation of numerous harmful myths about HIV/AIDS in tandem with rapidly increasing rates of transmission from the early 1990s. While government ineptitude meant that public education about the disease was severely lacking until the closing years of the century, numerous films were produced, often with corporate sponsorship, in order to educate the public about modes of transmission, prevention and treatment of HIV/AIDS. This article analyses the content and meaning of these films, which provide important insights into the historical development of social perceptions of the disease. Born of the racially polarised and politically volatile climate of the 1990s, prejudicial and stigmatising images were presented in many of the documentaries under review. Racism and homophobia were particularly evident. Their verbal and visual depiction is discussed in the first section of this article. The responses of successive South African governments to the pandemic, alongside its evaluation in the documentaries, is the subject of the second section. Lastly, the portrayal of gender in these films is explored, with particular attention to the themes of female vulnerability and male recalcitrance. The article concludes with some general observations about the positive and negative aspects of the documentaries, their impact on public perceptions of HIV/AIDS in South Africa, and the discourse that currently dominates HIV documentary films and programmes there [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the way in which the Mbeki government in South Africa has proceeded in its policy-making on HIV/AIDS and some of the ways in which people have responded to the epidemic. The protracted tussle between the state and civil society in the form of the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) over the terms of engagement for treating the disease has marred South Africa's engagement with HIV/AIDS. The President's embrace of dissident science and his more recent silence on the AIDS issue have contributed to the creation of a climate of suspicion and mistrust. While government has conceded to specific demands of civil society, disagreements remain with organisations such as the Rath Foundation having entered the foray, seemingly with the state's nod of approval and clearly determined to tarnish the reputation of the TAC and subvert the gains made in anti-retroviral treatment. In this context of polarisation, ordinary people have responded by adapting some common ways of thinking and behaving to deal with the exigency of an epidemic that is now impacting on all facets of their lives. Not all popular responses to AIDS, however, resonate with universal principles of human rights. Some are clearly retrogressive and others destructive in their effects. The idea that strategic responses by all sectors of society should help to promote a sense of inclusion and a human rights culture, is the central argument of this article. Ultimately it may not be the gap between policy and implementation that presents the most formidable challenge to South Africa's fight against AIDS and the future of the democratic state, but rather the growing gap between government and an increasingly ill and estranged populace. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing from ethnographic, archival and secondary research, this article examines multiple-sexual partners in historical perspective in KwaZulu-Natal, a South Africa province where one in three people are thought to be HIV positive. Research on masculinities, multiple-partners, and AIDS has been predominantly directed towards the present day. This article stresses the importance of unraveling the antecedents of contemporary masculinities particularly the gendered cultural politics through which they have been produced. Arguing against dominant conceptions of African masculinity as being innate or static, it charts the rise and fall of the isoka, the Zulu man with multiple-sexual partners, over the last century. Showing how the isoka developed through changing conditions occasioned by capitalism, migrant labor and Christianity, it contends that an important turning point took place from the 1970s when high unemployment threatened previous expressions of manliness, notably marriage, setting up an independent household and becoming umnumzana (a household head). The high value placed on men seeking multiple-partners increasingly filled the void left by men's inability to become men through previous means. Turning to the contemporary period, the article argues that, shaken by the huge AIDS deaths, men are betraying increasing doubts about the isoka masculinity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyses the complex cultural politics of HIV/AIDS in South Africa. It focuses on how AIDS ‘dissident’ science impacted on policy discourses and how AIDS activists, together with scientists, the media and health professionals, responded. It also shows how the HIV/AIDS debate and struggles over access to treatment were framed by historically embedded cultural and political interpretations of AIDS that were a product of South Africa's apartheid and post-apartheid history. However, rather than adopting a cultural nationalist response to this historical legacy, activists from the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) deployed a class-based politics that concentrated on access to anti-retroviral drugs rather than debates on the complexities of AIDS causation. This approach contrasts with attempts by AIDS activists in the United States to influence the production of scientific knowledge on AIDS directly, for example, research funding and protocols for trials. The article discusses how TAC and its partner organisation, Medicins Sans Frontières (MSF - Doctors without Borders), strategically positioned themselves in the struggle for access to AIDS drugs, and how new forms of health citizenship, gendered identities and political subjectivities emerged in the course of these struggles. For example, ideas of bodily autonomy associated with liberal individualist conceptions of citizenship collided with patriarchal cultural ideas and practices that prevent many women from accessing biomedical interventions (for example, contraception, HIV testing and treatment). The biomedical paradigm that underpinned TAC/MSF campaigns also had to contend with local understandings of misfortune and illness. While TAC's strategies included networking with global civil society organisations such as MSF, Health Gap, and Oxfam, they also involved grassroots mobilisation and an engagement with local socio-cultural realities. This brand of health activism produced solidarities that straddled local, national and global spaces, resembling what Arjun Appadurai and others describe as ‘globalisation from below’. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article addresses the slow response of corporate South Africa to HIV/AIDS. After outlining the impact of HIV/AIDS on the workplace and the corporate reaction, the apparent contradiction between threat and response is explored. Two explanations for the slow response of business are conventionally offered — that government failure to lead a national response to the epidemic confronted business with an insurmountable collective-action problem; and that managers misunderstood the vulnerability of their companies. It is argued that these explanations have validity, but do not fully satisfy. Rather, account must be taken of inescapable tensions that tangibly link internal and external environments in ways that pre-date and exist independently of any strategy seeking to respond to HIV/AIDS. Four such tensions are identified: political, moral, industrial relations, and socio-economic. Socio-economic tensions are illustrated and examined through the contemporary views of managers from a large South African firm. While progress has been made by business in responding to HIV/AIDS, these conflicts remain significant. A critical question is whether companies can resolve wider socio-economic tensions — a necessity if they are to protect workers and their skills. In contrast to unitarist calls for a ‘war’ on AIDS, offering an appropriate corporate response presents a complex and formidable challenge, but also an opportunity for South African management to establish a new role within the post-apartheid order. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Men have an instrumental role to play in reproductive decision-making and their attitudes may have a significant impact on fertility decisions and family planning. This article presents findings from a qualitative study of male attitudes towards family planning in the province of Kwazulu-Natal in South Africa. The study found that there is strong male approval of family planning as a method of fertility regulation. However, with reference to condoms as a specific method of contraception, although men's knowledge of condoms is relatively good, they are not a popular method of family planning and there is much male resistance to their use. An important reason is that condoms are associated with illicit sex and promiscuity. They are thus unlikely to be used in stable, ongoing relationships. These negative attitudes are major obstacles to the development of condom use as a means of protecting against the spread of HIV. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Traditional health practitioners (THPs) have been identified as a key local resource in the fight against human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immune deficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) in South Africa. However, their approaches to the treatment of people living with HIV (PLHIV) have been met with scepticism by some biomedical practitioners amid increasing access to antiretroviral therapy (ART). Objective: In light of this ambivalence, this study aims to document and identify treatment approaches of THPs to the management of illness among PLHIV in the current era of widespread access to ART. Methods: The study was conducted as part of a larger trial of Treatment as Prevention (TasP) in rural northern Kwa-Zulu Natal, intended to treat PLHIV regardless of CD4 count. Nine THPs were enrolled using purposive and snowballing techniques. Repeat group discussions, triangulated with community walks and photovoice techniques, were conducted. A thematic analysis approach was used to analyse the data. Results: Eight of the nine THPs had received training in biomedical aspects of HIV. THPs showed a multilayered decision-making process in managing illness among PLHIV, influenced by the attributes and choices of the THPs. THPs assessed and managed illness among PLHIV based on THP training in HIV/AIDS, THP type, as well as knowledge and experience in the traditional healing practice. Management of illness depended on the patients’ report of their HIV status or willingness to test for HIV. Conclusions: THPs’ approaches to illness in PLHIV appear to be shifting in light of increasing exposure to HIV/AIDS-related information. Importantly, disclosure of HIV status plays a major role in THPs’ management of illness among PLHIV, as well as linkage to HIV testing and care for their patients. Therefore, THPs can potentially enhance the success of ART for PLHIV when HIV status is known. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]