Media briefs

The Cabinet has approved the reappointment of Dr Olive Shisana as chief executive officer (CEO) of the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) for a second five-year term, taking effect on 1 August 2010 - 31 July 2015. 

AIDS is fundamentally a family disease: infections run through families, families carry the burdens of infection, and growing evidence suggests that family-centred approaches to prevention and treatment are particularly effective.

It is therefore not enough to merely provide antiretroviral drugs to mothers and children: it is critical that treatment and care for children are integrated into the broader context of family-support schemes, write Linda Richter et al, guest editors in a special issue of the Journal of the International AIDS Society, published online on Thursday, 24 June 2010.

New findings indicate that HIV incidence is declining and that the impact of antiretroviral treatment is having an effect on the South African epidemic.

In South Africa, more people live with HIV and AIDS than anywhere else and the country is currently implementing the largest antiretroviral treatment (ART) programme in the world. It is therefore befitting that South Africa has embarked on a series of repeated national population-based HIV surveys to help in monitoring the response as a nation to the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Three national HIV household surveys, led by the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) have been conducted in South Africa: the first in 2002, followed by surveys in 2005 and 2008. These surveys collected data not only on the HIV status but also information on socio-demographic and behavioural determinants which greatly enhanced the analysis and interpretation of the observed trends in HIV prevalence and incidence (new infections).

The Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) and Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University (NMMU) have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) related to research on the social aspects of HIV/AIDS ON 10 June.

The agreement entails co-publishing the quarterly Journal of the Social Aspects of HIV/AIDS (SAHARA J) and co-hosting the biennial Social Aspects of HIV/AIDS Research Alliance (SAHARA) conference for the next five years. SAHARA is a network of African researchers on the social and behavioural aspects of HIV/AIDS. The secretariat of SAHARA is hosted by the HSRC.

The Government should establish a state mining company that could deploy its resources for developmental purposes, and set up a state bank to channel resources for developmental purposes. These are some of the suggestions proposed in a new book, Constructing a Democratic Developmental State in South Afria: Potentials and challenges

Nearly all pregnant women in South Africa visit antenatal care clinics during pregnancy (97%), while nearly three-quarters have received antenatal services five times during their pregnancy (71.4%). There is also a high utilisation of public primary health care services for children in South Africa - although this does not always mean that services such as immunisation services are utilised.

Dr Miriam Altman, executive director of the HSRC's Centre for Poverty, Employment and Growth, has been appointed as a commissioner to the National Planning Commission (NPC).

An overwhelming majority (91.9%) of respondents who participated in an intervention programme to educate people on HIV and AIDS in one of 19 areas where the programme is active, said that they could take control of HIV.

The published study, Student Retention and Graduate Destination: Higher education and labour market access and success (Cape Town: HSRC Press, 2009) was launched today at a seminar hosted by Dr Vijay Reddy, Executive Director of the Education, Science and Skills Development research programme of the Human Sciences Research Council. To mark the occasion, Professor Haroon Bhorat and Ms Natasha Mayet, of the Development Policy Research Unit, University of Cape Town, presented the key findings of one of the chapters of the monograph on student graduation, labour market destinations and employment earnings.

Human trafficking in South Africa is a serious problem and warrants intervention on all fronts, according to a study released by the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) at a National Prosecuting Authority conference on human trafficking, ending today.

For South Africa to be effective in its interventions into the underlying causes of undernutrition or the chronic lifestyle diseases, such as obesity, diabetes and high blood pressure, an approach needs to be developed to better understand the mechanisms that link social factors to nutrition.

With 100 days to go before the FIFA World Cup, many questions are being asked about the legacy the event will leave behind.

Pretoria - The Kingdom of the Netherlands is making a financial contribution of R13 million to the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) for a two-year research and policy initiative that will assist in generating knowledge to support South Africa in its efforts to construct a democratic developmental state. The initiative will be the first of its kind by a South African research institution.