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Stones into bread

Five minutes in the company of Rhodes Park library assistant Edith Mvelase is sufficient to dispel any residual images of librarians as people with pursed lips and dusty fingers. Not only does she have apple cheeks and laughing eyes, Mvelase is also quite likely to have muddy hands from digging in the library's food garden.

One step forward, two steps back

South Africa officially has the highest prevalence of HIV/Aids in the world, according to the annual United Nations report on the pandemic released last week. Did the country make progress in the fight against HIV/Aids in 2007? Warren Foster speaks to the Treatment Action Campaign's Zackie Achmat.

Light within the chaos

It is time South Africans acknowledge that what can be done technically to prevent and treat HIV/Aids is being done. We won't solve the crisis by simply improving the techniques, be it ABC campaigns, counselling, testing or treatment. They are tools that depend on the hand that guides them, write Obed Qulo and Tim Quinlan.

Creative healing

Bombarded by HIV/Aids campaigns, South Africans have grown almost immune to the messages so crucial in the fight against the pandemic. For many it is a case of "we've heard it all before". This is why many organisations have put on their creative shoes to find unique ways to reach affected people and help the cope.

'Help women help themselves'

"Africa needs to realise that without dealing with the issue of women, there will be no progress in turning HIV/Aids around," says the United Nations special envoy for HIV/Aids in Africa, Elizabeth Mataka. "Unless we empower women we will remain with limited success," she says.

The fragrant pleasures of coffee

Doctors have long argued about the health effects of coffee, but its reputation seems poised to receive a boost thanks to a flavoured condom that aims to encourage safer sex in Ethiopia. About 300 000 of the coffee condoms were sold in a week when they were launched in September.

Hospital care at home

When patients hear they have Aids, their first reaction often is to think they have been given the death sentence. But, between the disease and dying lies a grey area, and that's when palliative caregivers are most needed by patients. Palliative care aims to relieve the suffering and improve the quality of life of patients with life-threatening illnesses.

An inflationary evil

With her unkempt hair tucked into a woolen hat, a faded T-shirt, skirt and a pair of torn canvas shoes, Nokhuthula Tshuma* does not fit the stereotypical profile of a commercial sex worker. Yet, the mother of three, like thousands of impoverished Zimbabwean women, is at great risk of HIV/Aids infection.