Estimated worldwide HIV infections: 46 898 694 at 12.05pm on Thursday May 23.
The South African Clothing and Textile Workers’ Union has offered to provide nevirapine to pregnant members in provinces where the government does not have a programme in place. The union will provide a basic pack of multi-vitamins and cotrimoxazole prophylaxis, while the provincial governments will have to provide the infrastructure and formula feed.
Launched: An Aids orphan programme by Old Mutual. The objective is to fund selected NGOs, each with a different model of dealing with children infected with the virus. The effectiveness of each model will be evaluated at the end of the year to determine which model was best.
Honorarily conferred: A master’s degree in social science to HIV/Aids activist, Zackie Achmat, chairperson of the Treatment Action Campaign, by the University of Cape Town on June 21.
Infected with HIV: About 6 000 of the 10 000 prisoners released from South African jails. The Department of Correctional Services has already started to provide anti-Aids cocktails of drugs for infected prisoners.