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HIV/AIDS and how to treat it has been one of the new South Africa's most distressing and difficult problems. For a long time, the President, Thabo Mbeki, was swayed by 'experts' who denied a connection between HIV and AIDS and by those who argued pharmaceutical companies were only too happy to test expensive and possibly toxic treatments in Africa.

Workers in the field in Cape Town's black township of Khayelitsha are now delighted that there's been something of a U-turn on the prescription of anti-retroviral drugs and they are putting them to full use in the maternity clinic we visited there.
The idea for the scheme came from Elaine Maane. She's a mother and HIV positive and she became convinced that women who had been through the trauma of diagnosis during pregnancy and had experienced treatment, delivery and post natal advice on feeding and caring for the new baby were best placed to mentor the newly diagnosed and pregnant.
Drugs such as AZT and Neviropine are used at the clinic in the Western Cape where the women gather to give each other support. It's still difficult to confess HIV status to boyfriends, families and the wider community and endure the stigma attached. The women help each other to 'disclose'.
They share the latest medical opinion on whether breast or bottle feeding is the best way to protect babies from contracting the virus and they advise on how to present a decision to the wider community. A woman bottle feeding can be a dead giveaway that she is HIV positive - so for those who chose not to disclose their status, elaborate subterfuges are discussed for how to explain bottle feeding away. Perhaps the woman will say she has to go to work, so it's easier for anyone left to care for the baby to give regular feeds if the child is bottle fed. One woman told us she lives with just her brother - so she had no problems as they wouldn't have a clue about breast vs. bottle anyway!
Before the programme began and without the drug treatment 1 in 3 babies would be expected to contract the virus from its mother. With drugs and support and education from other mums, 88% are now found to be negative at the crucial stage of 9 months. The programme is hoping one day it will be 100%.

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