Everyone has a responsibility to support people living with HIV and AIDS. Photo: Development Works via Flickr

Currently there are more than 33 million people in the world living with HIV and AIDS, according to avert.org. This website also reports that 605,480 people died of HIV and AIDS related causes in South Africa in 2006 (although this is sometimes difficult to calculate). Many people have relatives, friends, and partners who have died of HIV and AIDS.

In the past few years a lot has been done by governments, health organisations and researchers to develop medication and preventative measures for this incurable disease. But this is also a disease that requires personal responsibility from those affected by it.

Recently it was revealed at the International Aids Conference in Vienna that researchers had developed a vaginal gel that decreases the probability of women acquiring HIV/AIDS by 39 percent and genital herpes by 51 percent if applied before and after sex, the Wall Street Journal reports.  It is estimated that the gel, in the next 10 years, could prevent half a million infections in South Africa alone.

But, as with other preventative measures like the use of condoms and treatment measures such as the use of anti-retroviral medication, responsibility lies with the individual to actually make use thereof and, especially in the case of ARVs, to keep on using it.

The use of microbicides in a vaginal gel has proven effective in the fight against HIV. Photo: Development Works via Flickr

We all have a role to play in supporting those living with HIV and AIDS, as the stigmatisation of the disease is causing real damage. Stigma keeps people from getting tested for HIV and collecting their ARVs. They fear that people will reject them if they know they are HIV positive. Stigma even keeps some people from using a condom as they are scared that their partner will think they are using it because they have HIV.

It is also really disheartening to hear that people are now stealing and smoking ARVs and marijuana as a mixture called whoonga. Some people are too afraid to collect their ARVs from clinics as they might be mugged on their way home.

Luckily there are also many individuals that are supporting people living with HIV and AIDS. Especially women often act as care givers to these people. They should truly be commended for the incredible work they are doing.

Recognition is also necessary for the South Africans that are protecting themselves when they have intimate relationships with their partners and for those who are affected, but taking treatment appropriately. We are proud of you! This shows that if South Africans work together, we can conquer!

Ordinary South Africans can be trained to collect research data using cellpones. Photo by: Kiwanja.net

A new study has identified how more ordinary people from rural and peri-urban areas can become involved in research, simply by using their mobile phones.

Currently there are a couple of organisations in South Africa that train people at grassroots level to collect data for research projects. This is an excellent way to uplift these people and create job opportunities.

All over Africa, health research done with the help of mobile phones is increasing. Creative Consulting & Development Works recently wrote a newsletter article about this phenomenon, referred to as mhealth. To read the article, click here.

The most recent study on mhealth in South Africa (published December 2009) entitled The use of mobile phones as a data collection tool: A report from a household survey in South Africa, set out to “investigate the extent to which community health workers with little experience of data collection could be trained and successfully supervised to collect data using mobile phones in a large baseline survey”.

Local women from Umlazi, close to Durban, hired as community health workers, were contracted by the researchers to collect data. None of the 24 women had any previous experience of data collection, but all had mobile phones and could SMS. They received 2 days of training using the software installed on their phones.

Researchers can check the quality of data collected more easily using mobile phones. Photo by: Rachel Strohm

Over the course of four months, 39,665 households were surveyed by these women. There were no hardware or software failures using the mobile phones.

The researchers found that the benefits of using mobile phones for data collection are as follows:

• Quality checks could be performed in real-time, and inconsistencies could be detected and rectified in a timely manner.
• The automated graphs and reports allowed the project manager to see how many surveys were completed on an hourly or daily basis.
• Data falsification could also be detected. If an unrealistic number of surveys were completed in a specific time, the project manager would be alerted that something is not right.

And of course, the income it generates for unskilled workers used to collect this data, is very valuable.

The researchers came to the conclusion that this is a “feasible method of data collection that needs to be further explored”.

Read more about the study here.

Millions are spent on building stadiums for the 2010 World Cup, while budgets for research are being cut.

It is a worrying phenomenon for the research community that research is apparently being put on hold to fund the World Cup, especially given the already dampened global economic climate.

An article by Cornia Pretorius in the July edition of the Mail and Gaurdian’s Higher Learning supplement, states: The National Research Foundation (NRF) recently canned a joint project involving researchers from South Africa and Spain, citing a diversion of public funds to preparations for the 2010 World Cup and the global economic crisis as the primary reasons for cancellation.  

 This is ironic in the context that the World Cup is premised to build the South African economy, boost job creation and promote further opportunities for international interest and collaboration. Key researchers and academics, quoted in the article, believe this decision has far-reaching, negative consequences for the South African research community.

 Legislative and policy gaps remain a hindrance to South Africa as a developmental state. Research is necessary to inform policy structures and implementation, but if budgets are cut, where will this leave South Africa?