AIDS2016

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Health Report 28 min 1 speaker 7 chapters transcribed 3 days ago

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What is the overall focus of the 21st International AIDS Conference in Durban?

Natasha Mitchell 0:00

And welcome to the Health Report on RN. Today a story about sex, sugar daddies, girls and a virus. And could a strategy targeting gay men in Australia transform the lives of young women in South Africa too? Hello, Natasha Mitchell joining you from Durban this week, where the 21st International AIDS Conference was just held. More than 18,000 delegates with scientists, activists of every shape and persuasion, plus a ton of outspoken teens and 20-somethings who are living with HIV and are ready to have their voices heard.

Katusimi Daphne 0:45

I will never let What I'm going through define me. I'm standing here on behalf of all of us, the young people. who are living

Unknown 0:55

positively. Thank you for helping me live a life without fear. Now I can talk, I am confident and brave. Is it still in our boy? Involve people with HIV and they no isolation Non discrimination.

Natasha Mitchell 1:13

This is the generation growing up HIV positive. Many lost their parents to the virus before life-saving antiretroviral medications were affordable and made more widely available in Africa. Many contracted the virus in their mother's womb. Some are orphans. We're starting at the opening of a workshop on HIV pediatrics where a group of talented Talented teens, all HIV positive, are performing a powerful piece of theatre.

How are young people in South Africa using theatre to share their HIV experiences?

Natasha Mitchell 1:53

A young girl has slept with an older man the night before, and she can't remember what happened. But she realizes they had unprotected sex, and now she's worried that she might have contracted HIV from him. Then she learns that the man is actually her father, who abandoned their family years ago. My mum, please tell me, she asks. I would really like to know. Oh who is my father? Who is this man who is not honest?

Unknown 2:23

Ma SENZO! SENTSUM! Mm.

Natasha Mitchell 2:28

You know, children have always been the innocents in the HIV epidemic. The good news is there's been big progress in preventing them from contracting the virus. The rate of mother to child transmission of HIV is now well under 5%, thanks to a national programme here in South Africa that tests expecting mothers and treats them and their newborns with antibiotics. Retroviral drugs. So babies are doing better, but in sub-Saharan Africa, girls are in big trouble.

Yvette Raphael 3:09

earlier days when HIV was discovered in South Africa, a lot of men believe that if you have sex with a person that's a virgin, you will be cured of AIDS. Currently it's not happening so much, but we know young girls are targets for men who want to cure themselves of HIV AIDS. A lot of men do that.

Natasha Mitchell 3:27

Yvette Raphael found out she was HIV positive 15 years ago. An AIDS activist, now with the Centre for Communications Impact, she's also co-convener of the newly formed Advocates for the Prevention of HIV AIDS in South Africa. And her focus is on young women and girls.

Yvette Raphael 3:46

I think what we've forgotten is that many of these young girls have lost their parents, have lost their family, their structures, and men do take advantage of that situation that okay there's an orphan there. But we're also here on the other side. Men are targeting young women from rich families so that they can turn the tide or cure AIDS or whatever is happening. But young women and girls in Africa are really badly affected by AIDS. HIV. And d I mean in South Africa only two thousand six hundred and thirty six young women every week are infected with HIV. And if that's not a crisis, I don't know what will we call a crisis.

Linda Gale Becker 4:35

Let me put it to you this way when a young seventeen year old woman sits in front of me, I have to suggest to her to prevent HIV. that she asks her intimate partner, who may be a little older than her, she may not know him very well, to use a condom, a male condom, 'cause that's what's most accessible.

Natasha Mitchell 4:52

Linda Gale Becker's a big name in the AIDS arena as incoming president of the International Aid Society. She's Professor of Medicine and Deputy Director of the Desmond Tutu HIV Centre in Cape Town.

Linda Gale Becker 5:07

Even if I she is lucky enough to get a female condom, she's not gonna do that without him knowing about it. So there's this need to then disclose and have a conversation that's awkward.