A series of draft articles by Mark Heywood on politics and health.

South Africa's acclaimed HIV/AIDS National Strategic Plan (NSP) was endorsed by Cabinet on 3 May 2007. It was a fine example of how civil society and government can work together to alleviate the HIV epidemic. Here you can find the NSP itself and its costing annexure.

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Durban High Court orders access to ARV treatment for prisoners at Westville Prison

AIDS Law Project Analysis on HIV and Prisoners

• Implementing the HIV Operational Plan in Prisons (PDF)

• The National Strategic Plan and Prisons (Powerpoint)

What is AIDS denialism?

It is the promotion of one or more of the following pseudo-scientific views: (1) HIV does not cause AIDS, (2) the risks of antiretovirals outweigh their benefits and (3) there is not a large AIDS epidemic in sub-Saharan Africa.

Here we present links to documents debunking these myths. We also present links to documents showing the dire consequences of AIDS denialism.

Key documents explaining the science of HIV/AIDS

The Evidence that HIV Causes AIDS

Matthias Rath is the definitive charlatan. Armed with huge amounts of money, megalomania, a lack of conscience and most importantly, the support of South Africa's incompetent Minister of Health Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, Rath has sown confusion in South Africa about the treatment and prevention of HIV. The Rath saga demonstrates how damaging politically-supported AIDS denialism is.

An article explaining what statistics we know about South Africa's AIDS epidemic and how we know them.