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The term, risk-taking, has often been used to describe some of the behaviours and their associated negative outcomes occurring during adloscence. Statistics have shown that South Africa has one of the highest rates of HIV/AIDS infection in the world, with most infections occurring during adolescence. The central aim in this study was to explore the relationship between current constructions of masculinity and risk-taking behaviours among a group of young South African men. It was an exploratory study, focused on exploring how young men construct their masculinities, and how this intersects with or impacts on adolescent male risk-taking behaviours. A key conclusion drawn at the end of this project was that some traditional notions of manhood still held sway, and these tied in strongly with how these participants constructed their masculinity.

MPH, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, 2009. / Introduction Patient retention and loss to follow-up in the antiretroviral programmes in South Africa and indeed the world is important as failures to reduce these lead to higher drug resistances and treatment failures. In the light of the few drugs available to treat HIV and AIDS it is imperative that patients lost to follow-up be traced and brought back into the programme. The objectives of the study were to quantify the number of patients enrolled in the programme between 01st June 2004 and 31st December 2004; determine the demographic profile of enrolled patients with regard to age; sex; education; employment and area of residence; to determine compliance and defaulter rates at every monthly appointment up to 6 months of follow-up and to describe follow-up systems in place for tracking patients on ARVs; identifying those who fail to comply with scheduled appointments; and ensuring complianceand finally to identify challenges faced by the hospitals in tracking patients on ARV therapy. Material and Methods The two hospital chosen were the first public hospitals to rollout antiretroviral treatment in Ekurhuleni in 2004. This was a descriptive study involving review of health facility records and primary data collection through key informant interviews at two district hospitals in Ekurhuleni. The study reviewed mechanisms employed by the two hospitals in tracking those patients who started on the programme during the first six months of the ARV programme (June 2004 to December 2004). Results The two hospitals had after six months of starting with the rollout a combined number of 378 patients on treatment. Far East Rand Hospital (FERH) had registered 208 5 patients and Natalspruit (NSH) had 170 patients on their register. Most of the patients started on treatment were from Townships (82%), and 81% of all patients started on treatment were unemployed. The male(33.7%) to female (62.7) ratio was 1:2. Even though on average 90% of patients at both hospitals kept their first six appointment, defaulter rates at FERH was 23,2% and NSH was sitting at 33,1%. Discussion Our results show tha the two hospitals fall short on achieving the requierements by the Departmentof Health’s HIV plan that states under Priority Area 2, point 6.2, that accredited facilities must have the capacity to increase the retention of children and adults on ART – actively trace people on ART who are more than a month late for clinic/pharmacy appointment. The hospitals do not have proper tracking mechanisms in place, they lack important resources like transport, telephones and get wrong addresses. Based on the evidence we have gathered the hospitals’ defaulter rates and loss to follow-up are a concern but they are also not far off when compared to other places and countries whose defaulter rates are 20% on average. Conclusion and Recommendation Retention of patients in the programmes is an essential health imperative. It is therefore necessary that we make the following improvements to our hospital programmes: Make resources like telephone and transport available to healthcare workers; employ a dedicated team of workers doing only patient tracing and followup; invest in technology that would alert health care workers immediately a patient misses an appointment and finally educate the patients themselves of the importance of adherence to treatment and follow-up.

Limited research has been conducted on children’s understanding of HIV/AIDS despite its widespread practice in South Africa today. This study aimed to explore this area, specifically investigating institutionalised children’s understanding of HIV/AIDS Increased mortality rates have been seen as a result of the pandemic. In addition, children are seen as vulnerable to the impact of HIV/AIDS. While some children are directly affected by HIV/AIDS, having lost their parents to the epidemic, other children are infected with the virus. Taking this into account, it was deemed useful to explore how children have made sense of HIV/AIDS. The participants for the current study were between the ages of 8 and 14 years, and they were drawn from a children’s institution in a black community within South Africa. The participants engaged in story telling and drawing as means of communicating their understanding of HIV/AIDS. They participated in the following activities: Draw A Person (DAP), Kinetic Family Drawing (KFD), Draw a picture of a person infected with HIV/AIDS, Drawing a picture of HIV/AIDS, and completing Incomplete Sentences in relation to their understandings of HIV/AIDS. They also answered relevant questions in relation to all their drawings. Thematic content analysis was used to analyse data, together with methods adopted from a study conducted by Wiener and Figueroa (1998). It was found that children have a basic understanding of HIV/AIDS, based on information they obtained from their educators, guardians, peers, and the media. Prominent themes arising from the findings are as follows: the visibility of HIV infection, the impact of HIV on relationships, HIV changing lives, preoccupation with death and dying, confusion about HIV/AIDS, and HIV and Morality. Generally, respondents were found to have a negative perception of HIV/AIDS. It was also found that although respondents seem to have some understanding of HIV/AIDS regarding modes of transmission, and ways of preventing transmission, confusion about HIV/AIDS was dominant.