<p>The HIV/AIDS pandemic poses the greatest threat to Africa's efforts to achieve its full potential in the social, economical and political spheres. Cognizant of its devastating consequences, various mechanisms have been designed to address the issue of HIV/AIDS in Africa. This thesis addressed the question: 'Are the legislations and policies of Ethiopia, Botswana and Uganda providing for various modalities of HIV testing consistent with human rights as enshrined under African Human Rights system?' The author of this dissertation critically analyzed the African human rights instruments and the relevant domestic legislation and policies of the three countries.</p>

Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, 2008.

The aim of this research was to implement and evaluate guidelines that will be used by treatment support counsellors in an attempt to increase client adherence to antiretroviral treatment.

Dissertation submitted in full compliance with the requirements for the Masters Degree of Technology: Nursing, Durban Institute of Technology, 2005. / The study was a cross sectional descriptive approach using individual interviews and a focus group. The study took place in Inanda, KwaZulu Natal. The purpose of the study was to assess the Bhambayi community at the individual, family and community levels in terms of the provision of home-based care for people living with, and affected by AIDS; and to develop an action plan for an appropriate intervention.

M.A. (Community Development) / The statistics on HIV/Aids in this study overwhelm the imagination. It has great social and economical consequences for individuals, families and communities. The generation of between 15-24 years are vulnerable to infection especially women. From the population of about 46 million in South Africa, 5.7 million were HIV positive by the end of 2007 with about 1000 deaths every day. Sub-Saharan Africa appeared to be the most hit by this tragedy as indicated by statistics in this study. When parents die of Aids, the burden of orphaned children is left with relatives and extended families to look after those children. The number of orphans is escalating due to increasing death rate of parents. A detailed discussion on the extended families which includes their origin, roles they play as well as challenges they face in caring for orphaned children is included as well. Challenges include having to deal with grief and changing behaviour of the orphaned children. The goal of this study was to conduct an analysis of extended families affected by HIV/Aids taking care of orphans, living in the Kyasands informal settlement in order to improve service delivery. The main objectives of the study included exploring the needs of these extended families caring for orphaned children in terms of social, emotional and material aspects as well as challenges they face and how they manage to survive. A qualitative method was used in conducting this study with the use of semi-structured interviews to collect information. The main central question asked was, how do you manage to live with an additional member within your family. The main findings in this study were reported which included the strength and composition of assets and the extended families’ resources to make a living and adjust to shocks of life. Family was seen as the most trusted asset in this study by the respondents. Just to mention a few, most of the families owned shacks, battery operated radios and televisions since they live in formal settlement without any permanent infrastructures.

M.A. / In sub-Saharan Africa the importance of understanding the illness and dying experiences of people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHAs) is underlined by the fact that some 30 million people are already infected with HIV. Yet, there has been precious little research on chronic illness and dying within the sociology of health and illness. This dissertation begins to address this gap by considering the question ‘how does care of AIDS patients inform a sociology of illness and dying?’ It is argued that AIDS related chronic illness and dying are best understood within the AIDS care context. A theoretical model of quality AIDS care (QACM) was constructed, and highlights access, physical and psychosocial aspects of care. This was evaluated in relation to two South African hospices, both located on the Witwatersrand. In addition, a telephonic survey was undertaken in order to situate the two case studies within a national context of hospice-based AIDS-care. Some of the valuable refinements made to the literature QACM include new staff motivators, self-contained funding, additional dietary concerns, more cost-effective treatments, the importance of stigma, patient-patient support and the advent of hospice day-care centres. It was concluded that caregiver and patient needs must be met to ensure quality care provision. Three noteworthy conclusions were drawn. Firstly, the QACM was found to be a sound reflection of hospice AIDS-care reality. Secondly, the case hospices sufficiently subscribed to the required care standards, but improvements are warranted. Thirdly, and most importantly, the study highlights the impact of stigma on the chronic illness and dying experiences of PLWHAs. This study has taken a small step in the right direction by providing some sociological insights into chronic illness and dying, by the application of Northern-centric literature to the developing context of South African hospice AIDS-care. Further investigations may serve to bear these conclusions out, in alternative care settings, in order to further develop the sociology of illness and dying. / Prof. J.M. Uys Prof. P. Alexander.

M.A. / This dissertation examines the fear that surrounds death as a consequence of AIDS. It focuses on the relationship that exists between two kinds of deaths, namely the ‘good death’ and the ‘wild death’. The aim of this dissertation is two-fold. It specifically investigates the existence of a ‘good death’, posing the question whether dying ‘wildly’ is necessarily inhumane or unnatural. Secondly, it seeks to emphasise the fact that the stigma surrounding AIDS increases the fears of dying and death. In this dissertation, investigation is confined to workers on the Impala Platinum Mines on the western limb of the bushveld complex, near the towns of Phokeng and Rustenburg in South Africa’s North West Province. The dissertation focuses on mineworkers, among whom – as a consequence of an excessive use of prostitution, single sex hostels, strenuous working conditions, and a lack of knowledge – there is a high level of HIV infection. The dissertation consists of two critical parts. The first aims at understanding the ideas of the fears of dying and death, with a specific focus on the theory of good and wild death, while the second analyses these fears in relation to HIV-positive miners. My methods of data collection, analysis and interpretation were ethnographic, providing a description of death and AIDS in concrete circumstances, rather than an abstract and hypothetical analysis of the phenomenon of dying and death. Information was acquired from 25 selected HIV-positive mine respondents during the period November 2002 to March 2003. This dissertation deals with a topic on which little has been written in relation to AIDS sufferers in South Africa. Its objectives are to clarify the meaning of a ‘good death’ by drawing on the South African approach of a ‘good death’ and to also examine what would be required in trying to help people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHAs) to achieve this ‘good death’. / Prof. P. Alexander Dr. Ria Smit

This study examines race differences and the relationship between religiosity/ spirituality and social support on quality of life (QOL) among people living with HIV/AIDS in Dallas/Ft. Worth, TX. The data were obtained from the Project VOICES research study conducted by the Center of Psychosocial Health Research at University of North Texas in 2003. This study explores the hypotheses that religiosity/spirituality and social support positively influences quality of life among people living with HIV/AIDS. The current study uses a diverse, gender-balanced sample consisting of African Americans (n = 156), aged 20-68, 47% male, 52% female and 1% transgendered) and Non-African Americans (n = 131), aged 19-65, 50% male, 46% female and 3% transgendered) (Caucasian, Latino, & others) to evaluate the relationship among variables of interest. Multiple regression analyses revealed that social support was a significant factor explaining quality of life (QOL) for African Americans when controlling for medical variables but did not for non-African Americans. Religiosity/spirituality was not found to be significant in this study. The implications of the findings are discussed.

This dissertation seeks to expand our understanding of AIDS activism by adding to the historical register the stories of individuals who engaged in everyday acts of protest through their endorsement of unorthodox etiological and therapeutic responses to the disease. By focusing on the histories of two poorly understood New York City based organizations – the People with AIDS Coalition (PWAC) and Health Education AIDS Liaison (HEAL) – it both supplements and challenges scholarship which has to date focused predominately on the public protests organized by the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP). Resisting a common scholarly bias that masks and marginalizes unorthodox, everyday acts of resistance, I map the larger sociocultural currents that gave birth to and sustained their expression amongst individuals living with, responding to, and dying from AIDS in New York City through the 1980s and 1990s. In so doing, I strive to achieve a true social history of AIDS better able to capture diverse expressions of patient resistance than those organized about professional norms and institutional taxonomies. It is my hope that its methodology and conclusions may not only deepen our understanding of the late 20th Century’s most studied epidemic disease, but indeed more broadly inform historical scholarship investigating patient engagement with other infectious and chronic diseases.

Thesis (M.Sc. (Agricultural Economics)) --University of Limpopo, 2005 / This study is based on a survey of 396 farming households from Mabele; Khubu and Nwahajeni communities. The results show that in general, HIV/AIDS status appears to have a significant negative impact on the number of household members working full time on the farm. An indication that households affected by HIV/AIDS are likely to suffer loss of farm labour due to sick household members who cannot work on the farm. Generally, information on HIV/AIDS appears to have a significant positive impact on the number of household members working full time on the farm. An indication that households that are well-informed about HIV/AIDS are likely to have higher number of households members working full time on the farm. The study shows that HIV/AIDS is negatively correlated with household farm income. An indication that the higher the number of household members infected with HIV/AIDS, household farm income is likely to decrease. This may be due to shortage of household farm labour. Farm labour shortage results in the reduction of farming operations and loss of total household farm income. The study shows that the number of household members working full time on the farm is negatively correlated with difficulty to pay for health care; difficulty to pay for agricultural inputs; and difficulty to save money. An indication that as the number of household members working full time on the farm is reduced, it is likely that households will find it difficult to pay for health care, agricultural inputs and saving money. / National Research Foundation (NRF)