Includes bibliographical references (leaves 84-102). / HIV positive adolescents are becoming a progressively more sizeable and prominent sub-group in the South African HIV/AIDS epidemic. As HAART becomes increasingly available, vertically infected children can be expected to survive into adolescence and adulthood. Additionally, sexual transmission of HIV remains a problem, and incidence and prevalence rates among South African youth are high. Experience from the developed world indicates that providing effective care and treatment for youth can be a challenging task. In light of the antiretroviral rollout in South Africa, this exploratory study aimed to identify the experiences and needs of adolescents growing up in care or on treatment for HIV in the Western Cape. To this end, a review of the existing literature on the psychosocial aspects of HIV infection in adolescents was undertaken. Relevant articles were identified, summarized and entered into a database, and particular attention was given to research conducted in the context of sub-Saharan Africa. Additionally, focus groups interviews were conducted with 26 young people attending an adolescent infectious diseases clinic at a tertiary hospital in the Western Cape. Focus groups proceeded according to a pre-set discussion guide and investigated participants' current life experinces, views on the future and self-perceived needs. All interviews were recorded, translated into English, and transcribed, and data were coded and analyzed using NVivo qualitative data analysis software. The study revealed that the psychosocial issues associated with HIV infection in adolescents coalesce around five central themes: knowledge and understanding about personal serostatus, mental health, network of support, treatment management, and healthy behaviour. These issues present challenges to HIV positive adolescents in the present, and affect their outlook on the future. Findings reveal that despite the fact that young seropositive South Africans live in a country where social contexts, available resources and healthcare systems differ markedly from those in developed countries, they share similar concerns and face many of the same challenges as other HIV positive young people around the world. Future studies should investigate each of the five identified themes in greater depth by determining the contextual correlates of individual views, experiences and needs.

Includes bibliographical references (leaves 51-56). / When addressing the global HIV/AIDS pandemic, it is necessary to identify risk factors which are shared by populations, as well as those which may place populations uniquely at risk. Although Canada is a developed country, its Aboriginal population shares socio-economic characteristics with the world's developing populations. This thesis explores the shared risk factors among the Aboriginal population in Canada, where the HIV/AIDS epidemic is increasing despite relatively low national prevalence rates, and South Africa's African population, where the HIV/AIDS epidemic is particularly acute. The present analysis compares the profile of the African South African HIV/AIDS epidemic with risk factors that also occur among Aboriginal people. The results of this analysis show that the Aboriginal population has an epidemic risk profile that is similar to that of African South Africans. This points to the potential for a rapid increase of HIV/AIDS among Aboriginal people, as has been the case in the African South African population over the past two decades.

Includes bibliographical references (p. 83-97). / Includes abstract. / This thesis considers the power of United States popular media to construct both conceptions of "Africa" and knowledge of HN / AIDS among exchange students in Cape Town, South Africa. Arguing that the reification of myths about Africa influenced respondents' arrival stories and initial experiences, I exhibit how being in South Africa produced very different associations, particularly with regard to intimate relationships. Drawing on theoretical work that looks at the tendency to imagine disease as a product of "foreign" or "other" people, and building on respondents' imaginary Africa, the conceptual linking of Africa to AIDS is highlighted in their discussions of expectations. The linking of HN / AIDS to Africa affects respondents decision to study in South Africa, as well as their initial interactions; highlighting the tendency of respondents to describe their motivation for studying in South Africa a result of a sense of "responsibility" they feel to "save" Africans from AIDS. Respondents' urge to "save" is in tension with their initial tendency to distance themselves from HIV / AIDS in Africa through an imaginary matrix of immunity exhibited through rhetorics of difference. Evolving from respondents' motivation to "save," a discussion of "moral tourism" and ''voluntouring'' is explored. The thesis argues that the combination of voluntary services and living in Cape Town has the ability to change perceptions that were previously used as explanation for high levels of contraction rates of HIV / AIDS on the African continent and particularly in sub-Saharan Africa.

Includes bibliographical references. / This case study explores the evolution of South African policy on prevention of mother to child HIV transmission (PMTCT). It employs the advocacy coalition framework developed by Paul Sabatier to analyse the factors that have hindered and facilitated the alteration and subsequent implementation of PMTCT policy. It provides a clear illustration of the impact that actors outside of the government can have on policy change and policy implementation.

Includes bibliographical references (leaves 95-102).

Includes bibliographical references (p. 94-104). / The HIV epidemic in South Africa is among the worst in the world with an estimated 5.7 million people living with HIV in 2007 (UNAIDS, 2008). South Africa's national education system has responded to the epidemic by introducing Life Skills HIV education across primary and secondary-level schools to promote HIV prevention, care and support among school learners. In particular, the Western Cape Education Department (WCED) has recommended that all teachers integrate HIV education across the curriculum. The Norms and Standards for Educators (NSE) policy document states that each pre-service teacher (PST) must meet 'community, citizenship and pastoral' practitioner roles; these roles entail student counselling, awareness and knowledge of issues impacting the community and corresponding support services, and promotion of HIV awareness in the school curriculum. HIV/AIDS education literature indicates that PST responses to teacher roles and responsibilities vary, and are often greatly influenced by the experiences PSTs bring with them into the teacher-training programme. This dissertation aimed to explore factors that shape PST identities in response to their HIV/AIDS teaching roles and responsibilities as outlined by the NSE policy document and the WCED. Research was conducted with a cohort of PSTs who attended the Post Graduate Certificate teachertraining programme at the University of Cape Town in 2007. A combination of qualitative and quantitative methods was used with a sample group of 81 PSTs. In total, 50 PSTs were surveyed and 19 PSTs were involved in 3 focus group discussions and 15 in-depth interviews. Findings from this study indicate that PSTs bring an array of their own experience, knowledge and perceptions to the teacher-training programme which ultimately shape and contribute to the teacher identity they create in responding to HIV/AIDS teaching roles and responsibilities. Based on evidence from the study, this thesis argues that the PST's experience, knowledge and perceptions of HIV I AIDS should be considered when developing teacher-training programmes in order to promote a comprehensive and effective response to HIV through the education sector in South Africa.

It is two decades since the start of the HIV/AIDS pandemic. Since then it has caused the death of millions and untold suffering to many more, especially in sub-Saharan Africa. Yet, while some Christian response soon developed, until a few years ago the majority of churches have struggled to recognise in this disaster a challenge to themselves. The last few years have seen a flurry of activity from churches and Christian agencies in this field. New AIDS ministries are springing up, often in a rather haphazard fashion. This study aims to establish what the response of churches and Christian groups in the Cape Town area is to the HIV/AIDS pandemic. The starting point for the response lies in the perceptions shaping the churches' AIDS discourse, since church activities are to a large degree discourse based. Hence the study starts with an investigation of the relationship between discourse and practice, paying special attention to the common metaphors and discourses used when referring to HIV/AIDS. Since the African context is crucial to the way HIV/AIDS is developing here, questions are posed to these discourses from an African point of view. The study further considers the type of programmes emerging from this discourse. A survey was conducted by questionnaire in the Cape Town area to collect information from 30 Christian service providers end denominations. The aim is to evaluate whether the response is appropriate to the needs, to our African context and to the churches' mission. It is my hypothesis that while the Christian contribution to AIDS services is valuable, it is in many respects not appropriate. To support this hypothesis the study develops criteria for an appropriate AIDS discourse, and based on that for an appropriate practical response to the HIV/AIDS pandemic. These were derived from relevant literature as well as a series of informal interviews with local AIDS activists. Finally, some pointers are given as to how the Christian response to HIV/AIDS could be developed on a solid theological foundation in order to offer a service that is more appropriate to the needs, to our African context and to the churches' mission.

Submitted to the Department of Theology and Religion Studies In fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Theology In the Division of Systematic Theology, Ethics and History of Christianity at the University of Zululand, 2006. / The research concerns the role the Church can play in mitigating the impact of HiV and AIDS on the female-headed households in KwaDalngezwa. This is considered through the use of livelihood activities. The first chapter gives an overview of the whole research. The chapter shows the essence and importance of the research. In chapter two is the literature review on the impact of HIV and AIDS in general and KwaDlangezwa community in particular. In this chapter, the issues of a female-headed household, household livelihood activities and a household as a unit of the study were discussed. The chapter also considers the issues of livelihood systems and their components. In chapter three, the research addresses the research design and methodology. The chapter also deals with the framework for this research. Chapter four discusses the issues of a household profile and means of livelihood. Also included in this chapter are household structure, composition, division of labour, livelihood assets and resources. In chapter five, the focus is on the discussions and evaluation of the research. The chapter goes further to address the issues of death and funerals as they affect the female-headed household in KwaDlangezwa. The chapter then concludes with the constraints facing the female-headed household. In the final chapter, the research argues that a combination of agriculture [subsistence farming], empowerment, emancipation and education are alternatives to Black Economic Empowerment [BEE]. These will provide the most practical contribution the Church can make. Under agriculture, the issues of planting, processing and storage systems are discussed while micro-enterprises focus on beadwork and pottery. Under BEE the research pays attention to empowerment, emancipation and education as the alternative to Black Economic Empowerment only. These are the most practical ways of reaching the poor, especially women. The chapter goes further to address the issue of the Child Support Grant. This is because some people have adopted the Child Support Grant as their only means of livelihood, it concludes with a number of business opportunities the Church can use to mitigate the impact of HIV and AIDS on a female-headed household in KwaDlangezwa.

A thesis submitted to the Department of Library and Information Science for the award of a Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Library and Information Science Facultv of Arts at the University of Zululand, 2007. / HIV/AIDS is said to be a new type of global emergency - an unprecedented threat to human development requiring sustained action and commitment over a long term. Nowhere is its impact felt more than in Sub-Saharan Africa, even more so in Eastern and Southern Africa. HIV/AIDS, in all its dimensions, demands novel alliances between the social and biological sciences, particularly when it comes to designing effective interventions to prevent or treat the complications of HTV transmission. This study therefore sought to provide decision makers and other stakeholders with a tool to use when formulating policies on HIV/AIDS intervention programs. To that end, the study set out to examine the research output and impact of HIV/AIDS by identifying and determining its nature, types, and trends in Eastern and Southern Africa as indexed and reflected in the MEDLINE, Science Citation Index (SCI) and the Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI) databases. Specifically, the study's focus was: ♦ To examine the nature, trend and type of HIV/AIDS research collaboration in E&S Africa between 1980 and 2005 with a view to recommend ways of improving or strengthening such collaborative activities. ♦ To examine the growth, productivity and scientific impact of HIV/AIDS sources of information [source publications] as they relate to E&S Africa between 1980 and 2005 in order to assess the visibility and coverage of HTV/AIDS sources and to provide relevant information so as to assist information providers, users in general, and more specifically, collection development librarians, particularly in the two regions, in their decision making processes regarding the identification, selection and development of relevant HIV/AIDS resources •> To evaluate the performance of individual authors, institutions and countries in terms of their productivity and scientific impact with a view to: (a) identify the most prolific and influential researchers, countries and institutions that conduct HIV/AIDS research in and about E&S Africa and (b) to compare the productivity and scientific impact of domestic/regional authors, institutions, and countries with their foreign counterparts. ♦ To assess the publishing activity in the fields/topics of HTV/AIDS research in order to: (a) distinctly bring out a clear picture on the efforts made in the various sub-fields of HIV/AIDS research and (b) to find out the relatedness of the risk factors, opportunistic infections, pre-disposing factors, sexually transmitted diseases and other tropical diseases that are common in Africa to HIV/AIDS. Using informetrics (as a research method) and more specifically publications count and citations count and analyses, relevant data was extracted from three key bibliographic databases (i.e. MEDLINE, SCI and SSCI) through an advanced search strategy which was employed to search and download HIV/AIDS documents specific to Eastern and Southern Africa using the Title, Abstract, Authors address and Subject Fields. This was accomplished by combining the names of the countries and 26 HTV/AEDS-specific terms which included the terms by which HIV/AIDS was known at the beginning of the epidemic. The downloaded data was analyzed using various computer-aided bibliographic software that included Sitkis version 1.5 ©2005, Microsoft Office Access ©2003, Microsoft Office Excel ©2003, Bibexcel ©2005, Citespace version 2.0.1 ©2005, TI, UCESTET for Windows ©2002, and Pajek version 1.08 ©1996. The findings show that HTV7AIDS research in E&S Africa is largely conducted through collaboration, as illustrated by the number of co-authored papers, which accounted for over 70% of the total number of papers in each country. Research collaboration between E&S African countries is rninimal when compared to the collaborative activities between these and foreign countries (i.e. countries outside Africa). This type of collaboration was predominant, and collaboration between E&S African countries and the rest of Africa was found to be almost non-existent, with the countries in West Africa recording a comparatively higher pattern than North African countries. Institutional collaboration is mainly between universities. Nevertheless, industry-university collaboration was visible, especially between government laboratories, ministries or teaching hospitals and the university, which to a large extent was responsible in the day-to-day running of the hospital teaching facilities/programs. It was also observed that there has been a remarkable growth in the number of HIV/AIDS researchers' networks between 1980 and 2005. The composition of these networks shows a high pattern of collaboration between local and foreign researchers. Finally, it was noted that research collaboration increases the average impact by 12.75 citations, while research conducted by individual researchers increases the average impact by only 3.48 citations. Concerning the sources of HTV7AIDS research, it was noted that the coverage of sources published in E&S African countries in key bibliographic databases is minimal, with the MEDLINE database indexing only 14 (1.01%) serials, while SCI and SSCI respectively covered 23 (1.65%) and 4 (0.29%) of the total 1393 serials published in the regions. Furthermore, sources that publish HIV/AIDS research on E&S Africa are evenly distributed in the MEDLINE and ISI databases, although about 50% of the total research output is unique in each database. Other observations were as follows: (a) journals are the most commonly used sources and channels in publishing and disseminating HIV/AIDS research on E&S Africa. The second most preferred source and channel was that of newspapers; (b) the number of sources publishing HIV/AIDS research on E&S Africa has exponentially increased over the period under study, i.e. 1980-2005, thereby posing serious challenges to collection development librarians and researchers/authors; (c) sources that publish HIV/AIDS research on E&S Africa are largely published in foreign countries. Out of the total 804 and 823 HIV/AIDS sources in MEDLINE and ISI, respectively, 92.54% and 97.57% were published in foreign countries, while locally published sources accounted for 3.73% and 2.19% of the total source publications in MEDLINE and ISI, respectively; (d) most HIV/AIDS research on E&S Africa is published in relatively low impact factor journals. Out of the total 823 sources in ISI, only 11 sources had an impact factor of more than 10.0; (e) HIV/AIDS research on E&S Africa is largely published in medical science-specific source publications, and more particularly, in general medical sources; and (f) there are about 13 core sources of HIV/AIDS research, namely, AIDS, LANCET, J INFECT DIS, NEW ENGL J MED, J VIROL, J ACQ IMMUN DEF SYND, JAMA, AIDS RES HUM RETROV, SCIENCE, BRIT MED J, S AFR MED J, SOC SCI MED, and J CLIN MICROBIOL. An analysis of the data according to the producers of HIV/AIDS research yielded the following findings: (a) a relatively high number of countries (i.e. 120) have been or are engaged in conducting HIV/AIDS research about E&S Africa; (b) HTV7AIDS research is evenly conducted in and/or by regional and foreign countries. Counting the frequencies of occurrence of each country in the address field yielded a total sum of 7041 occurrences for foreign countries and 6161 for African countries; (c) most HIV/AIDS research about E&S Africa is published in foreign countries, which accounted for approximately 83% and 88% of the total research papers in MEDLINE and ISI, respectively; (d) HIV/AIDS research is largely conducted by or at universities; and (e) the impact of HIV/AIDS research in and about E&S Africa has continued to increase as illustrated by the continued growth of the number of citations between 1980 and 2005. Nevertheless, a relatively huge amount of HIV/AIDS research (26.2%) remains uncited. Concerning the subject content of HIV/AIDS research, the following were the main observations: (a) the number of keywords/terms that are used to index HIV/AIDS research outputs has exponentially grown, thus providing a number of options for accessing HTV/AIDS research findings; (b) HTV/AIDS-specific terms (i.e. HIV infections and Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome) are the major keywords by which HIV/AIDS research findings can be accessed in the indexing services/databases; (c) HIV/AIDS research in E&S Africa is mostly on the sub-fields of epidemiology, prevention & control, transmission, complications, and Drug therapy; (d) drug therapy and Anti-Retrovirals (ARVs) are quickly emerging as the main areas of HIV/AIDS research in E&S Africa; and (e) HIV/AIDS is strongly associated with opportunistic infections, pre-disposing factors, risk factors, sexually transmitted diseases and other tropical diseases that are common in Sub-Saharan African countries. Finally, the study, while commending researchers in the region for their collaborative efforts, recommends that research collaboration, both at the national and international level, should be encouraged through such means as organizing international conferences within E&S Africa where researchers can exchange ideas and in so doing they can identify researchers from other countries with whom they can collaborate. Regarding the dissemination of HIV/AIDS research through publications, it was recommended that researchers be encouraged by way of incentives to present the findings in regionalized conferences as well as publish them in both print and electronic conference proceedings while publishing the papers in foreign sources. For purposes of visibility and impact, local journal publishers should endeavor to publish their journals both electronically and in print. In this way, both researchers and sources that publish HIV/AIDS research would receive a wider visibility and produce higher impact. In conclusion, it is hoped that the findings of this study will support HTV/AIDS researchers, funding organizations, AIDS prevention and control institutions, public health professionals, information service professionals, and government health ministries, among others, looking for information which can improve the quality of their decision making and/or increase their competitive intelligence. / University of Eastern Africa; and The research committee of the University of Zululand

A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Arts in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Masters Of Arts (Counselling Psychology) in the Department of Psychology at the University Of Zululand, 2013 . / Background: AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome) is caused by HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus). The HIV and AIDS epidemic is one of the largest obstacles that are destroying the lives and the livelihoods of millions of South Africans. Adolescents are the most vulnerable population at high risk of contracting HIV.Department of Health (2010) noted that in South Africa, KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) is the province with the highest HIV prevalence. Aims: To explore the perceptions of adolescents living in a township about HIV/AIDS. : To explore factors contributing to adolescents’ high rate of HIV/AIDS infection. To explore the influences of these perceptions on adolescents’ sexual behavior.: To explore adolescents’ general knowledge and understanding of HIV/AIDS.Method: Data collection instrument that was employed is a questionnaire with both open-ended and closed ended questions. Random sampling was employed and 50 participants from Ongoye high school took part in this study with 44% males (n=22) and 56% females (n=28).Results: Findings of this study revealed that the majority of respondents have enough information in regard to meaning, mode of transmission and preventing methods of HIV/AIDS, however some of the participants listed unrealistic perceptions about HIV/AIDS. When comparing between both genders, females seems to have more misconceptions about HIV and AIDS than males.Conclusion: Adolescents have misconceptions about HIV and AIDS. More programmes that target adolescents should be implemented in order to address these misconceptions as well as the factors that make them vulnerable to contract HIV/AIDS. More research should also be conducted on issues related to HIV/AIDS among adolescents.