Tracking HIV for more than 20 years: SABSSM VI shows prevalence peak shift to older people

South Africa's HIV epidemic is maturing, with more older people living longer on antiretroviral therapy. However, young people are still at risk. According to the HSRC's sixth HIV household survey, a summary report of which was released in November, less than half of young people with multiple sexual partners are using condoms while they are least likely to be virally suppressed. Findings such as these have public health implications and emphasise the continued relevance of this flagship HSRC survey series, which is celebrating more than 20 years of tracking HIV in South Africa.

Are mhealth interventions effective in improving the uptake of sexual and reproductive health services among adolescents?: a scoping review

Adolescents continue to face challenges to their sexual and reproductive health (SRH) both locally and internationally. Digital technologies such as the Internet, text messaging, and social media are often viewed as valuable tools for disseminating information on SRH. Mobile health, also known as mHealth, is a medical and public health practise that uses these digital technologies to communicate information. The literature has revealed that mHealth interventions have a positive outcome in delivering SRH information to adolescents. This review aimed to synthesise empirical studies that evaluate mHealth interventions and assess the extent to which these mHealth interventions promote sexual and reproductive health outcomes among young people. This scoping review reviewed the literature across four databases, including EBSCOhost, Scopus, Proquest, and Cochrane, and included 12 articles. The findings have shown that mHealth interventions are effective in enhancing sexual and reproductive health (SRH) knowledge and attitudes among young people in both lowmiddle and high-income countries. However, comprehensive longitudinal studies are necessary to measure the sustainability and long-term influence of mHealth interventions on behaviour. It is recommended that with artificial intelligence (AI) improvements, there is a possible path to bolstering mHealth interventions.

Lauretta Ngcobo: writing as the practice of freedom

Lauretta Ngcobo's death in November 2015 robbed South Africa and the African continent of a significant literary talent, freedom fighter, and feminist voice. Born in 1931 in Ixopo in the then Natal Province, South Africa Ngcobo was one of three pioneering black South African women writers - the first to publish novels in English from the particular vantage point of black women. Along with Bessie Head and Miriam Tlali, Ngcobo showed the world, through her fiction, what it was like to be black and woman in apartheid South Africa. Where Alan Paton's Cry, The Beloved Country (1948) rendered African women -silent, with the patient suffering of black women, with the suffering of oxen, with the suffering of any that are mute, - Ngcobo imagined women characters fully and gloriously human in their complexity. Her first novel, Cross of Gold, was published in England in 1981, after she had left South Africa as a member of the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) for exile first in Swaziland, then Tanzania, and finally, England. Drawing on her experiences of harassment by the apartheid regime, the novel followed the fate of Mandla, a young political activist whose mother, Sindisiwe, dies in the novel's first chapter. Feminist critique that the novel's only strong women character died too early, forced Ngcobo to reflect on the politics of representation in her work. Stung by the criticism around Sindisiwe's death, Ngcobo set out to write a second novel in which the women would not only survive, but be strong and powerful agents of history. The result was And They Didn't Die (1990), a novel that has staked out a place as an African feminist classic alongside Buchi Emecheta's The Joys of Motherhood (1979), Tsitsi Dangarembga's Nervous Conditions (1988), Bessie Head's A Question of Power (1974) and Nawal El Sadaawi's Woman at Point Zero (1975). And They Didn't Die is path-breaking in its portrayal of the experiences of a black woman that gives its main character, Jezile, an interiority and a voice rarely seen in South African literature before this novel's publication. It is singular in highlighting the damaging, overlapping intersectional effects of apartheid and customary law on the lives of African women confined to apartheid Bantustans. In this novel, Ngcobo deftly illustrates the ways in which African women are positioned between these two oppressive systems, with devastating effects on their own and children's lives. Ngcobo was also a cultural activist determined to nurture the talents of other marginalised women writers. In exile, she edited the collection of essays, Let it Be Told: Black Women Writers in Britain (1987), and upon her return to South Africa, Prodigal Daughters: Stories of Women in Exile (2012). She also authored the children's book, Fikile Learns to Like Other People (1994). This new addition to the Voices of Liberation, Lauretta Ngcobo: Writing as the practice of freedom, serves as of a mapping of Ngcobo's life, as well as some of her key texts. It is divided into three broad categories: 1) Her Life, 2) Her Words, and 3) Her Legacy

Xenophobia in South Africa: can this morph into genocide?

It is now well known that genocide does not occur overnight. It develops gradually over time and gains momentum, as tell-tale signs such as hate speech, insults, incitement, discrimination, dehumanisation and assaults are often deliberately ignored. Although the South African government has primarily been in denial about acknowledging this challenge, xenophobia is one of the most serious problems in the country. Across the political and ideological spectrum in South Africa, in many cases the language used by government ministers, bureaucrats and those responsible for essential services at the local level (e.g., health care) have been blatantly xenophobic. There is a tendency to stigmatise immigrants as criminals, as people who undermine economic development and take jobs from locals. This has fuelled prejudicial attitudes towards immigrants, particularly those from other African countries. These are important antecedent indicators that can anticipate the potential and serve as a catalyst for violence against targeted groups.

Status of the HIV epidemic in SA: who are we missing in the response?

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Computer-aided detection thresholds for digital chest x-ray interpretation in tuberculosis diagnostic algorithms

Use of computer-aided detection (CAD) software is recommended to improve tuberculosis screening and triage, but threshold determination is challenging if reference testing has not been performed in all individuals. We aimed to determine such thresholds through secondary analysis of the 2019 Lesotho national tuberculosis prevalence survey.

A dictionary of Mozambican history and society

This book, now co-authored with Mozambican scholar Amelia Neves de Souto, is based on Colin Darch's Historical Dictionary of Mozambique (2019), with new entries, updated information, and the correction of some minor errors of fact and interpretation. Written primarily for a South African readership, the revised edition aims to make information on Mozambique easily available and affordable for readers interested in the history of one of South Africa's closest neighbours. Over several centuries, relations between the two emerging territories have been complex and sometimes troubled, and although the economies of the two countries have for many years been interdependent, the simple fact that Mozambique is officially a Portuguese-speaking country has acted as a barrier to understanding. The emphasis is on contemporary history and society from the middle of the twentieth century onwards, with perhaps one-third of the entries dealing with topics and personalities from that period. However, the dictionary includes multiple entries covering the period before the arrival of the Portuguese in the late fifteenth century, as well as on the five centuries of their often precarious presence in Mozambique.N/

Ramaphosa and a new dawn for South African foreign policy

President Cyril Ramaphosa's notion of a New Dawn as the clarion call for his presidency is yet to manifest fully in South Africa's foreign policy. However, some changes are already indicating a departure from the Zuma era's foreign policy. Ramaphosa's emphasis on foreign direct investment and trade seems to be the cornerstone of his tenure's foreign policy. Besides this, some other developments and continuities require deeper reflection; one of the objectives of the fourth volume of the highly successful South African Foreign Policy Review series. Broadly a reflection and assessment of the Ramaphosa era, the volume intends to focus on foreign policy leadership, foreign policy architecture, diplomacy, questions such as national interests and national identity, and South Africa's bi- and multilateral relations. Contributors to volume 4 include South African and international experts, and will, like previous volumes, be of great use to diplomats, academics, students, government officials, parliamentarians, politicians, the media, and civil society. Volume 4, continues to build on the analysis of South Africa's conduct internationally. The Review fills a gap in the continuity of analysis on South African Foreign policy, providing an important resource in tracing trends and developments. If the country is to maintain and grow its role in the region and international affairs more broadly, the public, scholars, and practitioners need to be able to take stock of how the country has conducted itself internationally so far, and how it could improve on a number of fronts including areas such as regional leadership, balancing principles and practice, and supporting diplomatic practice. The fourth volume of the South African Foreign Policy Review, edited by Lesley Masters, Jo Ansie van Wyk, and Philani Mthembu, includes 18 chapters. In reviewing the conduct of South African foreign policy, the analysis focuses on key themes in South Africa's foreign policy, with a particular focus on the Ramaphosa administration and the idea of a 'New Dawn'. The book provides consideration of the norms and values, architecture, and practice of foreign policy through exploring conceptual frameworks and reviewing diplomacy in practice.N/

"You get HIV because there is no hope" a rapid qualitative assessment of the HIV vulnerabilities of transgender women in three South African metros

Epidemiological data show that transgender women are disproportionately affected by Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV). Data in South Africa on the HIV vulnerabilities of transgender women are sparse. This paper qualitatively explores the structural, personal, and economic factors that contribute to making South African transgender women vulnerable to HIV and other sexually transmitted infections (STIs).

Understanding entrepreneurial pathways amongst African youth: evidence from a longitudinal cohort study

Paper presented at the HSRC Research Conference, Cape Town, 18-20 SeptemberYouth entrepreneurship is multifaceted. Categorisation of entrepreneurial drivers should reflect its complexities and nuances. Young entrepreneurs should have access to adequate forms of support.N/