(Re)reading the political conflict over HIV in South Africa (1999-2008): A new materialist analysis

This article recasts a critical moment in the history of HIV/AIDS in South Africa: the struggle over the science of HIV that emerged under former South African President Mbeki (1999-2008). It compares how the Mbeki administration and prominent South African AIDS organisation, the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) responded to the dominant scientific model of HIV/AIDS. Contrary to existing research, which presents the government and TAC's positions as polarised, this article draws attention to some important commonalities in their understandings of HIV. I argue that both parties were doing the 'boundary-work' of science (Gieryn, 1995, p. 404): tussling over the demarcation between science and non-science in order to assert the 'truth' about HIV/AIDS. In so doing, they constitute HIV as a biologically self-evident disease possessed of intrinsic attributes. The article draws on science studies and new materialist scholarship to query this conventional view and its presumption that disease is a static object that precedes political processes and practices. It argues instead that disease is made through politics and it traces some significant political practices that have contributed to making HIV/AIDS in South Africa in specific, sometimes damaging ways. © 2014 Macmillan Publishers Ltd

An investigation on students' risky sexual behavior at KwaZulu-Natal University, South Africa, Durban

University environments are fertile grounds for risky sexual behaviors. This study investigated students' risky sexual practices at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in Durban, South Africa. Data were collected using quantitative and qualitative methods. A total of 1,405 questionnaires were administered, and 80 in-depth interviews and four focus group discussions were conducted. Quantitative data were analyzed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) for Windows 16.0. Qualitative data were analyzed using thematic analysis. The sample included 1,405 students, the majority (93%) of whom were never married and 97% were sexually experienced. Among males reporting male partnerships those who used alcohol were significantly more likely to report risky sexual practices. Among females reporting male partnerships, those 30 years and older were significantly less likely to report engaging in risky sexual behavior with male partners. Alcohol use was connected with inconsistent condom use and not using condom last sex among females. While low rates of condom use were a problem among older students aged 30 years and older, and risky sexual practices were more common among younger students. Risky sexual behaviors pose a big challenge for the successful HIV prevention interventions on university campuses