In S. Africa first, soap diva to develop AIDS

Last Updated: 2006-07-06 12:20:02 -0400 (Reuters Health)

By Andrew Quinn

JOHANNESBURG - Like soap opera divas around the world, Nandipha Matabane has had a tumultuous life of tragedy and triumph.

Nandipha, a character on the South African soap drama "Isidingo", has been kidnapped, raped and lost her baby in a bomb blast. She was diagnosed with HIV infection before launching a glamorous new career as a television presenter.

Now, in a first for South Africa's most popular soaps, Nandipha is developing AIDS -- a step Isidingo's producers hope will help break the stigma that surrounds the disease in a country where one out of nine people are HIV-positive.

"There is a sense in many ways AIDS has gone off the boil in its public profile and how seriously people take it," said Greig Coetzee, head writer for the series.

"People either ignore it, or have a fatalistic approach. We want to show that people can live with AIDS and manage it, even if they are sick."

Isidingo is among the highest-rated of South Africa's home-grown soap operas, centres on a fictional gold mining town and traces the complicated lives of black and white characters as they deal with love, money and betrayal.

But while HIV/AIDS -- which infects an estimated 5 million of South Africa's 45 million people -- has featured in more serious nighttime television dramas, the epidemic has thus far had little impact in the frothy soap opera world.

Nandipha's ordeal is about to change that.

"She will have ups and downs. We certainly are not going to see her story through rose-tinted glasses," Coetzee said.

The Sowetan newspaper said the Isidingo plot twist would be a "reality check" for devoted fans of the show, which is broadcast on the SABC public broadcaster and has more than a million viewers each day.

"Nandipha's progression from being HIV-positive to having full-blown AIDS will be a shocking but welcome change to the story line," the newspaper said in an editorial on Thursday.

"The once beautiful and youthful Nandipha will undergo a frightening change as her condition worsens."

Media analysts said Isidingo could have big impact on AIDS awareness in South Africa, where activists accuse the government of playing down the epidemic and only a handful of public figures have acknowledged being infected with HIV.

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Light penalties for forced hysterectomies in China

Last Updated: 2006-07-06 16:17:33 -0400 (Reuters Health)

BEIJING - A Chinese court has lightly punished welfare workers and doctors who forced hysterectomies on two mentally retarded girls because their crime was not considered severe, state media said on Thursday.

The deputy manager of the girls' care home had proposed that the girls' uteruses be removed so they would be easier to supervise, the Beijing News said. That official has been given a one-year suspended jail sentence, and the manager and two doctors six months' probation.

"Since the particulars of the crime committed by the accused were not severe, and since the malevolence was comparatively low, the court could consider a light punishment," the paper reported.

Still, the court found on Wednesday that the surgery had caused a "serious injury and a violation of the girls' rights". The paper did not give the girls' ages but said they had begun to menstruate.

One of the doctors' lawyers defended their action, saying that such operations were common in China. "The girls were unable to care for themselves," the paper quoted the lawyer, Tan Zhen, as saying. "At the same time, they didn't possess the conditions for marriage or for child-rearing.

"As far as the guardians and the doctors were concerned, the operation was in the two girls' interests. It was to protect the two disabled girls' rights.

"Similar operations can be performed abroad with court approval, but China lacks this legal framework," the lawyer said.

Copyright © 2006 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters shall not be liable for any errors or delays in the content, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon. Reuters and the Reuters sphere logo are registered trademarks and trademarks of the Reuters group of companies around the world.