HIV education and health care students - where are we going? : student training

The current status of HIV/AIDS statistics for southern Africa highlights and elevates the plight of health care students, already burdened by the specific nature of their training under the peculiar circumstances now prevailing in South African hospitals and training centres. The everyday and repetitive encounter with the tragedy of HIV/AIDS may well evoke a dangerous and complacent attitude on the part of health care students and a possible non-coring ethos akin to HIV fatigue : Health educators and all members of this profession need to rise to this challenge and ensure health core quality in the age of a changing infectious disease status.