Johannesburg Hospital'€™s HIV/AIDS Clinic has virtually stopped seeing new patients, referring most cases to primary health care clinics, ill equipped in dealing with HIV/AIDS-related illnesses.This latest revelation follows short on the heels of the closure last year of the HIV/AIDS Clinic at Pretoria Academic Hospital and allegations that about R40 million of government AIDS funds for 1999/2000 has not yet been spent.
Soweto researchers are expected to release the long awaited results of the Nevirapine trials at the AIDS 2000 conference in Durban in July. According to Dr James McIntyre, co-director of Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital'€™s Peri-Natal HIV Research Unit, most of the mothers who enrolled have now given birth.
Faced with the daunting task of trying to manage an AIDS epidemic which has the potential "to overwhelm our services", care givers, doctors, nurses and management from the Gauteng Health Department recently met in Johannesburg, hoping to find answers. Dr Liz Floyd, head of the province'€™s AIDS programme, said they were already losing people prematurely. "Good, fast treatment could have avoided that," she said.
According to the department of health, the aim of the National Aids Council will be to provide a co-ordinated platform where government and civil society can interact to organise a more multi-sectoral, less fragmented approach in the fight against HIV/AIDS.
Biographies of the members of the National Aids Council.
Once again the battle against the South African AIDS epidemic has been dealt a blow with controversy and politicking surrounding the long awaited announcement of the National AIDS Council.Now the danger, according to AIDS activists, is that as in the past with Sarafina 2 and Virodene, good intentions on the side of government, will do more harm than good.
Community service for doctors in South Africa was conceived amid controversy, but has emerged as a symbol of the commitment of the health department and the medical establishment to equity in the health system, according to the SA Health Review. But a concern remains the fact that unclear policy guidelines in the first year of implementation lead to only 259 (less than 25%) of the community service doctors being placed in rural hospitals, while 55% were working in regional, tertiary and specialised hospitals.First year intakes for medical students have shown a trend towards a more equitable racial distribution of students with a decrease in white students and an increase in the number of African students, the SA Health Review has revealed.
Most of the doctors who completed their community service year at the end of 1999 intended remaining in the public service, while a large percentage were planning to go overseas.
The need for cheap alternatives to hospitalisation for patients with AIDS-related diseases has led to increasing government support for home-based care. However, a study released by the Centre for Health Policy at the University of the Witwatersrand warns that home-based care is not always a cheaper solution. The study shows that home-based care also needs resources, even if the programme relies mainly on volunteers.
The biggest killer in history has not been TB or warfare, and  projections suggest that not even AIDS will  kill as many people as a parasite injected into the bloodstream by a female Anopheles mosquito: malaria. South Africa is not immune. With more than 43 000 cases and 310 deaths reported since September last year, experts are warning that the worst is yet to come, particularly as there has been heavy rainfall over the past few weeks in KwaZulu/Natal, the Northern Province and Mpumalanga the country's malaria hotspots.
The question is simple, the answer is not. How do you explain the fact that South Africa has one of the best AIDS plans in the world, but also the fastest growing epidemic?
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