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Hellen Gitau, African Population and Health Research Center; Blessing Mberu, African Population and Health Research Center; Kanyiva Muindi, African Population and Health Research Center, and Samuel Iddi, African Population and Health Research Center Housing is a critical social determinant of health. The World Health Organization (WHO) defines healthy housing as a shelter that supports physical, mental and social wellbeing. The WHO has developed guidelines outlining the attributes of healthy housing. These include structural soundness, as well as access to a local community that enables social interactions. Healthy housing protects inhabitants from the effects of disasters, pollution, waste and extreme heat or cold. It provides a feeling of home, including a sense of belonging, security and privacy. Health risks in the home environment are important to think about because of the amount of time people spend there. In countries where unemployment levels are high or where most work is home based,
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One in 3 South African women experience depression and/or anxiety during and after pregnancy. Empathy and positive mental health screening at clinics are essential parts of maternity care. This film by the Perinatal Mental Health Project at the University of Cape puts a spotlight on the training of health workers on obstetric violence, respectful maternity care and mental health.
by Dr Lee Randall an independent road safety researcher and co-founder of the Road Ethics Project Globally, young people aged 5-29 – especially males – are the most likely to die in road crashes. This is very concerning in Africa where an extremely high proportion of the population is made up of young people. This continent has an especially bad road death rate: 27 out of every 100,000 Africans die due to road crashes. This is in contrast with the best-performing European region where only 7 out of every 100,000 people die due to road crashes. Put plainly, in 2019 there were 18 Africans for every 10 Europeans, but 43 Africans died on the roads for every 10 Europeans who died the same way. South Africa is often seen as having good roads and road safety, but is actually not too far below the African average – the 2021 road
By Chris Bateman, Freelance Journalist With HIV positivity among urban transgender women in South Africa estimated at 46%, it is becoming increasingly urgent for healthcare workers to undergo sensitivity training. A transgender woman is a person who was assigned the male sex at birth but identifies and lives as woman. This message emerged in a session on, “Social enablers for key populations,” at the sixth HIV Clinicians’ Society Conference in Cape Town last week. Key populations are defined groups of people who are at increased risk of HIV acquisition. They also often have legal and social issues related to their identities or behaviours that increase their vulnerability to HIV. Professor Elma de Vries, a family physician, and secretary of the Professional Association for Transgender Health, says gender-affirming healthcare is highly effective in improving health and wellbeing. In the HIV context, it has been shown to improve viral load suppression. Service
Karen Hofman, University of the Witwatersrand and Susan Goldstein, University of the Witwatersrand Death rates in South Africa have declined slightly during the past few years. But the country faces a steady rise in both death and disability caused by increases in non-communicable diseases such as diabetes and cancer. According to the NCD Alliance, a civil society network, non-communicable diseases cause 71% of deaths globally. Of these deaths 85% occur in low and middle income countries. In South Africa, according to Statistics South Africa, there was an increase of 58% in deaths from non-communicable diseases from 1997 to 2018. Diabetes is the second leading cause of death in South Africa after tuberculosis. Diabetes affects 12% of the adult population, wreaking massive damage to individuals’ health and livelihoods, and to the national fiscus. The direct cost of diabetes to South Africa’s health system is R2.7 billion (US$150 million) – and that
By Chris Bateman, Freelance Journalist Only two-thirds of children in South Africa getting treatment for HIV are virally suppressed. Viral suppression is a measure of how well antiretroviral (ARVs) drugs reduce HIV viral load. A high HIV viral load suggests that the person is not taking their treatment constantly, or that the treatment isn’t working. Delays in sourcing long-acting, palatable oral ARVs for South Africa’s infants and children have been cited as a reason for the low viral load suppression. And, children need an adult caregiver to help them take the medication on a daily basis. This routine gets disrupted every time there’s a change in adult caregiving. This, in turn, leads to lower drug adherence. Professor Mo Archary, Paediatric Infectious Disease Specialist at King Edward VIII Hospital in Durban, says this has had a lethal impact. He cited a watershed multi-author study on the impact of the AIDS epidemic
The global measures to end the tuberculosis epidemic are showing signs of recovery post-Covid. More cases have been diagnosed and the number of people who died from the disease has gone down. Despite this apparent recovery, the World Health Organisation (WHO) says urgent action is needed to end the global TB epidemic by 2030. On Tuesday the WHO launched the global TB report which takes stock of the epidemic and the progress towards its elimination. The report paints a stark picture: targets for TB treatment, prevention and funding have been missed. TB is preventable and curable, but it was the world’s second leading cause of death from an infectious disease in 2022. It spreads through the air when a person who is sick with the disease sneezes, spits or coughs. It often affects the lungs but can occur in other parts of the body. Globally in 2022, TB caused an
Charles Shey Wiysonge, Stellenbosch University The BCG vaccine for TB has been used for 100 years. It is largely effective for children under five, but less so in older people and can’t be used on patients who have certain medical conditions. Today we’re the closest we’ve ever been to discovering a vaccine that might replace or complement it. Charles Shey Wiysonge, the World Health Organization’s Regional Adviser for Immunisation, discusses the latest developments in the fight against one of the world’s deadliest diseases. Why has it taken so long? We do not yet have a new vaccine for TB. But, for the first time, there are several vaccine candidates that are at advanced stages of clinical development. Vaccine development usually takes decades and unfolds step by step. Experimental vaccine candidates are created in the laboratory and tested in animals before moving into progressively larger human clinical trials. Clinical trials are
Lerato Mthunzi, Health and Allied Workers Indaba Trade Union (HAITU) General Secretary October is mental health awareness month and as it draws to an end, a few key issues must be highlighted to make this month less of a ritualistic procession filled with lofty rhetoric, yet minimal action. South Africa is a nation affected by high levels of mental illness. It is important to deal meaningfully with the serious issue of mental illness. In 2022, the MRC/Wits Developmental Pathways for Health Research Unit (DPHRU) released a paper titled, “The prevalence of probable depression and probable anxiety, and the associations with adverse childhood experiences and socio-demographics: A National Survey in South Africa”. The report found that more than a quarter of South Africans suffer from “probable depression”. These alarming statistics are of grave concern, and it should force us to recognise that this is a crisis which deserves our attention all
Mmamapudi Kubjane, University of the Witwatersrand and Leigh Johnson, University of Cape Town Around the world, men are more likely to get TB and to die from it than women. We recently conducted research to establish the various factors that explain higher rates of TB among men in South Africa. South Africa is ranked among the top six countries contributing to 60% of the global burden of TB. Our main finding was that men are 70% more likely to develop TB and die from the disease, compared to women. We estimated that in 2019, 801 per 100,000 adult men developed TB while among women the rate was 478 per 100,000. Current TB interventions focus on biomedical approaches emphasising preventive TB medication, diagnosing TB patients and treating them with anti-TB drugs. Our research demonstrates, however, that dealing with socioeconomic conditions and other determinants of TB is also important. Men’s access to