Health e News
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by Onke Ngcuka, Daily MaverickWeather experts have sent out an alert about the possible impacts of an El Niño manifesting in the central Pacific Ocean, but they are uncertain what effect it will have across southern Africa. El Niño is a weather phenomenon that typically brings with it higher temperatures and lower rainfall as a result of warm sea surface temperatures along the South American coast and towards the central Pacific Ocean, caused by weaker trade winds (easterly winds near the equator). Speaking at an El Niño summit hosted by the University of Pretoria on Monday, weather phenomenon observers said there had been record high sea surface temperatures, but it was still unclear what effect El Niño would have in southern Africa. Dr Neville Sweijd, a senior researcher at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), was one of the experts at the summit. He said that this year,
Youth Month calls us to reflect both on the historic debt we owe previous generations of young people who fought for our freedom and on the challenge of breathing hope and self-belief into the hearts of the current generation. The debate, quite rightly, centres on skills and jobs for young people in order to enable them to enjoy a better life than previous generations. But we cannot afford to neglect social ills that also erode the quality of life of our youth. Among these is the widespread use of alcohol by people under the age of 18, and a society that not only tolerates this but sometimes enables it. The issue is not whether it is morally right or wrong for adolescents and teenagers to drink. The fact is that it is damaging to their bodies and endangers their lives. The effect of alcohol on the brain is more marked
The death toll from the cholera outbreak in Hammanskraal climbed to 15t, the Gauteng Health Department confirmed Monday. The outbreak in the area was confirmed on Sunday. “By Sunday night 37 people were admitted to hospital. Another update will be given at midday,” says Gauteng Health Department Spokesman Motalatale Modiba. He urged anyone exhibiting symptoms of diarrhoea, nausea, vomiting, or stomach cramps to visit their nearest clinic or hospital immediately. Cholera typically causes acute watery diarrhoea and can affect people of all ages. It mainly spreads through contaminated/polluted water. People can become infected directly through drinking contaminated water or indirectly through eating contaminated food. The infection is often mild or without symptoms but can sometimes be severe and life-threatening. An outbreak usually occurs in settings with inadequate sanitation and insufficient access to safe drinking water. Modiba says 95 people with similar symptoms from Kanana, Suurman, Majaneng, Green Field, Carousel View,
South Africa is experiencing a rise in malaria cases in the endemic provinces and Gauteng. The National Institute of Communicable Diseases says there have been a number of severe cases due to late detection. “Undiagnosed and untreated malaria rapidly progresses to severe illness, with a potentially fatal outcome,” the NICD says in a statement. It says anyone with fever and flu-like illness, who has travelled to malaria-risk areas of Limpopo, KwaZulu-Natal and Mpumalanga in the last six weeks, must test for malaria. Recent heavy rains and more people travelling during the recent Easter holidays possibly caused the rise in cases. Let your doctor know of travel to malaria-risk areas “(They) must be tested for malaria by blood smear microscopy or malaria rapid diagnostic test. If they test positive for malaria, the patient must start on malaria treatment immediately.” Malaria is a potentially life-threatening disease. The blood parasites of the genus
The 2023/24 budget allocation for the National Department of Health has declined by R4,4bn from R64.5bn in 22/23 to R60.1 billion in 2023/24. Health Minister Joe Phaahla says this can be attributed to the discontinuation of conditional grants allocated for fighting Covid-19. Delivering the budget vote in the National Assembly in Parliament on Tuesday, the minister says both the pandemic and loadshedding have hurt the economy. “The financing of public health is seriously negatively affected by this situation. The fact of the matter is that there is not even an inflation adjustment and there are also reductions in allocations to existing programs,” says Phaahla. Health underfunded He says the treasury acknowledges the health sector is underfunded to a minimum of R11-billion. “We believe commutatively it is much higher. 89.2% of our budget is transferred to provinces and in the current budget the transfers and subsidies to provinces are at R56.2bn
Decreasing investment in maternal and newborn health has stalled global progress in reducing deaths of pregnant women, mothers and babies since 2015. According to a new by the United Nations over 4.5 million women and babies die every year during pregnancy, childbirth or the first weeks after birth. This is equivalent to 1 death happening every 7 seconds. And the deaths are mostly from preventable or treatable causes. “Pregnant women and newborns continue to die at unacceptably high rates worldwide, and the COVID-19 pandemic has created further setbacks to providing them with the healthcare they need,” says Dr Anshu Banerjee, Director of Maternal, Newborn, Child and Adolescent Health and Ageing at the World Health Organisation (WHO). “More and smarter investments in primary healthcare are needed now to give every woman and baby — no matter where they live — the best chance of health and survival.” Staggering number of maternal
As cold and flu season approaches, residents of Bojanala district in the Moretele Municipality face a shortage of medicines to treat colds, and ear and eye infections. This is because of their local faces shortages of these medicines. write Precious Mashiane. Lerato Thibedi, a 34-year-old resident, is one of many frustrated residents. “Whenever I go to the clinic with flu symptoms, they always tell me they don’t have cold and flu meds,” she says. “Last month, I went and was still told there are no cold and flu medications.” NW health department reassures patients over medicines Agnes Golela, 49, has a similar story. She says she visited the Leseding clinic recently for an earache. Nurses told her they had no medicine to treat her with. “I could not believe what I was told. I went to the clinic to be told that I should buy Vicks. What a waste of
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Covid-19 is no longer a public health emergency of international concern. The Director-General of the World Health Organisation (WHO), Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus made the announcement on Friday, marking exactly three years since the outbreak began in Wuhan, China. “Yesterday, the Emergency Committee met for the 15th time and recommended to me that I declare an end to the public health emergency of international concern. I have accepted that advice. It is therefore with great hope that I declare COVID-19 over as a global health emergency.” He says COVID-19 has had a devastating impact on the world, causing almost 7 million reported deaths. The toll is likely to be closer to 20 million deaths. It also caused severe economic and social upheaval. “COVID-19 has been so much more than a health crisis. It has caused severe economic upheaval, erasing trillions from GDP, disrupting travel and trade, shuttering businesses, and plunging
by Tony Carnie, Daily MaverickThe Saiccor pulp factory at Umkomaas has been mashing up and dissolving gum trees in chemical cookers for nearly 70 years to produce tree-based fibres for clothes and curtains. But since operations began in 1955, the factory has also raised the ire of local residents frequently by gassing the atmosphere with clouds of sulphur dioxide and other noxious gases, and by dumping its “purple death” liquid effluent into the sea. Sappi took over the factory in 1988 from the British textile group Courtaulds. Toxic fumes forced removal of 250 schoolchildren Just short of a decade later, a government official leaked documents to this writer demonstrating that the factory frequently exceeded the government’s air pollution guidelines. Sappi later agreed to relocate 250 children from a nearby primary school to a new site 2km away because of the cloying fumes that threatened the health of the children. At
Colour is a ubiquitous presence in our lives, from the bright shades of a beautiful sunset to the cool blues of a serene ocean. However, for the autism community, colour takes on a special significance as a symbol of hope, solidarity, and awareness writes Professor Juan Bornman. A rainbow-coloured infinity symbol is an international symbol for autism. It represents the vast range of autism symptoms and many challenges faced by these individuals but also their unlimited range of abilities. For the past 16 years, the autism community have embarked on the “Light It Up Blue” campaign in April to promote autism awareness worldwide. Iconic buildings such as the Eifel Tower in Paris, the Nelson Mandela Bridge in Johannesburg and King Shaka Airport in Durban are lit up in blue. Everyone is encouraged to wear blue clothes, shine blue lights, and hoist blue flags as a symbol of solidarity with persons