Health e News
Private medical insurance is a luxury less than one in five (16%) South Africans can afford, and it is not getting any cheaper. Studies reveal that in 1981 a household with one working member paid about seven percent of its income to medical scheme contributions, by 1991 this portion had increased to 14 percent, rising further to 20 percent by 2001, and by 2007 stood at 30 percent.
The Budget and Expenditure Monitoring Forum has expressed concern over the deepening crisis in the Eastern Cape health system and has identified ways in which civil society could continue to apply pressure on the government to take decisive steps in preventing its collapse. Read the full statement here.
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People at high risk of HIV infection can reduce their risk of acquiring the disease by taking antiretroviral drugs, according to Cochrane researchers.
Is it possible to control the epidemic of HIV by using antiretroviral therapy? This pressing question is addressed in a collection of new articles published in the open-access journal PLoS Medicine.
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An advocacy group affiliated with the American Cancer Society asked the Secretary of the US Department of Health and Human Services last week to direct the surgeon general to fully investigate the relationship between human health and consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages, or SSBs. By Jennifer LaRue Huget for the Washington Post
CAPE TOWN – The time has come for social activists to campaign for a Global Constitution on the Right to Health ending the current status quo where ‘our ill health is politically constructed by those above us’, activist Mark Heywood told the 3rd People’s Health Assembly (PHA).
In South Africa and across Africa, HIV continues to prey on women, sex workers and men who have sex with men. It is clear that to end the HIV epidemic, we must protect and support these groups.By Festus Mogae and Stephen Lewis
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Pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline LLC (GSK) agreed to plead guilty and to pay $3 billion to resolve its criminal and civil liability arising from the company’s unlawful promotion of certain prescription drugs, its failure to report certain safety data, and its civil liability for alleged false price reporting practices, the US Justice Department announced. Read the full US Justice Department statement here
SEATTLE – This week 65 international innovators are competing for significant funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
CAPE TOWN – The world needs more doctors, nurses and other health care workers – 3.5 million of them, to be exact.
CAPE TOWN – It is not how much money countries spend on health, but how they spend it, which improves people’s lives.
CAPE TOWN – Health and education budgets are cut in times of financial crises despite the fact that the opposite should be happening, according to South African health department Director-General Precious Matsoso.