Health e News
Universal health coverage, or National Health Insurance, is affordable and would have the greatest spin off for the vast majority of South Africans who do and will increasingly rely on the state health sector, a University of Cape Town modeling initiative has revealed.
OPINION:Since the ANC’€™s announcement last week that a national health insurance (NHI) will be pursued, we have once again seen claims that an NHI is unaffordable and that the whole idea should be consigned to the garbage bin. However, South Africa can have a health system that makes us proud and serves everyone, rich and poor, in an equitable manner.
Health minister Dr Aaron Motsoaledi is determined to make primary health care the cornerstone of the country’€™s healthcare system and he has no qualms about shifting the budgets of those provinces who fail to toe the line.
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Almost two out of every 10 people on antiretrovirals (ARVs) worldwide are being treated in South Africa, but this progress is still well below the estimated need, a United Nations report has revealed.
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Health and Human rights activists have demanded that the next court date set for the trial of Zoliswa Nkonyana’€™s killers be the last one.
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Dr Elly Katabira, president of the International AIDS Society has released a letter on the eve of a critical meeting to replenish the Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. He explains why it is critical to replenish the fund if we want to achieve the Millennium Development Goals.
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Fewer people living with psychiatric illnesses are being confined behind the high walls of psychiatric institutions as the Mental Health Act of 2002 has moved the emphasis from institutionalisation to community-based rehabilitation and care. Lungi Langa of Health-e News Service spent a morning at a residential community centre in Cape Town.
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Daniel wants to grow up to be a policeman so that he can arrest his parents. He says they drink too much and they won’€™t let him leave the children’€™s home to come live with them again.
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Tehillah Spread Your Wings Rehabilitation has been tackling substance abuse in the Elsies River since 2003. Lungi Langa spent a day at the facility and spoke to staff about why they opted to register with Government as a rehabilitation facility.
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Children’€™s rights organisations and other civil society groups have urged the Health Department to stop its plans to go to schools to test learners for HIV.
The African National Congress has released more detail on the much anticipated National Health Insurance scheme. According to a press release the plan will kick off in the rural areas and will be staggered over three phases starting in 2012. The press release read by the ANC’s health committee chair Zweli Mkhize is available here.
Leaders need more creative plans to increase funding to reduce child malnutrition and AIDS, says Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF).