Health e News
In the last ‘Living with AIDS’ feature we heard how young men in Orange Farm, situated in the south of Johannesburg, are taking to medical circumcision in their hundreds. This week, we hear the reasons fuelling their enthusiasm.
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HIV stakeholders are calling on the Medicines Control Council (MCC) to speed up the registration of critical anti-HIV medication or face legal action. The Southern African HIV Clinicians Society has sent an appeal to the health minister to intervene and address the MCC registration process which they describe as the single biggest obstacle to getting affordable access to medicines.
All patients entering a state health care facility will routinely be offered HIV counseling and testing while moves are afoot to enable community health workers to conduct these tests in an effort to not add to the burden of nurses and doctors.
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The Cancer Association of South Africa (CANSA) was recently awarded with the 2009 World No Tobacco Day Achievement Award presented to CANSA CEO, Sue Janse van Rensburg by Dr Stella Anyangwe, World Health Organization Representative in South Africa, at a recently hosted Symposium on Environmental Carcinogens in Pretoria in honour of World Cancer Day held on 4 February 2010.
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A ceremony marking the fifth anniversary of the entry into force of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control was held today in Geneva headquarters of the World Health Organization.
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OPINION: : Even if Zuma’s World AIDS Day speech is matched with sufficient budget allocation, innovative models of providing HIV and TB care will be needed to achieve the targets of the National Strategic Plan. Lesley Odendal reflects on the lessons learnt in Khayelitsha’s HIV and TB project as a window into the future.
Young men in Orange Farm, a sprawling township south of Johannesburg, are lining up for medical circumcision in large numbers ahead of government moves to add the intervention to its HIV prevention basket. Khopotso Bodibe witnessed a young man’s procedure and spoke to him afterwards.
A paper is described as an overview discussion document to establish “the progress and challenges in the efforts to improve health in South Africa since 1994” was recently presented to health leaders in South Africa. The report commissioned by the Henry J Kaiser Family Foundation also outlines possible answers and directions that government should take on future health policy, including national health insurance. The report can be read here.
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The Khayelitsha programme has been held up as a best practice model across the world. A report attempts to summarise the various programmes and shows among others that antiretroviral therapy is feasible in poor settings, antenatal HIV prevalence can be stabilised and a decentralised, nurse-led service is possible. Read the full report here.
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The Budget and Expenditure Monitoring Forum recently held its second meeting and focused on the upcoming antiretroviral tender and the need to ensure that it is structured and run in a manner that enables the state to procure an adequate supply of appropriate medicines at the lowest possible prices.
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The Treatment Action Campaign explains why it is important for Zuma to show leadership and take responsibility for himself, for those around him and for South Africa when it comes to preventing HIV.
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A lancet study suggests that completely removing both the pelvic lymph nodes (lymphadenectomy) and para-aortic lymph nodes could increase chances of survival in patients who are at risk of cancer recurrence.