Health e News
A threat of more infectious diseases, a drug-resistant AIDS epidemic and malnutrition could add to Zimbabwe’s current cholera woes, says humanitarian medical aid agency, Doctors Without Borders.
Zimbabwe’s humanitarian crisis continues to rapidly deteriorate, causing appalling suffering, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) warn in a report released this week. The organisation’s medical teams have now treated almost 45,000 people, an estimated 75% of the total number of cases in the current cholera outbreak – and the crisis is far from over.
Pia Engebrigtsen worked for 2 months as a nurse in Zimbabwe’s Masvingo province during the country’s cholera outbreak, in which MSF has so far treated more than 45,000 people. Here she shares her story of death, heartbreak, survival and saving lives against all odds.
Most hospital and clinics in the Free State have still not started treating the more than 15 000 people waiting for their anti-retroviral (ARV) drugs, however the national health department has given the assurance that drugs will now start arriving at all 28 sites.
A five part series that was aired on Morning Live in the run up to World AIDS Day explores the lives of ordinary people who deal with a life that seems to get more complicated every day. EVERYDAY HEROES. How do they make ends meet and make healthy choices? How have they managed to keep their families together and healthy? What lessons have they learned in the process? What can we learn from them?
Would you believe that world-wide, 2 in 5 people don’t have access to safe sanitation!? Today in our series on EVERYDAY HEROES ‘ people who make a difference in their part of the world ‘ we visit a doctor and a nursery school principal who are playing their part to promote good hygiene.
It’s been almost 15 years since we voted for all South Africans to have equal access to government services…to have dignity and a better life. To have treatment for life-threatening illnesses. But every now and then, as journalists, we step into corners of the country where apartheid and its indignities remains alive and well. Where the services that government has designed to improve our lives just CAN’T reach.
Today in our series on EVERYDAY HEROES, we have a story of immense sadness and courage. The story of a father who was determined to keep his family together despite enormous odds. Without food, safe sanitation or the means to keep warm this part winter, staying healthy was almost impossible for him.
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Today in our series on EVERYDAY HEROES we meet a woman who represents the silent army of heroes countrywide who are in frontline of the fights against HIV and AIDS. Home-based caregivers. Although it’s a hard job where patients don’t always get better and there’s no personal reward, caregivers form the backbone of patient care in a health system that is overburdened and under-resourced.
Government needs to prioritise improving national oversight over provincial health services to address the ‘anarchy’ and ‘scope for corruption’ in provinces, according to the AIDS Law Project (ALP).
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After ten years of living with HIV, Pholokgolo Ramothwala’s health is showing signs of decline, and he now realizes that he needs to stop taking alcohol.
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Thousands of desperate HIV positive patients in the Free State have been thrown a lifeline with news that millions has been secured to procure anti-retroviral (ARV) drugs needed to keep them alive.