Health e News
- ///Health
World AIDS Day, December 01, is fast approaching. The focus will, as in the past be on HIV/AIDS education. In your neighbourhood this week, you’ve probably had peer counsellors knocking on doors. The township of Zola in Soweto is no different.
Zimbabwe’s doctors have sketched a picture of a health system that has collapsed with hundreds of people dying from a cholera epidemic which has now crossed the border into South Africa.
Free State doctors say some patients denied antiretroviral treatment because of the financial crisis in the province will die, and fear that they might face court action.
- ///Health
South African smokers will soon have to brave gory pictures capturing the effects of smoking when they buy their packs.
KwaZulu-Natal Health MEC Peggy Nkonyeni is attempting to introduce traditional medicine for AIDS patients at a hospice with the help of traditional healers who are opposed to antiretroviral medication.
The Free State health department has confirmed that it has been ‘delaying’ placing about 400 patients on antiretrovirals (ARVs) since the beginning of November, but denies that this was due to financial mismanagement in the province.
Africa has become the main target of tobacco corporations which are being driven out of the developed countries by tougher laws, high taxes and more consumer awareness of the dangers of smoking.
Gloria’s eyes open wide as she reaches out her hand and pleads: ‘Don’t forget me. Don’t forget me. Don’t ever forget me.’ Her voice is hoarse from the thrush that coats her throat and mouth. Her pyjamas hangs off one skinny shoulder, as she slumps in a chair next to the bed she has just wet.
Although the courts must not be seen to be actively supporting any cause, judgments that have come from the judiciary have clearly spoken out against the denialism that has characterized the government’s response to HIV/AIDS.
The national health department has intervened in the crisis in the Free State where financial mismanagement has caused a shortage of antiretroviral (ARV) drugs.
A staggering 854-million people were undernourished between 2001 and 2003 while at the other end of the scale 700-million people are likely to be obese by 2015, according to the Global Health Watch (GHW) 2.
Panicky e-mails sent to Free State health facilities with instructions to ‘stop putting new clients on ARVs’ appear to have been caused by a misinterpretation of the budget or gross financial mismanagement after National Treasury indicated that the province had spent less than half of its conditional grant allocated for prevention and treatment.