Health e News
The Department of Health is reviewing its guidelines for antiretroviral treatment, and at the heart of discussions is whether people should be able to start taking medication sooner.
The Department of Health may allow people living with HIV to get antiretroviral drugs earlier than at present.
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Nineteen of the world’s foremost health and human rights experts have condemned health department Director General Thami Mseleku’s recent comment that ‘human rights are not relevant to the considerations of health policy in a developmental state’.
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Cape Town researchers have announced plans to launch a pre-exposure prophylaxis (Prep) HIV prevention trial among men in the city.
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Experts say the discovery of the new Multi-Drug Resistant (MDR) TB diagnostic tool will go a long way in fighting the scourge.
South Africa’s top researchers, policy makers, managers and providers have released the outcome of a roundtable discussion held last year, where they grappled with antiretroviral access and the health system’s capacity to cope with the increasing demand.
Every day, over 2,5-billion people suffer from a lack of access to improved sanitation and half of these practise open defecation, the riskiest sanitary practice of all, according to a report issued by the WHO/UNICEF.
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The United States Senate has repealed the entry and immigration ban on HIV-positive non-citizens.
Last week we reported on the launch of guidelines developed by the Southern African HIV Clinicians’ Society to prevent and treat TB and HIV in prisons. Their implementation will not be easy.
The World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts has launched an HIV and AIDS training tool-kit aimed at educating young girls who join the movement about HIV.
Health minister Dr Manto Tshabalala-Msimang has told the Board of Healthcare Funders’ annual conference that the private health sector has seen an uncontrolled cost spiral since the 1980s and it has become increasingly unaffordable for South Africans to belong to medical schemes. She identified the most important cost drivers as private hospitals, specialists and administrative costs. Read the Minister’s full speech here.
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Discovery Vitality has introduced a program aimed at encouraging school children to live healthy lifestyles. A survey conducted by the Sport Science Institute of South Africa (SISSA) in 2007 indicates that the level of obesity among South African school children, because of unhealthy diet and lack of exercise, is higher than that of other African countries.