Health e News
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Results of a study set in rural South Africa suggest that young people attending school may be at a lower risk of HIV infection, compared to those who leave school early.
After years of debate, the national Department of Health has changed its protocol for the prevention of mother-to-child HIV transmission. Last week, the National Health Council’€™s policy committee adopted new guidelines for PMTCT.
A recent study published in the South African Medical Journal suggests that the shortage of suitable emergency transport services for patients needing intensive care is putting patients’€™ lives at risk and results in an increase in medical costs.
Men as Partners – a project of Engender Health – a group working in gender and health issues, have launched a new DVD highlighting the role that men can play in reducing the spread of HIV.
- ///Health
Snap out of your inaction! That’€™s the message the Society for Family Health is sending out to people who are secretly living with HIV.
The Southern African HIV Clinicians Society has added its voice to the growing criticism of the health department’s failure to get its house in order on the prevention of mother to children transmission (PMTCT) programme.
Simple, affordable life-saving measures, such as exclusive breastfeeding, immunization, insecticide-treated bed nets and vitamin A supplementation, have helped to reduce child deaths in recent years, according to UNICEF’€™s The State of the World’€™s Children 2008 report.
The more than 100 000 nurses employed by government are expected to benefit from salary increases before the end of March, the health department has confirmed.
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An Ugandan study has shown that community volunteers can effectively distribute antiretrovirals in rural areas with around 90% of patients adhering to treatment. This week’€™s Centers for Disease Control newsletter on HIV, Hepatitis, STD and TB Prevention also reports on the link between Christopher Columbus and the spread of syphilis.
Doctors and The Lancet have slammed immigration officials who removed a terminally ill Ghanaian woman from a hospital in Wales and escorted her back to Ghana, where she is unable to afford the treatment she needs to prolong her life.
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The Cancer Association of South Africa (CANSA) has come up with a new strategy to empower cancer patients and their families. It has introduced a CD with relevant helpful information about the disease.
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Perhaps the most encouraging news about HIV/AIDS this year is that prevalence rates in South Africa and the world are decreasing. The decline might be small, but it’€™s certainly something to build on going forth into 2008.