Health e News

Affordable HIV and AIDS careLiving with AIDS # 286

If you’€™re not on medical aid but can afford to pay a little for healthcare, a new clinic in central Johannesburg is offering HIV tests for as low as R20. A month’€™s supply of life-saving antiretroviral medication will cost R350.

Dying, resurrecting, dying, resurrecting’€¦

Enea Motaung is a humble, strong-voiced woman with an undying concern for the well-being of others, particularly those living with and affected by HIV. She has been the Executive Director of the Township AIDS Project since 1992. Today she is the focus of our series of ‘€œAIDS legends’€ of the last 25 years.

Recollections of AIDS

This Friday, December 1st, is World AIDS Day. In recognition of the occasion, today we start a week-long series profiling some of the most influential South Africans who worked in the AIDS field since it first emerged over 20 years ago. We first meet Prof. Ruben Sher, who used to work for the South African Institute for Medical Research and was turned a celebrity by the media at the time.

Doing it for the babies

Mention the Peri-natal HIV Research Unit to anyone working in the scientific and medical fields of AIDS, and the names Glenda Gray and James McIntyre will pop into mind. For many women, the two are the angels that have saved their babies’€™ lives.

Doing it for love, not money

Until a few years ago, Helemina Nangoro (32) did not receive a salary for comforting people while they died of AIDS.

Poverty the biggest challenge for counsellor

‘€œI am hungry. Can you give me some money for food?’€ These words have become the norm for Lehlohonolo Mokone, an HIV counsellor who sits in front of his ninth patient for the day at a clinic in Brakpan, on Gauteng’€™s East Rand.

Determining a viable dispensing fee

Professor Di McIntyre, chair of government’s Pricing Committee, tasked with determining a viable dispensing fee for pharmacists, spoke exclusively to Health-e.

MSF will remain in Khayelitsha

A misleading press statement by the health department has caused confusion over the role of Medecins Sans Frontieres’ (MSF) presence in Khayelitsha in the Western Cape.

The tortoise and the hare

HIV specialist Dr Graeme Meintjes is known for long hospital ward rounds that can take several hours, while his colleague, Dr Kevin Rebe, is found racing along the corridors of GF Jooste Hospital’€™s antiretroviral clinic.

Nurse gives her all

The woman pulls the navy anorak tighter around her tall frame, turning her face away from the howling southeaster pushing against corrugated iron shacks. She steps inside a dimly lit room where the young man sits up in his bed to meet her.

Health trends 2006

Around a quarter of South Africans could suffer from mental illness each year, while HIV/AIDS is systematically undermining all the health gains made in the post-apartheid era, according to the SA Health Review.

ARV targets fall short

Global targets to reach universal access to antiretroviral treatment are vague and abstract and will result in the dealth of millions of people, a civil society report warned this week.

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