Health e News
Gloria Vena has given up swatting the flies gathering around her face. Her eyes seem empty and distant as she stares out the front door of her house, the back of her neighbour’s rickety shack a few steps away from her makeshift front door.
Thulani Shezi’s New Germany Road settlement is one of about 500 shacklands in the eThekwini metro, and it only had a few portable toilets and a distant tap before the ablution block was built two years ago.
Residents in Diepsloot and Orange Farm struggle to get basic services such as clean water and sanitation.
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Health-e News Service welcomes the decision by Dr Matthias Rath to withdraw his defamation case against the agency, employees Anso Thom and Khopotso Bodibe and freelancer Siviwe Minyi (case number 11681/05) and to pay our legal costs to date.
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We pick up on the story of Vhuthamo, a shelter for orphaned and vulnerable children in Orange Farm, south of Johannesburg that we visited last week. After three years of existence, the centre faces closure because the authorities have failed to register it as a home.
In Drieziek 6 ‘ Orange Farm, 60 km south of Johannesburg, not one household has running water, let alone a toilet.
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One of the social impacts of HIV is to rob children of their parents, families and homes. However, some communities and organisations are coming together to take care of affected children. Vhuthamo Home in Orange Farm, south of Johannesburg, is one haven for such children in the country.
Health Department Director-General Thami Mseleku has been appointed as the Registrar of Medicines at the Medicines Control Council (MCC) as a stop gap measure to avoid any further delays in the registration of medicines.
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At age 70, many would consider themselves too old to continue working. Let alone as a campaigner to get people tested for HIV. But that’s what retired nurse Dorothy Mosaka put away her uniform to do.
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People taking medicine normally have to take it properly every day for it to make them feel better. This is called adherence. For people taking antiretroviral drugs for AIDS, adherence is very important as HIV can quickly develop resistance to the medicine if it is not taken properly.
There is a widespread perception that services in hospitals have seriously deteriorated over the past few years, due in large part to staff shortages and the growing HIV/AIDS epidemic.
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Peter Busse loved a good party and played host to some of the greatest parties around. However, he didn’t only love to play. He was also a renowned teacher on HIV and AIDS. And his passing on has left a void in the AIDS community.