Health e News
South Africa now has the biggest prevention of mother to child HIV transmission (PMTCT) programme in the world. Health-e speaks to the health department’s Dr Nomonde Xundu about its challenges and successes.
Fear of antiretroviral drugs meant that most patients at one of the country’s oldest HIV/AIDS treatment clinics waited until they were desperate before seeking treatment.
Only 5% of babies born to HIV positive mothers at a small, dedicated hospital get the virus.
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Like many young South Africans his future was confined by financial constraints. But even so, after matriculating, young Raphakisa Botha could have chosen a number of other paths but instead he became a gender activist.
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The message ‘it pays to know your HIV status’ hasn’t caught on very well with most South African men, according to a study published recently.
While generic production has brought down the prices of most first-line anti-retrovirals from over U$10 000 (R70 000) in 2000 to as little as U$150 (R1 050) per patient per year in June this year, prices of newer ARVs and formulations for children are up to 12 times higher.
Only 15% of South Africans nationally have any form of medical aid, according the latest statistics released by StatsSA which were drawn from the 2004 General Household Survey.
Around 30 nurses and managers shared their insights, experiences and coping mechanisms amid the Aids epidemic. They were interviewed by Uta Lehman and Jabu Zulu of the School of Public Health at the University of the Western Cape, in the latest issue of Critical Health Perspectives.
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Government this weekend placed the long-awaited National HIV and Syphilis Antenatal Sero-prevalence survey on its website without the usual fanfare and media releases. The survey, which is accepted as one of the best available estimates of HIV infection, reveals that almost 4 800 of the 16 000 women tested at local Government clinics in 2004 were HIV positive. Over 6-million South Africans were estimated to be living with HIV or AIDS.
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Newly crowned Miss Universe Natalie Glebova went on a whirlwind tour through South Africa and Swaziland in an attempt to personally see the devastation caused by the AIDS epidemic. She talks frankly about her ignorance around the epidemic having grown up in the protected surroundings of Canada.
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I don’t want to be perceived as violent, was 25-year old Pumlani Mzangwa’s simple explanation for why he took part in a men’s rally and march in Soweto last week, to lament the abuse of women and children.
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Deputy health minister Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge dispenses with pomp in favour of problem solving.