Health e News
Lulu Sibam is a young mother from Khayelitsha. Her husband and child Mihle have been on antiretroviral therapy since December 2001. Lulu first started treatment in 2003 but dropped out of the Medecins Sans Frontieres programme. She has since re-started her therapy and together with her family is doing well.
After an exhilerating four months of restored health and high energy on antiretroviral therapy, chairperson of the Treatment Action Campaign Zackie Achmat has had to face up to certain side effects and to change one of his drugs. He talks about how he’s doing now and the long-term public health challenges of prevention and treatment of HIV/AIDS.
One person can make a difference. Ask those who work with or who are treated by the jazz-loving maverick Dr Zola Ntshona, an obstetrician at the Polokwane hospital.
As the AIDS epidemic continues to decimate the adult population in southern Africa, the Lesotho government reports that more than 73 000 of its children have been orphaned as a result of the epidemic. A UNICEF report predicts that by 2010 there will be over 41 million orphans in Africa as a whole. In this report we visit Lesotho and discover how AIDS is robbing children of their parents.
Ha bongata ba batho dinaheng tse borwa tsa Afrika bo qetwa ke Phamokathe, mmuso wa naha ya Lesotho o tlaleha hore lefu lena le se le hlodile dikgutsana tse ka nnqane ho 73 000. Mokgatlo wa matjhaba wa UNICEf o re ka selemo sa 2010, kontinente ya Afrika ka bophara, e ka lebella ho eba lehae ho dikgutsana tse dimilione tse 41 ka baka la lefu la Phamokathe. Re ile ra etela naha e nyenyane ya Lesotho ho ya iponela ka moo lefu lena le amohang bana batswadi.
The first six months of antiretroviral therapy have forced AIDS activist Zackie Achmat to review his life.
Hospitalized children need the support of their families in order to cope with their sickness. Dikeledi Mtsho (not her real name) is a single parent of a one-year old terminally ill boy. She speaks about the value of spending time with her child in hospital.
Each year the Red Cross Children’€™s Hospital in Cape Town treats about 170 000 children aged from 0 to 12 years. Many come from Mozambique, Malawi, Kenya and elsewhere in Africa and many of them are suffering from terminal illnesses. But how do health workers cope with the trauma of losing the young patients who have become part of their lives?
Families are reducing their food intake as a first strategy to cope with the increased financial burden of caring for a sick or dying HIV positive family member.
Despite its small population of around 2.2 million, the mountain kingdom of Lesotho is concerned that its HIV transmission rate is increasing. The official prevalence rate is 31%. Only a handful, about 5% of the infected, pay for treatment provided by the private health sector. But a grant donation has enabled Lesotho to begin ushering in a small-scale treatment initiative.
Le ha baahi ba Lesotho ba ballwa ho dimilione tse 2.2 feela, mmuso wa naha eo o tshwenyehile haholo ha e le mona palo ya batho ba nang le tshwaetso ya HIV e batla e ata. Ba ballwa ho dipesente tse 31 batho ba nang le kokwana hloko ena. Ba mmalwa feela, ba ka eba dipesente tse hlano, ba kgonang ho ithekela meriana e thusang ho theola bohale ba HIV mmeleng wa mokudi. Empa, jwalo ka ha Health-e News Service e tlaleha, dintho di a fetoha ka ha e le mona mmuso wa Lesotho o qadile morero wa ho fumantsha bakudi meriana ena morao wa hore o fumane mpho ya tjhelete.
In a small village outside Burgersfort on the Mpumalanga-Limpopo provincial border women are taking control of their lives. Early results from a unique pilot project are showing that once women are financially empowered, they can have better relations with their male partners. And with economic power comes a sense of optimism leading to better health decisions and reduced risk of contracting HIV.
