Health e News
The Limpopo province is one of five provinces that the government says will soon be ready to join the Western Cape and Gauteng in providing AIDS treatment in the public health sector. In this feature Health-e visits Tintswalo Hospital, Limpopo’s second largest hospital in rural Acornhoek, and met Dr Paul Pronyk, an American who has been working at the hospital for the last six years as part of Wits University’s Rural AIDS and Development Action Research project.
Profense ya Limpopo ke e nngwe ya tse hlano tseo mmuso o reng di tla fana ka meriana ya Phamokathe haufinyana. Hona ka mora hore profense ya Gauteng e qale ho fumantsha bakudi meriana ena ka la 1 Mmesa. Tlalehong ena Khopotso Bodibe o etela sepetlele sa Tintswalo, se seng sa dipetlele tse kgolo profenseng ya Limpopo, se leng motseng wa mahaeng Acornhoek. Moo teng o ile a teana le ngaka Paul Pronyk eo a e nang le dilemo tse tsheletseng a sebetsa sepetleng seo ka tlase ho morero wa Rural AIDS and Development Action Research ya yunibesithi ya Wits.
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Jwalo ka ha meriana ya lefu la Phamokathe e kena tshebeletsong ya tsa bophelo bo botle, tshabo e teng ya hore mosebetsi wa ho hlokomedisa setjhaba ho itsherelletsa kgahlano le tshwaetso ena o tla salla moraho. Empa, ho molemo hore batho ba hlokomele hore ba se tshwaetsehe le hore na meriana ena e sebetsa jwang. Ngaka Zola Ntshona a sebetsang ka mafu a bomme sepetleleng sa profense ya Limpopo, o bua ka ho otlolloha mabapi le ditaba tsena.
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With antiretroviral medication now becoming an integral part of AIDS treatment in the public health sector, there are concerns that prevention efforts might feature less prominently. However, it is essential that South Africans change their sexual behaviour to protect themselves from HIV and understand how treatment works. Dr Zola Ntshona, gynaecology and obstetrics specialist at the Polokwane provincial hospital in Limpopo, shares her experiences.
Although health care delivery in the Eastern Cape still faces major challenges, there are positive developments. Some 131 new clinics have been built since 1994 and the department is committed to improving services as Dr. Litha Matiwane Head of Hospital Services explains.
One of the best-resourced provinces in the country, the Western Cape’s health services function well.
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Bekeng ena Khopotso Bodibe wa tshebeletso ya ditaba ya Health-e, o re isa motsaneng wa Maupye, Limpopo, moo re tla teana le moshemanyana eo e sa le mo qetela lemong tse batlang di ba tharo tse sa tswa feta ha a lekola maphelo a bana ba dikgutsana ka mora hore batswadi ba bona ba nkuwe le lefu la Phamokathe.
The lure of foreign currency combined with tough working conditions and poor salaries is contributing to the exodus of South African nurses from our health services. The BBC recently reported that South Africa rates second after the Philippines as top supplier of nurses to the UK. Health-e visited the Eastern Cape to find out more about the shortage of nursing staff.
In the remote villages of Limpopo and Mpumalanga, an innovative pilot project on gender and AIDS awareness offers rural women an opportunity for empowerment.
Huge staff shortages and weak primary care are the two most pressing problems in the Eastern Cape health system, but there are signs of improvement in provincial management.
Social services in the Eastern Cape have been notoriously under-resourced for decades. The promise of a ‘better life for all’ that came with the first democratic elections in 1994 has not always held true. In the health sector, shortages of medicines, bed linen and health workers themselves, continue to plague the health system. So is there any reason to hope? Health-e News Service visited Livingstone Hospital, Nelson Mandela Academic and Umtata General Hospitals and Cecelia Makiwane to find out.
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The largest survey ever conducted amongst South African youth shows that young women are bearing the brunt of the HIV and AIDS pandemic with one in 4 women aged between 20 and 24 testing HIV positive, compared to one in 14 men of the same age. The survey, conducted by the University of the Witwatersrand’s Reproductive Health Research Unit and commissioned by loveLife, shows that by the age of 23, one in five young South Africans is HIV positive.