Health e News
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Antiretroviral medicines are costly and complicated to monitor, but this should not put them out of the reach of patients in the public health system. The fledgling antiretroviral therapy programme running in certain hospitals in Khayelitsha is offering these life-prolonging drugs to a small, but growing number of clients. Doctors working with the Medecins Sans Frontieres antiretroviral programme in Khayelitsha are convinced that the drugs can be given in these relatively poor surroundings.
A few kilometres from the centre of one of the most beautiful cities in the world, thousands of people still do not have easy access to basic services such as water, electricity, job opportunities, housing and sanitation. Cape Town is known for it’s mansions priced at millions of rands, but a lesser known side are the sprawling informal settlements where disease is part of life. In an effort to bring about change and ensure the fair distribution of resources, researchers and policy makers in Cape Town have implemented the Equity Gauge. The gauge uses health indicators such as the infant death rate to highlight the inequitable distribution of these basic services and guide future planning and policy.
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In this audio report, a visit to the Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital in Soweto where preparations are well underway for the first South African human trials of a vaccine against AIDS. Phase One trials, which test the safety of a vaccine, are due to take place simultaneously at Chris Hani Baragwanath and the Medical Research Council in Durban.
Debt cancellation, poverty relief and health improvement are key elements that should form part of the World Summit on Sustainable Development to be held in Johannesburg in August. This was the call by health ministers from the Southern African Development Community who ended a two-day meeting on Tuesday with representatives from China, India, Indonesia and the USA.
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South Africa is among the world’s leading countries hard at work in the search for an AIDS vaccine. Head of the South African AIDS Vaccine Initiative, Dr Tim Tucker estimates it will be at least “7 to 10 years” before an effective vaccine will become available and affordable. In this audio report Tucker explains what the vaccine initiative is and why he is optimistic.
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Twenty years into the AIDS pandemic, condoms remain the only protection humanity has against the transmission of the HI virus during sex ‘€“ which is why interest in the female condom is growing.
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The Commission for Gender Equality claims virginity testing is sexist and unconstitutional. But the testers say they are saving girls from teenage pregnancy and HIV/AIDS.
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The old traditional practice of virginity testing has been undergoing a revival in the KwaZulu-Natal midlands in an effort to protect girls and young women from HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases. Those in favour of the ritual say this is a valuable tradition that is not a “test”, but a voluntary inspection and one in which young women are eager to participate.
Skin cancer is not a disease that threatens only fair-skinned South Africans. Darker skins are at risk too and everyone should take protection against the dangers of melanoma. by Tim Dodd
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A pilot project in Khayelitsha, Cape Town is hoping to show that it is possible to dispense antiretroviral therapy to people living in peri-urban, poor communities provided proper counselling and monitoring is in place. Matthew Damane has been taking a triple combination of drugs since June and is firmly convinced of the benefits the medication has made to his life.
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Traditional healers and medical doctors alike are singing the praises of an immune-boosting medicinal plant, Sutherlandia, which they say offers hope to people living with HIV who cannot afford expensive drugs.
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Sutherlandia (or unwele) has been used by traditional healers for years as a tonic. But now scientists are going to test whether it can be used as an immune booster for those with HIV.