Health e News
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South Africa’€™s welfare system is in the midst of a massive shake-up which stakeholders are hoping could result in government paying out more money to destitute children. At a recent meeting in Cape Town, about 90 roleplayers from the children’€™s sector and government officials, including those from a special committee charged with revising the entire social security system, grappled with how to set up an efficient “safety net” for the children of South Africa.
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Mthobisi Simelane (7) has been orphaned and abandoned by his family at Mosvold Hospital in Ingwavuma, rural KwaZulu-Natal. Unless he gets a birth certificate, anyone caring for him will be unable to access any grants.
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Renowned author John le Carre delves into the dark and dangerous world of drug trials and pharmaceutical profits in his latest novel, “The Constant Gardener”. In the afterword to the book he says that although his novel is a work of fiction and doesn’€™t reflect the actions of any real people, the real goings-on in the industry make his story seem like a “holiday postcard”. Sue Valentine spoke to him, this is a transcript of part of their conversation.
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Scientists have completed their laboratory research on a potential HIV vaccine for South Africa and the process is underway to begin human trials later this year. Kerry Cullinan reports.
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One person is sure to be at the forefront- putting the view of business across – when government and the pharmaceutical industry tackle one another in the much hyped court case. But is Mirryena Deeb really the Cruella de Ville of the industry or is she just a woman caught up in the demands of trying to juggle a stressful job, motherhood and a sick nation calling louder and louder for medicine to ease its pain…Anso Thom from Health-e News Service spoke to her.
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Living with HIV for eight years without picking up an opportunistic infection, Lundi Ntikinca is worried about the day when he will need expensive medication that could save his life. An option he cannot afford.
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More than 300 people attended the Treatment Action Campaign’s Western Cape provincial conference this weekend. The organisation declared its intention to begin a campaign in April to ensure that clinics offered basic medicines and treated people with HIV/AIDS with dignity and respect.
Health specialists have expressed concern that the budget announced by Finance Minister Trevor Manuel did not go far enough in addressing South Africa’€™s developmental health challenges. Anso Thom and Sue Valentine reports.
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Health economists have responded cautiously to Finance Minister Trevor Manuel’€™s “generous” allocations towards interventions targeting HIV/AIDS.Manuel announced a R300-million supplementary allocation for targeted HIV/AIDS interventions in 2002/03 and R313,5-million in 2003/04.
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The United Nations Secretary-General says HIV/AIDS is the biggest challenge of our time and has called for intensified and broadened political and financial commitments by nations in their response to the AIDS crisis.
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The Mail & Guardian newspaper recently printed two highly critical responses to Charlene Smith’€™s article on free medication and milk formula to prevent mother to child transmission of HIV (Mail & Guardian, January 26 ‘€“ Feb 1), but a letter sent to the newspaper by Professor Hoosen “Jerry” Coovadia, co-convenor of the AIDS 2000 Conference, Professor Anna Coutsoudis and other colleagues at the University of Natal went unpublished. Coutsoudis approached Health-e to clarify several key issues regarding HIV transmission and breast-feeding.
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A grandmother, whose life was made a living hell after she was wrongly diagnosed HIV-positive is claiming R2-million in damages from the laboratory that tested her blood. Now she has launched a damages action against Van Drimmelen Laboratorium, the laboratory which carried out the initial test, claiming she suffered severe emotional stress, loss of dignity and humiliation as a result of the initial Elisa test finding that she was HIV positive. Subsequent tests showed that she was in fact HIV-negative. Health-e investigated the reliability of the Elisa test and others, the protocol followed by the life insurance industry and government’€™s own investigation into HIV testing’€¦