Health e News
- ///Health
Caring for the terminally ill with AIDS is emotionally taxing. Kerry Cullinan visits some carers in Daveyton
- ///Health
Today is World AIDS day. A key figure leading the government’s programme to combat the disease is the Chief Director of the national HIV/AIDS Directorate, Dr Nono Simelela. In an exclusive interview with Health-e News Service she looked back at what has and hasn’t been accomplished and what areas government is prioritising for the future.
- ///Health
How did you learn about sex? From your parents, your friends, books or magazines? South Africans of all cultural backgrounds share a common awkwardness and reluctance to talk about sex. We might all say that sex is normal and natural, but we don’t always behave that way. Sex is something that is whispered about, or worse still, never discussed at all. But when a sexually transmitted virus has the potential to decimate our society – it’s time the conversation began. In this series of four articles, we speak to parents, a school guidance councillor and a clinic nurse who talk about the difficulty – but the necessity – of talking to children about sex and sexuality.
- ///Health
Mavis Mtandeki is utterly convinced of the importance of talking to her children about sex. ‘We can’t hide just because our parents didn’t want to talk about sex.’ Mavis and another parent, sex educator and clinic nurse share their thoughts on talking to children about sex.
- ///Health
An initiative, aimed at striking a balance between the need to sustain and conserve the natural medicinal plant resources and the growing demand for products from traditional healers, will be launched in Mpumalanga at the end of this month. ANSO THOM reports.
- ///Health
The Gates Foundation will now devote at least two-thirds of its $21 billion charity fund to third world healthcare. “The worlds poorest two billion people desperately need healthcare, not laptops,” he reportedly said to the dismay of America’s business community. Jo Stein reports.
An epidemic of trauma is killing South Africans and draining public health resources at a rate second only to AIDS. But trauma is yet to become a priority public health issue within the Department of Health. Violence and alcohol are the main culprits causing trauma in our country. Jo Stein reports
- ///Health
Rapid HIV tests, which allow you to get your HIV test result within a few minutes, should be in use country-wide within the course of next year. But only those rapid tests used in government health facilities have been properly evaluated for reliability. Quality control of the other brands on the market is not yet assured. Jo Stein reports
- ///Health
Entering the gates of Luhlaza High School, the oasis of green spinach and buffalo grass bordering the entrance is in stark contrast to dusty and windswept Khayelitsha on the far side of the fence. Encouraged by her love for the environment, science and biology teacher Elizabeth Le Tape started the Luhlaza Environmental Club last year.
- ///Health
Treatment Action Campaign chairperson, Zackie Achmat is often in the news. Most recently he made the headlines for importing a quantity of cheap, generic anti-retroviral drugs from Thailand. It was a deliberate act, calculated to show that access to affordable treatment is possible. But who is the man behind the political campaign, what motivates him and how does he feel about living with AIDS? SUE VALENTINE reports.
- ///Health
Treatment Action Campaign chairperson Zackie Achmat has been both condemned and praised for smuggling cheap medicines into the country as part of his organisation’s challenge to drug companies. ANSO THOM tries to find the person behind the controversy.
- ///Health
Almost half of South Africa’s 15-year olds will become infected with HIV during the course of their lifetime. And the probability of die before the age of 60. But it is important to unpack these frightening figures in order to make sense of them. Jo Stein reports