In a special partnership the Soul City Institute for Health and Development Communication and the Wits School of Public Health, have launched a post-graduate degree programme aimed at breeding professionals who will promote and implement social and behaviour change communication in health.
This week we continue our conversation with Helen Epstein, author of 'The Invisible Cure: Africa, the West and the Fight against Aids', which unravels how the practice of multiple and concurrent partnerships fuels the spread of AIDS on the African continent.
Government got an interdict over the weekend ordering public service workers to return back to work. In the wake of the strike last week, public sector hospitals, which already operate with insufficient staffing levels, were abandoned and patients suffered the consequences.
Lucas Shimanga, a finance clerk at the Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital, is one of hundreds of thousands of striking government employees who have abandoned their posts at various institutions, including hospitals and schools.
Have you ever wondered why HIV spreads so fast in Africa? Have you ever thought that people considered high risk takers, like sex workers and truck drivers, are at more risk of HIV infection than yourself? Molecular biologist and author, Helen Epstein, turns conventional wisdom around in her renowned book, 'The Invisible Cure: Africa, the West and the Fight against AIDS'.
Research shows that men are the main drivers of the HIV epidemic. Men transmit HIV to women, who, in turn, can infect their babies if they fall pregnant. But this can be prevented if men become a part of the woman's pregnancy.
At the recent International AIDS Conference in Vienna, Austria, Health Minister Dr Aaron Motsoaledi appealed to donors to desist from cutting aid to support AIDS programmes in sub-Saharan Africa. The irony of his call, however, is that countries in Africa are not increasing their spending on health.
A gastro-intestinal infection killed six babies at the Charlotte Maxeke Hospital in May, according to findings of an investigation launched into the tragedy. The investigation also found that health care staff did all they could to save the babies. Hospital systems, however, were found to be lacking.
The good news from the International AIDS Conference in Vienna that a microbicide gel tested in South Africa for the prevention of HIV infection is an ironically painful reminder that there is an urgent need for effective preventative measures to reduce new HIV infections.
An upbeat Health Minister, Dr Aaron Motsoaledi, says this year South Africa has something different to show the world regarding its response to AIDS at the 18th International AIDS Conference, which opened in Vienna, Austria, today (Sunday, 18/07/2010).
In 2000, the world's leaders committed themselves to the United Nations' Millennium Development Goals to make our planet a healthier place to live in by the year 2015. Two-thirds of the deadline has already passed. Is the world succeeding in its commitments, for instance, to combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases which are endemic in countries such as South Africa?
South African nurses are just as competent as doctors in monitoring patients on antiretroviral therapy. This is according to results of a four-year long study published recently in the respected international medical journal, The Lancet.
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