Bayview
Shirley Ebrahim does not know where to turn. She owes the eThekwini council R22 000 in arrears in rent and services for the tiny flat that she occupies with her four children, aged from seven to 17.
Determinants Of Health
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Inanda Congo
Not a single person in Inanda's Congo area, some 30km from Durban's city centre, lives in a formal house with running water ' let alone a flush toilet.
Umlazi G Section
Mbali Mosia was born in Umlazi's G Section, as were her three children. She lives with her parents in a four-room former council house now owned by her mother.Not long ago, Umlazi was characterised by a high level of political violence. Today the township is still clearly demarcated into ANC and Inkatha areas, but acts of violence are now criminally rather than politically motivated.
Sea View
"We don't have race problems here. We are fortunate because we have very decent neighbours. You can see by the cars they are driving that they are earning good salaries."Chris Botha, 73, has lived in Seaview for the past 60 years. He remembers when the Southway Mall was nothing but a grove of mango trees, and Indian people were removed from Titren Road in the 1960s.
People live here
Multi-million rand developments are being planned for various parts of the eThekwini unicity in a bid to boost tourism and stimulate the local economy, but have the conditions of ordinary residents improved?
All is not fair in the Cape
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.
Social development restored health in Britain’s 19th century urban ghettos long before the arrival of drugs
Studies show that the main causes of death in 19th century England and Wales were essentially the same infectious diseases that are killing children in underdeveloped countries today: diarrhoea, measles, and respiratory infections such as pneumonia, tuberculosis, and whooping cough.
New staff relieve exhausted cholera health workers
Nurses and environmental health officers from eight provinces have volunteered their services to relieve exhausted health workers in KwaZulu-Natal, who since August have treated over 47 000 cases of cholera.
Cholera plan reaches ‘entire generation’
Each cholera case is costing KwaZulu-Natal an extra R600 per person, but the province believes their anti-cholera plan is effective and that an entire generated is being educated about the disease and basic hygiene. Kerry Cullinan reports.
An epidemic of trauma requires prevention rather than cure.
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
Cholera epidemic highlights need for safe water
While the cholera epidemic in KwaZulu-Natal has highlighted the desperate need for communities to have access to clean water, poor households are only likely to taste President Thabo Mbeki's promise of 6 000 litres of free water per month by mid next year. KERRY CULLINAN reports.
Providing work and water
Despite the recent flooding in the north of the country, South Africa is a water-scarce country. Not only do we generally have low rainfall figures, a significant amount of water is lost to alien vegetation. The Working for Water programme was started by the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry in 1996 - both as a poverty-relief programme and as a means of clearing the alien vegetation that threatens our water supply.
Air pollution ‘ worse indoors for many
The air at home is dangerous to the health of more than half South Africa's population. This is because some 50 percent of households still use "dirty" fuels such as paraffin, coal and wood for heating and cooking Jo Stein reports.
Used tyres ‘ a burning issue
The widespread practice of burning old tyres to retrieve and sell the wire inside them is not only a serious health hazard for neighbourhood residents, but poses a risk to air safety as well. Jo Stein reports.
First “worm war” won
It all started with waging a war against intestinal worms in Khayelitsha's school children. Now that the war has been won to a large degree at some schools, the local community is taking it another step forward by trying to address the severe pollution that contributes to the spread of worms and other diseases.