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.
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 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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
