Two of Gauteng's largest state hospitals stand accused of delaying the treatment and diagnosis of hundreds of desperately ill cancer patients because of broken machinery ' often out of order due to poor maintenance and non-payment of suppliers. Story by WILMA STASSEN and SHAUN SMILLIE.
Johannes Kgang (63) ' Retired transport supervisor at Impala Mines in Rustenburg
Food services staff at Chris Hani Baragwanath (CHB) Hospital have claimed that patients are often served rotten and contaminated food and food preparation guidelines and menus designed by dieticians are ignored.
A Limpopo teenager was sent from pillar to post for three months while a cancerous tumour in his leg continued to grow. He now faces the very real possibility of amputation.
Taking stock of the country's performance in addressing AIDS, Health Minister Dr Aaron Motsoaledi, noted that over about 20 million South Africans have tested for HIV in the last two years and that HIV transmission from mother to child has dropped to below 3%. But Motsoaledi cautioned that much still needs to be done.
A non-governmental organisation, which focuses on the well-being of pregnant women and their children is showing the way on how to re-engineer South Africa's primary healthcare system in both urban and rural settings.
Food services staff at Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital claim that food preparation guidelines and menus designed by the hospital's dieticians are not followed. Sometimes, patients are served rotten food.
Teenagers are less likely to buy cigarettes if they are not displayed in plain sight behind shop counters, according to a new study published in the journal Pediatrics.
A US judge has ordered tobacco companies to run advertising campaigns admitting that they lied to the public about the dangers of smoking, and acknowledge that cigarettes kill about 1 200 American smokers a day.
People who smoke while drinking alcohol may be at greater risk of suffering a hangover the next morning, according to a study in the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs.
The country has made substantial progress in the fight against HIV, but there are still many holes in the system - particularly around TB treatment.
This past week the national Health Department announced that as from April 2013, AIDS patients will start taking one antiretroviral pill a day that combines the compounds of all three ARVs they need for effective treatment. This has been lauded as making AIDS treatment simple and convenient.
If undiagnosed and untreated for a long time, HIV infection can trigger off a dormant virus called cytomegalovirus (CMV), which can lead to blindness. Cytomegalovirus is the most common cause of blindness in people who have HIV.
The life expectancy of South Africans has increased by six percent since 2009, but recent health gains could be lost if the management of services is not improved.
A tiny trickle of sweat dribbles across her forehead, her braids bouncing and glistening in the early morning sun, her gaze fixed, the earphones firmly in her ears. It's hard not to notice Vuyiseka Dubula as she strides along the Sea Point promenade in her bright orange bib, 'HIV Positive' proclaimed in huge, fat black letters across her chest.
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