He cuts a lone figure in the fading dusk light, clutching a laptop bag in one hand and an oversized grass basket in the other. His salt and pepper hair slightly disheveled after a long day, the Eastern Cape health's head honcho Siva Pillay looks over his shoulder and grins: 'I should have come in my other bakkie, I could have shown you those bullet holes'.
People living with HIV/AIDS are at an increased risk of developing oesophageal and stomach cancer as well as non-Hodgkin lymphomas (NHLs), according to a new study published in the journal Gastroenterology.
An international AIDS vaccine conference held in Boston, in America, discussed the importance of community participation in the search for a preventative AIDS vaccine. But how do people feel about participating in scientific clinical research? Ayanda Mkhwanazi, of Health-e News Service, sought their views.
The Eastern Cape Health and Treasury MECs have been given an ultimatum to either reply to a set of questions related to the staffing crises at Madwaleni and Livingstone hospitals, or face litigation.
CAPE TOWN - Health Director-General Precious Matsoso has launched a strong appeal to the private health sector to come up with good 'contracting models' whereby the state could as an example partner with private doctors to deliver services.
'Doctor, am I going to die?' It is a question no doctor enjoys answering, especially when is involves an 11-year old. Yet, this is something Dr Lindsay Farrant and her colleagues from the Big Shoes Foundation (an organisation serving the palliative needs of children) in Cape Town have to discuss with young patients and their families almost every day.
CAPE TOWN - A landmark daily janitorial service for communal toilets in the City's informal settlements - launched with great fanfare in May by Mayor Patricia de Lille - has come to a grinding halt.
South Africa's drug regulatory authority is placing unreasonable hurdles in the way of desperately ill and dying patients with drug-resistant TB (DR TB), stopping them from accessing a new drug that offers their only hope.
Home-based HIV testing, which enables you and your family to have an HIV test in the privacy of your own home without having to go to a health facility, is one of the newest efforts to be introduced to get people to know their HIV status.
Newborns that have been exposed to nicotine from mothers who smoke or who were exposed to secondhand smoke show poor physiological, sensory, motor and attention responses, according to a recent study published in the journal Early Human Development.
Cancer kills more than seven million people a year throughout the world. This is more than HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria combined, and African countries - which carry a large part of the burden - are the least able of all developing countries to cope with the challenges it presents, says a consortium of international cancer organisations.
Around 200-million children, including many in South Africa, fail to meet their full developmental potential because of the debilitating impact of poverty ' contributing to a cycle where poor countries remain poor.
Cancer is no longer just a disease of western nations with ageing populations, it afflicts the young and the old alike, and is now clearly a rising concern in the poorest countries on earth, who stand to lose millions of lives unless action is taken.
New research suggests that certain antiretroviral treatment (ART) may increase a person's risk for heart disease, yet scientists believe that its benefits still far outweigh the harm caused by any of its side effects.
Some spaza shop owners in Khayelitsha are selling Department of Health (DoH) formula milk that is marked "Not for resale". This milk is supposed to be given free to HIV-positive mothers to give to their babies instead of breast milk. By Mary-Jane Matsolo, GroundUp
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