Devil Bones
Every child in South Africa will have come into contact with drugs by the time they leave secondary school. One in three will have taken them. Increasingly, the drug of choice is heroin.
Health
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‘Bazooka’ against TB launched
The health department has bought 30 multi-million rand machines that can diagnose drug-resistant tuberculosis within two hours rather than the usual four weeks.
Stigma, poverty & false information contribute to TB defaulting
The city of Johannesburg's Health Department says it is struggling to bring down the rate of city dwellers defaulting on TB treatment. In 2009, the city had a 6.9 % defaulter rate. The target is to bring it down to less than 5%. Health-e News Service visited a clinic in Marlboro to see what the difficulties are.
DOT supporters want to help
TB DOT supporters have a tough job ensuring that patients take their medication and offering them the necessary support. Health-e News Service asked two DOT supporters what truly drives them.
‘We have a major problem’ ‘ head of TB programme
South Africa has a serious TB epidemic and many patients are not even diagnosed. The country also has the third highest TB burden in the world, says head of SA's TB programme.
Government’s DR-TB plan
South Africa is moving towards decentralising the treatment of drug-resistant tuberculosis (DR-TB) care to primary care level, but will continue to hospitalise those patients who are ill or infectious.
DR-TB a ticking time bomb
Countries with high numbers of people living with HIV, especially where access to antiretroviral treatment is patchy, are sitting on a drug-resistant tuberculosis (DR-TB) time bomb, which may have in some instances already exploded.
XDR TB on the rise in KZN
Extensively drug-resistant (XDR) TB has now spread to most parts of KwaZulu-Natal after being confined mostly to the Tugela Ferry area.
When a whirlybird meets TB
OPINION: A whirlybird is a wind-driven roof turbine. We've all seen them. They dot the roofs of expansive warehouses. They aid circulation in modern bourgeois apartments on Knysna's Thesen Island. They sit on the smell-stacks of non-descript out-houses in our townships on the periphery of our cities. By Dalli Weyers.
SA pays high price for TB drugs
South Africa is paying exorbitantly high prices for drugs to treat drug-resistant tuberculosis, a new report by Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) has revealed.
The success of decentralising DR-TB treatment
Khayelitsha healthcare providers are once again blazing the trail, finding innovative ways to tackle the drug-resistant tuberculosis (DR-TB) epidemic with great success by decentralising the treatment to primary care level rather than relying on the over-burdened hospital system.
Fighting the terrible twins
The plump young woman sits on a wooden bench in a room at Hout Bay Clinic. Nothing in her unassuming demeanour offers any clue that many people's health and ultimately lives depend on her.
TB a difficult bugger
TB is a difficult 'bugger' making it tough for scientists to develop drugs, diagnostics and vaccines to control the epidemic.
90 years later BCG is still the TB vaccine
BCG vaccine, the only currently available vaccine against TB and despite its limitations, is still one of the most important weapons in the arsenal against TB in young children.
Mom take care of yourself so you can take care of your little one
The quality of care that a baby gets while still in the womb and in its early years of life has an impact on its future development. A study has found that the first 1000 days of life are crucial in shaping the next 18 years of a young individual.