‘€œPeople would stare when we started wearing masks”
An unemployed mother of two, Busiswa Magqazola (28) first realised she was ill last April while pregnant with her second child.
Health
Read More » ‘€œPeople would stare when we started wearing masks”
OPINION: Closing the tap on drug-resistant TB
The AIDS epidemic hit South Africa harder than most places and the same can be said for Drug-Resistant TB (DR-TB). The latest 2007 data is that more than 7300 people have multi drug resistant (MDR) TB and that over 500 extensively drug resistant TB cases have been diagnosed in South Africa.
Fighting prejudice and the disease
Seven years ago, Nothando Mkhize'€™s* life changed when she was diagnosed HIV positive and told that she also had tuberculosis.
ARV Moratorium had devastating effects in Free State
The controversial moratorium imposed by the Free State Health Department on the provision of anti-retrovirals (ARVs) to new AIDS patients, has hit patients and their families hard.
Free State AIDS patients in the dark about services Living with AIDS Programme 382
While the Free State Health Department maintains that last November'€™s moratorium preventing about 15 000 new patients from getting antiretroviral treatment has been lifted, patients and civil society organisations paint a different picture.
Free State making little progress
Less than 600 patients have started antiretroviral treatment since the Free State province lifted the moratorium on treatment and the waiting list of 15 000 grows daily.
FS health workers abandon patients to do ANC electioneering
Despite a health crisis in the Free State caused by a funding shortage, the provincial health department has granted 160 health workers who are members of the ANC-aligned National Education Health and Allied Workers'€™ Union (NEHAWU) paid leave for six months to do election campaigning for the ANC.
More people report sexual violence in SA ‘€“ MSF
The humanitarian medical aid agency, Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), has reported an increase in rape cases reported to its various clinics in South Africa and worldwide. MSF recently released a report detailing the nature of cases patients present their aid workers with.
Govt acts against Rath at last
The National Health Department has for the first time taken firm steps against vitamin seller Matthias Rath by confiscating consignments of his flagship multi-vitamin VitaCell in Durban and Cape Town and opening criminal cases for his alleged contravention of the Medicines Act.
Suicide prevention through Mental Health First Aid
First Aid is a very well known and important procedure in society. But, Mental Health First Aid is something new in this country. It was imported from Australia where it was developed. South African experts identified the need for this program as a result of rising numbers of cases of patients with mental illnesses.
Sexual offence victims need immediate health care
Apart from the physical, psychological and emotional pain that comes with being raped, survivors still deal with being stigmatised and cast out of their families and communities. A report by Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) reveals that sexual abuse victims, especially in countries facing humanitarian crises, do not receive emergency medical attention.
Hope in attempts to find alternatives to ARV therapy as a prevention tool
A lecture given at the 16th Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI) held in Montreal, Canada, recently highlighted the extent to which Antiretroviral therapy (ARV) has become central to today'€™s attempts to prevent HIV infection.
OPINION: Crisis as Free State ARV programme collapses
The AIDS epidemic in our country, over more than 10 years, has had sadly many more downs than ups.
Female condom shortage
MOMBASA:(PlusNews) - A shortage of free female condoms in public hospitals in Kenya's Coast Province is compromising the ability of women to protect themselves from unwanted pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections.
Hundreds of thousands die due to delay in ARV rollout – Studies
The latest edition of the HIV Treatment Bulletin contains a report on two studies calculating the excess number of AIDS deaths in South Africa resulting from a delay in governmental roll-out of highly active ARV treatment (HAART) and in preventing mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT).