Provincial failures drive TB epidemic
South Africa has one of the highest TB rates in the world but a cure rate of only 54%. On International TB Day, Health-e investigates the disease that is the country's biggest killer.
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Working towards a TB-free generation
Researchers in Stellenbosch and Zambia are testing hundreds of school children for TB infection as part of a study which aims to cut the TB burden in half.
Survivor’s tough struggle with drug-resistant TB
Doctors struggle to cure multi-drug resistant TB, while patients experience multiple side-effects. Health-e reports from an MDR-TB referral unit in Klerksdorp.
‘Little things’ bring big success to local TB programme
The TB rate in Cape Town continues to be among the highest in the world, yet the city has managed to achieve impressive cure rates.
‘TB is curable, even if you’re HIV-positive.’
Living with AIDS # 206
South Africa is the country with the highest co-infection rate of HIV and TB in the world, with more than half of those who have TB also testing positive for HIV. People with HIV are most likely to die of tuberculosis than any other opportunistic infection. But if detected early, death from TB can be prevented even in the presence of HIV infection.
Living with AIDS # 206
State to supply AIDS drugs for less than R100
Government will be able to supply state patients with three antiretroviral drugs (triple therapy) for around R100 a month.
Combination therapy reduces PMTCT dramatically
Scientists agree that a short and relatively inexpensive combination of anti-retrovirals could reduce mother to child transmission rates in Africa more effectively than the widely used single combinations, but less than 10 percent of the women worldwide who need it are accessing the drugs.
SA on routine testing
Living with AIDS # 204
Only 850 000 South Africans have actually been tested for HIV in the past four years, while 1.2 million people have had pre-test counselling. The low rate of testing is a common problem worldwide, which has led to countries such as Botswana and the US making the HIV test a routine service available at primary health facilities. Does South Africa plan to change its approach to Voluntary Counselling and HIV testing? Health-e finds out.
Living with AIDS # 204
Lack of water and sanitation killing thousands everyday
More people are affected by the negative impact of poor water supply and sanitation than by war, terrorism, and weapons of mass destruction combined, according to a paper published in this week's issue of The Lancet. Almost 4 000 children are killed everyday by this 'silent humanitarian crisis'.
More for the poor – Budget 2005
A priority over the decade ahead will be to ensure that a caring and competently managed health service is available in every community, Finance minister Trevor Manuel told Parliament during his presentation of the 2005 budget. A huge chunk of the Budget was allocated to welfare spending. Health-e captures the health-related highlights in the new Budget.
HIV/AIDS is killing South Africans
Two reports investigating the causes of death in South Africa have been released in the past month. The long-awaited Statistics South Africa report has revealed a 57% increase in reported deaths between 1997 and 2003. A Medical Research Council/University of Cape Town report shows explicitly that most deaths are due to HIV/AIDS.
TB, HIV and AIDS, diabetes, hypertension, cancer remain the challenges
Health minister Dr Manto Tshabalala-Msimang has acknowledged that the battle against TB is far from won, at the same time expressing frustration in trying to provide ARVs without a proper surveillance system to monitor numbers. 'We are working in the dark and you just give the medicine and hope God will be on your side,' she told journalists in Cape Town.
Moves to stop abuse of social grants system
Central to the many efforts to address poverty is the safety net provide by state grants. However, fraud and corruption amounting to R1-5-billion is taking place every year, especially in the area of disability grants.
The fat of the land
We often assume that obesity is only a problem in the US. But South Africans have been growing steadily larger over the last decade.
Schizophrenia drug withdrawn after fatal reports
Melleril, one of the oldest drugs prescribed for schizophrenia, has been voluntarily withdrawn following ongoing reports that it affected the heart's rhythm with unconfirmed reports of deaths.