Despite being a vaccine-preventable death, 745 000 children under five are killed each year by measles ' 2 000 every day ' and at least half are in Africa. Unicef and the World Health Organisation have targeted 45 countries in the hope of halving the deaths by 2005.
Antibiotics, once hailed as 'miracle drugs' that would rid the world of life-threatening diseases, are losing their effectiveness leaving us vulnerable to bacteria that is resistant to treatment. Health-e News investigates the situation in South Africa.
African diva and queen of funk Angelique Kidjo is more than a musician. She's also a UN goodwill ambassador and on a visit to Cape Town urged girls to refuse to have unprotected sex.
Two South Africans have been appointed to a high-profile Commission on HIV/AIDS and Governance in Africa (CHGA). The University of Natal's
Professor Alan Whiteside and World Bank managing official Dr Mamphele Ramphela are members of the 20-person commission, chaired by Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Africa K. Amoako, and established
at the behest of United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan.
The Commission's mandate is to study the impacts of HIV/AIDS on African state structures and economic development and identify threats to governance. It will report back in June 2005.
Experts told him it was impossible do hip replacements in rural KwaZulu-Natal. But 'Rural Doctor of the Year' Victor Fredlund doesn't understand 'impossible'
Next week in Nairobi, researchers from Africa and beyond will attend the International Conference on AIDS and Sexual Transmitted Diseases in Africa (ICASA). Chairperson of the conference, Dr. Malaki Owili, says African governments must provide treatment and care for HIV/ AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases. The ICASA meeting runs from September 21st to 26th, 2003.
Over a quarter of a million women have accessed safe, legal abortions since the implementation of the Termination of Pregnancy Act in South Africa six years ago. But many are still not aware that services are legal or even exist.
'Letting them Die ' How HIV/AIDS prevention programmes often fail' by Catherine Campbell is a compelling and honest account of why a well-funded intervention in a mining community failed. She spoke to Health-e News.
The Medicines Control Council has given Boehringer-Ingelheim, manufacturers of Nevirapine, a further six months to submit data to avoid the de-registration of the drug as a single prevention in the transmission of HIV from mother to child.
The Sexual Rights Campaign, launched in the year 2000 and spearheaded by the Women's Health Project in Johannesburg, is now in the final stages of being finalised into a complete Sexual Rights Charter. The run-up to the authorisation of the Charter took the form of workshops and stake-holder forums across the country, the last of which was held in Cape Town in November last year, to educate men, women and the youth about sexual rights, how to ensure and attain them.
Antenatal surveys have been conducted by the Department of Health since 1990. An internationally recognized tool for estimating the magnitude, growth and spread of the HIV epidemic over time, the latest South African survey reveals that 5,3- million people are living with HIV or AIDS in this country.
Young girls are increasingly using sex to bargain for non-essentials such as fashion items and make-up studies have found.
Bonga is a 27 year-old young woman from Motherwell, Port Elizabeth. She has been living with HIV for the last four years after being gang-raped by four men in Johannesburg where she came looking for a job. Since then, Bonga has wanted to tell her parents about her infection, but her fear of rejection has stopped her.
In last week's "Living with AIDS", Bongiwe spoke about her struggle to disclose her HIV status to her parents. A fear of rejection keeps her silent. This week we explore how parents' attitudes affect their children.
Gender inequality contributes to South Africa's high levels of violence, hampers economic development, places strain on our health care system and is fuelling the AIDS crisis.
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