Although South Africa has no 'policy as such' to provide anti-retrovirals to people living with HIV/AIDS, it was relying on the private sector to advise it on the implications and complications of such a programme.Speaking at Parliament's health committee meeting this week, Minister of Health, Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, said her department needed to be clear about what it wanted to do.
Possibilities of adoption for a child infected with HIV depend on nothing more than compassion, as opposed to a primary need to have a child or give a home to a child who deserves to grow in a stable family unit. In the following report by Khopotso Bodibe, we hear that more and more social services organisations have come to realise that placing HIV positive children in adoptive homes can be a futile attempt.
The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria allocation for South Africa will be received by April the Minister of Health, Dr Manto Tshabalala-Msimang announced recently. Africa will receive 60 percent of the funding and South Africa fell within this ambit. The minister also explained the process of applying for funds. Thandeka Teyise compiled this report. This audio is in isiXhosa and English.
Health Minister, Dr Manto Tshabalala Msimang said the money from the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria would be distributed by April in South Africa. Sixty percent of the overall amount globally will go to Africa and while she did not disclose the total of the grant, the minister gave a breakdown of how it will be distributed in this country. She said the loveLife prevention campaign will receive about R32 million and that government's HIV/AIDS and TB programme as well as the Lubombo Spatial Development Initiative would both receive about R54.4 million each. Futher funds would be distributed to the Soul City education programme that will receive about R19 million and R91 million would go to KwaZulu-Natal.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates that about 80 percent of the world's population uses traditional or herbal medicines and South Africa is amongst these countries. It has taken over six years for the government and traditional healers to come up with a mutually agreeable plan to formally recognise traditional healers. Thandeka Teyise, of Health-E News Service, spoke to Phillip Khubukeli, a traditional healer who has been part of the process. She asked how close the parties were in terms of reaching an agreement and when the final draft of the Traditional Healers Bill could be expected.
The uncertainty around whether long-awaited HIV vaccine trials scheduled for the first quarter of this year will eventually take place in South Africa, appears to have been cleared up. That's if a consultative workshop hosted by the Medicines Control Council (MCC) last Friday (21-02-03) is anything to go by. At the workshop, attended by pharmaceutical company representatives, clinical researchers, scientists and ethicists, the MCC unveiled a draft document of guidelines and ethics for anticipated HIV/AIDS Vaccine Trials. Khopotso Bodibe attended the workshop and filed the following report.
Holo Muchangwe Hachonda IV of Zambia is a young man with a very huge mission. In 1997, while still a teenager, he formed an organisation with the express aim of working in the field of sexual and reproductive health rights and HIV prevention. He has worked extensively with churches, schools and NGOs in Zambia to promote young people's rights to access sexual and reproductive health information and services. In recognition of his efforts to reach out to the new generation, he was recently awarded an AMANITARE award. This award is presented to an individual or organisation that has made a meaningful contribution to women's health and rights in Africa. Khopotso Bodibe of Health-e News Service, spoke to this visionary young lad and discovered that issues he confronts daily in his work are the same problems South Africa is plagued with.
Investigations into the introduction of a national anti-retroviral programme for South Africans living with HIV/AIDS are far advanced and recommendations are close to finalisation, it was announced in this week's budget documents. Anso Thom reports.
Hospital opens palliative care ward to facilitate peaceful deaths.
CAPE TOWN - KwaZulu-Natal should receive the much disputed U$11,4-million (R92,5-m) from the Global Fund to fight HIV/AIDS, TB and Malaria by April and this time around the province will have the full support of the national health department, according to Health minister Dr Manto Tshabalala-Msimang. Anso Thom reports.
CAPE TOWN - The cost of a state supported anti-retroviral programme in its most expensive year could be below R10-billion and still be highly effective, according to calculations by Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) and researchers at the University of Cape Town (UCT).
Drug companies are continuing to sell anti-retrovirals at hugely inflated prices in South Africa with some branded drugs selling for up to eight times more than generic versions available worldwide but that are not yet manufactured locally.
Thanks to donations from the public, government departments and business, the Sparrow Rainbow Village that opened last year is able to provide destitute adults and children terminally ill with AIDS with holistic care in a loving and dignified environment. Last week (Friday 14/02/2003) the centre, situated on the corner of Lola and Nadine Streets, in Maraisburg, Johannesburg, announced that it is extending its services and will now cater for 200 terminally ill people. This makes the Sparrow Rainbow Village the largest live-in hospice for AIDS-infected adults and children in South Africa. Khopotso Bodibe of Health-e News Service visited this unique centre, and filed us this report.
Department of Health's Director General, Dr Ayanda Ntsabula, has said that while governemnt has not signed any agreement on an AIDS treatment plan, negotiations with all parties concerned would continue. In the meantime Pan Africanist Congress Member of Parliament Patricia De Lille said thousands of people were dying while government stalled. By Thandeka Teyise of Health-e News.
Government's HIV/AIDS policy is characterised by confusion and public relations blunders.
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