One person is sure to be at the forefront-  putting the view of business across - when government and the pharmaceutical industry tackle one another in  the much hyped court case. But is Mirryena Deeb  really the Cruella de Ville of the industry or is she just a woman caught up in the demands of trying to juggle a stressful job, motherhood and a sick nation calling louder and louder for medicine to ease its pain...Anso Thom from Health-e News Service spoke to her.
It has been almost two and a half years since Parliament passed the Medicines and Related Substances Control Amendment Act on October 31, 1997. During this time the legislation has been tied up in litigation instituted by the Pharmaceutical Manufacturers' Association who argue that their patent rights will be ignored by section 15c of the new law. AIDS activists around the world have thrown their weight behind the South African government in its bid to create a legal framework to ensure more affordable drugs.
Living with HIV for eight years without picking up an opportunistic infection, Lundi Ntikinca is worried about the day when he will need expensive medication that could save his life. An option he cannot afford.
Despite praising the Department of Health for effectively managing malaria, the South African Health Review today warned that there had been a dramatic rise since 1996.
HIV infection, if it remains uncontrolled, has the potential to swamp progress made in tuberculosis (TB) control, according to the South African Health Review released today.
The sale of drugs in South Africa earned pharmaceutical companies about R8,25-billion last year, but the public sector only accounted for 24 percent of sales despite the fact that over 80 percent of the population depends on state health.
A collection of quotes on what those involved in the court case and those most likely to be affected have to say.
The impact of HIV/AIDS on all aspects of South African society is hampering even the best efforts to improve the health status of the country and overall the country'€™s health status remains poor.
More than 300 people attended the Treatment Action Campaign's Western Cape provincial conference this weekend. The organisation declared its intention to begin a campaign in April to ensure that clinics offered basic medicines and treated people with HIV/AIDS with dignity and respect.
Health economists have responded cautiously to Finance Minister Trevor Manuel'€™s "generous" allocations towards interventions targeting HIV/AIDS.Manuel announced a R300-million supplementary allocation for targeted HIV/AIDS interventions in 2002/03 and R313,5-million in 2003/04.
HIV/AIDS will have a massive and long term impact on South African society. In the rural areas of KwaZulu-Natal, extended families are already absorbing the consequences of what it means when both parents die. In this report, we meet Rose Vumase, a 64-year grandmother who lives in Manguzi, near the Mozambique border and we hear from economist, Alan Whiteside, director of the Health Economics and HIV/AIDS Research Division at the University of Natal, Durban.
The United Nations Secretary-General says HIV/AIDS is the biggest challenge of our time and has called for intensified and broadened political and financial commitments by nations in their response to the AIDS crisis.
From 1 April, government will offer HIV positive pregnant women in Durban and Pietermaritzburg the anti-retroviral drug, nevirapine, for free to prevent them from transmitting the virus to their babies. Kerry Cullinan reports.
More than a thousand people applauded religious leaders when they urged government to see to the health care needs of its people at an inter-faith service in St George's cathedral in Cape Town last week (Feb 12). The crowd then joined a march to Parliament organised by the Treatment Action Campaign calling for an HIV/AIDS treatment plan by June 16 and for trade and industry minister Alec Erwin to use his powers under the Patents Act to licence the necessary anti-retrovirals for a treatment plan. Sue Valentine followed the march through Cape Town and spoke to its leaders.
Almost two years after Gauteng?s Commission of Inquiry into Hospital Care Practices, the provincial Department of Health has been working to implement some of the commission's recommendations -- aimed at ultimately improving hospital services. But senior specialists at the province?s two largest hospitals believe that little has changed. In fact they believe certain things are worse. Is this a fair assessment or have things changed, even though progress may be slow. Anso Thom spoke to those at the coal face?
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