Tobacco control – talks underway
Negotiations for a world treaty on tobacco control begin here today (Monday) among members of the World Health Assembly under the auspices of the World Health Organisation (WHO).
Negotiations for a world treaty on tobacco control begin here today (Monday) among members of the World Health Assembly under the auspices of the World Health Organisation (WHO).
Intergovernmental negotiations that will lead to a Framework Convention on Tobacco Control governing the sale and marketing of tobacco are set to begin in earnest today (Tuesday).
The Tobacco Products Control Amendment Act, which comes into effect on October 1st, imposes tight controls on smoking in restaurants, pubs, shebeens, hotels and workplaces, as well as limiting tobacco advertising and the sale of tobacco products.
Despite "longer than desired" waiting lists for surgery, Groote Schuur'€™s Breast Clinic is able to offer hundreds of woman treatment for breast cancer. ANSO THOM reports.

You don'€™t like condoms? Try this for size: 45% of South African adults will be infected by HIV within the next ten years. Jo Stein reports.

The overwhelming bulk of evidence presented on the second day of World Health Organisation's hearings into the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control called on the international health body to impose tough restrictions on the sale and marketing of tobacco.
It is now thought that the South African population will in all likelihood stop growing as a result of HIV/AIDS. High numbers of AIDS deaths will play a role, but so will the impact of HIV/AIDS on fertility. These are some of the population research findings reported at The Joint Population Conference held in Port Elizabeth recently. Jo Stein reports.
The first ever hearings by the World Health Organisation (WHO) to adopt a convention to control tobacco products worldwide began in Geneva yesterday (Thursday). SUE VALENTINE reports.
Tobacco giants Philip Morris and British American Tobacco both stated explicitly yesterday that nicotine is addictive and that smoking causes a variety of diseases. SUE VALENTINE reports.
Three-year-old Alexander Heyns plays next to his mother at the physiotherapy centre, fitting shapes together into a box. "Look, mama, they are all in now," he says, blue eyes sparkling. "When he first came here, he would never do this," says his mother, Lynette. "He would come in shouting and charge around, touching everything. He found it difficult to focus."
In this audio feature, a look at how the anti- AIDS Mother to Child Treatment programme works in Khayelitsha and meet one of the women who received AZT during her pregnancy.

Concerns around the efficacy of the drug Nevirapine in preventing mother-to-child transmission of HIV causes delays in provinces responding to an October 1 deadline for identifying their own sites for testing. KERRY CULLINAN reports.
Statistics from the Cancer Association of SA (Cansa) show that one in every 36 women in South Africa has breast cancer, now the most common cancer among South African women. ANSO THOM reports.
Two organisations, both representing South African doctors and specialists, have in the past week come out in support of the widely accepted and scientifically proven theory that HIV causes AIDS.
This week, in our weekly feature on HIV/AIDS, the World Bank has completed new research on the impact of HIV/AIDS on South African society. Sue Valentine reports.