In one year, five community health workers and two volunteer nurses have transformed health care in the Masiphumelele community near Noordhoek, reversing the low cure rate for tuberculosis to reach an astounding 100%.
Don'€™t rely on the workers'€™ compensation system to provide for you if you get injured at work; the system may only add insult to injury. This is according to a submission to the Public Protector requesting a formal inquiry into the Office of the Compensation Commissioner.
Soweto researchers are expected to release the long awaited results of the Nevirapine trials at the AIDS 2000 conference in Durban in July. According to Dr James McIntyre, co-director of Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital'€™s Peri-Natal HIV Research Unit, most of the mothers who enrolled have now given birth.
Johannesburg Hospital'€™s HIV/AIDS Clinic has virtually stopped seeing new patients, referring most cases to primary health care clinics, ill equipped in dealing with HIV/AIDS-related illnesses.This latest revelation follows short on the heels of the closure last year of the HIV/AIDS Clinic at Pretoria Academic Hospital and allegations that about R40 million of government AIDS funds for 1999/2000 has not yet been spent.
The difference between diseases children can easily catch from one another, like flu, and those they can'€™t, like HIV/AIDS is the subject of a new play, "Inside Out", produced by the Arepp Educational Trust.
When it comes to sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) its seems that public health care offers patients more appropriate treatment and better medication. However, because of the sensitive nature of STDs, many patients still tend to opt for private care. JO STEIN explores the findings of a recent research report.
At what age should children be told about sex? Does talking about sex encourage your children to experiment? In an age of HIV and AIDS, ignorance about sex and sexually transmitted diseases  could be  dangerous to children's health. KERRY CULLINAN takes up the issue
Once again the battle against the South African AIDS epidemic has been dealt a blow with controversy and politicking surrounding the long awaited announcement of the National AIDS Council.Now the danger, according to AIDS activists, is that as in the past with Sarafina 2 and Virodene, good intentions on the side of government, will do more harm than good.
Faced with the daunting task of trying to manage an AIDS epidemic which has the potential "to overwhelm our services", care givers, doctors, nurses and management from the Gauteng Health Department recently met in Johannesburg, hoping to find answers. Dr Liz Floyd, head of the province'€™s AIDS programme, said they were already losing people prematurely. "Good, fast treatment could have avoided that," she said.
According to the department of health, the aim of the National Aids Council will be to provide a co-ordinated platform where government and civil society can interact to organise a more multi-sectoral, less fragmented approach in the fight against HIV/AIDS.
Biographies of the members of the National Aids Council.
AIDS orphans are to get special attention after President Thabo Mbeki and Carol Bellamy, executive director of the United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef) this week agreed that HIV/AIDS would be a major focus of Unicef's work in this country.
"Mama Khoza" spends most of her weekends at graveyards, not really to honour those who have already moved on, but as she puts it "to bury the cream of Mamelodi". "I told someone last week. We are burying the cream of Mamelodi - youngsters who are in the process of completing their degrees," says Veronica Khoza, a retired nurse, who now runs Tateni, a community-based home care project.
Most of the doctors who completed their community service year at the end of 1999 intended remaining in the public service, while a large percentage were planning to go overseas.
Community service for doctors in South Africa was conceived amid controversy, but has emerged as a symbol of the commitment of the health department and the medical establishment to equity in the health system, according to the SA Health Review. But a concern remains the fact that unclear policy guidelines in the first year of implementation lead to only 259 (less than 25%) of the community service doctors being placed in rural hospitals, while 55% were working in regional, tertiary and specialised hospitals.First year intakes for medical students have shown a trend towards a more equitable racial distribution of students with a decrease in white students and an increase in the number of African students, the SA Health Review has revealed.
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