Gauteng food banks remain empty
Amost half-a-million Gauteng beneficiaries reliant on feeding schemes under the suspended provincial food bank programme, having already gone hungry for four months, are now facing a bleak Christmas.
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SA sleeping on the most successful HIV weapons
Oral pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), taken as a once-daily pill, has been hailed the world over as one of the major HIV prevention interventions in the fight against AIDS. Yet, apart form sex workers, very few South Africans are using PrEP or even know it exists.
HIV: One child infected every two minutes
AIDS kills 76 adolescents around the world every day, and some 360 000 will die by 2030 unless “urgent” action is taken.
Health Ministry attacks NHI critics
The Health Ministry has condemned those who have criticised the speed at which the National Health Insurance (NHI) Bill is being processed, claiming they want to “delegitimising” the process.
NHI Bill being pushed for elections?
The Presidency and Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi seem intent on pushing the National Health Insurance (NHI) Bill through Parliament before next year’s election despite major unanswered questions.
Litigation is in the air
Mpumalanga’s filthy air is likely to be the subject of court action, as environmental justice groups have grown tired of government giving Eskom’s coal-fired power stations free passes to pollute.
SADMON 5: When social media doesn’t go viral
While Sadmon’s management of the Department of Health’s Twitter account is not disastrous, there is little evidence of the kind of sophisticated social media campaigns one would expect as part of a R352 million contract. The evidence also shows that the Department of Health has not done particularly well on social media when compared to other government departments.
SADMON 4: Autopsy of the Phila campaign
The bill for July 2017 was R17-million but very little was achieved - and the Department of Health shouldered some of the blame as it often was not available to approve Phila activities.
A non-violent society needs non-violent parenting
Children learn violence from a young age, often within their homes, so to create a more peaceful South Africa, experts warn that care-givers must stop spanking kids.
SADMON 3: Red Ribbon or white elephant?
Millions of condoms pile up at the Department of Health's Red Ribbon warehouse as there seems to be no budget to pay couriers.
SADMON 2: How not to manage a govt contract
Monthly progress reports submitted by Sadmon are studded with incidences of frustration and finger pointing. While the Department of Health is clearly highly ineffectual in extracting value from this contract, Sadmon are not the innovative, mass media communication experts they profess to be.
SADMON files 1: DoH awards R352m to controversial company
In 2015 Johannesburg-based company, Sadmon Projects and Consulting was awarded a three year, R352 million tender to handle the Department of Health’s “mass media communication and social media mobilisation campaign” relating to HIV & AIDS, Tuberculosis and maternal child & women’s health, as well as the promotion of healthy lifestyles. Spotlight's Anneliese King reports
Parents building school toilets for their kids
The ongoing challenge of pit toilets at schools is continuing, with the situation in the Eastern Cape become so dire that parents have taken to actually building toilets themselves.
Diabetes: Your leg or your life
It is one of our fastest-growing epidemics. But managing diabetes is complicated when diagnosed late – the main problem for most South Africans. HEALTH-E NEWS’ Amy Green spends time in a surgical ward where people living with complications from the condition often have to choose between amputation and death. And once they have lost a limb, their chances of getting a prosthetic one in the public sector is virtually zero.
Diabetes ‘will destroy the economy of this country’
Local doctors say that if prevention efforts aren't ramped up, diabetes-related costs to society - especially amputations - will become completely unaffordable.