The greatest shortage among health professionals is in the nursing sector which has a 25 percent vacancy rate, but a failure to address human resource issues at all levels is undermining the entire public health system.
More than 20 years into the AIDS epidemic and UNAIDS estimates that worldwide some 38 million people are living with HIV. AIDS has killed an estimated 20 million people. At the closure of the 15th International AIDS Conference in Bangkok, Nelson Mandela and his wife Graca Machel pleaded with world leaders, politicians and the business community to combat the epidemic.
A prison story from Nelson Mandela captivated journalists at the world AIDS conference as the former president used the opportunity to drive home the link between HIV and TB.
The World Health Organisation has high expectations of what South Africa'€™s care and treatment plan for HIV/AIDS can mean for encouraging other African countries to introduce similar programmes.
The Treatment Action Campaign was given a key platform at the XV International AIDS Conference to address delegates on the confusion regarding the South African health department'€™s position on the use of nevirapine.
The Medicines Control Council has said that it did not foresee any disruption to the mother to child prevention HIV programme in South Africa in the light of the announcement that the antiretroviral drug nevirapine was not recommended as a single treatment
The XV International AIDS Conference in Bangkok, Thailand, sounds a call to further action in the global fight against HIV and AIDS.
Hopes for a controversy-free South African presence at the 15th International AIDS conference were dashed when the health minister opened the South African stand at the conference.
As the national comprehensive programme to treat people ill with AIDS conditions unfolds, one of the challenges facing government, civil society organisations and individuals in the fight against AIDS is not a new one. It'€™s to seek to improve programmes aimed at ensuring that those who are uninfected remain free of HIV. Health-e News Service looks at why new methods are needed to help enhance the Department of Health'€™s ABC HIV prevention message.
The Health Department has recently launched a new stylish brand of condoms called '€˜Choice'€™ in the hope that it will encourage greater condom usage. But as Health-e reports, for women the branding of condoms means very little. What'€™s most important is their ability to negotiate when and how they would like to have sex. The names of the women interviewed in this report are not their real names.
AIDS activists have accused US President George Bush of hampering HIV prevention campaigns.
A new brand of government condoms called '€˜Choice'€™, has entered the market to replace the old condom with its plain packaging and AIDS ribbons stamped on the wrapping. The re-launch was necessary after the old government unbranded condoms failed to strike the right chord with the public. As Health-e discovered, there'€™s much more to condom usage than merely providing protection.
In the last Living with AIDS feature, we heard Nonhlanhla Kubheka'€™s views on South Africa'€™s turbulent journey to the era of AIDS treatment. This week, she tells just how her health has started failing her.
Tlalehong e sa tswa feta ya Living with AIDS, re utlwile ka maikutlo a Nonhlanhla Kubheka ha a bua ka leeto leo Afrika Borwa e le tsamaileng ho tla fihla mothating ona moo batho ba nang le tshwaetso ya Phamokathe ba fumantshwang meriana e kokobetsang matal a kokwana hloko ya HIV. Bekeng ena re utlwa ka moo Nonhlanhla yena a seng a qadile ho kula ka tshwaetso ena.
Nineteen-year-old Sanda Mlobi is one of millions of young South Africans who are at risk of contracting HIV/AIDS. Sanda is HIV negative but her boyfriend died of an AIDS-related illness last year. She says her boyfriend would have never infected her with HIV because he always insisted on having safe sex even before he found out about his HIV status. Health-e News spoke to Sanda and asked her about the importance of condom use as a young person.
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