The Indigenous Knowledge System unit at the Medical Research Council, headed by Dr Gilbert Matsabisa has identified two plants that might provide a cure for malaria. At this stage the researchers don't wish to name the plants but they are optimistic that they will prove to be suitable candidates for a "permanent cure". In this audio report Dr Matsabisa also emphasises the need to work with traditional healers to allow scientists to find out more about traditional medicines.

Gauteng'€™s head of health says standards will soon be set for long long people should have to wait to be treated at the province'€™s health facilities. By Kerry Cullinan

The access to health services in South Africa remains severely skewed where more than 80 percent of people have no medical aid or health insurance and rely on a depleted public health service to meet their needs.

Nurses in Gauteng may soon be able to work in Britain as part of an exchange programme being negotiated by the provincial government.

Medical schools have welcomed a move by the health department to introduce community service for a further seven health professions, the majority by 2003.

South African medical schools will from next year admit 100 students from regions in the Southern African Development Community (SADC).

A chronic shortage of staff is mainly responsible for the deterioration of patient care in a number of state health facilities, particularly in rural areas and small towns, according to Dr Elma de Vries, newly elected chairperson of the Rural Doctors' Association of SA.

There was an urgent need to make healthcare facilities and services for the elderly more accessible to the entire population in the Western Cape and not only to those living in Sea Point and Claremont, delegates argued at the recent racism conference held in the province.

South Africans who are as at home surfing the Internet as they are at catching waves are in double danger of damaging their eyes.

University medical schools are revising their curricula in an effort to produce doctors who are as at home in rural clinics as urban hospitals. In order to attract a wider cross-section of students from all population groups entry levels are to be lowered, but the exit criteria for graduates will remain the same.