Q&A with the Deputy Health Minister
Kerry Cullinan speaks to the Deputy Health Minister, Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge.
Kerry Cullinan speaks to the Deputy Health Minister, Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge.
Deputy Health Minister Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge talks to Kerry Cullinan about government's 'new energy' on HIV/AIDS
Our last 'Living with AIDS' feature explored the debate for and against making the HIV test a routine procedure offered to anyone attending a health facility. This week, we look at routine testing in relation to human rights.
Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka and Deputy Health Minister Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge emerge as new powers in government HIV/AIDS plan.
The burden of HIV on South African society has got the country asking the question: How can more people be encouraged to test for HIV? One school of thought is for the introduction of a routine opt-out model, while another is in favour of the current Voluntary Counselling and Testing option.
The national Department of Health recently revealed that about 179 000 people were accessing antiretroviral therapy through the public health system. Just over 31 000 were on the waiting list for treatment. Gauteng is responsible for treating about a third of all those on ARVs. The province's MEC for Health reports back on AIDS treatment.
A two-day meeting on extensively drug-resistant Tuberculosis (XDR TB) has resolved that in the absence of quicker diagnostics and new medication to treat TB in all its forms, national TB programmes need more strengthening, especially in the face of HIV/AIDS.
Transformation at Africa's biggest hospital has had a cash boost and an expert team is working flat out to improve patient care.

Against the odds, a small rural hospital with a zealous clinical head performs complicated hip replacement operations.
One of the country's largest rural HIV/AIDS programmes was officially handed over to the Eastern Cape health department on Thursday in a ceremony held in Lusikisiki.
Waya esibhedlele eyokukhupha izinyo elisoloko limkhathaza. Kodwa wabuya enobuso obudumbileyo kwaye ephethwe ziintlungu ezinganyamezelekiyo. Kuthe kungekudala, zondela ezintlungu de lenkosikazi yaphelelwa nangamandla, ingakwazi ukuzihambela. Kungoku nje akusekho nto akwazi kuzenzela yona, onke amalungu omzimba kaPricilla ome nko.

Over a 12-year period, AIDS cases have replaced gun-shot and stab wounds at Natalspruit Hospital. The increase in the demand for beds due to AIDS-related complications is resulting in the squeezing out of other essential hospital services. Health care workers at Natalspruit Hospital talk about the impact of AIDS on the facility.
The deadly strain of extremely drug resistant TB has reared its head in Gauteng. Experts fear that the outbreak ' first detected in KwaZulu-Natal - is a potential killer, particularly for people living with AIDS. There are concerns that it also places South Africa's AIDS treatment programme at enormous risk.

Psychiatric patients have been long neglected by the health system and hidden from the public eye. Recently, a commission of enquiry heard evidence of gross abuses, including sexual and physical abuse, of psychiatric patients by staff at Townhill Hospital in Pietermaritzburg.
The Eastern Cape's latest health MEC appears to be set on preventing public scrutiny of its troubled provincial hospitals, and staff are too intimidated to speak out. In the meantime institutions are haemorrhaging nurses and doctors.