The achievement of Millenium Development Goal 4 - that is, to prevent babies and children from dying ' is not possible if the other seven goals in the Millenium Declaration are not adequately addressed. Dr Phetsile Dlamini is the co-ordinator of the African Union programme in the national Department of Health.
International health experts and government representatives converge in Cape Town today for a three-day conference looking at improving maternal and child health care. But is Africa doing enough to save mothers and children from the risk of death?
HIV/AIDS accounts for many child deaths in South Africa - about two thirds of children in public health facilities. It's also a leading cause of death among new mothers. This is according to a report published recently, called 'Every Death Counts'.
Every day in South Africa, 260 mothers, babies and children below the age of five die. These are signs of an ailing health system, says report.
Gaps in healthcare system causes unnecessary deaths of mothers and babies, according to the report "Every death counts".
Over the last few weeks this feature has dwelt on the country's revised prevention of mother-to-child HIV transmission (PMTCT) programme. But some of us might ask: Why is the revision of the programme so significant?
Last Friday, the Department of Health released its long overdue policy revision of the prevention of mother-to-child HIV transmission programme (PMTCT). But medical experts say the new policy is still inadequate.
Attempts on the HIV prevention front have been dealt yet another blow, following the failure of the Carraguard microbicide to prove effective in preventing HIV infection from males to females.
There's a further upset in microbicides research as results of Carraguard, the only microbicide candidate to complete all three stages of research, show that the compound does not prevent HIV infection.
On the 25th of January, the Department of Health announced that it would publish new guidelines for the prevention of mother-to-child HIV transmission allowing doctors to give both Nevirapine and AZT to pregnant women with HIV. But once again, it seems to be dragging its feet on the matter.
After years of debate, the national Department of Health has changed its protocol for the prevention of mother-to-child HIV transmission. Last week, the National Health Council's policy committee adopted new guidelines for PMTCT.
After years of stalling and much criticism from the HIV/AIDS sector, the Policy Committee of the National Health Council on Friday finally adopted new guidelines for the prevention of mother to child transmission (PMTCT).
Simple, affordable life-saving measures, such as exclusive breastfeeding, immunization, insecticide-treated bed nets and vitamin A supplementation, have helped to reduce child deaths in recent years, according to UNICEF's The State of the World's Children 2008 report.
The Southern African HIV Clinicians Society has added its voice to the growing criticism of the health department's failure to get its house in order on the prevention of mother to children transmission (PMTCT) programme.
A single dose of two antiretrovirals given to mothers shortly after giving birth has shown to reduce the chances of the women developing later resistance, a new study from Zambia has shown.
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