Cabinet has approved the implementation plan to scale up the HIV and AIDS prevention and treatment programme which will include ministers and other leaders taking HIV tests.
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South Africa’s health system has to make a 180 degree turn, away from the dominant curative health system, which is unsustainable and unaffordable, to a health system where prevention is the cornerstone, believes health minister Dr Aaron Motsoaledi.
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The Treatment Action Campaign’s General Secretary Vuyiseka Dubula-Majola and Chairperson Nonkosi Khumalo have received the John M Lloyd Foundation Leadership Award in Los Angeles.
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It is fitting that one of the sharpest minds and committed leaders of South Africa’s illustrious AIDS activist movement has documented not only the atrocities perpetuated by the Mbeki-Manto reign, but also the evolution of one of the greatest civil society activist movements in our country’s history.
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Lush food gardens set up by an Oxfam partner have been a lifeline for communities in Matabeleland, Zimbabwe, in the recent economic hardships.
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OPINION: Recent legislation to strengthen tobacco control policy in South Africa is a progressive step to protect the public health of the country. By Evan Blecher.
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Ten months into what many will agree is one of the toughest cabinet portfolios, health minister Dr Aaron Motsoaledi shares his vision for healthcare in South Africa. In his first wide-ranging interview the former Limpopo doctor speaks frankly about National Health Insurance, HIV and the struggling health system.
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An outbreak of Rift Valley Fever (RVF) in the Free State has resulted in the death of one person and six others hospitalised.
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Human rights groups have called for political leaders to fulfil their commitments towards universal access for antiretroviral (ARV) treatment and keep their promises.
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Every day, programs supported by the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria save at least 3 600 lives, prevent thousands of new infections and alleviate untold suffering. Global Fund present its 2010 Results Report, which shows how its investments have helped accelerate progress towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). All the documents can be found here.
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In the last “Living with AIDS” feature we heard how young men in Orange Farm, situated in the south of Johannesburg, are taking to medical circumcision in their hundreds. This week, we hear the reasons fuelling their enthusiasm.
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An article in the New England Journal of Medicine reports that starting patients on antiretroviral (ARV) therapy while they are taking TB treatment could dramatically improve their chances of survival and strengthen the integration of TB and HIV services. Full report attached.
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HIV stakeholders are calling on the Medicines Control Council (MCC) to speed up the registration of critical anti-HIV medication or face legal action. The Southern African HIV Clinicians Society has sent an appeal to the health minister to intervene and address the MCC registration process which they describe as the single biggest obstacle to getting affordable access to medicines.
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OPINION: The response to the announced increase in spending on health (from R84bn to R102bn – approximately a 25% increase) by Pravin Gordhan has received mixed responses, from praise to queries regarding whether the budget brings us closer to the proposed National Health Insurance. By Bernhard Gaede
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All patients entering a state health care facility will routinely be offered HIV counseling and testing while moves are afoot to enable community health workers to conduct these tests in an effort to not add to the burden of nurses and doctors.
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The Cancer Association of South Africa (CANSA) was recently awarded with the 2009 World No Tobacco Day Achievement Award presented to CANSA CEO, Sue Janse van Rensburg by Dr Stella Anyangwe, World Health Organization Representative in South Africa, at a recently hosted Symposium on Environmental Carcinogens in Pretoria in honour of World Cancer Day held on 4 February 2010.
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A ceremony marking the fifth anniversary of the entry into force of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control was held today in Geneva headquarters of the World Health Organization.
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OPINION: : Even if Zuma’s World AIDS Day speech is matched with sufficient budget allocation, innovative models of providing HIV and TB care will be needed to achieve the targets of the National Strategic Plan. Lesley Odendal reflects on the lessons learnt in Khayelitsha’s HIV and TB project as a window into the future.
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Young men in Orange Farm, a sprawling township south of Johannesburg, are lining up for medical circumcision in large numbers ahead of government moves to add the intervention to its HIV prevention basket. Khopotso Bodibe witnessed a young man's procedure and spoke to him afterwards.
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A lancet study suggests that completely removing both the pelvic lymph nodes (lymphadenectomy) and para-aortic lymph nodes could increase chances of survival in patients who are at risk of cancer recurrence.
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A paper is described as an overview discussion document to establish "the progress and challenges in the efforts to improve health in South Africa since 1994" was recently presented to health leaders in South Africa. The report commissioned by the Henry J Kaiser Family Foundation also outlines possible answers and directions that government should take on future health policy, including national health insurance. The report can be read here.
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The Budget and Expenditure Monitoring Forum recently held its second meeting and focused on the upcoming antiretroviral tender and the need to ensure that it is structured and run in a manner that enables the state to procure an adequate supply of appropriate medicines at the lowest possible prices.
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The Khayelitsha programme has been held up as a best practice model across the world. A report attempts to summarise the various programmes and shows among others that antiretroviral therapy is feasible in poor settings, antenatal HIV prevalence can be stabilised and a decentralised, nurse-led service is possible. Read the full report here.
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The Treatment Action Campaign explains why it is important for Zuma to show leadership and take responsibility for himself, for those around him and for South Africa when it comes to preventing HIV.
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When maternal mortality almost doubled in fourteen years, health leaders in Namibia decided to make maternal health a priority – and set up a pilot in Khomas region.
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