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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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The AIDS Law Project and Treatment Action Campaign welcomed the 2010/1 budget and called it a step in the right direction.
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The legal fraternity is being called upon to play a meaningful role in the response to AIDS, especially to combat prejudice and discrimination against people living with HIV and AIDS.
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KIGALI: (PlusNews) - Doreen Uwimana, in her early 20s, carries condoms in her bag even when she goes to classes at a college in an upmarket suburb of the Rwandan capital, Kigali.
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NAIROBI: (PlusNews) - The Kenya Prisons Service has won praise for its HIV programmes, including education, testing and the provision of anti-retroviral drugs to prisoners, but specialists say unless the issue of unprotected sex is addressed, HIV transmission will continue unchecked.
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JOHANNESBURG: (PlusNews) - A sexy new South African television drama is set to show people that love, life and the risk of HIV does not stop after they turn 30.
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The health department is redesigning the new ARV tender in the hope of procuring cheaper antiretroviral medicine amid claims that South Africa is paying around 30% more than the global rate for the drugs.
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Western Cape health MEC Theuns Botha yesterday accused the African National Congress of mismanaging the province while in control, but in the same forum described national health minister Dr Aaron Motsoaledi as “the best news to health services this country has seen for a long time”.
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The national health department has signed off new HIV treatment guidelines, bringing South Africa in line with international best practice and removing a drug responsible for a wide range of side effects.
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HIV prevention is based on getting people to change their sexual habits – but this is a very difficult process as President Zuma has shown.
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Treating herpes does not reduce the risk of transmitting HIV, a New England Journal of Medicine study has found. The anti-herpes medication is dispensed from all South African Primary Healthcare clinics in the public sector and has been added to the sexually transmitted infection treatment guidelines.
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The life of Pholokgolo Ramothwala, one of South Africa’s long-standing AIDS activists has taken a new turn. The openly HIV-positive Pholokgolo, who started publishing an online diary last year, has just started taking antiretrovirals following the deterioration of his health.
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Discrimination against people living with HIV and AIDS continues to thrive in many parts of Africa because of insufficient laws to protect human rights. A conference of African jurists held in Johannesburg, recently, heard that although judges do not implement laws, they are suitably placed to make progressive decisions that can end the discrimination.
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HARARE: (PlusNews) - A plan to expand the three percent AIDS levy to include those in the informal sector could have a negative impact on the lives of Zimbabweans, analysts have warned.
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