Marion

Medical abortion

Series Name: 
Nursing Update
Published by: 
Democratic Nursing Organisation of South Africa

South Africa currently only provides for medical abortion in the private sector – however, the National Department of Health is finalising guidelines for implementation in the public sector. Given the demand for abortion services by women, the limited accessibility of surgical abortion there is a need to make medical abortion services available. This should address illegalmedical abortion providers currently advertising on lamppostsin public areas and the concerning maternal mortality rates.

Aids is a human rights issue

Series Name: 
Nursing Update
Published by: 
Democratic Nursing Organisation of South Africa
Marion Stevens, Women and HIV/AIDS Gauge, Health Systems Trust, shares initiatives in the pipeline to make Aids testing safer.

Do you remember Beijing and Cairo?

Series Name: 
Nursing Update
Published by: 
Democratic Nursing Organisation of South Africa

In March, at the United Nations in New York this year, the Commission on the Status of Women marked the 15th anniversary of the Beijing Platform for Action. There was a short political declaration adopted on the second day of the Commission, which reaffirmed the commitments made at Beijing and called for actions towards implementation. There were 7 resolutions introduced:
1. HIV and AIDS, Women and the Girl Child
2. Women’s Economic Empowerment
3. Eliminating Maternal Mortality and Morbidity through the Empowerment of Women
4. Ending Female Genital Mutilation
5. Release of women and children taken hostage
6. The situation of and assistance to Palestinian women
7. Strengthening institutional arrangement of the UN for support of gender equality and the empowerment of women by consolidating the four existing offices into a composite entity [Gender Equality Architecture Reform]

My fertility was stolen from me

Series Name: 
Nursing Update
Published by: 
Democratic Nursing Organisation of South Africa

In Namibia, HIV-positive women are being tricked into sterilisation. Is this a country desperate to curb Aids, or just a blatant human rights violation? Marion Stevens of the Women and HIV/AIDS Gauge, Health Systems Trust, came across this recent article, which exposes the reality of what’s happening in Namibia’s state hospitals.

Chat spaces

Series Name: 
Nursing Update
Published by: 
Democratic Nursing Organisation of South Africa
For some young people today, mobile phones and remote social networking are their ticket to the outside world, for some, their key to survival. But this mode of communication is also rife with sexism and harassment. But something is being done to make it safer.

Cervical Cancer and HIV: The intimate connection

Published by: 
Health Systems Trust

Since 1997, over 33 000 women have died of cervical cancer in South Africa. This translates into roughly 3 000 per year. In addition, approximately 7000 women develop the disease every year. In 2000, a national cervical cancer screening policy was developed and put into place. The system uses a screening method to prevent the precancerous lesions from developing into cervical cancer through early detection and treatment. Screening takes place through pap smears with three free pap smears being offered to women in the public service at the ages of 30, 40 and 50.

Developing Treatment Guidelines for Women of Reproductive Age

Published by: 
Health Systems Trust
In South Africa, the issues surrounding HIV/AIDS have long been contested and are, in themselves, complex. Treatment has been normalized, embraced and guided by the National HIV/AIDS and STI Strategic Plan (NSP), which is the overall guiding plan for HIV/AIDS in South Africa. The Plan is implemented in partnership with the South African National AIDS Council (SANAC). The NSP has gaps in the key areas of sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR), and this has been an important critique of policy guidelines. SRHR are only identified in the indicators of prevention and are absent from other provisions in the Plan. These gaps are also challenges in the Southern African region and globally. While the process of addressing SRHR in South Africa has started, these comments have the potential for wider application globally.

Tuberculosis a womens health issue

Series Name: 
Nursing Update
Published by: 
Democratic Nursing Organisation of South Africa
Using Tuberculosis as a case study, The Centre for Public Health Research, School of Health Sciences and Social Care, Brunel University, Uxbridge, UK. (Allotey P, Gyapong M.) said that gender studies, as an area of research, have developed to address the social, cultural and contextual factors that disproportionately affect the ability of women to promote their health and treat disease. The importance of gender in health and disease is now clearly established and increasingly evident in mainstream public health, as well as in clinical and social medicine.

Lesbian health: more than screening for breast cancer and mental health

Series Name: 
Nursing Update
Published by: 
Democratic Nursing Organisation of South Africa
The focus this month for Nursing Update is breast cancer and mental health. Last month I noted that in the continuum of womens health, lesbian health has essentially been left off the agenda. In my training, if one thing was mentioned about lesbian health it was around breast cancer and that lesbians and nuns were vulnerable! (those who may not breast feed before the age of 35). While nuns might not have sex, lesbians certainly do have sex. The other remnant of my training was that gays and lesbians may need mental healthcare!

Medical Male Circumcision: thinking through the impact for a feminised epidemic

Series Name: 
Nursing Update
Published by: 
Democratic Nursing Organisation of South Africa
Marion Stevens of the Health Systems Trust focuses on the recent meetings and discussion around medical male circumcision.

There has been a lot of discussion and a lot of resource mobilisation (donors setting money aside) on medical male circumcision. This has been so given recent research findings and the desperate need to find 'something' to do to increase real results in the prevention, treatment and care, and support arena. However, concerns have been expressed about the real implications. The World Health Organization (WHO) held a meeting in Mombasa last month to discuss this issue and the Aids Vaccine Advocacy Coalition held a meeting prior to this to particularly focus on growing concerns regarding the impact of medical male circumcision on an epidemic in which women are mostly infected and affected. I include a background document and a consensus statement from the meeting.