Hospitality

A commentary by David Patient- Person living with AIDS since his diagnosis with GRIDS back in March, 1983.

You can eat the healthiest, freshest, most nutrient-rich diet possible, but still wind up chronically ill from diseases related to malnutrition. Why? Your digestive system may be functioning less than optimally an increasingly common occurrence as you age. The experts say health complaints that plague ageing adults from impaired immunity to digestive distress and nutritional deficiencies can be traced to a key underlying factor: poor digestive health. They also say digestive health is important no matter what your age. There is even a website devoted to theissue, (www.digestivehealth.org). It says most people experience digestive health problems at one time or another, and usually consider their symptoms merely an inconvenience. But the digestive system is extremely important as it functions to support the rest of the body and deliver nutrients throughout the body. When it malfunctions, the entire body is at risk.

Rarely in South Africa can a minister have come to power carrying such a weight of expectation as Barbara Hogan. Her first major public speech at the Aids Vaccine Conference in Cape Town in October was greeted with enthusiasm, and even international delegates speculated about the bright future that seems to lie ahead at last for South African healthcare. Her speech was reminiscent of one of those games where one has to bash crocodiles on the head as they pop up apparently randomly through holes in the floor. Politely, and without naming names, Hogan took a baseball bat and bashed all the major crocodiles on the head: Matthias Rath and his vitamins, for instance. Most of all she asserted the fact that HIV causes Aids.

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).

Closing date: 20 January 2008

SA Partners seeks an executive director to manage the implementation and development of the Ibhayi Living Centre.

The new draft Regulations Relating to the Labelling and Advertising of Foodstuffs have been published by the Minister of Health in terms of the Foodstuffs, Cosmetics and Disinfectants Act, (Act 54 of 1972), for public comment for a period of three months in the Government Gazette No. 30075 on 20 July 2007.