Human behavior

This brief publication is an attempt to share the experiences of the Initiative for Sub-District Support with those involved in district management in KwaZulu-Natal. It is not meant to be a check-list for action, and ultimately, district management teams need to be guided by provincial and regional managers. But our experience has highlighted both strategies for effective action and a number of pitfalls that new management teams should try to avoid. Not surprisingly, much of the publication is about dealing with people, rather than the technical content of service delivery.

A workshop to develop guidelines. The effects of commercial products from some industries on the health and well being of communities has been a subject of debate for many years. The tobacco, alcohol and infant formula industries have been under special scrutiny in this regard. In the case of the infant formula industry, the debates have focused more on how breast milk substitutes affect health promotion efforts aimed at promoting breastfeeding. To this end, international health groups such as UNICEF and WHO have embarked on global campaigns, some of which have led to the formulation of a number of international codes. These codes are intended to help regulate the use and marketing of breast milk substitutes, for example, the international code of marketing of breast milk substitutes adopted by the World Health Assembly in 1981.

The study investigated qualitatively the existing information, education and communication strategies regarding adolescent sexuality within and outside the health service to develop improved implementation of IEC-strategies and health service delivery in co-operation with the relevant stakeholders.

There is no doubt that smoking and alcoholism are damaging to the health of the individual. The adverse physical effects of both are well established. But not only does the individual suffer from using these substances, society in general suffers also. The effects of smoking are primarily physical, whereas those of alcohol are also psychological and emotional (alcohol abuse has been linked to domestic and other violence, dependency, child abuse and neglect etc). However, there are many principles which apply to both, and so they will be considered together in this Update on Tobacco and Alcohol in South Africa.