Law

Delegates at the South African AIDS conference in the port city of Durban heard mixed views from experts on Wednesday as to where business was heading in terms of addressing HIV/AIDS in the workplace.

Age offers little protection against AIDS children are often the disease's unwitting victims.

In scaling up antiretroviral treatment (ART), financing is fast becoming less of a constraint than the human resources to ensure the implementation of the programmes. In the countries hardest affected by the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) pandemic, AIDS increases workloads, professional frustration and burn-out. It affects health workers also directly, contributing to rising sick leave and attrition rates. This burden is shouldered by a health workforce weakened already by chronic deficiencies in training, distribution and retention. In these countries, health workforce issues can no longer be analysed from the traditional perspective of human resource development, but should start from the position that entire societies are in a process of social involution of a scale unprecedented in human history. Strategies that proved to be effective and correct in past conditions need be reviewed, particularly in the domains of human resource management and policy-making, education and international aid. True paradigm shifts are thus required, without which the fundamental changes required to effectively strengthen the health workforce are unlikely to be initiated.

Rapid increase in number of people receiving ARV medicines

Employers abuse and neglect the Occupational Health and Safety (OH&S) of health workers in Municipal Clinics around the country, according to research recently released by the Municipal Services Project (MSP), the Industrial Health Research Group (IHRG) and the South African Municipal Workers Union (SAMWU).

The death toll from Marburg virus in Angola has already surpassed the largest number of fatalities ever recorded during an outbreak of this rare but highly lethal haemorrhagic disease with epidemic potential, the United Nations health agency announced today.

SA's tough antismoking laws, high duties on tobacco products, competition from illegal imports and the domination of the local cigarette market by British American Tobacco (BAT) are not enough to deter international tobacco groups from setting up shop here.

SA's tough antismoking laws, high duties on tobacco products, competition from illegal imports and the domination of the local cigarette market by British American Tobacco (BAT) are not enough to deter international tobacco groups from setting up shop here.

The Health Department has reached its target in the implementation of the Comprehensive Plan for the Management, Care and Treatment of HIV and AIDS for the financial year ending today.

Womens Rights in the Fight against HIV/AIDS