Politics

ALMOST 250000 South Africans were getting free AIDS drugs at government hospitals and clinics, the health department said yesterday, suggesting that up to half of those in need were now on treatment.

You are more invested in the DOTS model, which has failed multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB) and now which is breeding XDR-TB, than you are in saving lives, Mark Harrington, Executive Director for the Treatment Action Campaign told TB (tuberculosis) experts attending a symposium held on Tuesday by the Stop TB Partnership of the World Health Organization. The symposium was held the day before the 37th Union World Conference on Lung Health, which is being held this week from November 1-4th in Paris.

HARARE The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) says far too many children were dying in Zimbabwe during their first month of life because of deteriorating standards in health care.

The African Ministers of Health have adopted the African Union Plan of Action for universal access to comprehensive sexual and reproductive health services in Africa by 2015.

Although the operating performance of medical schemes took a knock last year, a survey by Global Credit Ratings has found that schemes are financially robust.

The Health ministry has instructed provincial departments not to have any dealings with the United Nations special envoy on Aids in Africa.

Closing Date: 14 August 2006
Reference no: AC19/2006
An essential need exists to provide timely and effective communication and interaction with key decision and policy formulators regarding the activities and outputs of this Health & Demographic Surveillance Centre. Consequently, the Africa Centre wishes to recruit a Policy Liaison Officer

CAPE TOWN * SA's biggest doctors' group, the South African Medical Association (Sama), joined AIDS activists yesterday in opposing proposed legislative amendments to give greater powers to Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang over the Health Professions Council of SA and its allied professional boards.

THE dog-eared clinic card may one day be little more than a curious historical artefact if government's ambitious plans to overhaul the way patient records are stored is successful. The dream is that one day every South African will have their own smart card containing their entire medical history and current conditions * vital information that could mean the difference between life and death in an emergency.

Civil society organisations in South Africa are preparing to push government to meet its commitment for setting national targets on HIV/AIDS, made at the recent United Nations General Assembly Special Sessions on HIV/AIDS (UNGASS).