Researchers at the University of Natal concluded a three-year study that shows that a cheap and widely available drug can reduce the risk of
pregnancy-induced high blood pressure by about 60%.
This condition, or pre-eclampsia, can cause convulsions that threaten the lives of both the mother and child.
In SA, it is the most common cause of deaths during pregnancy.
Now researchers at the university's Medical Research Council's Pregnancy Hypertension Unit, working in collaboration with an...
The public health system should take its responsibility for eliminating abortion-linked deaths more seriously, Health Minister Manto
Tshabalala-Msimang said on Wednesday.
It was clear that women seeking terminations of pregnancy were being denied this choice because too few health workers were prepared to perform the procedure.
It was known, through systematic monitoring of maternal deaths, that loss of life due to septic abortions had dropped over the last three years.
We believe that this...
Financial Services Board and Council for Medical Schemes finally agree
Health brokers will be required to submit to dual regulation in terms of an agreement between the Financial Services Board (FSB) and the Council for
Medical Schemes.
The agreement ends the long dispute about whether health brokers will be incorporated under the Financial Advisory and Intermediary Services Bill
that aims to protect consumers in the financial services sector.
Parliament’s finance committee finally adopted...
As you arrive in Tshakuma village in Limpopo you encounter a sign Tshakuma, with two makeshift signs below: mangoes and coffins with an
arrow pointing in the direction where they can be found.
A group of economic researchers have followed the arrows to find out what lies at the end of the trail. Beyond the coffins and the AIDS deaths
statistics, there are families and communities left devastated.
However, the silence about the disease has made it extremely difficult for researchers to...
Scientists are more optimistic now than ever before about developing an AIDS vaccine in Africa, according to Medical Research Council (MRC) chairperson Malegapuru Makgoba.
There is light now in the Dark Continent, he told journalists after the opening session of the first forum of the African AIDS Vaccine Programme
(AAVP) in Somerset West on Monday.
Expectations of a vaccine within seven to ten years were realistic, but it was important to be prudent rather than expedient.
Makgoba said the...
Growing up fast is the key to survival in the face of poverty, sickness and death.
Wendy (13) is painting a picture of how children are forced to witness the slow and painful death of their parents from HIV/AIDS.
She says: The picture is of my home. The ambulance is fetching my mother.The flower is me. I have to stand tall, protect my mother and my home.
My mother had another baby. I looked after her until she died and then I looked after the baby. He also died.
Wendy told her story at the...
Few medical scheme members using HIV cover.
MEDICAL schemes provide comprehensive benefits for people with AIDS, but, as fewer than 1% of beneficiaries are using them, have yet to feel the full effect of the cost of the syndrome.
This is the main finding of a survey by the University of Cape Town's Centre for Actuarial Research (Care), commissioned by the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC). It covers more than 5,2m beneficiaries (80% of the market) across 77
schemes.
Care's preliminary...
South Africa has achieved a dramatic reduction in malaria cases using a new class of drugs, artemisinin derivatives that are extracted from a Chinese plant. But the US Agency for
International Development (USAID) is discouraging other African countries from using the drugs, claiming they are too expensive, hard to take and inadvisable for pregnant women and infants.
Malaria experts have reacted angrily, accusing USAID of reneging on World Health Organisation (WHO) policy that recommends...
Health authorities in South Africa would take over the running of state mortuaries from the South African Police Service, Health Minister Dr Manto Tshabalala-Msimang announced on Tuesday.
Introducing debate on her Budget vote in the National Assembly, she said a R35-million grant had been allocated for this.
Other steps in the budget included a substantial increase in spending on HIV and AIDS programmes, and a stronger focus on redistribution of funds from urban centres to rural provinces....
Scope of community service to widen
The health department's controversial compulsory community service for newly qualified medical professionals would be expanded massively to include seven more categories of practitioners, Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang
said yesterday.
The present community service system for newly qualified doctors, dentists and pharmacists was implemented in spite of broad criticism, particularly from young doctors. It is government's mechanism to try to...
HST is seeking to appoint a full-time Nutrition Facilitator to facilitate the implementation of a community-based Integrated Nutrition Programme (INP) in conjunction with the district, local CBOs and academic support institutions. A significant proportion of the time will be spent supporting the work of local CBOs and front-line health workers.
This initiative is part of a broader process to generate experiences and lessons that will inform the broader development of poverty alleviation and...
The Health Systems Trust is a Non-Governmental Organisation which is a key-role player in facilitating Health Sector Reform.
We are seeking to appoint a full-time Facilitator to support the district management team in Ehlanzeni (Lowveld) Mpumalanga in implementing comprehensive primary health care within a decentralised system.
Responsibilities: Support the district in :-
-Identifying and defining priority health problems at the district level
-Designing and implementing appropriate...
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