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Africa Health Forum 2013: Finance and Capacity for Results
Big questions were raised about getting the best results in health and development at the World Bank’s Africa Development Forum 2013. The event brought together Ministers of Finance and Health from some 30 African countries to explore effective and creative ways to ensure the future health of the continent.
With the umbrella theme finance and capacity for results, the aim of the forum was to identify concrete strategies to ensure that investments in health produce sustainable...
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Sanac hopes for three-million on ARVs by 2015
Mail&Guardian | 21 April 2013
The South African National Aids Council says it aims to have three million people receiving antiretroviral therapy by 2015.
"Currently, there are 1.9-million people on treatment," said Sanac spokesperson Khopotso Bodibe.
Another target for 2015 was the elimination of mother-to-child transmission of HIV, and a reduction in the number of Aids-related maternal deaths, she said.
Bodibe said the rate of mother-to-child HIV transmission dropped from 8% to 2.7% ...
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AIDS council adopts National Strategic Plan for HIV, TB
Business Day | 19 April 2013
A NATIONAL Strategic Plan for HIV, tuberculous (TB) and sexually transmitted infections has been adopted on Friday, during South African National Aids Council (Sanac) meeting in Secunda, Mpumalanga, which was chaired by Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe.
The National Strategic Plan has a target to have 3-million people on antiretroviral (ARV) treatment by 2015. South Africa currently has 1.9-million people on treatment.
The plan also aims to eliminate the transmission of HIV infection...
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ARVs alone won't save HIV infected mothers
Mail&Guardian | 19 April 2013
Access to ARVs is improving, but poor attitudes to patients are aggravating maternal mortality rates.
Although almost half of all maternal deaths in South Africa are caused by HIV-related complications, there is no evidence yet that the government's antiretroviral drug programme has led to a lower chance of pregnant women infected with the virus dying during pregnancy, childbirth or within 42 days thereafter.
This is according to gynaecologist Eddie Mhlanga, the erstwhile director of...
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Dept of Health withholding National AIDS Vaccine Plan
Health-e News | 18 April 2013
Civil rights groups and communities have expressed their concerned about the failure of the Department of Health to release the National Aids Vaccine Strategic Plan (NAVSP) for 2013-2017.
At a recent community roundtable on Aids Vaccine Research and Development held at OR Tambo International Airport, stakeholders and community members expressed their unhappiness about the embargo on the release of the NAVSP and vowed to do everything they can to have it released earlier.
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HIV in breastmilk spikes at weaning
The amount of HIV in an infected mother’s breast milk spikes when weaning begins, according to a study published today in Science Translational Medicine1. The findings are likely to add urgency to efforts to ensure that infected mothers without access to formula take antiretroviral drugs throughout and beyond the time that they wean their infants.
The research also helps to explain why infants who are weaned early and abruptly are no more likely to avoid contracting HIV than do those...
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Medical student intake to be upped
The New Age | 17 April 2013
The government wants to increase the number of new medical students by 10% over the three to four years.
The Department of Health told MPs on Wednesday it wanted to increase the number from 1800 to 2395 by 2016. Chief operating officer in the department Nobayeni Dladla made the announcement.
Dladla was briefing the portfolio committee on health on the department’s annual performance plan. Health authorities wanted to ensure there were more medical students at South African...
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South African clinics already achieving zero new HIV infections in children
Maternity clinics in South Africa have the potential to achieve zero transmission of HIV from mother to child, according to a review at Tygerberg Infectious Diseases Clinic comparing infant and maternal outcomes before and after the April 2010 recommendation of lifelong antiretroviral therapy for all mothers with CD4 cell counts below 350 cells/mm3.
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Simple antiseptic can save newborn lives
Health-e News | 16 April 2013
A cheap antiseptic ointment, used to cleanse a newborn’s umbilical cord, can reduce the risk of infection and death in the first few weeks of life by as much as 20 percent.
Chlorhexidine has been around for ages and is often used as an antiseptic, but a number of studies are confirming that this intervention could have a major impact on the high number of newborn deaths in the world and more specifically sub-Saharan Africa.
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Health systems failing newborns
Health-e News | 16 April 2013
The global delivery goals for mothers and newborns are noble. No woman should die while giving life. Yet, 280 000 woman die annually during birth.
No newborn is born to die - 3-million newborns die annually. No baby must be stillborn, but 2.6-million are stillborn annually. No children must be stunted or dying of hunger, however 2.9-million die annually from these conditions.
“These are our delivery goals, yet there are 10-million deaths every year,” says Professor...
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Roadmap to tackle newborn deaths
Health-e News | 15 April 2013
Each year, about three million of the 7.7-million children who die before reaching their fifth birthday are newborns who do not survive their first four weeks of life. This situation has led to the top health agencies and child experts meeting in South Africa to formulate what will become the Global Newborn Action Plan.
While South Africa is one of the countries showing sterling outcomes in reducing the under-five mortality rate (overwhelmingly due to the success of the programme which...
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WHO/UNICEF: New plan to address pneumonia and diarrhoea could save 2 million children a year
A new Global Action Plan launched today by the WHO and UNICEF has the potential to save up to 2 million children every year from deaths caused by pneumonia and diarrhoea, some of the leading killers of children under five globally.
The Integrated Global Action Plan for the Prevention and Control of Pneumonia and Diarrhoea calls for closer integration of efforts to prevent and treat these two diseases and sets ambitious targets to reduce mortality rates and raise levels of children’s...
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