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Commission closes in on health care
THE COMPETITION Commission has moved one large step closer to launching an inquiry into the health-care sector with the news that after a three-year delay, the “market inquiry” provision of the Competition Amendment Act will come into effect on April 1.
Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi told Business Report over the weekend that he had been calling for an inquiry into the sector for some time.
“Prices in this sector are artificial and distorted and we certainly look...
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Global Fund’s Executive Director First Visit to South Africa
The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria | 8 March 2013
Executive Director of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria met with President of South Africa
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E Cape demands better health services
Health-e News | 8 March 2013
Members of the Ubuntu Bethu last week marched to the offices of the Eastern Cape Health MEC to demand better health services in the province.
Although the group of about 100 marchers were from different civil society organisations, including Contralesa, Brothers for life, Treatment Action Campaign, Community Media Trust and World Aids Campaign, they were united in the message they wanted to convey: “we need more resources for health”.
The group marched to the MEC...
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HIV campaign launched
Health Minister Dr Aaron Motsoaledi has launched a campaign to test at least 100000 students at all universities around the country.
This is the part of the “First Things First” campaign to test students at varsities and at further education training centres.
The testing, the minister added, was for the students’ own good and they should not be afraid.
Speaking at Mangosuthu University of Technology during the national launch of the First Things First HIV...
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Has HIV funding revived lagging health systems?
The HIV/AIDS epidemic arrived in sub-Saharan Africa after decades of neglect had left healthcare systems dangerously weak, barely able to cope with the onslaught of patients. Then the money started pouring in - funding for HIV programmes rose from 5.5 percent of health aid in 1998 to nearly half of it almost 10 years later.
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Disappointment in HIV prevention trial
A three-year clinical trial involving over 5,000 women in East and Southern Africa has found that pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) - whether a vaginal gel or an oral tablet - is not effective at preventing HIV infection in young, unmarried women.
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A message from Section27 & TAC: Shape up or lawyer up, GP health
Daily Maverick | 5 March 2013
The Gauteng health system remains in disarray, say Section27 and the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC), with crises relating to equipment, staff, infrastructure, corruption and mismanagement. They’re giving the provincial department a month to clean up its act, or they’ll go to court to ensure the rights of citizens are met. By GREG NICOLSON.
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‘Functional cure for HIV’: Dare we hope?
Daily Maverick | 5 March 2013
On Sunday, researchers at the 20th annual Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI) in Atlanta, Georgia announced that they had, for the first time, “functionally” cured a baby born with HIV. A "functional cure" refers to state where a person is AIDS-free without the need for HIV drugs, despite a trace of the virus lingering in the body.
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Gauteng: Calls for accountability after death and disability
Health-e News | 5 March 2013
SECTION27 has called for those politicians and managers who have been overseeing the systematic collapse of the Gauteng state health system to face the wrath of the law. Read the full report and a series of stories here.
In a hard-hitting report released today (MON) SECTION27 reveals that the province has experienced a debilitating range of operational difficulties, especially in 2012, which has directly resulted in increasing morbidity, disability, stillbirth and death.
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Section27 criticises Gauteng health turnaround plan
Business Day | 5 March 2013
PATIENTS have yet to see the benefit of Gauteng health MEC Hope Papo’s turnaround strategy, says advocacy group Section27.
Mr Papo launched a three-year plan to fix the troubled Gauteng health department last July, promising to resolve its financial crisis and put an end to equipment, medicine and staff shortages. This weekend he said the department had settled accruals of R4.2bn by January and filled key management posts. Essential drug stocks had also improved, he told reporters....
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Women ‘not keen on HIV prevention methods’
Business Day | 5 March 2013
IN ANOTHER blow to the HIV prevention field, a study among African women has found that neither a daily pill nor a vaginal gel is the right approach for preventing infections.
The findings are important because they are likely to influence guidelines being developed by the World Health Organisation on pre-exposure prophylaxis for preventing HIV infection.
Pre-exposure prophylaxis is used to protect people against diseases such as malaria, but has yet to be implemented as a strategy for...
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Anti-AIDS pill, vaginal gel unsuitable for Africa: study
Trying to prevent HIV infection through vaginal gels or daily tablets has proven ineffective in the southern African region ravaged by the disease because people did not use the medicines properly, a study released on Monday said.
A ground-breaking study issued in 2010 indicated a vaginal gel containing an HIV drug can sharply reduce infections in women who use it before and after sex.
However, a test of the gel and two types of anti-HIV pills among more than 5,000 women in South Africa,...
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