Funding by Faith
A community caregivers project for rural KwaZulu-Natal AIDS orphans and vulnerable children hangs in the balance as donor money from the United States dries up.
Heading For The Rocks?
One year into his tenure as MEC for Health in the Free State, Butana Khompela is still to exorcise the ghosts that have made the province one of the worst-performing when it comes to health.
Hospital horrors
The hospital is full. Two young girls lie on trolleys in the main hallway. They are wrapped in pink blankets; drips come out of
their arms and hang on the walls. One looks in severe agony. She calls out for a nurse again and again. heir mother tells
us that they arrived at the hospital seven hours ago and have yet to leave the hallway.
Orthopaedic nightmare in the Free State
Whistleblowers say patients with broken legs, arms and other serious orthopaedic conditions are being sent home in the Free State because the buckling health system is simply unable to cope with the numbers. Health workers are told there is no money to bring in outside help to reduce the waiting lists.
Spotlight on health MECs: Phophi Ramathuba
It’s a health budget day in Limpopo, and MEC Dr Phophi Ramathuba is set to address a packed council sitting in Lebowakgomo on how R18 billion will be divided up for health needs in the province.
New SANAC CEO responds to questions about his past
Dr Sandile Buthelezi was recently appointed as the new head (CEO) of the South African National AIDS Council. His appointment follows the suspicious non-renewal of the previous CEO’s contract Dr Fareed Abdullah and unsuccessful attempts to lure Eastern Cape head of health Dr Thobile Mbengashe to the post.
Spotlight on health MECs: Gwen Ramokgopa
Government’s merry-go-round of political appointments saw Gwen Ramokgopa return to the position of MEC for Health in Gauteng in February – a post she first held in 1999.
Spotlight on TAC Provinces
The Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) reports for Spotlight on some of its recent work in the seven provinces where TAC has branches and provincial structures.
Opinion: Return of the quacks
For a long time, South Africa has been a country where charlatans are able to flourish and peddle dangerous remedies for all kinds of ailments.
TAC survey highlights poor infection control in clinics
By Marcus Low Tuberculosis (TB) infection control measures in some South African public sector clinics fall woefully short. This is according to an infection control survey that was published by…
HIV docs win quack HIV gel case
The South Gauteng High Court this week ruled in favour of the SA HIV Clinicians Society in its legal battle with a doctor who promoted a product marketed as Dr Hugh’s Dermo Blue Pre-sex Protection Gel, which claimed to prevent HIV infection.
Hearing a problem, and solving it
By Ntsiki Mpulo – Nombulelo Sojina* cradles her baby close to her chest in a kangaroo mothering-style of skin-to-skin
contact. The child’s tiny head is barely visible under the blanket in which she is swaddled.