HEALTH care worldwide was traditionally based on a fee-for-service model, with no incentive for doctors to restrict the amount of medicines prescribed or for members to stay healthy, says Ricardo Rosa, chief operating officer of IQ Health.
Equity in Health
For the public health community, the terrorism wreaked on the United States is stunning, but not necessarily surprising. It was a shrieking reminder to us all that desperate and hopeless peoples will follow extremist minorities, that poverty and insecurity, compounded by smoldering pockets of war and the cautious engagement, if any, by the rich world breeds the destruction of September 11. That horror spread its message in nanoseconds across the world, evoking cries of alarm and sorrow, life-sacrificing rescues, and loud calls for vengeance and a "crusade" to counter the "jihad", expending more material and human resources for more death, disability, and damage to the lives and futures of thousands, perhaps millions.
Leaders of the international pharmaceutical industry said yesterday that if global trading rules on patents are loosened, it could negatively impact research and development of AIDS drugs.
A record number of people have died in Namibia so far this year from malaria, the government announced Friday, with the number of deaths up 70 percent from last year.
South African president Thabo Mbeki has once again alarmed doctors and health professionals with a letter he wrote to his health minister last month ordering a re-examination of health and social policy, spending, and research in the light of figures on deaths from AIDS.
Scientific leaders must now think beyond their immediate emotional responses and consider the practical consequences of the current crisis. Today's scientific enterprise relies heavily on international collaboration, the free exchange of data, and unrestricted travel. In the current unstable geopolitical climate, it is unclear how each of these will be affected.
Health MEC Dr Bevan Goqwana admitted the legislature's health committee report damning the appalling state of public hospitals in the province reflected the "reality of the situation".
South African religious leaders and AIDS activists appealed to the government on Thursday to declare the HIV pandemic a national emergency and to provide the leadership needed to fight it. "No one in our country can afford to deny the terrible extent of this epidemic," the group said in a statement.
Technology is not delivering healthcare services to a large number of lowincome groups covered by medical aid, says Robert Dale, marketing director of Telg Africa.
The Swaziland government has announced a five-year sex ban for young women in a bid to combat the spread of HIV/AIDS in the country. The ban was announced on Sunday evening by the leader of Swaziland's young women, Lungile Ndlovu, who said the elders of the nation had deemed it fitting, AFP reported.