Malnutrition due to the ongoing food crisis, the HIV/AIDS epidemic, and overcrowded urban areas are all contributing to a rise in tuberculosis (TB) infections in Zimbabwe. Nicholas Siziba, the national coordinator of the Ministry of Health's special TB programme, sounded the alarm while visiting Matabeleland South province - one of the worst-affected in terms of TB rates.
Equity in Health
Risking HIV to access grant in South Africa
The South African government expressed concern last month after a news report highlighted the story of a young woman who admitted she was thinking of contracting the HI virus to access a disability grant. The young woman, Thato, said she had ten 'boyfriends' with whom she slept for money. She was supporting two nieces, her own child and a grandmother suffering from diabetes on the money she made, by being what she described as a "prostitute in disguise".
TAC extends olive branch to health minister
South Africa's the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) has welcomed the re-appointment of Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, with whom the organisation has had a fraught relationship over the last four years. “The re-appointment of Health Minister, Dr Manto Tshabalala-Msimang will be a disappointment for many of us, especially the range of actors in the health sector. However, we urge Minister Tshabalala-Msimang to re-establish a working relationship in the interest of fulfilling the mandate of our people,” said the TAC.
Further details: /newsletter/id/30400
Africa: Too little, too late for ARV treatment
The long-awaited rollout of antiretroviral (ARV) drugs through public health systems is at last becoming a reality in a growing number of African countries. But the initial excitement greeting the announcement of each new AIDS treatment programme is often tempered by a closer examination of the figures, and the realisation that only a fraction of those in need will initially be able to access therapy.
Global TB effort doomed without new drugs and tests
The international humanitarian medical organisation Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has said that the battle against tuberculosis (TB) is being lost because of reliance on archaic diagnostic tests and drugs. "The HIV/AIDS pandemic has magnified this problem as TB often coincides with, and is made harder to treat by, HIV/AIDS. MSF calls for an urgent increase in worldwide investment in TB research and development," the organisation said.
South Africa Makes AIDS Drugs Available Ahead of Polls
The world's biggest AIDS treatment plan gets a boost this week as five pilot hospitals in South Africa's richest province roll out life-saving anti-retroviral medication. Officials say the April 01 launch in Gauteng, which includes Johannesburg, shows the government fulfilling a pledge to make ARVs available in South Africa - the country most battered by HIV/AIDS with some 5.3 million of its 45 million people infected.
US firms try to block cheap Aids drugs
The US, under pressure from its giant pharmaceutical companies, is trying to undermine the use in poor countries of cheap, copycat Aids drugs, made by "pirate", generic companies but validated by the World Health Organisation, campaigners claim. US drug companies want the money promised for President George Bush's Aids plan to be spent on their products.
Bush's Aids plan slammed by activists
The Bush Administration's Global AIDS strategy is based on selective and misleading use of science, evidence and rhetoric in support of an ideological approach to AIDS prevention and treatment that fails to address the needs of women and girls, who now represent the majority of those infected with HIV worldwide, asserts the Centre for Health and Gender Equity (CHANGE), a U.S.-based organisation focused on the effects of U.S. international policies on women's rights and health worldwide. "This plan is all smoke and mirrors when it comes to responding to the spread of HIV among women and girls," asserted Jodi Jacobson, Executive Director of CHANGE. "On one hand, the strategy correctly cites critical factors, such as violence and sexual coercion, that put women and girls at high risk of infection," notes Jacobson. "Yet the plan fails to offer any concrete strategies for addressing these concerns." This posting also includes information from the latest issue of the Africa Focus Bulletin on the Aids plan, which was released in late February.
Further details: /newsletter/id/30266
Healthcare for SA poor comes first, says HST
Improvements in secondary and tertiary hospital capacity should not come at the expense of basic care for the poor, the Health Systems Trust (HST) says. The Durban based NGO was responding to a speech by Minister of Health Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, in which she said R2 billion would be spent on upgrading and revitalising hospital facilities next year, including the building of 18 new facilities. The minister also said inequities in the funding allocated to primary healthcare in different provinces would have to be addressed, with some provinces allocating R50 per person each year, and others R300. But Antoinette Ntuli, HST information dissemination and equity director, urged her to ensure resources and initiatives are "fast-tracked in poor, rural areas".
SA doctors certificates will stay, says health minister
The proposed Certificate of Need (CoN) for doctors, which they claim intrudes on their right to freedom of movement, will remain. This was the word from Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang in a February media briefing. "The government will move on the CoN framework to achieve our goals in terms of the constitution," the minister said. "The CoN will remain. It is intended to transform the healthcare sector in South Africa."