With millions of Africans dying from AIDS and millions more infected every year, a group of Roman Catholic clergy in southern Africa is debating whether the church should relax its ban on condom use.
Equity in Health
South African Bishops Consider Condom Use
South African Court Orders Man to Pay Wife Damages for Infecting Her With HIV
South African High Court acting Judge Naren Pandya last week ordered a man to pay his wife $116,400 (one million rand) in damages for infecting her with HIV, marking the first time in South Africa a woman has "claimed damages" for being "wilfully" infected with HIV by her husband.
South African Government Sued
\'Refusal\' to Provide HIV-Positive Pregnant Women With Access to Nevirapine
The South African AIDS advocacy group Treatment Action Campaign and two other parties filed a lawsuit Tuesday against South African Health Minister Dr. Manto Tshabalala-Msimang and nine provincial health ministers in an effort to require the South African government to provide nevirapine to HIV-positive pregnant women cared for in the public health sector, Reuters/South African Broadcasting Corporation reports.
South African government undecided about Nevirapine order
The South African government has not yet decided whether to comply with the courts order to supply nevirapine to HIV positive pregnant mothers or to
appeal the order.
South African Health Review 2016
Padarath A; King J; Mackie E; Casciola J: Health Systems Trust, 2016
The 2016 South African Health Review presents evidence on the current legislative and policy framework guiding healthcare delivery, the challenges that underpin the performance of the health system, on water and food; and on personnel and programmes in the public health system. The report indicates that although tackling HIV targets will be daunting, they are likely to be affordable and cost-effective if implemented in a phased way and if annual increments to Government AIDS budgets are sustained. The report also discusses South Africa’s pharmaceutical pricing and transparency and the concept of and benefit from health research observatories. Finally the report provides a wide range of information on health trends, with a specific focus on the data needed to monitor non-communicable diseases.
Southern Africa: Fight Against Africa's Killer Diseases Boosted
EFFORTS to combat three of Africa's most devastating diseases HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis (TB) and malaria have been given a major boost, with the announcement of a à 600m European Union (EU) programme to fund clinical trials in sub-Saharan Africa.
SOUTHERN AFRICA: IFRC appeals for US $13 million
The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) is appealing for more than US $13 million to fund its humanitarian programmes in southern Africa.
SOUTHERN AFRICA: Malaria threat on heels of drought
The coming of the rains in Southern Africa in the next few months will end the region's drought but usher in a new threat - an upsurge in malaria, Africa's number one killer. "Our past experiences from the '92 drought and other droughts is that after the drought breaks and the first rains fall there is a natural biological response from the mosquitoes. They move in large numbers. We must prepare to keep malaria down when the rains come," said Shiva Marugasampillay, chairman of the World Health Organisation's (WHO) 2002 Southern Africa Malaria Control Conference.
Further details: /newsletter/id/29261
Southern Africa: Public Health Services need urgent help to combat humanitarian crisis
Four months after the first warnings of an imminent humanitarian catastrophe in Southern Africa, several hundred thousand people may die because funds to provide basic relief for those who suffer have not been raised. The World Health Organization (WHO) has urged international partners meeting at its Geneva headquarters to do more to help Southern African nations stem a tide of death and disease from the humanitarian crisis in the region.
Southern Africa: WHO declares no danger from GM foods
WHO Director-General, Dr Gro Harlem Brundtland, told a meeting of health ministers from ten famine struck southern African countries that, based on available evidence, genetically modified grain being provided as food aid is not likely to negatively effect human health.