"Panic breeding" is the inelegant term given to a response by some Swazis to an AIDS epidemic that is decimating the population of the small Southern Africa kingdom. The impulse to make-up for AIDS deaths by having more babies is exacerbating both the health crisis and the kingdom's ongoing problem with overpopulation.
Equity in Health
SWAZILAND: Teenage girls angered over five year sex ban
Teenaged girls in Swaziland reacted with anger at the five-year ban on their sex lives this week, complaining that their boyfriends "won't wait". The ban was introduced two weeks ago as a measure to curb spread of HIV/AIDS in the kingdom.
Further details: /newsletter/id/28881
Swine flu reaches Zimbabwe and Botswana
IRINNews: 10 July 2009
Zimbabwe and Botswana have reported their first suspected cases of swine flu as the H1N1 virus begins to establish a foothold in southern Africa. Neighbouring South Africa has reported 54 laboratory confirmed cases of swine flu so far, 32 of which have been linked to a squash tournament at a university in Johannesburg. No deaths have been reported in the region as yet. Dr Lucille Blumberg, head of epidemiology at South Africa's National Institute for Communicable Diseases, said that most cases of the illness were ‘mild’, and that it was too early to tell whether people living with HIV and AIDS (PLWHAs) would be affected to a greater degree by the flu. Most PLWHAs are in southern Africa, where most countries also have severely stretched health services, and the effects of the virus on their populations remain uncertain. Blumberg said in other parts of the world swine flu had killed healthy people, as well as those suffering from underlying illnesses.
Synopsis of the Report of the Commission on Social Determinants of Health
Woodward D: PHA-Exchange, September 2008
In its report, the Commission calls for increased public finance for programmes and policies to support the social determinants of health, including child development, education, improved living and working conditions and health care, recognising the failure of markets to supply vital goods and services equitably. It also calls for progressive taxation at the national level, a major increase in aid, improved aid quality and greater debt cancellation. It sees an urgent need for a global economic system that supports renewed government leadership to balance public and private sector interests, and identifies quantifying the impact of supra-national political, economic, and social systems on health and health inequities within and between countries as an important research need. Stronger global management of integrated economic activity and social development is needed as a more coherent way to ensure fairer distribution of globalisation's costs and benefits. The entrenched interests of some social groups and countries are seen as ‘barriers to common global flourishing’, and transnational companies should become accountable to the public good, not just to private profit.
Further details: /newsletter/id/33484
Systematic review of diarrhoea duration and severity in children and adults in low- and middle-income countries
Lamberti LM, Fischer-Walker CL and Black RE: BMC Public Health 12(276), 6 April 2012
Diarrhoea is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality globally; yet the overall burden of diarrhoea in terms of duration and severity has not been quantified. This study aims to fill that research gap. The authors estimated that, globally, among children under-five, 64.8% of diarrhoeal episodes are mild, 34.7% are moderate, and 0.5% are severe. On average, mild episodes last 4.3 days, and severe episodes last 8.4 days and cause dehydration in 84.6% of cases. Among older children and adults, 95% of episodes are mild; 4.95% are moderate; and 0.05% are severe. Among individuals ≥16 yrs, severe episodes typically last 2.6 days and cause dehydration in 92.8% of cases. Moderate and severe episodes constitute a substantial portion of the total envelope of diarrhoea among children under-five (35.2%; about 588 million episodes). Among older children and adults, moderate and severe episodes account for a much smaller proportion of the total envelope of diarrhoea (5%), but the absolute number of such episodes is noteworthy (about 21.5 million episodes among individuals ≥16 yrs). Hence, the global burden of diarrhoea consists of significant morbidity, extending beyond episodes progressing to death.
TAC and Aids Law Project hold health transformation seminar
On the 10th of February, the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) and the AIDS Law project held a joint seminar on transformation of the South African Health System, including both the public and private sectors. This is part of preparations for a conference to be held in May with the aim of developing detailed policy positions for TAC's Campaign for a People's Health Service. Presentations made at the workshop can be found on the TAC website.
TAC Court victory
Cosatu statement
The Congress of South African Trade Unions welcomes the Court judgement in favour of the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC). It is a victory for all mothers who are HIV positive, to whom the court has ordered the government to extend the provision of anti-retroviral drugs to prevent mother-to-child-transmission of the virus. The government must now comply with the judgement and make the drugs available to all those mothers who need them, as quickly as possible.
Further details: /newsletter/id/28958
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
tac holds international day of protest
The South African AIDS advocacy group Treatment Action Campaign held an international day of protest on April 24 against the South African government's handling of the AIDS epidemic, demanding that the government improve access to antiretroviral drugs.
TAC to campaign for equitable health system
The South African AIDS advocacy group Treatment Action Campaign, which has been nominated for the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize, announced plans in January for a new campaign in its battle for universal AIDS treatment that would target inequities between the country's public and private health care systems, Reuters reports. South Africa's health care system has retained its apartheid-era structure of "elite" private hospitals, which primarily care for wealthy whites, and public hospitals, which are overburdened in their attempts to care for the majority of blacks, Mark Heywood of TAC said. In its campaign, TAC plans to target private hospitals, which it says are "too expensive," and push for a "people's health service for a people's antiretroviral program," Heywood said.