This bill is intended to amend the Medicines and Related Substances Act, 1965, so as to provide for the establishment of the South African Health Products Regulatory Authority; for the certification and registration of products which include medicines, medical devices and certain foodstuffs and cosmetics, for the control of scheduled substances; and matters incidental thereto.
Values, Policies and Rights
National Health amendment bill (draft)
Department of Health, Government of South Africa, 2 June 2008
National policies on the management of latent tuberculosis infection: review of 98 countries
Jagger A; Reiter-karam S; Hamadab Y; et al: Bulletin of the World Health Organisation 96(3) 173–184, 2018
This paper is a review of policies on management of latent tuberculosis infection in countries with low and high burdens of tuberculosis. The authors divided countries reporting data to the World Health Organization Global Tuberculosis Programme into low and high tuberculosis burden, based on World Health Organization criteria. National policy documents on management of latent tuberculosis were identified through online searches, government websites, World Health Organization country offices and personal communication with programme managers. A descriptive analysis was done with a focus on policy gaps and deviations from World Health Organization policy recommendations. Documents were obtained from 68 of 113 low-burden countries and 30 of 35 countries with the highest burdens of tuberculosis or human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-associated tuberculosis. Screening for children aged < 5 years with household tuberculosis contact was the policy of 25 (83.3%) high- and 28 (41.2%) low-burden countries. In most high-burden countries the recommendation was symptom screening alone before treatment, whereas in all low-burden countries it was testing before treatment. Some low-burden countries’ policies did not comply with WHO recommendations: nine (13.2%) recommended tuberculosis preventive treatment for travellers to high-burden countries and 10 (14.7%) for patients undergoing abdominal surgery. The authors raise that lack of solid evidence on certain aspects of management of latent tuberculosis infection results in national policies which vary considerably and highlight a need to advance research and develop clear, implementable and evidence-based WHO policies.
National Strategic Plan on HIV, STIs and TB: 2012—2016
South African Department of Health: 2012
April 2012 marked the start of South Africa's new five-year strategy on HIV, STIs and TB. The plan has several broad goals: to reduce new HIV infections by at least 50%; to start at least 80% of eligible patients on antiretroviral treatment; to reduce the number of new tuberculosis infections and deaths by 50%; to ensure a legal framework that protects and promotes human rights to support implementation of the plan; and to reduce self-reported stigma related to HIV and tuberculosis by at least 50%. Additionally, a major strategic objective of the plan will be to address the social and cultural barriers to HIV, sexually transmitted infection, and tuberculosis prevention and care. The plan states that key vulnerable populations (eg, women between the ages of 15 years and 24 years, people from low socioeconomic groups, and men who have sex with men) will be targeted with different but specific interventions under each goal to achieve maximum impact. The strategy endorses a new focus on tuberculosis (TB), which is much needed, as South Africa has 482,000 TB sufferers, 70% of whom are co-infected with HIV.
Nations closer to pandemic vaccine framework, key negotiator says
New W: Intellectual Property Watch, 24 December 2010
The second meeting of the Open-Ended Working Group on Pandemic Influenza Preparedness was held from 13-17 December 2010 at the World Health Organization (WHO) headquarters in Switzerland. The working group is part of a longstanding effort to agree on a global framework on pandemic influenza preparedness. A key sticking point in past negotiations has been a standard material transfer agreement (SMTA), including intellectual property rights provisions, for the sharing of viruses and other pandemic-related materials and for sharing related benefits. At the meeting, some countries put an SMTA into a larger context as one part of the solution, rather than the only solution. One concern is that developed countries are not increasing efforts to ensure access and benefit sharing, despite the new agreement – the Nagoya Protocol – at the United Nations (UN) Convention on Biological Diversity. This article notes that, instead of collaborating collectively under the auspices of WHO to develop an ambitious framework that delivers sharing of viruses as well as equitable benefits to facilitate pandemic preparedness, the positions taken by developed countries on a range of issues – including benefit sharing by recipients of influenza biological materials, intellectual property and issues of transparency – indicated a lack of interest towards protecting global public health and a focus on protecting the profits of their industries and safeguarding developed countries’ access to vaccines and other treatments in the event of a pandemic. The Mexican Ambassador to the UN in Geneva, a leader in the negotiating process, said he expected an agreement to be reached by the annual World Health Assembly in May 2011.
Neglected diseases: a human rights analysis
Hunt P:World Health Organization , 2007
This report by the World Health Organisation, examines the relationship between neglected diseases and human rights. It argues that neglected diseases are both a cause and consequence of human rights violations, and the failure to respect certain human rights, such as the rights to water, adequate housing, education and participation, increases the vulnerability of individuals and communities to neglected diseases.
Neglected Tropical Diseases and Equity in the Post-2015 Health Agenda
Taylor E; Smith J: Institute of Development Studies (IDS) Bulletin 49(2), doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.19088/1968-2018.141, 2018
The Millennium Development Goals’ focus on just three infectious diseases (HIV/AIDS, malaria, and belatedly, tuberculosis) configured the global health funding landscape for 15 years. Neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) are a group of 17 or so diseases that disproportionately afflict the world’s ‘bottom billion’. They are a symbol of global health inequities, in terms of prioritisation, research attention, and treatment. This article traces efforts to include NTDs in the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) agenda and, having achieved that goal, lobby for an influential position in the post-2015 aid agenda. The SDGs herald a shift to a more expansive approach and there is a risk that NTDs will once again be left behind, lost in a panoply of new goals and targets. There is, however, an opportunity for NTDs to lever their ‘neglect’ and be recast as a tool of accountability, acting as both a target for and proxy indicator of health equity for the SDGs.
Negotiating sexual and reproductive health
Molesworth K: Bulletin of Medicus Mundi Switzerland 100, April 2006
he United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and other organisations working to achieve the goal of universal access to reproductive health have to negotiate highly sensitive and embedded beliefs and practices. In certain contexts challenging female genital cutting, child marriage and instituting gender equity, access to contraception, sexual and reproductive health and information are highly contentious issues. Rather than perceiving cultural perspectives to constrain positive social change, UNFPA’s Culture Matters approach illustrates how development actors might work sensitively with the dynamics of culture to enhance the achievement of development objectives and human rights within a variety of social, cultural and spiritual settings.
Negotiations on outcome document for the upcoming UN High-level NCDs Meeting
Bertorelli E: Health Diplomacy Monitor 2(4): 8-9, August 2011
In preparation for the United Nations (UN) High-Level meeting on non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in New York from September 19-20, 2011, the UN released an Outcome Document, called the ‘Zero Draft’, which affirmed the UN’s commitment to combat non-communicable diseases (NCDs). Civil society has voiced concern over the Zero Draft though, saying their input at the 16 June 2011 Informal Interactive Hearing on NCDs was not taken into account. Concerns include the lack of concrete targets and goals, the lack of specific mechanisms for resource mobilisation, and the lack of substantial follow-up to the meeting within the draft document. The role of the private sector in preventing NCDs is also another point of contention, and particularly the role of regulatory approaches, vs the adoption of the voluntary guidelines and targets favoured by the food and beverage industry representatives.
New avenue for Litigating the Right to Health: Optional Protocol to the ICESCR comes into force
Cabrera OA Friedman E and HonermannB: O’Neill Institute, February 2013
On 5 February, 2013, Uruguay became the tenth country to ratify the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), which means the Optional Protocol will come into force on 5 May, 2013. Until now, the CESCR has been limited to issuing concluding observations and recommendations to member countries as part of semi-regular country reporting requirements in the ICESCR and to issuing broad general comments on rights under the Convention. The opportunity will now exist at the global level to litigate and begin to develop more concrete standards around the rights in the ICESCR – including the right to of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health (Article 12 of the ICESCR). The authors of this paper highlight emerging opportunities within the framework of the ICESCR and the Optional Protocol to begin serious investigations into the social determinants of health, such as access to sufficient food, water, sanitation, and education. They call for an approach that goes beyond the typical and narrower construction of the right to health based in access to health care services to include the determinants discussed in Article 12.
New bill to protect traditional knowledge passed in South Africa
New W: Intellectual Property Watch, 17 May 2012
South Africa’s Intellectual Property Laws Amendment Bill, which is hoped to pave the way for the protection of the country’s traditional medicinal knowledge, has finally been passed by Parliament and is awaiting the approval of President Jacob Zuma. The bill aims to: improve the livelihoods of indigenous knowledge holders and communities, benefit the national economy, prevent bio-piracy, provide a legal framework for protection and empower local communities and prevent exploitation of indigenous knowledge. Indigenous peoples in South Africa and the rest of the world have put forward the argument that knowledge of the use of certain plants, for example, has been developed over several generations, and ask why only the present generation should benefit. They also question why some governments or corporates are reaping the rewards of indigenous knowledge through patented products when the knowledge was born from the communities of indigenous peoples. The difficulty in answering these questions, according to law experts, is that indigenous knowledge systems do not have a clearly devised timeline to the origin or source of the knowledge. It still proves very difficult for proponents of indigenous intellectual property to trump corporates wanting to capitalise on indigenous knowledge systems, more especially within a western legal framework. Meanwhile, the main critique of the new Bill is that it incorporates traditional knowledge into existing law, rather than being governed by its own separate act, which was the main objection raised during public hearings on the bill.