Health in Southern Africa

  • Chinese first lady attends anti-AIDS activity in South Africa

    CHINA, 2015/12/08 Peng Liyuan, wife of Chinese President Xi Jinping, attended an anti-AIDS advocacy activity here on Saturday, pledging to support Africa's medical and health programs. Peng was here accompanying President Xi for the Johannesburg Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation. China will consistently support the African nations in fighting AIDS, support the World Health Organization (WHO) and the UN Program on HIV and AIDS (UNAIDS) on AIDS prevention and control in Africa, and support Africa's programs on medical infrastructure inclunding women's and children's healthcare, said Peng.

  • New ARV Treatment Guidelines for HIV Patients, Namibia

    NAMIBIA, 2015/10/11 HIV-positive patients will hereafter go on antiretroviral treatment as any minute at this time as they test positive, unlike in the completed where they had to wait for their CD4 count to drop to a certain level, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced last week. This is one of the two new guidelines that were released at the end of last month by the WHO. The guidelines will form part of the WHO's revised and updated 2016 guidelines on the use of antiretroviral drugs for treating and preventing HIV infections. The new guidelines are set for release in December. WHO said the expanded use of antiretroviral treatment is supported by recent findings from clinical trials confirming that early use of ART keeps people living with HIV alive and healthier, and reduces the risk of transmitting the virus to partners. Unlike in the completed at the same time as HIV-positive patients were mainly treated next their CD4 count had dropped to 500 cells/mm3 before going on antiretrovirals, the new guidelines set by the WHO recommend that patients go on treatment as any minute at this time as they test positive.

  • Global Malaria Target Met Amid Sharp Drop in Cases

    BOTSWANA, 2015/09/22 Malaria death rates have plunged by 60 % since 2000, but the ancient killer remains an acute public health problem with 15 nations mainly in sub-Saharan Africa accounting for some 80 % of cases and deaths globally, according to a new United Nations statement released today. “World malaria control is one of the great public health success stories of the completed 15 years,” said Dr. Margaret Chan, Director-General of the UN World Health Organization (WHO). “It’s a sign that our strategies are on target, and that we can beat this ancient killer, which still claims hundreds of thousands of lives, mostly children, each year.”

  • Global Fund Commits Half of $15 Million Budget for CRG Special Initiative,South Africa

    SOUTH AFRICA, 2015/09/13    The World Fund has committed approximately $7 million of the $15 million budget for its Community Rights and Gender (CRG) Appropriate Initiative. Each of the initiative's three arms - technical assistance (TA) provision, key populations network strengthening, and regional communication and coordination platforms - have received relatively equal amounts. The initiative runs until the end of 2016. On the TA arm, 40 applicants for technical assistance, spanning 22 nations, have received nearly $2 million in funding. Thirty-four TA providers have been identified and 65 TA requests have been received to date. This is one example of the evolution made since Aidspan last reported on the initiative.

  • GSK invests $365m in ongoing development of malaria vaccine

    AFRICA, 2015/07/28 GSK, a British Multinational Pharmaceutical Company, has announced that the Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) of the European Medicines Agency has adopted a positive scientific opinion for its malaria candidate vaccine MosquirixTM. The drugs manufacturer has so far invested $365 million into the vaccine’s development. The drug is as well known as RTS, S, in children aged 6 weeks to 17 months.

  • South Africa: Handful of Civil Society Organisations Allegedly Invited to Food Policy Consultations

    SOUTH AFRICA, 2015/07/18 Activists have alleged that only five civil society organisations were invited to today's public consultation on government's new food policy. This comes just weeks next additional than 20 organisations and individuals called on government to hold nationwide public consultations on its new policy to curb hunger. In August, government gazetted its new plan to address hunger and food insecurity. At the time, government noted policymakers were in the advanced stages of drafting an accompany implementation plan set to begin last month.

  • Unicef, UN Health Agency Report Increase in Immunization Figures for World's Children

    BOTSWANA, 2015/07/18 An increasing number of children are receiving life-saving vaccinations around the world, according to the new data released by two United Nations agencies. In a press release issued before today, the World Health Organization (WHO) and UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) confirmed that the number of nations reaching and sustaining 90 % vaccination coverage for their children with the required three doses of diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis containing vaccines (DTP3) had doubled since 2000. In 2000, 21 million children did not receive even a initial dose of DTP, a figure that has presently dropped to 12 million, the WHO and UNICEF said.

  • South Africa's President Jacob Zuma was discharged from a Pretoria hospital

    SOUTH AFRICA, 2014/06/11 South Africa's President Jacob Zuma was discharged from a Pretoria hospital on Sunday night but will rest for a few days, PANA reported Monday. 'The president will continue to rest for a few days and will work mainly from home during the rest period,' said Minister in the Presidency Jeff Radebe. He thanked the public for the messages of support and good wishes that have been received since the news of the President's hospitalisation was made public.

  • South Africa: New Tech Offers Hope of Tackling TB

    SOUTH AFRICA, 2014/03/25 Face masks incorporating satellite tracking and cough samplers are part the new technologies being tested to help researchers in South Africa try to control the epidemic of drug-resistant tuberculosis. Tuberculosis is the leading cause of death in South Africa, largely due to the high burden of coinfection with HIV. The country is the only one in the world, apart from neighbouring Mozambique, where the numbers of new infections are continuing to rise, according to the 2013 WHO world TB statement. "We need to disrupt transmission and stop the emergence of new cases of TB," says Grant Theron from the University of Cape Town, who is leading a study to investigate the disease's spread through the people. "The epidemic of TB has changed in South Africa and the majority of people with drug-resistant TB are presently contracting it due rather than developing it over time."

  • Private profit versus public interest in South Africa

    SOUTH AFRICA, 2014/02/19 Private profit versus public interest: the distinction may seem binary and simplistic but the divergence between large pharma and public health interests are increasing in polarity. Large pharma, like most large actors on the international trade scene have their interests firmly secured through lobbies touting large money, slanting legislation in their favour. With international trade legislation having direct effects on health issues in country states, is the South African government doing enough to safeguard the health of its citizens?
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