Health
Premier Zille: wrong again
DA leader and Western Cape premier Helen Zille has again entered the HIV prevention arena, telling us we are failing to deal with HIV because we don’t have the right approach to taking personal responsibility for sexual behaviours.
Francois Venter
Opinion | 4 September 2014
A week in activism
This week in political activism we look at Sonke Gender Justice’s call for government to take urgent action on hate crime, charges laid by TAC against senior health officials in Bloemfontein, and the launch of an urgent intervention on behalf of Marikana residents.
Thembela Ntongana
News | 4 September 2014
Shortage of drug that prevents babies from getting HIV
The National Department of Health (NDoH) has sent out a circular nationally to all doctors, nurses and pharmacists informing them of a shortage of a paediatric anti-AIDS drug called nevirapine, used to prevent HIV infection in the newborn children of mothers with HIV.
Mary-Anne Gontsana
News | 2 September 2014
Healthcare workers worry injecting heroin on increase
Sunday 31 August was International Overdose Awareness Day. Health workers in Cape Town have warned of a possible increase in drug overdoses and the spread of infectious diseases, including HIV, if the use of needles to inject drugs increases.
Ian Broughton
News | 2 September 2014
Circumcision just got easier
In a bid to get thousands of men in the Western Cape circumcised, the national department of health (NDoH) officially cut the ribbon to launch the new mobile theatres which will be going around the Cape’s remote areas, to get males circumcised.
Mary-Anne Gontsana
News | 1 September 2014
In the footsteps of Dudley Lee: prisoners to sue government
Several prisoners intend suing the Department of Correctional Services because they contracted tuberculosis (TB) in prison.
GroundUp Staff
News | 28 August 2014
Tim Noakes and the responsibility of experts
One of the major medical advances of the last few decades has been the two-dose vaccine for children against measles. A responsible doctor or public health expert would not do anything to jeopardise public confidence in the vaccine. Yet this is exactly what UCT's Professor Tim Noakes did this past weekend, writes Nathan Geffen.
Nathan Geffen
Opinion | 27 August 2014
Struggling with childhood obesity
Sindi (not her real name) is a 13-year-old girl who lives in the informal settlement of Masiphumelele near Fish Hoek in Cape Town. She meets the definition of being obese.
Thembela Ntongana
News | 25 August 2014
TAC pickets Michael Mapongwana baby unit
“There is no privacy, you are asked in front of everyone what your baby's HIV status is. It is dirty and the staff is very disrespectful in the way they speak to patients. I don’t go to that clinic anymore; it’s been a year now. Because of their treatment I did something I shouldn’t have done, I tested my child for HIV myself, because I too work at a clinic.”
Mary-Anne Gontsana
News | 14 August 2014