Health
Leaked email: companies intended to campaign against government policy
A leaked email shows that a plan for a campaign to scuttle the South African government's draft intellectual property policy was about to proceed, despite a denial by the pharmaceutical industry that it had approved the campaign.
GroundUp Staff
News | 21 January 2014
Sick mine workers neglected - time to compensate them
Far from the bustling streets of downtown Johannesburg, much of it built by the bounty of South Africa’s gold mines, thousands of former mineworkers suffer from painful diseases contracted on the job. These men labour to breathe, their lungs degraded by the occupational diseases of silicosis and tuberculosis.
Ryan Boyko, Seyward Darby, and Rose Goldberg
News | 20 January 2014
Mshengu toilets down again
Mshengu’s blue chemical toilets have once again toppled over in Khayelitsha’s BM Section causing residents to defecate in the bushes.
Mary-Anne Gontsana
News | 15 January 2014
Court orders access to Stellenbosch’s deadly initiation school
Seven boys were admitted to Stellenbosch Hospital on the evenings of 25 and 26 November. Two were dead on arrival. One had sjambok marks on his body. They were about 20 years old. They were the victims of an initiation school.
Jonathan Dockney
News | 9 January 2014
When the ANC jeered Madiba
Do any of the members of the ANC's 1997-2002 NEC now regret the way they heckled and jeered Madiba at an NEC meeting in March 2002?
Roy Jobson
Opinion | 12 December 2013
Rural Health: grossly unequal but some hope
While there are significant unmet health needs in many parts of South Africa, they are particularly acute in historically disadvantaged rural areas.
Tom Yates
Opinion | 3 December 2013
AIDS medicine stockouts put thousands at risk
South Africa’s anti-retroviral (ARV) treatment programme is often hailed as one of the most important public health successes. It is the world’s largest ARV programme, with over two million patients initiated on treatment. But it has serious problems: many patients often go without medicines because of stockouts.
Koketso Moeti
News | 28 November 2013
Controlling quackery: will new regulations help?
Untested nonsense medicines and adverts to buy them are prolific. But after years of chaos in the alternative medicine market, it seems the Department of Health (DOH) is intent on fixing the mess.
Kevin Charleston
Opinion | 26 November 2013
Dozens of unpaid asbestosis claims leave sick workers unsupported for years
Cassiem Mohammed is a 70-year-old retired boiler cleaner from the now-closed Athlone Power Station (APS). He was diagnosed with asbestosis (fibrosis of the lung) in the mid-1990s from exposure to asbestos while he was working at the APS.
Jonathan Dockney
News | 13 November 2013