Health

Allegations around public works programme spark protests in desperate Free State dorp

Arrive in Smithfield from any direction and the first official board one sees announces: ‘Mohokare declares war on waste’. The chief weapon in that war is a platoon of temporary workers hired under government’s Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP) administered by local municipalities.

Carmel Rickard

News | 16 September 2014

Celebrate Global Female Condom Day

As we celebrate the second Global Female Condom Day on 16 September 2014, I join the celebrations with a wide smile and confidence, writes Nokhwezi Hoboyi.

Nokhwezi Hoboyi

News | 16 September 2014

Fighting for decent toilets in Gauteng schools

On 13 September Equal Education marched in Johannesburg for decent school sanitation in Gauteng. Brad Brockman, the organisation's General Secretary, explains the campaign.

Brad Brockman

Opinion | 16 September 2014

Week in activism

This week in activism we cover the symposium on torture hosted by the Wits Justice Project, the march by Equal Education for better sanitation for schools in Gauteng, and the ‘What if Women’ challenge by WHEAT.

Thembela Ntongana

News | 11 September 2014

RR Section’s overflowing toilets still unfixed

An unbearable smell lingers in the air of RR Section to the point where you can taste it. This is the daily struggle for Khayelitsha residents who live next to overflowing drains and toilets that still remain unfixed by the City of Cape Town.

Mary-Anne Gontsana

News | 8 September 2014

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

South Africa leads in HIV prevention among gay groups

As homophobic discrimination continues to sweep across the African continent, we should be acutely mindful of the diverse ways it harms societies. While we are most aware of the direct effect homophobic physical violence has on sexual minority groups, it is also crucial that we be cognisant of the many insidious ways stigma and discrimination impact not only on sexual minorities but society at large.

Andrew Tucker

Opinion | 11 August 2014

Treatment Action Campaign in a tavern

People should view taverns as part of the community, where young people can meet to enjoy themselves, and not as enemies, community activists told a meeting at the weekend of the Kuyasa branch of the Treatment Action Campaign.

Munda Kula

Brief | 5 August 2014