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/ 19 September 2007
Providing healthy people with an antiretroviral drug to protect them against HIV infection could drastically slow the spread of the virus in sub-Saharan Africa, United States researchers said on Tuesday. In a best-case scenario, the drug could prevent three million new HIV cases in this part of Africa over a 10-year span.
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/ 19 September 2007
South Africa is holding off joining a United States-led initiative to spread atomic power because it does not want to give up its right to enrich uranium, a senior South African official said on Tuesday. Exporting uranium only to get it back refined, instead of enriching it in South Africa, would be ”in conflict with our national policy”, said Minerals and Energy Affairs Minister Buyelwa Sonjica.
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/ 19 September 2007
The United States Federal Reserve on Tuesday night slashed interest rates in a dramatic move designed to prevent the ailing US economy falling into recession. Abandoning its previous hardline stance against inflation, the Fed cut by half a point both its federal funds rate and the discount rate at which banks lend to each other.
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/ 19 September 2007
Typhoon Wipha made landfall in eastern China on Wednesday, knocking out power and water supplies to tens of thousands of residents, but promptly lost strength as it travelled inland. Officials said it was too early to assess damage on the coast, but there were not immediate reports of casualties.
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/ 19 September 2007
Keeping young hearts beating — that’s the mission of the Heart and Stroke Foundation South Africa’s Children’s Programme, a community-based empowerment project that teaches healthy habits from a young age. With the help of sponsorship from Lucky Star, the foundation has been able to extend its reach beyond the metropolitan precincts and into the rural areas.
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/ 19 September 2007
Providing palliative care for patients who have been diagnosed with a terminal illness calls for special levels of devotion and compassion — qualities offered by Ladybrand Hospice in the Free State. The hospice provides relief from suffering and distress when illness has reached the stage where continued medical treatment can no longer provide a cure. Patients are assigned a home-based carer.
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/ 19 September 2007
Absa’s social investments stand in the context of its wider role in all the societies in which it operates. The Absa Healthcare Initiative Awards, to be held for the second time this year, are a major component of the 2007 Pan-African Health Congress.
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/ 19 September 2007
South Africa’s presidency presented a challenge to Stellenbosch University towards the end of 2000 — to develop a programme that addresses the HIV/Aids pandemic. So was born the postgraduate diploma in the management of HIV/Aids, which has now been accepted as a model for the African continent.
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/ 19 September 2007
Lack of qualified human resources in the African healthcare arena continues to hinder poverty reduction and development, opening up further potential for computer-based learning models on the continent. A case in point is Kenya, where almost 90% of the country’s nurses are trained at the lowest “enrolled” status.
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/ 19 September 2007
One in every 100 children suffers from congenital heart defects – and as many as 95% of these can be treated through surgery, enabling them to go on to live normal lives. But without treatment, these children die within weeks. Less than 30% of indigent South African children and 1% of children in the rest of the continent can afford the treatment they need.