A new centre in Botswana is piloting some innovative strategies to address the emotional and medical needs of HIV/Aids healthcare providers.
Indonesian scientists on Wednesday again placed Mount Merapi on its highest-alert level a day after the volcano had been downgraded, meaning they believe an eruption is imminent. Potentially deadly heat clouds streaming from Merapi’s peak caused panic among some villagers living around the volcano’s slopes.
HIV/Aids programmes in sub-Saharan Africa cannot be implemented by doctors and nurses alone if they are to expand to meet the treatment needs of citizens, according to United States global Aids coordinator Dr Mark Dybul, who is in South Africa to attend a meeting of the implementers of the US President’s Emergency Plan for Aids Relief.
Open source is alive and well in South Africa’s biggest township, Soweto. Bongani Hlope carries the flag high, planning a <i>tsotsitaal</i> translation for Linux to make it more accessible for his neighbours. By day, he’s a Java developer at health-insurance giant Discovery Health.
Injuries have forced Springbok coach Jake White to make three changes to his Test-winning side, including dropping star centre Jean de Villiers for the weekend’s second Test against Scotland. Both De Villiers and centre partner Jaque Fourie have been ruled out. De Villiers had left the field in the second half of the first Test with rib injuries.
Springbok coach Jake White announced a new centre pairing to face Scotland in the second Test in Port Elizabeth on Saturday. Injuries to centres Jean de Villiers and Jaque Fourie forced White to select the untested combination of Olivier and Snyman.
Hospitalised former president FW de Klerk had a ”peaceful” night after a tracheotomy was successfully performed, Panorama Medi-Clinic said on Wednesday. Spokesperson Melissa Rademan said De Klerk was in a stable condition in an intensive-care unit at the hospital.
Islamic militia captured the Somali town of Jowhar on Wednesday as fighters from a United States-backed alliance of warlords fled one of their last strongholds in the war-ravaged country. Heavily armed gunmen loyal to the Islamic courts were seen patrolling the town, about 90km north of the capital Mogadishu, which they captured earlier this month.
More safe blood is needed in Africa, said the World Health Organisation (WHO) on World Blood Day on Wednesday. ”The need to collect enough blood and to make it available for patients is more acute in developing countries, and particularly in Africa,” said Dr Luis Gomes Sambo, the regional director of the WHO regional office for Africa.
The European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company (EADS), builder of Airbus jets, plunged into a stock market vortex on Wednesday, losing about €7-billion in the first few hours of trading on further production delays to its super-jumbo A380 flagship and a profit warning.