Stifling the private healthcare industry could see it shift resources to foreign operations, placing greater strain on the public sector, a consulting company said on Thursday. Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang announced in Parliament on Wednesday that unregulated private healthcare cannot be sustained.
The apparent détente between the national Health Department and the Treatment Action Campaign is to be applauded, but will it stick?
Matthias Rath and his foundation had never claimed their vitamin products were a cure for HIV/Aids, Rath’s advocate told the Cape High Court on Thursday. ”We are not claiming it’s a cure,” Rath’s advocate, Dumisa Ntsebeza, told the court. ”We would like to make very clear, that has never been the claim.”
The Department of Health has shown a decided lack of enthusiasm for investigating the activities of vitamin entrepreneur Matthias Rath, the Cape High Court was told on Wednesday. ”The government has failed completely in its … duties to protect the health of the public,” said Geoff Budlender, advocate for the Treatment Action Campaign.
South Africa, which has one of the world’s highest rates of HIV/Aids, is worried a national programme to fight the disease could founder on a lack of financial resources, it said in a report to the United Nations. President Thabo Mbeki’s government has been criticised for not doing enough to halt the spread of the pandemic.
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/ 19 February 2008
The Annestacia Wiese murder trial was postponed on Tuesday for the Cape High Court to rule on an application that the Department of Health provide an expert to testify about the accused’s state of mind. Murder accused Richard Engelbrecht has pleaded guilty to the rape and murder of the 11-year-old Wiese.
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/ 14 February 2008
The Department of Health on Thursday released a revised policy and guidelines clearing the way for dual therapy in the prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV. At the same time, Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang dismissed claims that her department was reluctant to implement the new regime.
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/ 11 February 2008
The Competition Commission has referred three pharmaceutical companies to the Competition Tribunal for prosecution after they were found to be colluding when bidding for government tenders, it said on Monday. ”Collusive behaviour would undoubtedly be one of the contributing factors to higher prices in healthcare,” said competition commissioner Shan Ramburuth.
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/ 7 February 2008
Despite an undertaking by President Thabo Mbeki, the South African government continues to undermine traditional leaders, Inkatha Freedom Party leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi said on Thursday. Buthelezi accused the government of paying ”lip-service” to the African renaissance programme.
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/ 1 February 2008
The Department of Health has introduced a new anti-tetanus vaccine for children, it was announced on Friday. The department’s Fidel Hadebe said the vaccine was introduced to clinics and hospitals as of February 1. ”Diftavax Td is to be administered to children at the age of six and 12 years.”
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/ 25 January 2008
Most private hospital groups will maintain their tariff increases at the consumer inflation rate, Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang said on Friday. She said the Department of Health had met with several private hospital groups over the past week, who had committed to review their tariff increases.
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/ 20 January 2008
About 2 000 nurses have been deployed to under-served areas across the country since the start of the year, the Department of Health said on Saturday. In a statement, the department said it will also open additional nursing colleges to increase the supply of nursing staff.
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/ 14 January 2008
Eleven people who were allegedly carrying out illegal abortions were arrested in central Johannesburg, the city said on Monday. City officials and metro police came upon a makeshift hospital of horrors on Friday when they were trying to clean central Johannesburg of ”poster pollution”.
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/ 6 December 2007
The klebsiella death toll at Durban’s Prince Mshiyeni Hospital has risen to six. This follows the deaths of five other babies at the hospital two weeks ago. The deceased’s mother, Lungile Ngema, said that nurses had taunted her, saying mothers who gave birth at home brought the disease to the hospital.
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/ 3 December 2007
The Department of Health should be sued for the klebsiella outbreak by the parents of the five dead babies, the Democratic Alliance (DA) said on Monday. The DA spokesperson for health, Mike Waters, said the parents of the two surviving babies should also sue the department for negligence.
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/ 1 December 2007
There has been great progress in the response to the challenge of HIV/Aids and few setbacks, Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang said on Saturday. Speaking at World Aids Day commemorations in Mokopane, Limpopo, Tshabalala-Msimang pointed out that the setbacks have been in the area of research.
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/ 29 November 2007
Government ministers have failed to provide written answers to 343 questions posed by the Democratic Alliance (DA), said DA deputy chief whip Mike Ellis on Thursday. "Next Friday, December 7, is the deadline for the submission of replies to all parliamentary questions posed to government departments during 2007," he said.
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/ 19 November 2007
European Union agriculture experts have recommended a ban on South African ostrich meat, but the Department of Agriculture says it has no official knowledge of this threat to the R1,2-billion export industry. ”As I speak now, I don’t have any official correspondence [from the EU],” the department’s chief communications director said on Monday.
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/ 8 November 2007
South Africa’s tuberculosis (TB) cure rate will reach 85% over the next five years, the Department of Health vowed on Thursday. Releasing the final version of its latest TB strategic plan, Director General of Health Thami Mseleku said the plan’s goals were guided by international targets.
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/ 22 October 2007
The Department of Health is recalling a second consignment of defective condoms, this time from Kohrs Medical, Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang said in Pretoria on Monday. ”At least five batches belonging to Kohrs Medical were sampled and failed an air-burst test,” Tshabalala-Msimang said.
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/ 18 October 2007
The National Assembly on Thursday adopted a motion of full confidence in Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, thereby rejecting the original motion by the Democratic Alliance, which called for a special committee to probe her fitness to hold public office.
A new liver costs about R450 000, according to Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang — herself the recent recipient of a new liver. In a written reply to a question by the Inkatha Freedom Party’s Ruth Rabinowitz in the National Assembly, she said hospital expenditure on liver transplants was, all inclusive, about R450 000 per patient.
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/ 17 September 2007
As opposition parties called for urgent action to address the ”crisis” of HIV infection in babies attending state hospitals, the Health Department took steps on Monday to get to the bottom of the matter. The department was concerned at media reports ”alleging there have been cases of HIV infection as a result of inadequate infection-control measures”.
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/ 11 September 2007
Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang’s statement concerning dual-therapy HIV treatment was a ”gross distortion of the truth”, the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) said on Tuesday. According to Tshabalala-Msimang, a 2001 court judgement limited her department to implementing only monotherapy nevirapine to HIV-positive pregnant mothers.
The South African Bureau of Standards (SABS) is auditing its condom department after a manager at the bureau was accused of certifying defective condoms in exchange for cash. ”On the basis of the allegations, we did an immediate check and we are covering the other companies,” the bureau’s general manager for food and health, Mike McNerney, said on Friday.
The Eastern Cape has some of the poorest districts in the country, according to Statistics South Africa