Media Watch
Tag:
Vital medicines rotated at clinics
The health and social development department has admitted that some clinics in the province lacked vital medicines. Department spokesperson Phuti Seloba said the department had to rotate medicine stock due to problems with medicine tender distribution processes at the national level.The ‘what’ is no good without the ‘why’
Instead of simply regurgitating stats and facts without contextualising or explaining them, a health-e article published in The Star (26 April 2012) explains the reasons why there are more women in ART programmes than men.
The subject of the article is a study that found that ART uptake increased from 47, 500 to 1.79 million between 2004 and 2011. One-third of all HIV-positive South Africans are currently accessing HIV treatment.
Of particular interest, however, are the differences in ART uptake between men and women.
IN THE NEWS: HIV UPDATE
People living with HIV often have liver problems due to the toxicity of some antiretrovirals. A healthy liver is important to everyone, but is particularly vital for people with HIV as the liver plays a key role in breaking down and processing medicines used to treat HIV and other infections...read the full articleANALYSIS: Move! confuses the ART issue
Given the continuing climate of uncertainty around HIV in South Africa journalists must be careful not to confuse HIV-related information.
Unfortunately an article in this week’s Move! magazine did just that. The article, which addresses how to take medication, deserves a round of applause for mentioning ARVs but goes on to give garbled information that could confuse rather than enlighten.
In addressing the fact that some medications come in courses that must be finished to be effective, there is a small disclaimer advising that medication for TB and HIV fall into this category.
While this is true for TB because it is a curable condition, HIV is a different kettle of fish.
The TAC and the CD4 score
In the late 1990s to the early 2000s the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) led the civil disobedience campaign, taking the government to court in a bid to force Mbeki and his cabinet to provide the ARV nevirapine to HIV-positive pregnant women in the public sector.
Years later and the TAC continues to push the envelope of HIV treatment.
Building the bigger bogeyman
HIV…Or even worse…AIDS. The media and the public often shy away from these topics because they are (incorrectly) associated with serious lingering illness and death.
HIV has overtaken illnesses like consumption (as TB was called prior to its official discovery in the early 1800s) and the plague and to become the specter of sickness that haunts the 21st century.
HIV therefore calls forth both fascination and revulsion. In the media it is either covered as a great tragedy or ignored completely.
Recently it would seem that the danger and fear which is associated with AIDS and HIV is exploited in order to illustrate that other conditions should occasion even more fear and awe.
State drug company: Seeking other solutions
The debate over whether the establishment of a drug manufacturing company owned by the government would be beneficial rages on.Prevention in the prison petri dish
The New Age (TNA) has reported that Leeuwkop prison now has a clinic, which provides HIV counseling and testing, antiretroviral treatment (ARV) and monitoring, as well as other primary healthcare services.
Previously prisoners had to travel long distances to access these services and collect their treatment. Given that HIV prevalence among South Africa’s prison population is standing at roughly 40%, the prospect of more readily available treatment certainly is good news.
But as the adage goes, prevention is always better than cure – a truism the prison system might be overlooking.
