Media Watch
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‘A’ is for advocacy, ‘B’ is for balance
A piece in The Times reminds us of the media’s ability to advocate for health interventions while maintaining a balanced perspective that allows all parties to be heard.
The article, written by Katharine Child, chronicles the tug-of-war between NGOs and the Medicines Control Council over the compassionate use of the experimental TB drug Bedaquiline.
The Medicines Control Council has stated that it will not allow the drug to be used before it has been through clinical trials.
But the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) and Médicins Sans Frontières insist that the new class of drug could offer a new and more effective treatment for XDR-TB, which is resistant to the first and second line drugs currently used to treatment TB.
IN THE NEWS: KZN rolls out dodgy circumcision Klamp despite questions
HIV activists and senior doctors have called for an urgent investigation into the continued rollout of a controversial male circumcision device in KwaZulu-Natal.IN THE NEWS: Aids programmes close
A funding crisis has resulted in HIV-Aids programmes, especially among the rural people in the Eastern Cape, being stopped.Fight for funding continues
The funding saga involving the administration of money from the Global Fund to fight AIDS, TB and Malaria by the Department of Health (DoH) is in the spotlight once again, with recipients like the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) and Soul City feeling the pinch.
An article in The Star reports that payments, which were due to organisations in July 2011 and January 2012, have not materialised. Organisations are appealing to the Department of Health to intervene as the threat of closure and job losses looms.
HIV patients left in the lurch by near-collapse of Gauteng health services
According to a report in yesterday’s (9 February 2012) edition of The Star patients with HIV are being affected by the near collapse of health services in Gauteng.
TAC chairperson Nonkosi Khumalo said that there are widespread ARV shortages throughout the province and some patients with HIV have not received the results of TB tests performed last year.
The story links the shut-down of National Health Laboratory Services (NHLS) facilities and critical drug shortages to the province’s failure to pay suppliers.
TAC faces closure due to cash-flow woes
According to today’s (Thursday’s) news reports, the legendary Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) might be forced to close its doors come the New Year because of cash-flow problems.
The organisation says that maladministration of Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria money by the Department of Health is the root of the problem.
ART, lies and videotape
It is estimated that over 300, 000 HIV-positive South Africans who could have lived long and healthy lives on ART, died from the effects of uncontrolled HIV infection, during the Mbeki-Manto HIV misinformation era.
The TAC’s campaign which fought and eventually won out against this menace is the subject of ‘TAC-Taking Haart’ a film reviewed in today’s Mail & Guardian by Shaun de Waal.
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.
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