Health

Life-saving AIDS medicine out of stock in Gauteng

Hospitals throughout Gauteng ran out of essential medicines in recent weeks, including a life-saving drug for people with AIDS called amphotericin B.

Daneel Knoetze and GroundUp staff

News | 9 December 2014

Teaching Khayelitsha children to swim

Nondumiso Marman used to fear water but now she teaches Khayelitsha children how to swim.

Siyabonga Kalipa

News | 3 December 2014

Donors respond generously to GroundUp article on sanitary pads

In November, GroundUp published an article on learners using socks and all manner of items as sanitary pads. Donations have been streaming in to the GroundUp offices ever since. These will be distributed to schools.

GroundUp staff

Brief | 2 December 2014

World Aids Day: TAC still needed

About 200 people gathered at The Orbit in Braamfontein, Johannesburg, on World Aids Day in support of the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC). The TAC is trying to raise R30million for 2015 in order to continue doing its work.

GroundUp Staff

Brief | 1 December 2014

Organisations allege dreadful conditions at Pollsmoor awaiting trial facility

Lack of mattresses, a leaking roof, lack of hot water and insufficient access to medical treatment: Pollsmoor’s facility for awaiting trial prisoners has been slammed by civil society organisations for what they call “several concerns regarding conditions of detention at the facility.”

Mary-Anne Gontsana

News | 27 November 2014

“You see yourself vanishing and you think: I’m going to die”

Andaleeb Rinquest remembers the moment she accepted, with certainty, the imminence of her own death.

Daneel Knoetze

Feature | 26 November 2014

Dead man left to “cook” in sun for hours

Mahlubandile Mdingi lay dead for seven hours on a street corner in Bardale extension, Mfuleni, before the health department’s pathology services took his body away.

Johnnie Isaac and GroundUp staff

News | 25 November 2014

Amidst acrimony, Somerset West soup kitchen to be replaced by transport hub

The Helderberg Street People’s Centre (HSPC), a soup kitchen for the poor in Somerset West, has been given notice by the City to quit its premises by 31 January 2015.

Katy Scott

News | 24 November 2014

Urban initiates: are the teachings still relevant?

In many African cultures, boys from age 14 must go through the process of initiation, where they are circumcised in order to be recognized as men by the community. But how relevant is the ceremony for today’s urban youth and are the traditions being upheld in the cities?

Pharie Sefali

News | 20 November 2014

Ebola: the difficult return from the front

The health care workers who put their lives at risk to fight Ebola should be honoured, not quarantined, writes Kathryn Stinson, who recently returned from Sierra Leone.

Kathryn Stinson

Opinion | 20 November 2014

Link between poor housing, traffic deaths and education outcomes

The 7th annual Irene Grootboom Memorial Dialogues, which explore the continuation of Cape Town’s “spatial apartheid”, are underway. On Tuesday night, the focus was on the spate of shack evictions around the city this year, and the correlation between poor, densely populated areas and traffic deaths and education outcomes.

Daneel Knoetze

News | 19 November 2014

Study shows how HIV+ women can reduce risk to their babies

Pregnant women with HIV can take three anti-HIV medicines instead of one to reduce the risk of their infants contracting the virus, according to results of a study released yesterday.

GroundUp staff

News | 18 November 2014

Why we should support the new complementary medicines regulations

It has been a year since regulations were published to protect the public from poor quality complementary medicines. The industry’s response has been characterised by obfuscation, denial and blatant contraventions, writes Professor Roy Jobson.

Roy Jobson

Opinion | 17 November 2014

Not enough dentists or doctors, long queues: Nyanga residents protest

Members of the Treatment Action Campaign and residents marched today in Nyanga to protest about poor health services in Nyanga and surrounding townships.

Zintle Swana

News | 12 November 2014

Disabled Khayelitsha resident has to use neighbours’ toilet

Disabled Site C resident Vincent Gaelejwe, 43, lives in a one-roomed shack and has nowhere to keep the portable toilet supplied by the City of Cape Town. Instead, he limps to his neighbour’s house every day to use the portable toilet there.

Zintle Swana

News | 11 November 2014

Poor sanitation and lousy maps contribute to Khayelitsha’s crime problems

Following the Khayelitsha Inquiry into Policing, a series of meetings are being organised between SAPS and the Khayelitsha community. One took place at the University of Cape Town's middle campus on the weekend.

Johnnie Isaac

News | 11 November 2014