Hope in South Africa

For years, South Africa was an international laughing stock for its tragically absurd approach to the deadly AIDS epidemic. Now, that national nightmare may be ending. The new government of President Jacob Zuma seems to have a clearer-eyed view of the problem, its remedies and the need to improve the overall health care system than its predecessor did. Fixing what’s broken will not be easy, but we are encouraged by signs of a commitment to do so. To see how far South African leaders have come, one needs to recall where the country was.

The former president, Thabo Mbeki, compiled a record that is still hard to fathom: he embraced crackpot theories that disputed the demonstrable fact that AIDS was transmitted by a treatable virus. He insisted that antiretroviral drugs were toxic and encouraged useless herbal folk remedies instead. He even claimed he knew nobody with the disease, although nearly 20 percent of the adult population is said to be living with H.I.V. Thousands of Africans were needlessly sickened and died. And the most influential country in sub-Saharan Africa squandered the opportunity to contain the AIDS epidemic. Although it has less than 1 percent of the world’s population, South Africa now accounts for 17 percent of the world’s burden of H.I.V. infection.

A saner approach began to take shape last year after Mr. Mbeki was forced out of office and Barbara Hogan was named health minister. Last week, the new health minister, Dr. Aaron Motsoaledi, went further. He accepted a withering critique by South African scientists, who said the governing African National Congress party’s record on AIDS and health care was deeply flawed, and promised remedial action. “We do take responsibility for what has happened and responsibility for how we move forward,” Dr. Motsoaledi said in an article by The Times’s Celia Dugger.

South Africa’s leaders must espouse sensible, scientifically based advice about AIDS and put in place programs that seek to both treat and prevent the disease. That means expanding efforts to prevent mothers from infecting their babies, discouraging people from having multiple sex partners and offering circumcision to men, a relatively simple surgical procedure proved to have greatly reduced the risk of infection in South Africa. The problem is bigger than AIDS. Even though South Africa spends more on health than any other African country, tuberculosis is rampant and child mortality rates are rising. The government must work to improve the quality of health care, ensure that all South Africans have access to the system and fire incompetent staff. None of this will reverse the damage and deaths of Mr. Mbeki’s disastrous legacy, but it can offer the people of South Africa a better future.

Source: New York Times

Health unit hammers out details of NHI

The ANC's proposed national health insurance (NHI) scheme will become a reality this week as a Health Department unit starts working on the details of the scheme.

Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi said on Sunday that the first members of a unit of specialists to work on the plan were due to be appointed by the health department this week.

Motsoaledi said the NHI unit would comprise government officials working in the area of health economics and would include experts and advisors from academic and research institutions. He said he expected the government team members to start work this week, while external experts still had to be appointed.

Approved by the ruling party's national executive committee in July, the proposals for the health insurance scheme would first be discussed by the cabinet before being released for public discussion, Motsoaledi said.

Source: IoL

SA healthcare model “primitive” — Minister

South Africa's model of healthcare financing is "primitive" and will be abandoned, Health Minister Dr Aaron Motsoaledi said on Tuesday.

"The present system of healthcare financing can no longer be allowed to go on, because it is simply unsustainable," Motsoaledi said during his budget vote speech in Parliament.

He said of the 8,5% of the gross domestic product (GDP) that was spent on healthcare, only 3,5% of the GDP catered for 84% of the population's healthcare. The other 5% catered for just 14% of the population or seven-million people.

"Nowhere in the civilised world can you find that state of affairs," he said.

"The present model of healthcare financing is just outright primitive and we are going to abandon it."

Motsoaledi said critics of the government's proposed National Health Insurance (NHI) were "hard at work" to prove that the government was going to overburden the rich.

"NHI is a system of universal health coverage where every citizen is covered by healthcare insurance, rich or poor," he said.

Source: Polity

SA state hospitals in crisis

South Africa's state hospitals are in crisis, and will be at risk of collapse if hundreds of unpaid and demoralised doctors flee their shocking working conditions and pay, the Sunday Times reported.

While doctors and health experts blame the shambles on health mismanagement, Health Minister Dr Aaron Motsoaledi said: "I would not use the word crisis, I would say very serious challenges."

Source: Mail & Guardian