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Good news on AIDS from Health MEC
Staff Reporter & Lynne Altenroxel The Star, May 30 2002. Reprinted courtesy of Independent Newspapers (Pty) Ltd.
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HIV-related infections among young pregnant women in Gauteng have decreased.
Gauteng's MEC for Health Dr Gwen Ramokgopa said in her budget speech on Thursday that this is due to increased use of condoms, brought about by special sex-education campaigns iniated by the department of health, among others.
The budget for hospitals - especially in disadvantaged areas - has been increased by 9 percent to R1,27-billion.
Meanwhile, in related news:
For the first time, Gauteng will set aside money for building new wards for dying AIDS patients.
The province's new health budget, to be tabled in the legislature on Thursday, calls for so-called "step down" beds in these wards because some hospitals have run out of space as the AIDS epidemic widens.
Step down beds, which cost a third less than conventional beds, are for patients who need medicine to ease the pain as they die.
Currently many terminally ill AIDS patients are turned away from overburdened public hospitals struggling to keep up with the epidemic. By last year, one in three pregnant women attending government antenatal clinics in Johannesburg tested HIV-positive.
Last July, even Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital, one of the largest hospitals in the world, ran out of beds. Over 300 000 South Africans are expected to succumb to the disease this year. |
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