If the world is single-minded and focuses purely on combating one pandemic, forgetting others, the effects of other morbidity and mortality on healthcare systems will be seen for a long time to come.
2020 is the international year of the nurse and midwife.
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The giant leap in the number of people accessing HIV treatment would not have been possible without task shifting from medical doctors to less-specialised cadres such as nurses and midwives.
Early diagnosis and treatment are key in the fight against HIV.
Peter Casaer
One of the main challenges remains that diagnostics and drugs for people suffering from advanced HIV aren’t readily available. This group of people is vulnerable to deadly opportunistic infections.
Many factors influence how consistently women take their HIV medicine.
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Pooled testing, or group testing, has been used to diagnose relatively rare conditions, such as infection in blood donors. It could be used for universal early infant diagnosis and viral load testing.
A healthcare worker in a protective suit is seen at a quarantine and isolation centre in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Nesri Padayatchi, Centre for the AIDS Program of Research in South Africa (CAPRISA) and Kogie Naidoo, Centre for the AIDS Program of Research in South Africa (CAPRISA)
The redirection of resources to COVID-19 has enormous consequences for the provision of healthcare services for other diseases, in particular, HIV programmes.
In South Africa, both HIV and pre-eclampsia are a burden to maternal health.
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In Eswatini, Botswana, South Africa and Lesotho more than 1 in 5 children are HIV-exposed but uninfected. A coordinated strategy is needed to ensure all children reach their developmental potential.
South Africa has set ambitious targets to eliminate mother to child transmission of HIV completely. It will require innovative strategies and continuous quality improvement to achieve them.
World AIDS Day is observed annually in many countries to raise people’s awareness in the fight against HIV.
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Babies born with the HIV virus in their blood are at a turning point in the infection. With immediate treatment these children can develop much stronger immune systems to fight the virus.
The use of HIV-positive organs is now a well-established practice in South Africa.
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Many of the most fundamental aspects of TB disease remain unknown. For example, after exposure to the organism that causes TB, why do only some people get infected and only some of those fall ill?
Ageing increases the risk of non-communicable diseases.
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Rapid population ageing has prompted researchers to study disease trends in older South Africans. The aim is to understand the role that specific health conditions play in ageing among rural people.
Research done over the past 26 years
provides insights into changes across people’s lives, helps evaluate interventions, and provides information for local, provincial and national planning.
The drug is set to improve HIV treatment.
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Research shows that many people living with HIV struggle with tooth decay, bleeding gums and tooth sensitivity – due to the costs of dental care and discrimination by dental professionals.
South Africa has the world’s highest AIDS burden.
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Professor of medicine and deputy director of the Desmond Tutu HIV Centre at the Institute of Infectious Disease and Molecular Medicine, University of Cape Town