South Africa News

Johannesburg, 30 March 2004 -- The World Health Organization (WHO) has welcomed the South African government's commitment to African Traditional Medicine in the health care delivery system.

Speaking on Tuesday at the African Traditional Medicine Conference in Johannesburg , WHO country representative, Dr Welile Shasha, said that official recognition and respect of traditional medicine was the right step towards integration into national health systems and services.

On the occasion to mark the World AIDS Day (December 1, 2010), the Deputy President Mr Kgalema Motlanthe and Minister of Health Dr Aaron Motsoaledi in their address to the nation in Mpumalanga Province commended South Africans who have heeded the “Presidential Call for Action” to stop the transmission of new infections by taking the simple step of taking a blood test to check for the presence of HIV infection in their bodies.

Marking World TB Day 2011, South Africa’s Minister of Health, Dr Aaron Motsoaledi, gave South Africa's fight against TB a major boost when he unveiled a new TB diagnosis innovation, the GeneXpert machine. The machine tests for TB much faster and more accurately than microscopic tests that are used to diagnose the disease, which could take between three to five months to produce results. This new technology is able to complete TB testing in 2hrs. The equipment has been purchased to improve turn-around times in the testing of the human specimen of TB.

Pretoria, 31 May 2012 -- The Acting World Health Organization (WHO) Country Representative in South Africa, Dr Francis Kasolo, called on participants at the closing ceremony of the WHO Cervical Cancer Prevention and Control Regional Consultation, held in Pretoria, South Africa, to intensify action against cancer in their respective countries, in line with the 58th session of the World Health Assembly resolution on cancer prevention and control, that calls upon Member States to implement Cancer Control through: prevention (HPV vaccination and screening), early detection, diagnosis & trea

06 September 2012 / Pretoria -- Seventy Health Workers representing national and nine provincial health departments completed a three day Risk Communication Training Workshop organized jointly by the National Department of Health (NDoH), the WHO Country Office (WCO) and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (US CDC). The training focused on building capacities in communication systems, processes and skills required to detect, assess, inform and respond to public health emergencies in a timely and effective manner.

16 August 2012 / Soweto, South Africa -- In collaboration with the University of South Africa (UNISA), WHO trained sixteen participants from Sierra Leone, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, South Africa and Uganda on injuries and violence data collection. Injuries and violence are major problems affecting the health and welfare of vulnerable populations. In the African region in 2004 injuries were responsible for close to 769000 deaths, with millions more injured or disabled.

Pretoria, 17-21 September 2012 -- National Department of Health has concluded a five days’ Workload Indicator of Staffing Needs (WISN) Trainer of Trainers (TOT) training in Pretoria, South Africa. Opening the training, the Director General for Health, Ms Precious Matsoso, observed the WISN training as important and urgent ammunition to enable her to respond to a number of Human Resource (HR) issues and to inform policy decisions. The purpose of the training was to train the core team that would be competent in the WISN tool and its application.

Pretoria, 07 December 2012 -- Print, radio and television Journalists from seven priority Anglophone countries attended the WHO African Region’s media training on Neglected Tropical Diseases held in Johannesburg, South Africa, 4 to 6 December. The training focussed on:

1. Explaining NTDs’ importance in health and broader socio-economic development to help journalists identify news stories for more frequent coverage.

2. Improving journalists’ knowledge on NTDs concepts and terminology for accurate NTDs reporting.

Pretoria, 10 December 2012 -- The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the World Health Organization (WHO) welcome last week’s publication by the Government of South Africa of the Regulations Relating to Foodstuffs for Infants and Young Children, based on the International Code of Marketing of Breastmilk Substitutes and World Health Assembly Resolutions.

Johannesburg -- In continuing the implementation of the 2011 Post Introduction Evaluation of New Vaccines (PIE) recommendations for South Africa, WHO and the South African Department of Health held a national training attended by national and provincial EPI, Cold Chain and Depot managers to improve Effective Vaccine Management. The workshop was facilitated by Ms Diana Chang Blanc (WHO HQ) and Mr Serge Ganivet (WHO IST-ESA) with funding from the US Centres for Disease Control.