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Hospitals face shortage of vaccines

For nearly a year, life-saving jabs against snake bites, typhoid and rabies have been out of stock in public hospitals, a situation that could expose millions of low-income earners to deadly diseases, The Standard has established.

BURUNDI: Patients suffer as health workers' strike continues

BUJUMBURA Friday, November 28, 2008 (IRIN) - A weeklong strike by health workers in Burundi has cut services in key hospitals to a bare minimum, with patients complaining of neglect. “I have constant pain in my stomach and chest; I recently gave birth but remained unwell and in need of medical care," Cecile Ndayishimiye, a patient in Bujumbura, the capital, said. "I gave birth two weeks now but my child is not breastfeeding because I am sick; this strike is too bad for me." The nurses and...

‘Emergency fuel’ stolen

TWO supervisors were arrested at Mthathas Nelson Mandela Academic Hospital yesterday morning for stealing diesel from the hospitals emergency generator. Eastern Cape Health Department spokesperson Sizwe Kupelo said both supervisors worked in the hospitals maintenance section. One, a woman, had let the other, a man, into the locked generator room where he had already drained 120 litres of fuel when he was discovered by an alert security guard at 2am. Kupelo said the attempted theft was...

ZIMBABWE: Health system in crisis

HARARE Tuesday, November 25, 2008 (IRIN) - Stanley Takaona, deputy president of the Zimbabwe HIV/AIDS Activist Union, has spent the past month volunteering at two state hospitals in the capital, Harare, after health workers began a work stoppage that has virtually closed both facilities, leaving hundreds of people without medical assistance. Takaona, who is HIV positive and a counsellor, told IRIN/PlusNews that thousands of HIV-positive Zimbabweans regularly sought treatment and collected...

SWAZILAND: Promise to heal the health service

MBABANE Friday, November 14, 2008 (IRIN) - Moved by the deplorable conditions he found on a tour of Swaziland's hospitals and clinics, Prime Minister Sibusiso Dlamini has vowed to reform the healthcare system. "If you don't do what I have just said about improving hospitals, you must just hit the road and head home," Dlamini instructed Minister of Health and Social Welfare Benedict Xaba. Like the Prime Minister and the rest of cabinet, Xaba was appointed to his job in November by King Mswati...

CONGO: "Irresponsible officials" put patients at risk

BRAZZAVILLE Wednesday, October 01, 2008 (IRIN) - Health officials in some hospitals in Congo are putting patients' lives at risk by engaging in unethical practices, local human rights groups have warned. "The behaviour of such officials, notably their greed and the fraudulent sale of medicines, is a great obstacle to the right to healthcare," Maixent Fortunin Hanimbat, president of the rights group, Forum pour la gouvernance et les droits de l'homme (FGDH), said. "It is inconceivable that...

Massive decline in malaria cases in ‘Gambia sets model for Africa’

Incidence of malaria in Gambia is reported to have plunged drastically thanks to an array of low-cost strategies, offering the tempting vision of eliminating this disease in parts of Africa. This is according to a study published, on Friday October 31, on the prestigious science journal, The Lancet. "At four key monitoring sites in the small West African state," the report reads, "the number of malarial cases fell by between 50 percent and 82 percent between 2003 and 2007, its authors found."...

SOMALIA: Weekend clashes claim dozens of lives

Hundreds of families fled their homesin Mogadishuover the weekend as intense fighting between Ethiopian troops and insurgentsraged on, claiming the lives of up to 100 people, local sources told IRIN. Another 200 people were reportedly wounded in theclashes, which started on 19 April, hospital sources said. "What we have seen on Saturday and Sunday was theworst fighting ever,” said Asha Shaur, a civil society spokeswoman. “It was themost intense and destructive the city has experienced.” ...

COTE D'IVOIRE: Clean up campaign for hospitals

Hygiene in most hospitals in Cote d’Ivoire is so low that the ministry of health has launched a nationwide clean-up campaign. “We hope to eliminate from our hospitals [bad] practices that add risks to patients’ health,” Health Minister Rémi Allah Kouadio told journalists at the campaign’s launch on 28 March in Abidjan. He said Ivorians are at “very great risk” of infection every time they seek medical treatment, although he also said that the extent to which facilities are contaminated has...

SWAZILAND: Enough is enough, say nurses

Tired of being taken for granted, Swaziland's nurses have opted for industrial action after the government ignored a deadline to improve conditions of service. After marching to the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare in the capital, Mbabane, on Friday to deliver their ultimatum, Swaziland's nurses registered their anger with an overtime ban beginning on Monday to protest delayed pay, unsafe working conditions, and crumbling facilities. "We must start somewhere, so we've chosen the overtime...