Treatment Action Campaign Limpopo

07/09/2017

Anele Yawa

Many people are talking about Universal Test and Treat, 90,90,90 an End to AIDS and all that stuff, yet at Mpheni clinic in Limpop people don't have access to HIV testing and counseling services since last month. Pregnant woman are booked on Ante Nata Clinic without being tested.
Let's Fix the broken public health care system Now, this is not ON. Where is SANAC, DoH, Ramaphosa and all of them?

31/08/2017

http://www.webmd.com/cancer/news/20170830/fda-approves-breakthrough-cancer-treatment

The FDA has approved a first-of-its-kind treatment, called CAR T-cell therapy, to treat a type of leukemia in children and young adults.

16/08/2017

TAC LIMPOPO HPV (CANCER OF THE CERVIX) SCREENING CAMPAIGN.

16/08/2017

02/08/2017

Activism Leveling Up.

19/07/2017

19/07/2017

TAC Limpopo Provincial Congress 19-20 July 2017.

29/06/2017

http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/polokwane-maternity-patients-forced-to-sleep-on-hospital-floor-20170628

Frustrated patients have complained that conditions at Polokwane’s regional hospital are unbearable, with expectant mothers having to sleep on the floors of overcrowded maternity wards.

14/06/2017

*Coalition welcomes landmark Competition Commission probe into prices of cancer medicines*

JOHANNESBURG, 13 JUNE 2017: The Fix the Patent Laws coalition welcomes the Competition Commission’s announcement earlier today that they will investigate the pricing of several cancer medicines in South Africa. This is a major victory in our struggle to ensure that all people in South Africa can access the medicines they need to stay healthy and alive.

Earlier this year our coalition launched the Tobeka Daki Campaign for Access to Trastuzumab during a global day of action. The campaign was named after Tobeka Daki – a fearless comrade and cancer activist who died of breast cancer in November 2016. Even though Tobeka’s doctor thought she should be provided trastuzumab, Tobeka could never access the medicine due to its high price – over half a million rand per treatment course in the private sector.

The Competition Commission probe announced today will investigate the price of cancer medicines of three pharmaceutical companies. One of these companies is Roche Holdings AG, which will be investigated for the excessive pricing of trastuzumab (the medicine Tobeka never had the chance to try). The investigation specifically relates to “excessive pricing”, “exclusionary conduct”, and “price discrimination”. While Tobeka was unable to access this medicine, Roche made USD 8.9 billion profit in 2015.

The Commission will also investigate local pharmaceutical company Aspen Pharmacare for alleged “abuse of dominance”. Reports in April this year indicated that the Spanish Markets and Competition Commission initiated anti-trust proceedings against Aspen. In October 2016, Aspen was fined over EUR 5 million by the Italian Competition Authority for having abused its dominant position by increasing prices of four of its anti-cancer medicines by up to 1,500%.

The Commission also initiated an investigation against pharmaceutical company Pfizer Inc. for “suspected excessive pricing of lung cancer medication”.

We are encouraged by the Commission’s undertaking to investigate manufacturers of excessively priced cancer medicines. We will be monitoring the Commission’s progress for the duration of these investigations. We are committed to assisting the Commission in their investigation and to ensure that cancer survivors and people who have lost loved ones to cancer have a place at the table. These investigations give hope that more people living with cancer will in future be able to access the medicines that will give them a chance at life.

For more information and to arrange interviews contact:

Luvo Nelani | nelani@section27.org.za | 079 381 8521

The Fix the Patent Laws coalition was founded in November 2011 by the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC), Doctors without Borders (MSF) and SECTION27. Today the coalition has 34 member organisations – including the Cancer Alliance and its various member groups working on cancer-related issues. The coalition has for several years now called on the Department of Trade and Industry to finalise a policy on intellectual property that would ensure that the right to access healthcare is prioritised over the private interests of pharmaceutical companies – as required by the Constitution of South Africa. You can read more about the campaign at www.FixThePatentLaws.org

In South Africa, the annual price charged by Roche for trastuzumab in the private sector is around USD 38 365 (ZAR 516,700). The few public facilities which can access trastuzumab do so at a lower price of around USD 15 735 (ZAR 211,920) per year. But, health economists have shown that a year’s worth of trastuzumab can be produced and sold for only USD 240, a price that includes a 50% increase above the cost of production for profit

On 14 March 2017, Checkpoint on eNCA aired a documentary exploring the access challenges faced by women in South Africa seeking trastuzumab – a WHO recommended essential medicine for HER2+ breast cancer. The documentary features the story of Tobeka Daki, in whose memory the Tobeka Daki Campaign for…

11/05/2017

Malaria outbreak in Giyani. There are not enough beds. Patients at Nkhensani Hospital are being admitted onto the floor. TAC Limpopo wants to know what the provincial department's plan is for this crisis?

24/03/2017

*TB infection control falls short in many clinics – TAC survey*

- Government must urgently conduct an infection control audit of all public facilities

http://tac.org.za/news/tb-infection-control-falls-short-many-clinics-%E2%80%93-tac-survey

JOHANNESBURG, THURSDAY 23rd MARCH: In the run up to World Tuberculosis (TB) Day, the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) assessed the state of TB infection control in a number of clinics across South Africa. Of 158 facilities assessed, 114 were found to be in a “RED” state with very poor infection control measures in place.

TB remains the leading reported cause of death with over 33 063 deaths in 2015 according to a recent Statistics South Africa report (see note at end). The rate of new cases of active TB in South Africa remains extremely high at around 450 000 per year. TB can be spread through the air when people with active TB disease cough or sneeze. However, various infection control measures can be taken to reduce the risk of TB transmission.

“We have the knowledge and the tools to stop the spread of TB, but we aren’t using them,” says Sibongile Tshabalala, TAC Deputy General Secretary. “Instead what we see on the ground are horrendously packed clinics with all the windows shut. We don’t see any posters telling people to cover their mouths if they cough or sneeze. We see people with TB symptoms sitting among those without, coughing and not being offered masks or tissues.”

TAC branches in Eastern Cape, Free State, Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal, Limpopo, Mpumalanga, and Western Cape engaged in the audit during TB month, March 2017. The following questions were answered by TAC members from local branches linked to each facility assessed:


1. Are the windows open?

2. Is there enough room in the waiting area?

3. Are there posters telling you to cover your mouth when coughing or sneezing?

4. Are you seen within 30 minutes of arriving at the clinic?

5. Are people in the clinic waiting area asked if they have TB symptoms?

6. Are people who are coughing separated from those who are not?

7. Are people who cough a lot or who may have TB given tissues or TB masks?

Based on the answers to these seven questions facilities were ranked RED (3+ questions answered “no”), ORANGE (1-2 questions answered “no”), or GREEN (0 questions answered “no”).

114 clinics were ranked RED, 29 clinics were ranked ORANGE, and 15 clinics were ranked GREEN.

TAC commends the 15 facilities that were ranked GREEN – Brealyn Clinic (EC), Daveyton East Clinic (GP), Eshowe Hospital (KZN), King DiniZulu Clinic (KZN), Letitia Bam Day Hospital (EC), Mjejane Clinic (MP), Mpoza Clinic (EC), Nelspruit Community Health Centre (MP), Nkensani Gateway Clinic (LP), Nolungile Youth Clinic (WC), Nomzano Clinic (EC), Qaukeni Clinic (EC), Senyorita Clinic (FS), Site B Clinic (WC), Thelkwane Clinic (MP). Our local branches linked to the 15 facilities will award them with certificates and urge them to remain at this level. However, if we wish to make progress against TB GREEN ratings should be the norm in the public healthcare system, not the exception.

An Excel sheet with the survey results can be accessed below. Pictures of some of the healthcare facilities surveyed will also be available on TAC’s page below.

“TB and drug resistant TB remain an emergency in South Africa. It is essential that the government in its entirety commits to addressing this crisis and ensures that all our public spaces are at low risk of TB transmission,” says Anele Yawa, TAC General Secretary. “Clinics, hospitals, prisons, schools – these shouldn’t be places you get TB. But the reality is that they are. If the government is serious about ending TB, then infection control urgently needs to be made a priority.”

The problems highlighted in TB infection control through the audit are indicative of the wider crisis within the health system, where overstretched nurses at understaffed clinics lack the capacity and resources to engage effectively in infection control measures.

While we stress that this is by no means a scientific survey and the results are not generalisable to the rest of the public healthcare system, it does suggest that infection control is a significant problem in many public sector health facilities. As a result, we demand that government carries out a full audit of all public buildings in South Africa, including schools, clinics, hospitals, correctional facilities and home affairs facilities, to assess whether sufficient TB infection control measures are in place. Where TB infection control meaures are insufficient, urgent improvements should be made.



*For more information:*

Lotti Rutter | lotti.rutter@tac.org.za | 081 818 8493

The full TB infection control audit findings can be accessed here:
http://tac.org.za/sites/default/files/news/TAC%20TB%20INFECTION%20CONTROL%20AUDIT%202017.xlsx


The TB infection control survey utilised can be accessed here:
http://tac.org.za/sites/default/files/TB%20Infection%20Control%20Audit%20-%20Survey.pdf

Pictures of selected facilities will be published on TAC’s page: https://www.facebook.com/TreatmentActionCampaign


NOTE: Even though TB is the number one reported cause of death in South Africa according to official death notifications, many deaths attributed to TB and other causes are in people with HIV and HIV is thus underrepresented in death notifications. The Thembisa model of HIV in South Africa estimates that there is roughly 150 000 HIV-related deaths per year. A recent Medical Research Council report estimates around 150 000 HIV-related deaths in 2012. These estimates indicate that HIV is still the number one cause of death in South Africa.

TAC campaigns for the rights and health of people living with HIV/AIDS in South Africa and globally.

22/03/2017

16/03/2017

21/02/2017

http://www.tbfacts.org/treatment-of-drug-resistant-tb/

The treatment of drug resistant TB. What is a shorter regimen & which patients are eligible. What is a conventional regimen & which drugs are used.