South Africa News

To support the National Department of Health’s policy development, the WHO Country Office commissioned a review of policies and programs used to improve the quality of medical care and reduce practice variation.  The review found that quality of care is measurable, and variations in practice have been documented in most countries. Variations in the use of cost‐effective health procedures have important implications for efficacy and cost, and health outcomes.

Pretoria, August 2015 - The WHO Country Office is providing technical support to the National Department of Health on various aspects of VMMC with support from the US Government through PEPFAR to be able to meet the ambitious Medical Male Circumcision (MMC) targets by 2016.

Medical malpractice is becoming costly, with litigation costs ranging from 2%-10% of total healthcare spending. Obstetrics is under particular scrutiny as amongst the highest litigation settlements. Specialists perceived as being under higher liability risks are likely to practice ‘defensive’ medicine, leading to an increase in unnecessary clinical procedures.  

North West Province, 19-21 August 2015 - The WHO country office has been supporting the NDOH in developing and finalising the National Adherence Strategy on Chronic Diseases (HIV, TB & Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs). The strategy has been finalised and will be reviewed by the National Health Council in September. It was thus decided to work on a pilot implementation of this strategy. To this end, it was decided that orientation training was needed in some sites. Four provinces were identified with sites and controls in each of these relevant districts.

Pretoria, August 2015 - WHO has called on the global health community to urgently address gaps in prevention, diagnosis and treatment of malaria. South Africa has a Malaria Elimination Strategic Plan (MSP) which aims to achieve zero local malaria transmission in South Africa by 2018. With WHO country office assistance, the Mid-Term Review was held to assess the implementation of the interventions, strategies and activities in the three year period 2012/13-2014/15 of the current MSP and to propose changes required to achieve elimination of malaria in South Africa by 2018.

Polokwane, 22 September 2015 - The WHO Representative in South Africa, Dr Sarah Barber, has issued a statement of support to the National Department of Health which is holding a two-day conference in Polokwane to commemorate World Environmental Health Day (WEHD) on 26 September. The Country Office also provided technical support for this meeting which over 600 environmental health professionals and key stakeholders are expected to attend.

Mpumalanga, September 2015 - The World Health Organization with South Africa’s National Department of Health and partners including the Clinton Health Access Initiative and the National Institute for Communicable Diseases have begun training Malaria Case Investigators to strengthen malaria surveillance efforts for the 2015/2016 malaria season.  The training is being held to ensure that case investigators are able to classify all malaria cases.

Johannesburg, 28 September 2015 - South Africa’s health information systems provide a rich source of data on the burden of disease caused by tuberculosis (TB) and the effectiveness of efforts to reduce this burden, both of which are crucial for public health action. However, the available data are often underused, or not used at all. At least in part, this may reflect the absence of clear guidance on recommended approaches to the analysis of such data.

UN agencies have agreed to develop a joint work plan on antiretroviral (ART) adherence after the WHO in South Africa presented the current status and challenges of ART adherence to UN agencies. This followed a request by the UN Resident Coordinator on how UN agencies could contribute to improving adherence rates.

ART adherence is particularly important in South Africa which has the largest treatment program in the world and is rapidly expanding ART to over 3 million people and introducing new policies for earlier treatment initiation.

Johannesburg, 10 September 2015 - Polio eradication is a global effort coordinated by the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) to deliver a polio-free world by 2018. The effort requires countries to strengthen surveillance, improve the quality of immunization campaigns and build national capacity to respond to outbreaks.