Wednesday, February 20, 2008

south african 'health'

south african health department, you're all a bunch of dumbasses. why do i say this? once again it has to do with our aids policy.

a doctor was suspended from work in kwazulu/natal for daring to give antiretrovirals to pregnant women with the virus. it is apparently against state protocol.

let's take a step back and look at this. the mother to child transmission rate of hiv, if my memory serves me correctly, is about 30%. if antiretrovirals are given before and during labour, this can be brought down to about 8%. if a caesarian section is thrown into the mix, the rate can be as low as 1%. now if we consider that at last count, the infection rate in pregnant women in the province was about 40%, it translates to a massive number of potential infections of infants prevented. this is apparently a violation of our brilliant government's aids policy and the doctor must be punished.

one has to wonder at the policy of the government. surely it is in the interest of the citizens to have fewer babies born with the virus? surely it is even cheaper in the long run. what possible reason could there be to not allow this?

once again the ruling anc has demonstrated their total disregard for its people. they are all, in conclusion, dumbasses.

a good article to read.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Dumbasses. Now there's an understatement.

rlbates said...

Can't say it any better than Roer did.

Anonymous said...

That is insane. Bongi, what explanation do you give yourself for your government's actions? I mean, usually one can perceive some way to increase power, increase revenue, increase prestige, or some such, from a government's policy. I can't even imagine who this kind of behavior benefits. Do they think there are too many people alive in South Africa?

Bongi said...

alice, i don't know of any sane reason for this sort of behaviour. the anc has not demonstrated themselves to be sane, however. read the article link in the post. the statement that that no doubt enlightened politician made about selfish doctors using western drugs to experiment on poor black people is an arguement that has been used before. even by our minister of health. i kid you not. never mind the fact that the world health organisation suggests this treatment for aids in all types of people.

do not expect sanity from our government.

Sid Schwab said...

But there's hope: the homeopaths are on the job.