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Published/Broadcast Stories

SA needs more liver donors to save lives‚ say researchers

November 30, 2018 By Admin

06 November 2018

By Francine Barchett

First appeared in TimesLIVE

South Africa has two world-class liver transplant centres‚ a new study finds. But they are under-utilised because not enough donor livers can be sourced and those who need their services often can’t reach them.

The two centres serve the whole of the African continent. Researchers also flagged the low numbers of patients being referred to the centres from the public sector‚ although this number has been growing. In 2004‚ when the centre opened‚ only 6% of patients were from the public sector‚ while in 2016 this had grown to 11%. The biggest challenge‚ said the researchers‚ is the absence of liver donors. There simply aren’t enough.

A shortage of facilities and the increasing demand for life-saving kidney treatment in the public sector has led to a rise in kidney-related deaths. Image: 123RF/Chanawit Sitthisombat

“This highlights one of the greatest barriers to increasing solid-organ transplant volumes in SA and can only be addressed if a multifaceted approach is fully endorsed by national government‚” they wrote.

To improve the country’s liver transplant services‚ the team advised raising awareness about organ donation‚ starting organ collection programmes at all hospitals and increasing the number of living organ donors.

A shortage of facilities and the increasing demand for life-saving kidney treatment in the public sector has led to a rise in kidney-related deaths. From 1999 to 2006‚ deaths from chronic kidney disease in the public sector increased by 67%‚ reported Professor Brian Rayner‚ head of nephrology and hypertension at Groote Schuur‚ in 2017.

Nearly 10 times more people were getting renal replacement therapy in the private sector than in the public sector: 716.3 people per million of the population in private care compared to 72.6 in public care.

Investing in the kidney transplant programme at public hospitals would therefore free up dialysis slots for new patients needing life-saving kidney treatment‚ nephrologists noted.

 

Published/Broadcast Stories Tagged With: liver, liver transplant, South Africa

Making the world a kinder place — one gesture at a time

November 30, 2018 By Admin

13 November 2018
By Francine Barchett, Natalie Elliott, and Corey D Smith
First Appeared on TimesLIVE
Knowledge Mudzamiri is planning to give food to someone on the street to mark World Kindness Day today.
Knowledge Mudzamiri is planning to give food to someone on the street to mark World Kindness Day today.  Image: Natalie Elliott

If someone smiles at you in the street today, or offers to carry your shopping bag, they may be trying to make the world a better place because it’s World Kindness Day.

It’s a day that anyone can participate in — and everyone who does is likely to feel better for it.

Started in 1998 as an effort to make the world a better place, the idea of random acts of kindness to strangers has spread around the world, and World Kindness Day is now celebrated in 28 countries.

No act of kindness is too big or too small — all acts are part of the bigger picture of connecting humankind.

Some people told TimesLIVE in Cape Town how they planned to mark the day.

Saleem Upto from Bloemfontein says he will take on some volunteer work.
Saleem Upto from Bloemfontein says he will take on some volunteer work.  Image: Natalie Elliott

“I like to give compliments to random people because I think it could make someone’s day,” said Tiffany Japtha from Blue Downs. For Nonzukiso Mpapama from Strand, the day will be better if “you just give everyone a smile”.

Mpriza Zitha from Khayelitsha says equality is important and Taurik Hendricks from Mitchells Plain says that people are too selfish.
Mpriza Zitha from Khayelitsha says equality is important and Taurik Hendricks from Mitchells Plain says that people are too selfish.  Image: Natalie Elliott

“If everyone was equal, it would make the world a better place,” said Mpriza Zitha from Khayelitsha.

“Stop being selfish. It’s as easy as that,” said Taurik Hendricks from Mitchells Plain.

“I’m going to be more accepting of people regardless of what or who they are,” said Sisonke Ndabambi from Dunoon.

Sisonke Ndabambi from Dunoon plans to be more accepting.
Sisonke Ndabambi from Dunoon plans to be more accepting.  Image: Natalie Elliott

And for Angie Kelly from Pinelands, kindness is simple: “The basis of being kind is that you’re seeing people. Acknowledging the person who’s serving you at the table. Or when you’re walking past somebody else and just acknowledging the fact that they’re walking in the opposite direction.”

For Angie Kelly from Pinelands kindness is about acknowledging people.
For Angie Kelly from Pinelands kindness is about acknowledging people.  Image: Natalie Elliott

Francine Barchett Tagged With: Cape Town, kindness, World Kindness Day

Deadly dog virus hits crisis levels in Cape Town just before busiest season

November 30, 2018 By Admin

14 November 2018

By Francine Barchett

First appeared on TimesLIVE

As animal welfare organisations prepare for their busiest time of year, clinics and veterinary services are facing the added burden of an outbreak of the potentially deadly parvovirus among dogs in Cape Town.

The workload ahead of the Christmas season includes normal vaccinations and check-ups. In addition, over the festive season many pets are abandoned and need rescuing.

This year an unusually high incidence of the canine virus, reported across the city, will exacerbate the workload and costs.

“We’ve learned first hand that parvo is extra bad this season,” said Lesley Jones, director of Pet Farewells, an organisation that collects and disposes of 1,500-2,000 pet and animal carcasses each month. She said staff at the animal clinics she deals with expressed concern.

Parvo is a highly contagious and often deadly disease that spreads through dogs’ faeces. Symptoms include vomiting, distinctively scented diarrhoea, loss of energy and loss of appetite.

Karen de Klerk, who heads the Cape Animal Welfare Forum, representing animal rescue shelters in the Western Cape, confirmed that infection reports were up across the region.

Canines with parvovirus suffer from loss of appetite, lethargy, and diarrhoea

The Mdzananda Animal Clinic in Khayelitsha has been overwhelmed with the “worst influx of parvo patients in the 22 years of its existence”, said manager Susan Wishart.

While the clinic usually sees around 14 parvo patients a month, last month it had seen 45, the organisation confirmed. “Our vets think that the recent heat wave could have triggered the outbreak,” said Wishart.

Parvo is preventable if pet owners take their dogs for a three-part vaccination, starting when dogs are six weeks old, and return for a booster shot each year, the clinic advises.

But at R300 for the full vaccination, it is not something that all dog owners can afford. “It’s not an option for some people. We support animals but we also support people,” said Wishart.

Treatment of infected dogs is even more costly. At the Mdzananda clinic, it runs to almost R6,400 per animal.

The nonprofit organisation is appealing to the public to donate money to help deal with the crisis that will strain already-stretched resources, as it approaches the “busy season” for abandoned pets.

“We see a lot of undernourished dogs coming in during the holidays because people haven’t talked about who’s going to take care of them while they’re away,” said Wishart.

Published/Broadcast Stories Tagged With: Cape Town, dogs, Khayelitsha, parvo

Abortion pesticides kill foetuses — and young women

November 5, 2018 By Admin

    

The problem seems to be with medical practitioners who handle abortions poorly

05 November 2018
By Francine Barchett
First appeared in Times Select
Pesticide bottle.
A BOTTLE OF DESPERATION Pesticide bottle.  Image: Gyula Gyukli/123RF

A pregnant teenager repeatedly visited her local clinic begging for an abortion, but she was turned away.

Three months later she drank pesticide in an attempt to end her pregnancy, and it killed her.

This is one of the case studies related by gynaecologists calling for a shakeup in the way unwanted pregnancies are handled by medical practitioners.

Writing in the South African Medical Journal, Dr Sylvia Cebekhulu and Professor Robert Pattinson of the University of Pretoria (UP) said cases of organophosphate poisoning among girls and young women trying to induce abortions were common.

According to Wikipedia, “organophosphates are the most widely used insecticides today. They are used in agriculture, the home, gardens and veterinary practice”.

The healthcare system often failed pregnant young women, said Cebekhulu and Pattinson, describing several cases from the national maternal deaths register:

  • The teenager who was denied an abortion was acutely ill when she arrived at a hospital. She died within an hour from multi-organ failure caused by poisoning.
  • A pregnant teenager was admitted to hospital six hours after consuming a pesticide. She died three days later and “mainly received nursing care and occasional telephonic advice from a doctor”.
  • A pregnant woman in her 20s was found dead at home after drinking insecticide.
  • A 20-year-old pregnant woman was unconscious when she arrived at a hospital and soon died from suspected pesticide poisoning. The doctors said she should have been diagnosed more quickly.

Organophosphates in pesticides cause more than 200,000 deaths a year in the developing world, particularly in rural areas, said Cebekhulu and Pattinson.

Within a few days, the poisons compromise the central nervous system, and survivors may need long-term therapy or rehabilitation.

The doctors, from the obstetrics and gynaecology department at UP, outlined the protocols that should be followed when patients arrive with suspected pesticide poisoning.

And they said requests for abortions should be taken seriously. “Unplanned and unwanted pregnancies in young women are a reality,” they said.

“Young women with organophosphate poisoning have usually not attended antenatal care and/or have a history of a previous request for an [abortion].

“Organophosphates are easily accessible and a high index of suspicion should be maintained in young women [with] signs of mental alteration, pinpoint pupils … [and] shortness of breath.”

The doctors also called for greater use of long-acting, reversible contraception to prevent young women turning to pesticides to deal with unwanted pregnancies.

Published/Broadcast Stories

My mission: To get the deaf to raise their voices

November 5, 2018 By Admin

Tracy Duncan is determined to build confidence among the deaf, and to make signing SA’s 12th official language

05 November 2018
By Francine Barchett
First appeared on Times Select
Mrs Deaf SA Tracy Duncan is not shy about her skills and passions, and wants the deaf community to have the same confidence.
STAR JUMP Mrs Deaf SA Tracy Duncan is not shy about her skills and passions, and wants the deaf community to have the same confidence.  Image: Anesh Magan / Anesh Magan Photography

Tracy Duncan’s world might not be loud, but it’s definitely proud.

“Wear your hearing aid. Be proud of your deaf accent. And teach [the hearing] sign language and deaf culture,” the new Mrs Deaf South Africa tells children when she visits schools for the deaf.

Deaf children often ask Duncan if she ever was teased for her disability.

“Kids did make fun of the way I spoke and my hearing aid,” said the 33-year-old, from Goodwood in Cape Town.

Duncan won the overall title at last month’s Pretoria pageant as well as the Mrs Deaf Charity and Mrs Deaf Personality titles. Her drumstick workout won her second placed in the talent portion of the competition. Duncan loves a good workout.

She is also an avid hiker, obstacle course runner and climber. She’s been married for four years to her best friend, Warren. And she’s a digital designer at online retailer HomeChoice.

At three months old, Duncan was diagnosed as deaf. It came as a shock to her parents, as neither they nor her two older siblings were deaf.

Her doctor told her mother to choose how her daughter would learn language: would she learn to sign or speak? Her mother chose speaking.

Duncan began lipreading when she was two and speaking a year later.

“My mom would put me in front of the mirror every day for one hour to learn to lip read,” she recalled. “I wanted to play but mom would try to explain to me that I need to learn language.”

While Duncan grew up speaking, she has always identified with the deaf community. She went to schools for the deaf, so she had many friends who were deaf.

Tracy Duncan with her husband, Warren.
CRAZY IN LOVE Tracy Duncan with her husband, Warren.  Image: Samantha Hanlon / Sunkissedstudio Photography

However, it was only a few months ago that she picked up sign language. Now she hopes to help make it SA’s 12th official language. And as Mrs Deaf South Africa, Duncan might just be able to pull it off.

“I want to speak to all 46 of the deaf schools in SA,” she said, explaining plans for her “Deaf Confidence” campaign.

“My platform’s about how you present yourself, whether you speak or sign, not to be afraid to go for what you want, and to ask for what you want. A lot of the deaf have so many great ideas but they don’t believe that they can make them happen. I want to change that.”

A way Duncan hopes to empower deaf children is through physical fitness, which she credits for boosting her confidence and self-esteem.

She visited her former schools – Mary Kihn in Observatory and Dominican Grimley in Hout Bay – a couple of weeks ago to teach pupils a simple kettlebell workout as they prepared for exams. At each school, she picked two pupils to join her at Runstacle, an obstacle course near the Cape Town Ostrich Ranch.

Duncan is also determined to bring her platform to deaf married women like herself, who are usually busy with work and family.

“I want them to take care of themselves, because if you take care of yourself you can take care of others,” she said.

She hopes the simple healthy cooking e-book she is preparing will come in handy.

Mrs Deaf SA Tracy Duncan, an avid hiker, says keeping fit is vital for self-confidence.
CLIMBING HIGH Mrs Deaf SA Tracy Duncan, an avid hiker, says keeping fit is vital for self-confidence.  Image: via Facebook

Duncan is not alone as she prepares for a busy title year. She is working with a four-person team and seeking more sponsors, especially for deaf schools.

“Hearing aid batteries are very expensive,” she said.

The batteries cost about R60 and last five days. Cochlear implant batteries last only two days. Duncan knows this because she had a hearing aid before getting a cochlear implant three years ago. Without her batteries, she can’t hear anything.

“We want the deaf pageant to be on the same level as Miss South Africa and Mrs South Africa because at the moment no one knows about [us],” Duncan said.

“This is our moment to educate people about the deaf – that we can do anything but hear.”

Published/Broadcast Stories Tagged With: deaf, disability, Mrs Deaf South Africa

Old hospital set to heal Cape Town’s apartheid wounds

November 2, 2018 By Admin

By Natalie Elliott

Sixteen years after a Cape Town hospital closed‚ the site is a step closer to becoming home for thousands of families.

The 22ha occupied by Conradie Hospital‚ between Thornton and Pinelands‚ is set to make way for 3‚602 houses‚ two schools and a commercial centre.

The Western Cape government wants to sell the site to Concor Construction for R202-million. Just under half the houses the company builds in a R3-billion development will be social‚ subsidised and rent-to-buy units. The remainder will be sold on the open market._____________________________________________

Read more at TimesLive

Natalie Elliott

A South Coast Excursion

September 23, 2018 By Admin

Students begin their 6-mile trek along the sandy and scenic coast.

By Kelly Vinett

All morning, weather channels threaten a downpour on the Eastern Cape. Despite the grey skies highlighting the ocean’s azure, this site is nearly picture-perfect. Waves whip like a boomerang even at low tide. Post-card perfect in subtropical beauty, the South Coast has more to offer than meets the modern tourist’s eye.

We are on a hike, just outside the seaside town of Port Edward, on the South Coast of Kwa-Zulu Natal, where it meets the Eastern Cape.

Fellow student Francine Barchett who speaks to Mbotho as we hike tells me some of his story afterwards: He was an environmental manager for the filming who made sure that the forest was able to return to its original condition, she says.

“They removed lots of trees and plants before the filming and they returned them in the same exact condition through a GPS system—in the same exact place.”

Remains of the “Blood Diamond” set.

Remnants of the movie set flank the inland path, looking more like ancient ruins than structures built for modern media. Tropical winds and rain have weathered them beyond repair.

They sit now among the remnants of a much older history.

“What I learned on the hike was about the [once] active volcanoes that were near South Africa… I didn’t know there would be lapilli that were on the beach itself,” Carrie Baker, another student studying abroad in Durban, said.

Lapilli are ancient, large spheres of volcanic magma that sit stagnant in the sand. Baker describes this phenomenon for geological amateurs.

“They look like [malt-ball candy] whoppers. If you take a whopper and make it sixty-four times the size, they’re these giant brown balls of magma.”

Mbotho tells us an anecdote from his childhood, about a fossil he and his friends serendipitously came upon at the shore.

“We were playing drums on this fossilized sea turtle. All of a sudden, we shattered the shell,” he said.

Mbotho points out in the thousands-of-years-old fossil the man-made bowling-ball sized fissure— a total accident, of course.

Also, Barchett reveals that the South Coast is home to groundbreaking anthropological discoveries.  

“At this exact place at the South Coast where we were walking, that was where [some of] the first humans came from,” Barchett said.

The sky grows darker as we walk away from the shore. Mbotho points out a cow skeleton carcass, freshly killed, probably by a mamba snake, he says. Although a morbid moment, we are reminded of the inescapable circle of life.

The cave acts as a looking glass into the ocean.

 

Published/Broadcast Stories

Malema takes aim at Zulu king over land: ‘There are no holy cows’

March 9, 2018 By Admin

MAIN IMAGE: The rolling hills of rural KwaZulu Natal seen from the national road. The debate over ownership of land is heating up in South Africa. Photo by Serena Hawkey.

South African media were today reporting on tension between opposition leader Julius Malema and Zulu King Goodwill Zwelithini over Malema’s call for expropriation of land without compensation. Zwelithini has warned that his warriors are ready to defend the three million hectares of rural land controlled by the Ingonyama Trust, which he heads. The trust was established in 1994 and placed control of tribal lands in KwaZulu Natal under the king.

Today the Sunday Times reported that Malema accused Zwelithini of “intimidating” those who were calling for expropriation of land without compensation.

The news outlet said Malema told a press conference on Thursday, “There are no holy cows in this country. We must debate issues openly‚ including disagreeing with the Zulu king. The Zulu king must call for engagement with regards to the land. He must be respected‚ he must not be feared. I don’t fear anyone‚ no one. I only fear God.”

See reports on News24 and Sunday Times below.

Read more at Sunday Times or News24

Malema takes aim at Zulu king over land: ‘There are no holy cows’

 

Politics

Stellenbosch man revives interest in area demolished under apartheid

November 21, 2017 By Admin

AISHA HAUSER

“Almost half a century ago‚ Wilfred Damon was forcibly removed from his home in Stellenbosch because of the colour of his skin.

The 66-year-old retired teacher will return on Saturday to host a guided walking tour of Die Vlakte‚ where he will share memories of the Boland home he was forced to leave.

“The new generation‚ some of them don’t even know about it‚” Damon said on Tuesday‚ explaining that the walking tour initiative came about after his daughter‚ Ilze Wolff‚ was curious about where he grew up.”

 

Read full story here.

Featured

Cape Town mortuaries cut waiting times for Muslims

November 21, 2017 By Admin

By Olivia Decelles

Waiting periods for the release of Muslim bodies at Cape Town mortuaries have been cut by new measures put in place after complaints by the Muslim Judicial Council last month.

Council representatives were told at a meeting with the provincial health department on Tuesday that the allocation of more resources to the mortuaries had resulted in a halving of the waiting time.

The department previously undertook to release bodies between six and seven days after admission to mortuaries, but the judicial council had asked that the time be shortened for Muslims, to allow quicker burial as required by Muslim rites.

The new measures have reduced to an average of 3.5 days the time from admission to the release of bodies, said Western Cape MEC for health Nomafrench Mbombo.

The health department said the province had employed extra forensic pathology assistants and was appointing additional forensic pathologists and medical registrars to mortuaries.

This article was first published on TimesLive

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