Inborn errors of metabolism: heartache-saving test to go national.

At least 6 000 health workers could be dying every year from AIDS-related illnesses, if projections based on death notifications compiled by Statistics SA between 1997 and 2000 are accurate. Prescribed precautions to lower the risk of blood-borne diseases are being flouted and only 43% of public hospital managers and just 7% of private hospital managers have seen the national AIDS plan. These are the major and alarming preliminary findings of a survey of a cluster of 222 mainly metropolitan health facilities across all sectors conducted by a Human Sciences Research Council team and led by Professor Olive Shisana last year. Shisana is the HSRC's Executive Director, Social Aspects of HIV/AIDS and Public Health.