Eben Donges Hospital (EDH) is a regional hospital in the Boland/Overberg region of the Western Cape. It serves a diverse community whose economic stability is reliant on the intensive fruit-farming industry. This farming is heavily dependent on organophosphate (OP)-containing insecticides for pest control, often to the detriment of labourers’ health. The combination of accessibility, limited le...

1. Schneider H, Blaauw D, Dartnall E, et al. STD care in the South African private health sector. S Afr Med J 2001; 91: 151-156. 2. Connolly AM, Wilkinson D, Harrison A, Lurie M, Abdool Karim SS. Inadequate treatment for sexually transmitted diseases in the South African private health sector. Int J STD AIDS 1999; 10: 324-327. 3. Chabikuli N, Schneider H, Blaauw D, et al. Equity in the provisio...

It is therefore very important to optimise the care of diabetic patients at primary, secondary and tertiary care level. Numerous clinical practice guidelines for management of diabetes have been compiled and circulated to health care workers, but despite this the level of diabetes care is still not ideal because of suboptimal implementation strategies. Guideline implementation problems are a si...

782 It is estimated that half or more of sexually transmitted infection (STI) care episodes in the South African formal health sector are treated by private general practitioners (GPs). Poorquality STI care has been well documented in this setting and has been the subject of some debate and policy responses. In the Department of Health’s HIV/AIDS and STD Strategic Plan for 2000 2005, the first ...

October 2005, Vol. 95, No. 10 SAMJ Great strides were made during the last century in the management of diabetes in pregnancy. Before the discovery of insulin in 1921 the outlook for the diabetic mother and her fetus was abysmal. With the advent of insulin, an emphasis on a team approach to care, improved methods of fetal surveillance, and a focus on metabolic normalisation brought about by int...

Great strides were made during the last century in the management of diabetes in pregnancy. Before the discovery of insulin in 1921 the outlook for the diabetic mother and her fetus was abysmal. With the advent of insulin, an emphasis on a team approach to care, improved methods of fetal surveillance, and a focus on metabolic normalisation brought about by intensive insulin regimens and home gl...

November 2005, Vol. 95, No. 11 SAMJ Uncertainty as to the cause or causes of sudden and unexpected infant death and difficulty in excluding the possibility of infanticide, even after the performance of a ‘complete’ autopsy, was graphically illustrated in the London courts recently. A mother wrongly convicted of killing her two sons had her conviction quashed, and the eminent paediatrician who h...