This is an archive of the Treatment Action Campaign's public documents from December 1998 until October 2008. I created this website because the TAC's website appears unmaintained and people were concerned that it
was becoming increasingly hard to find important documents.

The menu items have been slightly edited and a new stylesheet applied to the site. But none of the documents have been edited, not even for minor errors. The text appears on this site as obtained from the Internet Archive.

The period covered by the archive encompassed the campaign for HIV medicines, the civil disobedience campaigns, the Competition Commission complaints, the 2008 xenophobic violence and the PMTCT, Khayelitsha health workers and Matthias Rath court cases.

TAC Electronic Newsletter


20 September 2005

Contents

TAC National Congress Details


Note: TAC chairperson, Zackie Achmat, will receive an honourary doctorate from the University of Western Cape on Thursday evening 22 September 2005.

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More on Delmas diarrhoea outbreak story

Letter sent to Minister of Health on 17 September 2005

URGENT

Dr. M. Tshabalala-Msimang
Minister of Health
17 September 2005
By Fax: (012) 325 5526

Dear Minister Tshabalala-Msimang

DELMAS DIARRHOEA AND TYPHOID EPIDEMIC

We bring to your urgent attention details about the Delmas typhoid and diarrhoea epidemic that we have learnt since Wednesday. The official death toll due to this epidemic as of Friday 17 September was three. We have found evidence inconsistent with this. A TAC delegation to Delmas has also witnessed and received allegations of an inadequate response to the epidemic. Furthermore, no interventions have been implemented to deal with the special needs of people with advanced HIV disease who are at higher risk of illness and death due to the diarrhoea epidemic.

A TAC delegation investigating events in Delmas has learnt the following:

The TAC team also found evidence of hard work by dedicated health-care workers and NGOs supporting them. We also support the Department of Health investing additional resources in Delmas during the epidemic. But it is not enough.

We urge the National Department of Health to take immediate action to address the situation in Delmas. This would include the following actions:


We urge you to act urgently and consistently with your constitutional mandate.

Yours faithfully


Zackie Achmat
TAC CHAIRPERSON

cc: Premier Thabang Makwetla, Mr James Ngculu (MP) Health Portfolio Committee

[END OF LETTER]

Mpumalanga Health Department's Misrepresentations


In radio interviews on 19 September, the Mpumalanga Health Department spokesperson, Mpho Gabashane,  responded defensively and disingenuously to TAC's report. We present the following clarifications:


[END OF DELMAS STORY - BACK TO CONTENTS]

AIDS Law Project/TAC submission on goverment's draft Strategic Framework for the Human Resources for Health Plan


Download the full submission here.


Extract from submission:

"Our key concerns relating to the substance of the Strategic Framework can be summarised as follows:


[END OF SUBMISSION - BACK TO CONTENTS]

[END OF NEWSLETTER]