Along with the recent furore over the sacking of one health minister and continuing office of another, infant and child mortality in South Africa has been hitting the headlines. The Medical Research Councils hard hitting report on the unacceptable levels of child mortality in South Africa is backed up by a study on research priorities to prevent this carnage, published in the open-access journal Plos Medicine. Nearly 100 000 children in South Africa never see their fifth birthday each year. Such simple measures as making sure that every child had sufficient vitamin A in their diet and was able to wash their hands with soap and water through the day would go a long way to reducing this death rate. South Africa prides itself on being one of the richest and most developed countries in Africa, but while our children are dying in these numbers we have nothing to be proud of. Let's stop buying expensive weapons from countries that don't need the income, cut ministerial perks and get on top of graft and start spending money where it matters - on the future of our country.
Dr Bridget Farham, editor: https://www.bizcommunity.com