Since 1992, the Health Systems Trust has contributed to the development of a health system that can meet the needs of all South Africans, including the most disadvantaged. We will continue to work with all stakeholders in order to improve health care, particularly in areas most underserved and in need.

LAUNCHED: SOUTH AFRICAN HEALTH REVIEW 2008
HST
2008-12-11

Health Systems Trust publishes its
13th edition of the South African Health Review
PRIMARY HEALTH CARE IN SOUTH AFRICA: A REVIEW OF 30 YEARS SINCE ALMA ATA
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Senior Researcher
HST: Research Programme
2008-12-12

Health Systems Trust (HST) is seeking to appoint a Senior Researcher to manage existing and/or new projects (or components of projects) within the Research Programme cluster.
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A steady erosion
Belinda Beresford, Mail and Guardian
2008-11-28

HIV is thought to have a kill rate of close to 100%, higher than even the notorious haemorrhagic diseases such as Ebola. But, unlike such virulent attackers, HIV kills its hosts through a steadily attrition of the immune system, giving ample time for new infections to occur. The result is a slow-burning epidemic steadily destroying lives and eroding South Africa's development potential. HIV/AIDS was regarded as effectively untreatable in South Africa. The drugs were too expensive: Supreme Court of Appeal Judge Edwin Cameron had to have financial help to afford the antiretrovirals that have now kept him alive for so many years. Effectively, antiretroviral therapy (ART) was seen as something for the wealthy elite - and, so the argument went, even if it were affordable, then poor and unsophisticated people were unlikely to be able to take it properly.
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On the way down
Belinda Beresford, Mail and Guardian
2008-11-28

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a country in possession of economic growth will find the health of its citizens improving. But almost uniquely, South Africa's growing financial strength has been accompanied by a fall in key indicators of health. The tie between health and wealth has held true for most of the world, and for as long as there appear to have been economists to notice it. Wealthier countries tend to be healthier at least until they start to encounter the diseases of affluence such as obesity. In South Africa, and some other surrounding countries, this link has broken. South Africa's Gross Domestic Product per capita has increased by an average of 3% per year for the last decade. Yet the most obvious indicators of health are falling. The easiest way to get snapshot of a nation's health is to look at key indicators: life expectancy at birth, maternal mortality and infant mortality. These are such fundamental markers that they were written into the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which South Africa signed in 2000.
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A healthier future
Belinda Beresford, Mail and Guardian
2008-11-28

Rarely in South Africa can a minister have come to power carrying such a weight of expectation as Barbara Hogan. Her first major public speech at the Aids Vaccine Conference in Cape Town in October was greeted with enthusiasm, and even international delegates speculated about the bright future that seems to lie ahead at last for South African healthcare. Her speech was reminiscent of one of those games where one has to bash crocodiles on the head as they pop up apparently randomly through holes in the floor. Politely, and without naming names, Hogan took a baseball bat and bashed all the major crocodiles on the head: Matthias Rath and his vitamins, for instance. Most of all she asserted the fact that HIV causes Aids.
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