Health Issues for South Africa

There is no doubt that South Africa’s healthcare industry is one of the most dynamic sectors in the world. Currently, the public sector provides health care for 80% of the population and accounts for approximately 48% of total health care spending. However, the private sector provides health care for 20% of the population and accounts for approximately 50% of total health care spending while the remaining 2% is provided by non-governmental organisations.

Of the private-sector spending, 81% is funded from private prepaid plans and about 14% from out-of-pocket payments.

Despite all the above, some diseases are still prevalent in South Africa due to ineffective public health education system. This is an attempt to help remedy the situation by providing accurate health information on some common diseases in South Africa.

  1. Kidney Stone
  2. Bladder Infection
  3. Kidney Infection
  4. Urinary Tract Infection
  5. Coronavirus

Information on HIV/AIDS

AIDS is a major problem, with 6,070,800 million people living with the disease. The adult infection rate is estimated at 17.9 percent. The government denied the extent of the problem for many years.

The infant mortality rate is 41.61 deaths for every 1,000 live births. Life expectancy for males in 50.25 years, and 48.58 years for females.

Statutory bodies

Statutory bodies for the health-service professions include:

Traditional medicine

An estimated 80% of South Africans consult with traditional healers alongside general medical practitioners.

The Medical Research Council (MRC) founded a traditional medicines research unit in 1997 to introduce modern research methodologies around the use of traditional medicines. It also aims to develop a series of patents for promising new entities derived from medicinal plants.