March 2010

Human Rights Day: A short history

Celebrated on 21 March, Human Rights Day commemorates the Sharpeville massacre of 1960 when police opened fire on approximately 300 black Africans who demonstrated against the country’s pass laws.

The carnage on the day – a total of 69 people killed and 180 injured – made world headlines and signalled the start of the armed resistance in South Africa.

Pass Book

The Native Laws Amendment Act of 1952 extended Government control over the movement of Africans to urban areas and abolished the use of the Pass Book (a document which Africans were required to carry on them to ‘prove’ that they were allowed to enter a ‘white area’) in favour of a reference book which had to be carried at all times by all Africans. Failure to produce the reference book on demand to the police was a punishable offence.

The Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) organised an anti-Pass campaign to start on 21 March 1960. All African men were to take part in the campaign without their passes and present themselves for arrest. The idea was to have so many arrests that the country would not be able to function properly. It was hoped that this would lead to the Pass Laws being scrapped.

Nationwide demonstrations

This year will mark 50 years since that fateful day when thousands of people gathered at Sharpeville near Johannesburg as part of the nationwide protest. Here they were met by about 300 police officers. A scuffle broke out and part of a wire fence was trampled, allowing the crowd to move forward. The police opened fire, apparently without having been given a prior order to do so.

The majority of the people killed at Sharpeville were shot in the back as they ran away. In similar demonstrations on the day, police baton charged and fired tear gas at protestors outside several police stations across the country. The event proved to be a political catalyst and four days later the Apartheid government banned black political organisations. Many leaders were arrested or went into exile.

Bill of Rights

During the Apartheid era there were human rights abuses by all sides and the purpose of Human Rights Day is to make South Africans aware of their human rights and to ensure that such abuses never again occur. Many of the rights that people paid with their lives for at Sharpeville are today included in our Bill of Rights.

Sources: Africanhistory.about.com, South African Human Rights Commission, www.info.gov.za

Health Calendar

8 International Women's Day
12 World Kidney Day
20 World Head Injury Awareness Day
21 Human Rights Day
22 World Down Syndrome Day
24 World TB Day

The famous photograph by Sam Nzima showing a student carrying the body of 12 year old Hector Pieterson, one of the first casualties of the Soweto Uprising.

Epicentre News Desk:

Tuberculosis: World TB Day

Tuberculosis, more commonly known as TB, is a chronic infectious disease caused by the bacterium Mycobacterium tuberculosis. More people die from TB than any other curable infectious disease in the world. It usually attacks the lungs (known as pulmonary TB), but it can also spread to and damage other parts of the body, such as the digestive tracts, joints, bones, nervous system and skin.

Symptoms

Symptoms include chronic coughing with bloody sputum, fever, night sweats and weight loss. What makes TB such a problem is the fact that it is mainly spread by breathing air-borne TB bacteria from infected people. When an infected person coughs, sneezes, laughs or spits, tiny droplets containing the bacteria are sprayed into the air which people nearby can inhale. Prolonged and substantial exposure is usually needed for transmission to occur and infected people are therefore most likely to spread it to those they spend time with daily, such as family members or co-workers. (You are unlikely to get TB from someone coughing next to you!)

The spread of TB

The TB organism can lie dormant for years without the infected person becoming sick, but it can develop in an active disease as soon as the immune system is weakened. (In South Africa TB is the most important opportunistic infection of people with HIV.)

The most important symptoms of TB are: a cough that produces sputum or phlegm, unexplained weight loss, abnormal night sweating and overall tiredness. A health care worker can diagnose TB by testing a person’s sputum.

Treatment

Although TB is completely treatable, the treatment is prolonged (at least six months) and rigid (the medication must be taken exactly as prescribed). If a patient slips up on his or her treatment schedule, there is the possibility of a drug resistant strain of TB to develop.

According to the World Bank, the incidence of tuberculosis in South Africa nearly tripled between 1995 and 2008, and HIV incidence among people aged 15 to 49 rose from 6.2% in 1995 to 18.1% in 2008.

Sources: Health24, Reuters, Moneyweb

Down syndrome: One chromosome too many

Down syndrome (DS) is named after the British doctor, John Langdon Down, who first described the condition in 1887. It was not until 1957 than an extra chromosome was identified as the cause. The condition is also called trisomy 21 or mongolism. ‘Mongolism’ refers to the fact that someone with Down’s syndrome is often Eastern in appearance.

A baby would normally inherit genetic information from its parents in the form of 46 chromosomes: 23 from the mother and 23 from the father. In the case of a Down syndrome baby there is an extra chromosome 21 – and a total of 47 chromosomes instead of 46. It is this extra genetic material that causes the physical features and developmental delays associated with Down syndrome.

Characteristics

Children born with this syndrome have limited intellectual ability and specific recognisable physical characteristics. Down syndrome babies are generally very placid and seldom cry, but they do require constant care. They are usually very loving individuals.

Between 40-50% of children born with Down's syndrome have heart problems and the average life expectancy is low – on average about 35 years, if they survive the first five critical years. A large number of children with Down syndrome (60-80%) have hearing problems and also common are intestinal problems, eye problems, obesity and skeletal problems.
There is no known cause for Down syndrome and no way to prevent the chromosomal error that causes it. What scientists do know is that older mothers (age 35 and older) have a significantly higher risk of having a child with the condition. At age 30, for example, a woman has about a 1 in 900 chance of conceiving a child with Down syndrome. These odds increase to about 1 in 350 by age 35. By age 40 the risk rises to about 1 in 100.

Treatment

Down syndrome is an irreversible chromosomal disorder, so there is no treatment for the syndrome as such. In South Africa there are few facilities available for the full-time care of a child with Down syndrome.

With the recent advances in molecular biology, it is not impossible that genetic intervention could in future reverse the specific actions of abnormal developmental sequences.

Sources: Wikipedia, Health24

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