Media Invitation

5th Public Health Association of South Africa (PHASA) Conference

Members of the media are invited to attend the fifth (5th) Public Health Association of South Africa (PHASA) Conference to be held at the Albert Luthuli Convention Centre, Durban ICC from 30 November to 2 December 2009.  The full programme is attached for your perusal.

The 2009 PHASA Conference theme is “Millennium Development Goals (MDGs): Measuring progress in public health in South Africa.” This is because existing evidence suggests that very few, if any, of the MDGs will be achieved in sub-Saharan Africa. During 2008, (the midpoint) an assessment of progress towards the MDGs revealed a mixed picture: many of the health goals remain off target, and huge inequities remain between and within countries. 

Some of the topics to be covered at the PHASA conference are:

• Injuries and Violence (HIV, transactional sex and experiences of sexual coercion among men who have sex with men (MSM) in the JHB/eThekwini men's study),
• Substance Abuse (The influence of parental socialization on adolescent alcohol use in a district of KZN),
• Social Determinants of Health (The role of poverty in patient adherence to TB treatment),
• Health Financing, (Health financing and benefit incidence in SA: implications for the current health insurance policy debates)
• Child Health (Social, health and nutrition profile of childre 0-6 months and their caregivers in rural districts of KZN and the Eastern Cape),
• HIV & AIDS, (Patient experiences with Antiretroviral theraphy Programme in KZN)
• Environmental Health, (Elevated mercury exposure in communities living alongside the Inanda Dam, South Africa)
• Health Systems (Health Systems assessment of a decentralised model of treatment for MDR TB in rural areas of KZN), and
• Sexual and Reproductive Health (Dual protection, contraceptive use and HIv risk among a sample of South African male and female students)

The conference will be attended by local and international public health practitioners, government employees, and representatives from schools of public health at universities, demographers, epidemiologists and health economists.

* Note: For pre – conference interviews you can contact:

• Prof Laetitia Rispel (Chairperson of the Scientific Committee) on 082 372 0548) and
• Dr Stephen Knight on 083 762 3123

DATE:                  30 November – 2 December 2009
VENUE:               Albert Luthuli Convention Centre, Durban ICC
TIME:                   08: 30 DAILY

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For more information contact : Julian A Jacobs on 082 454 4902 or email julian.jacobs@mrc.ac.za
The PHASA website for more information is:  http://www.phasa2009.org.za/index.htm