South African medical journal = Suid-Afrikaanse tydskrif vir geneeskunde
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The growing burden of diabetes has long been under the radar in developing countries such as South Africa (SA). In recent years, there has been an unprecedented and exponential increase in recorded and undiagnosed diabetes mellitus (DM) cases. Unreliable data collection, overburdened health systems and poor infrastructure have all proved to be barriers to achieving optimum disease management. The District Health Information System (DHIS) serves as the data collection tool for the SA public healthcare sector. It is used in all nine SA provinces to gather data without individual patient identifiers. ⋯ Metropolitan areas were highlighted as areas to be targeted, further reinforcing the current connection observed between urbanisation and DM in SA. The presence and recording of screening efforts is an excellent step in the right direction for the SA public healthcare sector and the DHIS. With improved interprovincial co-ordination regarding standardisation of the criteria and specifications of data collection fields, and enhanced training for data officers and primary collection agents, good quality and rich data is a very close possibility.
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Paediatric intensive care, a valuable resource that improves the outcomes of critically ill children, is often scarce. ⋯ The need for PICU beds exceeds availability, with a consequent twofold increase in mortality among cases not admitted to PICU. Paediatric critical care services have increased at appropriate sites of need following completion of this study.