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Be a law-abiding road-rule citizen these holidays
Follow the rules of the road to be safe.
Road crashes are a major cause of deaths globally, and particularly during the March-April holidays in South Africa. Therefore, abiding by the rules of the road serves to curb the high number of fatalities and is highly recommended. We urge all staff and students to take caution on the roads to ensure a safe return to the campuses next term.

According to Arrive Alive, some of the leading accident causes include drunk driving, failure to wear seatbelts, driver inexperience, driver fatigue, distracted driving and walking, as well as bravado. Be sure to avoid this at all cost.

Obeying the rules of the road saves lives. In 2016, Arrive Alive partnered with the UFS BSafe Campaign to educate students on becoming more responsible drivers, passengers, and pedestrians. For more road safety tips, visit the Arrive Alive website here.

Mawande Mateza, Human Movement Science student, has five simple tips on how to stay safe on the road these holidays – courtesy of Protection Services.

Check out the video below.

News Archive

UFS to monitor the use of ARV-drugs on pregnant women and children
2004-12-08

The University of the Free State (UFS) is to establish a Pharmacovigilance Centre that will monitor the effects of Anti-Retroviral (ARV) drugs on HIV positive pregnant women and children starting early in the new year.

The UFS is one of only two institutions chosen by the Minister of Health, Dr Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, to establish such an ARV monitoring centre.

The other centre will be based at Medical University of South Africa (MEDUNSA) and will concentrate mainly on monitoring the effects of the drugs on adults.

“The establishment of the UFS’s Pharmaconvigilance Centre forms part of government’s Comprehensive Plan on HIV and AIDS, often termed the roll-out plan for ARV drugs. The centre’s primary responsibility will be to specifically monitor the use of these drugs in pregnant women, and children under the age of 13,” said Prof Andrew Walubo of the UFS’s Department of Pharmacology.

“Although most of the side effects of ARV drugs have been identified in other countries, it has now become critical to identify the side effects amongst the South African population. This is important because many people will be exposed to the drugs within a short time. Our aim is so identify the most common side effects and make recommendations for the prevention thereof. The centre will help in detecting the risk of using anti-retroviral drugs in pregnancy and children, and prevention of adverse drug reactions,” said Prof Walubo.

According to Prof Walubo 12 drugs will be monitored – these drugs will be selected according to the patient’s profile.

The centre will comprise of two components: A pregnancy registry, which will focus on a new-born child up until two months and a pediatric registry, which will focus on children who are born of mothers who used ARV drugs and children using ARV drugs.

According to Prof Walubo, the Pharmaconvigilance Centre will also be responsible for offering relevant technical advice, training and selected research on ARV drugs in these patients.

The centre will be fully sponsored by the national Department of Health. It will be based in the UFS’s Faculty of Health Sciences, Department of Pharmacology, and will be run in collaboration with experts from different departments in the faculty.

Media release
Issued by: Lacea Loader
Media Representative
Tel: (051) 401-2584
Cell: 083 645 2454
E-mail: loaderl.stg@mail.uovs.ac.za
8 December 2004

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