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Social work in South Africa in the last decade has been shaped by the White Paper for Social Welfare ( Ministry for Welfare and Population Development, 1997) which promotes developmental social services and constitutes both traditional social work and social developmental practices. Little consideration is given in social work literature and within the developmental welfare approach on the bereaved person whose social functioning is impaired by the death experience. South Africa has a generalised HIV epidemic and currently ranks the third highest in the world in terms of the tuberculosis burden. Fatal motor vehicle accidents are a common phenomenon and crime-related deaths are reported daily. Although loss and bereavement may be included in graduate social work education in South Africa, social workers in practice are often not familiar with grief-related intervention. Social work is concerned with loss and therefore also with death and aims to bring a system approach to dying. Grief is regarded as a normal process after the death of a significant person. There is, however, evidence that 10–20 per cent of the bereaved persons may experience prolonged, traumatic or complicated grief. This article explores complicated grief from a South African social work perspective. The discussion starts off with conceptualising complicated grief in South Africa and clarification of the concepts of loss, normal and complicated grief. This is followed by an overview of some risk factors for developing complicated grief. Lastly, the focus is on the role of social work when grief becomes complicated. More research is needed on social work intervention with reference to complicated grief in South Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

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A total of 24 isolates of Pythium spinosum from cucumber obtained from five regions in Oman were characterized for genetic diversity using amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) fingerprinting and three isolates from the Netherlands, South Africa and Japan were included for comparison. Isolates from Oman were also characterized for aggressiveness on cucumber seedlings and sensitivity to metalaxyl. Identity of all isolates was confirmed using sequences of the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region of the ribosomal DNA (rDNA), which showed more than 99% nucleotide similarity among all isolates. Using six primer-pair combinations, AFLP fingerprinting resolved 295 AFLP markers of which 193 were polymorphic among isolates from other countries and only six were polymorphic among isolates of P. spinosum from Oman. Seven different AFLP phenotypes of P. spinosum were recovered in Oman; two of them were found to contain over 79% of isolates and one was recovered from all regions in Oman. Phenotypes from Oman showed very high (≥99%) levels of genetic similarity to each other compared to moderate (mean =53%) levels of genetic similarity with phenotypes from other countries. In addition, all isolates from Oman were found to be highly sensitive to metalaxyl and all were aggressive on cucumber seedlings at 25°C. The high genetic similarity among phenotypes of P. spinosum in Oman as well as recovering two major clones across regions may suggest that P. spinosum has been recently introduced in Oman via a common source. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fifty single oospore progeny were established from an in vitro mating of A1 and A2 mating type isolates of Phytophthora cinnamomi from South Africa. Forty-nine progeny were identified as F1 hybrids using seven random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) primers, and one was a selfed isolate of the A1 mating type parent. Among the hybrid progeny, 24 and 25 were A1 and A2 mating type, respectively. Aggressiveness of progeny and parental isolates was assessed on 1-year-old seedlings of Eucalyptus smithii. The mean aggressiveness of hybrid oosporic isolates, expressed as lesion length, was significantly (P = 0·0001) lower than that of the parental isolates. No significant difference in aggressiveness of A1 and A2 mating type F1 hybrid isolates was observed. This is the first report demonstrating sexual recombination in vitro in P. cinnamomi. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Hospice Palliative Care Association (HPCA) was established in 1987 by hospices in South Africa who felt the need for a national body to share best practices and to promote palliative care services in South Africa. HPCA supports member hospices in providing palliative care to people of any age with a life-limiting condition. HPCA has the further aim to ensure access to palliative care in settings other than member hospices. Many projects were launched over the years to influence policy, and to educate medical practitioners, nurses, social workers, theologians, and community caregiver; and to develop services. A key initiative was the development of a mentorship program to assist organizations to develop accredited palliative care services in South Africa. This article highlights some of the HPCA projects funded over the years by the Open Society Foundations' International Palliative Care Initiative. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]