Simelane encourages more KZN men to pursue nursing careers
Health MEC Nomagugu Simelane made a call for more men in KwaZulu-Natal to pursue a career in nursing.
Simelane believes the step will encourage more men to seek help for medical issues.
She was speaking at a nurse graduation ceremony in Durban, where about a quarter of the graduates were men.
Out of the 197 nurses from the KwaZulu-Natal College of Nursing, 56 graduates were men.
"We were able to establish that one of the other reasons that men don't come to our facilities is because they are uncomfortable or shy to speak openly to female health practitioners about certain ailments that they might have, especially those that pertain to their sexual reproductive health."
Simelane says that men need to move away from the misguided notion that they have to be strong, even when they are sick.
"We are saying that the time has come for men to stop dying due to diseases such as prostate cancer, male breast cancer, HIV/AIDS, diabetes, hypertension and many more.
"Men are simply dying from these otherwise preventable or treatable diseases purely because they do not come to our facilities to manage them properly or on time."
"Many of them think seeking help is a sign of weakness or not being a real man. As a result of all of this, their diseases are often detected too late when they are already at an advanced stage."
