October 03, 2023
South Africa: 'There's So Much Respiratory Disease and There's So Much to Be Done,' Says Leading Paediatrics Prof
New vaccines to protect infants and unborn babies from contracting highly contagious seasonal Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) were just approved in the United States. Speaking… Read more »
September 29, 2023
South Africa: This Court Case Will Literally Determine Whether Some People Get to Breathe
In a pivotal case for access to affordable medicines in South Africa, the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) and Doctors Without Borders (MSF) Southern Africa - represented by… Read more »
September 28, 2023
South Africa: How Does SA Measure Up Against New TB Recommendations?
A new report from the Lancet Commission on Tuberculosis (TB) titled 'Scientific advances and the end of tuberculosis' makes several recommendations for how governments should go… Read more »
September 27, 2023
South Africa: Many in Eastern Cape Still Denied Health Services Despite Some Improvements, Report Finds
A woman in her forties who is living with HIV says she was denied services at a public healthcare facility because she didn't have a transfer letter, resulting in her treatment… Read more »
September 26, 2023
South Africa: Mixed Reactions Over Gauteng Jobs Campaign and What It May Mean for Health
In June this year, the Gauteng government launched a major recruitment drive called Nasi iSpani. As explained on Business Live by Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi, the Nasi iSpani… Read more »
September 22, 2023
South Africa: Better Data and Transparency Needed If We Are to Live Up to TB Rhetoric At UN
There is a renewed global commitment to tackle tuberculosis (TB) from global leaders who are meeting in New York today for the United Nations High-Level Meeting on TB. The meeting… Read more »
September 21, 2023
South Africa: Clinical Associates Praised At Rural Health Conference, but Questions Remain Over Government Backing
South Africa faces chronic healthcare worker shortages and the country's Human Resources for Health Strategy 2030 has warned of an impending healthcare worker crisis. The shortages… Read more »
September 20, 2023
South Africa: 'The Only Good TB Bacillus Is a Dead One', Says UCT's Prof Valerie Mizrahi
World-leading tuberculosis researcher Professor Valerie Mizrahi was 35 when her mother Etty started losing weight and coughing furiously. After healthcare professionals in… Read more »
September 18, 2023
South Africa: Concerns Raised At Public Health Conference Over Freezing of Healthcare Worker Posts
The National Treasury's Cost Containment Letter sent to government departments instructing, among others, the freezing of posts was one of the big themes underlying talks about… Read more »
September 15, 2023
South Africa: Orthopaedic Surgery - What Is Behind SA's Long Waiting Lists?
As of last year, there were 3 449 patients waiting on orthopaedic surgeries in five provinces - Free State, Mpumalanga, KwaZulu-Natal, Northern Cape, and Limpopo - according to a… Read more »
September 14, 2023
South Africa: Free State Bottom of the List When It Comes to Multi-Month Dispensing of ARVs, Survey Finds
The percentage of people living with HIV receiving a three to six-month supply of ARVs at a time in the Free State has dropped from 13% last year to 3% this year, making the… Read more »
September 13, 2023
South Africa: In-Depth - Why an Eastern Cape TB Hospital Closed and What Comes Next
In 2021, Orsmond TB Hospital in Nelson Mandela Bay closed its doors as a result of its dwindling patient numbers. The Eastern Cape Department of Health decided to repurpose it as a… Read more »
September 12, 2023
South Africa: Arsenic-Contaminated Drinking Water Found in Two SA Villages - Scientists Blame Government Mismanagement
A study published in April this year found that residents in two villages in Limpopo's Giyani local municipality have dangerous amounts of arsenic in their drinking water - a… Read more »
September 07, 2023
South Africa: A UN Meeting On TB Is At Best a Means to More Important Ends
In 2018 the first findings from a landmark tuberculosis (TB) vaccine trial were published in the New England Journal of Medicine. The experimental vaccine, called M72, was found to… Read more »
September 05, 2023
South Africa: Hospital Histories - the Many Lives That Started At Mowbray Maternity
Weighing little more than three bricks of butter, baby Lunathi Sitembile is pressed against mum Yolanda's bare chest, a thin tube entering her nostril and another taped to her tiny… Read more »
September 04, 2023
South Africa: MTN Temporarily Pulled Plug On Eastern Cape Health Due to Non-Payment
In August, telecommunications company MTN joined the list of service providers who have temporarily withdrawn services because the Eastern Cape Department of Health failed to pay… Read more »
September 01, 2023
Africa: Women in Health - Vaccine Safety Prof On Her Passion for Making a Difference
Professor Johanna Catharina Meyer, a pharmacist turned academic and then vaccine expert and advocate, lives her life with many mottos - her main one being - "life is an echo, what… Read more »
August 31, 2023
South Africa: Breastfeeding While Hungry - Is Enough Being Done to Support Mothers in the Free State?
Earlier this month, from 1 to 7 August, the world celebrated breastfeeding week under the theme - "Enabling breastfeeding: making a difference for working parents". This global… Read more »
August 29, 2023
South Africa: Calls Mount to Act Against Senior Northern Cape Health Officials Implicated in Alleged PPE Corruption
The head of health in the Northern Cape Dr Dion Theys - appeared in the Kimberly Magistrate’s Court on Monday. Read more »
August 22, 2023
Africa: A New African HIV Control Working Group to Propel African Voices in the Global HIV Response
The response to the HIV epidemic is more than 40 years old. The African continent has been the most affected with millions of people over the years having battled HIV-associated… Read more »
August 23, 2023
South Africa: Sr Wattie - the Midwife From District Six Who Heeded the Call to Nurse and Deliver
For decades, most stories from Cape Town's District Six started with - "I was born at Peninsula Maternity Hospital!" The Peninsula Maternity Hospital was established in 1921 as a… Read more »
August 21, 2023
South Africa: The Good Doctor - Mark Blaylock On Finding Meaning Back At Manguzi
There was a time, about 20 years ago, when, at the Manguzi district hospital in Northern KwaZulu-Natal, (and, of course, at hospitals throughout South Africa too) mothers and their… Read more »
August 17, 2023
South Africa: Surgeries Delayed At Charlotte Maxeke As Key Machine Decommissioned Before Replacements Are Ready
What appears to be a poorly planned decommissioning process of a specialised angiogram machine has led to a three-month delay before patients will be able to access potentially… Read more »
August 18, 2023
South Africa: In-Depth - the Court Ruling That Gives Qualifying Pharmacists the Green Light for HIV, TB Meds Without Script
Specially trained and accredited pharmacists in South Africa will now be allowed to provide people with medicines to prevent HIV and tuberculosis (TB) and to treat uncomplicated… Read more »
August 16, 2023
South Africa: TB Contact Tracing Helps Save Lives - This Is How It Works in SA
Globally an estimated 850 000 lives could be saved by 2035 if short-course tuberculosis (TB) preventive therapy is provided to people living with HIV and contacts of individuals… Read more »