June 28, 2023
South Africa: HIV Prevention Shots and Vaginal Rings - This Is Why SA Pilots Have Not Yet Started
Last year Spotlight reported that pilot projects testing out a new HIV prevention injection and a vaginal ring in South Africa would start early in 2023. Yet, as delegates gathered… Read more »
June 27, 2023
South Africa: Mpumalanga Health Department Responds to Latest Clinic Monitoring Findings
According to the latest report from community-based clinic monitoring group Ritshidze, users of public sector health facilities in Mpumalanga are experiencing shorter waiting… Read more »
June 23, 2023
South Africa: Taking a Spoon to a Knife Fight - Is SA Ready for Rising Obesity Rates?
Experts describe rising obesity rates in South Africa as an "urgent crisis", "a tsunami" - even an "epidemic" - that is costing lives, not to mention billions of rands. Tackling… Read more »
June 22, 2023
South Africa: Right of Reply - Reducing the Surgical and Cancer Treatment Backlogs Is an Urgent Priority
Recently an opinion piece was published on this platform bemoaning what the author described as a "... lack of urgency" to tackle the backlog of cancer treatment in Gauteng,… Read more »
June 21, 2023
South Africa: Sobering Moments At Opening of SA Aids Conference
Amid the festivities during the opening ceremony of the 11th SA AIDS Conference in Durban on Tuesday, there were also several sobering moments. Chief among these was when co-chair… Read more »
June 20, 2023
South Africa: In-Depth - Why Is the Northern Cape Missing Its TB Targets?
Albert Molutsi is a tuberculosis (TB) survivor who lives in Gasehunelo in the predominantly rural JT Gaetsewe District in the Northern Cape. He tells Spotlight he depends on a… Read more »
June 19, 2023
South Africa: Can South Africa Meet Diabetes Targets, and Would We Know If We Did?
South Africa has the highest prevalence of diabetes in Africa, according to the International Diabetes Federation (IDF). In 2021, an estimated one in nine adults in the country had… Read more »
June 15, 2023
Africa: In-Depth - What It Means to Build Genomics Capacity in Africa
South African scientists - notably, the team headed by Professor Tulio de Oliveira - were thrown into the global spotlight through their pivotal role in detecting and monitoring… Read more »
June 14, 2023
South Africa: Hospital Histories - 151 Years Later, the Drumming of Little Feet At Brooklyn Chest Hospital
As Dr Julian te Riele unlocks a steel gate, excited young voices yelp, "Doctor, doctor, doctor!" Soon after, little bodies are huddled and pressed around his legs. Read more »
June 13, 2023
South Africa: Community-Based Testing Boosts Diagnosis of Infectious TB, Study Finds
Every year, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), tens of thousands of people who fall ill with tuberculosis (TB) in South Africa are not diagnosed. Globally, of the… Read more »
June 12, 2023
Africa: Antibiotic-Resistant Bugs Claim Over 200 000 Infants Globally Per Year, Finds Major Study
"The death of a child affects us all. Witnessing the loss of a newborn baby who has sepsis is terribly traumatic, especially so when antibiotics used to treat the child are… Read more »
June 09, 2023
South Africa: Worrying Lack of Urgency As Gauteng Health Sits On Money Earmarked to Outsource Urgent Cancer Treatment
It is almost three months since - partly through the efforts of SECTION27 and Cancer Alliance - money was made available to the Gauteng Health Department to outsource radiation… Read more »
June 08, 2023
South Africa: In-Depth - Are Measles, Mumps, and Diphtheria Outbreaks Harbingers of Worse to Come?
So far this year the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) has issued reports on three different outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases - measles, mumps, and… Read more »
June 07, 2023
Africa: Professor Soraya Seedat On the 'Workings of the Brain' and the Realities of Psychiatry
Behind Professor Soraya Seedat's desk in her office on the University of Stellenbosch's Tygerberg campus in Parow, hangs a striking gold-framed painting by a patient diagnosed with… Read more »
June 06, 2023
South Africa: Is SA On Track to Solve Its Nursing Crisis?
Nurse shortages and the training of nurses in South Africa were in the spotlight at a two-day conference on the future of nursing hosted by the South African Nursing Council (SANC)… Read more »
June 02, 2023
South Africa: The Complex Interplay Between TB and Liver Problems
People in South Africa who fall ill with tuberculosis (TB) often also have other health issues. HIV, which drives much of the TB epidemic in South Africa, is the most obvious… Read more »
June 01, 2023
South Africa: Part of Child Protection Is Allowing Children to Be Themselves When It Comes to Gender
South Africa is observing Child Protection Week from 29 May to 5 June to shine a spotlight on the rights of children as enshrined in the Constitution and the Children's Act. The… Read more »
May 25, 2023
South Africa: Too Scared to Come to Work, Nurse Says Amid Rising Security Concerns At Eastern Cape Health Facilities
Amid concerns over the security and safety of health workers at public health facilities in the Eastern Cape, the Democratic Nursing Union of South Africa (DENOSA) says it is… Read more »
May 24, 2023
South Africa: New Report Paints Grim, but Incomplete Picture of Cancer in SA
Statistics South Africa's (StatsSA) report on cancer in South Africa (2008-2019) released at the end of March is intended to inform cancer treatment and a cancer management… Read more »
May 22, 2023
South Africa: Covid-19 - What Next As Shots Expire and Become Harder to Get?
Millions of doses of the Pfizer-BioNtech COVID-19 vaccine procured by the South African government have expired and the shot is largely unavailable to people in the country. Read more »
May 19, 2023
Africa: Opinion - HIV Testing Is Changing in South Africa, Here's Why It's a Good Thing
In South Africa, we have been using HIV Rapid Diagnostic Tests (Finger prick - same-day testing) for years. There are several reasons for this. First, to save costs as the… Read more »
May 18, 2023
South Africa: In-Depth - Mpumalanga's Healthcare Worker Shortage and What Is Being Done About It
There are over 100 clinics in Mpumalanga without visiting doctors, hundreds waiting on surgeries in hospitals due to a lack of surgeons and specialists, and only 60 working… Read more »
May 17, 2023
South Africa: Rheumatology in SA - Patients Pay the Price for Shortage of Specialists
"We do not have a reach of rheumatology in all provinces in South Africa," says Dr Ayesha Wadee, the president of the South African Rheumatism and Arthritis Association (SARAA). "I… Read more »
May 15, 2023
South Africa: 90-60-50 - Can SA Reach Its Hypertension Targets?
While HIV and tuberculosis (TB) rates in South Africa are slowly declining, indications are that rates of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) like hypertension and diabetes are on the… Read more »
May 12, 2023
South Africa: Opinion - Why I Became a Nurse and What's Needed to Fix Nursing in SA
Today we celebrate Nurses as we do every year on 12 May. The International Council of Nurses proclaimed this year's slogan as 'Our Nurses, Our Future', but what is the future of… Read more »
spotlight (Cape Town)
Website: https://www.spotlightnsp.co.za/
