November 28
South Africa: Lead Poisoning Part 2 - Scientists Find Toxic Metals in Kitchenware
A small study published in September found that some ceramic plates and bowls bought from South African chain stores are coated in glaze that contains lead, a toxic heavy metal… Read more »
November 27
South Africa: Antibiotic Slashes Risk of Drug-Resistant TB in Kids, Finds Major SA Study
For decades the standard way to prevent people who were exposed to tuberculosis (TB) from falling ill with the disease was to offer them a medicine called isoniazid, taken daily… Read more »
November 23
South Africa: Funding Shortfall and Poor Roads to Blame for Ambulance Woes, Says Eastern Cape Health Dept
A recent labour dispute involving emergency medical service (EMS) workers in the Eastern Cape has once again placed the spotlight on the province's chronic EMS problems. Read more »
November 22
South Africa: 'Someone Had to Do It', Says TB Activist On Time 100 List
Phumeza Tisile from Khayelitsha was 19 years old when she contracted multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB). She battled the disease for nearly four years, then lost her hearing… Read more »
November 20
South Africa: Country's Remarkable TB Clinical Trial Capacity
Several of the world's most important tuberculosis (TB) clinical trials of the last two decades were done in part or entirely in South Africa. These include several trials that… Read more »
November 17
South Africa: 'I'm Doing It With My Whole Heart' - South Africa's Rural Nurse of Year
Nosiphiwo Gunuza from Lusikisiki in the Eastern Cape was the first college graduate in her family - she is also her family's sole breadwinner. In addition, the 43-year-old… Read more »
November 15
South Africa: Questions Asked As Gauteng Health Sources Food From Limpopo
The Gauteng Department of Health has struggled this year to ensure that patients in the province's hospitals always have the food they need. In addition to several reports received… Read more »
November 14
South Africa: In-Depth - How Do Long-Acting HIV Treatments Work?
Researchers have been trying to develop antiretroviral medicines that can last for weeks, months or even years per dose. It is thought that such long-acting therapies may… Read more »
November 10
South Africa: In-Depth - What New WHO TB Numbers Mean for SA
An estimated 54 200 people in South Africa died of tuberculosis (TB) in 2022 and around 280 000 fell ill with the disease, according to new World Health Organization (WHO) figures.… Read more »
November 08
South Africa: Surgery Backlog in Northern Cape Getting Worse
Already long surgical waiting lists in the Northern Cape appear to have ballooned in recent months. In May, the province's MEC for Health Maruping Lekwene told the province's… Read more »
November 07
South Africa: 'The Situation Is Not Going Away,' Says Inspiring TB Doctor
Dr Juli Switala from Pretoria has treated children in Nigeria, helped fatally ill patients during the 2014 Ebola outbreak in Sierra Leone, and has delivered babies at Afghanistan's… Read more »
November 03
South Africa: New Drug Offers Hope Against Untreatable Gonorrhoea
Newly announced results of a pivotal phase 3 trial have demonstrated the effectiveness of a new one-dose treatment for gonorrhoea. The medicine, called zoliflodacin, is the first… Read more »
November 01
South Africa: There Is So Much to Be Done,' Says Founder of SA's Largest Online Diabetes Community
As a type 1 diabetic, first diagnosed days away from slipping into a hyperglycaemic coma, diabetes education is near Bridget McNulty's heart. Eyes ablaze and hands trailing the… Read more »
October 31
South Africa: What Government Is Doing to Reduce Medicines Stockouts
Over the last decade, the National Health Department has rolled out a range of electronic surveillance systems to monitor medicine stocks throughout the country's healthcare… Read more »
October 27
South Africa: More Austerity Is the Wrong Medicine for Our Public Health Crisis
In the context of weak economic growth, lower-than-expected tax revenues, and the implementation of measures to reduce public spending, there is "rising panic" ahead of this year's… Read more »
October 25
South Africa: Mixed Feelings On NHI Aired At Eastern Cape Hearing
Concerns over corruption and whether or not foreign nationals would be covered under South Africa's proposed National Health Insurance (NHI) system were some of the issues raised… Read more »
October 24
South Africa: In-Depth - Will Eastern Cape Health Reforms Survive the Change in Leadership?
The Eastern Cape Department of Health has for years made headlines for the wrong reasons. These include overcrowded hospital wards, dilapidated infrastructure, food shortages,… Read more »
October 20
South Africa: Exciting Health Reforms Are Possible If We Can Move Beyond All the Political Sclerosis
It is often enlightening for us at Spotlight to ask how and why certain services differ in the ways they do between the private and public healthcare sectors. Read more »
October 18
South Africa: Childhood Exposure to Violence Associated With Mental Health Conditions Later in Life, Experts Say
That South Africa has unusually high levels of inter-personal violence is clear from the country's crime statistics and regular news reports about violent crime. The knock-on… Read more »
October 13
South Africa: Interview - Rural Doctor of the Year Reflects On the Rutted Road to Quality Healthcare
Describing the rutted gravel road between Butterworth and Tafalofefe District Hospital in the Eastern Cape, Dr Bukiwe Spondo uses the word "terrible" at least eighteen times.… Read more »
October 06
South Africa: In-Depth - Can Co2 Monitors Help Protect Healthcare Workers From TB?
One of the ways that someone can become infected with tuberculosis (TB) is through airborne transmission - breathing in TB molecules that are exhaled into the air by a person with… Read more »
October 05
South Africa: Mabuyane Under Fire for Moving Eastern Cape Head of Health
This week, several healthcare stakeholders have slammed Eastern Cape Premier Oscar Mabuyane's announcement that the heads of several provincial departments have been seconded to… Read more »
October 04
South Africa: Hospital Histories - Sizwe, Where Lives Have Been Saved Since Joburg's Earliest Days
How the story of a frustrated TB patient raging at doctors and nurses with a knopkierrie in hand transformed into a story with a happy ending, sums up a TB hospital where… Read more »
October 03
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
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 »
spotlight (Cape Town)
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