South Africa: With Elections and NHI, This Is a Big Year for Healthcare in SA

South Africa is barrelling towards its most consequential and most competitive national and provincial elections since 1994, expected to take place in May. That the ANC's share of… Read more »

South Africa: This Is How SA Can Meet Its HIV Targets

"The path to ending AIDS is clear," states a recent UNAIDS report. "HIV responses succeed when they are anchored in strong political leadership, have adequate resources, follow the… Read more »

South Africa: In-Depth - What Is the Situation With Self-Managed Abortions in SA?

In a context where access to surgical abortion is limited, self-managed abortion has the potential to help women realise their right to terminate pregnancies, in privacy and from… Read more »

South Africa: Analysis - SA Close to Meeting TB Research Funding Targets, but Most Countries Falling Short

South Africa is one of only six countries to ever meet its "fair share target" for funding tuberculosis (TB) research, according to a Treatment Action Group (TAG) report published… Read more »

South Africa: Health in 2023 - a Deceptively Busy Year in Fewer Than 1 000 Words

2023 was a busy year for healthcare in South Africa. There were several policy developments, landmark court cases, important pieces of legislation, and some changes in leadership.… Read more »

South Africa: Integrating HIV and NCD Care Is Critical but Not Straightforward, Clinicians Say

With the remarkable success of antiretroviral treatment people living with HIV in South Africa are generally living much longer than they did two decades ago - so much so that… Read more »

South Africa: From a Pig Farm in Zim to Star HIV Researcher - Prof LGB Reflects On Her Remarkable Journey

In a double-storey building emblazoned with the face of late Archbishop Desmond Tutu, inside Professor Linda-Gail Bekker's office a bookshelf is stacked with titles on general… Read more »

South Africa: Amid Budget Constraints, Tough Choices for SA's HIV Response

Around 13% of South Africa's population are living with HIV and the country has the world's largest HIV treatment programme. The country's finances are however under huge pressure… Read more »

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 »

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 »

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 »

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 »

Africa: What Is Behind the Shocking Number of Deaths Linked to Lead Poisoning?

An estimated 5.5 million people died of heart conditions linked to lead poisoning in 2019 - more than the number killed by outdoor air pollution over the same period. That's… Read more »

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 »

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 »

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 »

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 »

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 »

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 »

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 »

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 »

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 »

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 »

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 »

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 »