South Africa: Here's How to Make Drug Addiction a Health Issue, Not a Criminal One

Experts say South Africa's contradictory approach to drugs — treating addiction as both a disease and a crime — is fuelling a worsening crisis in places like Westbury,… Read more »

South Africa: Our LEN Is Here. Now For Quality Checks in Ireland

SA's first consignment of the twice-a-year anti-HIV injection, lenacapavir — 37 920 doses — arrived last week at OR Tambo Airport via two… Read more »

Sierra Leone: Can Sierra Leone Keep Its Mothers Alive?

It's been a year since the US government's aid cuts sent shock waves around the world. But in one maternity hospital in Freetown it's the loss of UK funding that threatens to… Read more »

South Africa: Can Talks Save South Africa's NHI From A Courtroom War?

Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi has met with the South African Medical Association  — one of the organisations taking him to court about the  National Health… Read more »

South Africa: How a Boy Born on World TB Day Helped Turn the Tide on South Africa's Deadliest TB

Norbert Ndjeka was born on World TB Day. Decades later, he would reshape how South Africa treats the deadliest forms of the disease.  Read more »

South Africa: A R60 Test Could Help South Africa Find Millions More TB Patients - But Will It Miss The Most Dangerous Cases?

South Africa is trialling a cheap, portable TB test that costs a third of the current standard. But the new test can't detect drug-resistant TB, raising questions about how much… Read more »

South Africa: 180,000 Infections in 2024, 47,000 by 2045 - If South Africa Rolls Out the Twice-A-Year HIV Prevention Jab Fast Enough

South Africa will receive its first batch of the once-every-six-months HIV prevention shot, lenacapavir, soon. Roll-out in government clinics is set to start within the next couple… Read more »

South Africa: CAB-LA - The Prevention Jab That Never Had Its Moment, and What It Leaves Behind as LEN Arrives

CAB-LA, the two-monthly HIV prevention injection, was approved in South Africa over three years ago but never reached government clinics. As lenacapavir prepares to launch,… Read more »

Mozambique: Life Between Cyclones - How Beira's People Carry the Mental Weight of Storms That Never Really End

Six years after Cyclone Idai ripped through Beira, the city's wounds — physical and psychological — are still raw. As a new storm gathered in the Indian Ocean in… Read more »

South Africa: Bringing It Home - South Africa is Leading the Charge to Make Anti-HIV jab for Africa

South Africa's National Aids Council, Sanac, has asked local drug companies to  submit applications by April 7  to make generic versions of an anti-HIV jab that could… Read more »

South Africa: Can South Africa Fix Its Health System Before the Courts Decide Its Fate?

The implementation of the NHI is effectively frozen in court and constitutional clashes, blocking South Africa's most sweeping health overhaul since 1994. We talked to health… Read more »

South Africa: Superbugs + Climate Change = Double Trouble. Here's Why

Superbugs are a big public health issue. So is climate change. Put the two together and the problem becomes even bigger. Superbugs are germs that cause infections that are almost… Read more »

South Africa: Our Advertising Regulator Is Funded By The Food And Beverage Industry. Should It Be Allowed To Block Ads On Sugar's Health Risks?

A pending court complaint alleges bias after the regulator voted to block radio advertisements about the dangers of sugar. Read more »

South Africa: HIV Made Him Expect To Die At 40. At 73, Edwin Cameron Asks: Who's Planning For Our Ageing Survivors?

At 33, retired Constitutional Court justice Edwin Cameron thought he had, maybe, seven years left. His story traces the arc from certain death from Aids to a chronic, manageable… Read more »

South Africa: How to Decode Big Tobacco's Illicit Trade Fiction

The tobacco industry is getting ready for the final showdown as South Africa's Tobacco Bill heads into its last rounds, pulling out its well-worn talking points on illicit trade… Read more »

South Africa: The Real 'Nanny Tax'? Not Being Able to Breastfeed Your Own Baby

Many mothers who work as domestic workers have to make an impossible choice: keep your job or breastfeed your child. It's a decision that carries lifelong health consequences for… Read more »

South Africa: The Anti-HIV Jab Buhle Trusts - and 456,000 South Africans Can Soon Get for Free

For the past three years, Buhle Sikade, 22, has been using an injection that gives her almost foolproof protection against getting HIV through sex — medicine that around 456… Read more »

South Africa: When Politics Trumps Science - Why the US Isn't Giving South Africa LEN

By shutting South Africa out of its overseas funding for the roll-out of the revolutionary six-monthly HIV prevention jab which could potentially end Aids, the Trump administration… Read more »

South Africa: South Africa's First Batch Of LEN Jabs Will Arrive In February. Use Bhekisisa's Dashboard To Find Out Who Should Get Them

The first batch of lenacapavir shots, a new six-monthly anti-HIV injection, should "be managed strategically", said Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi in October. Modelling data… Read more »

South Africa: South Africa Wants To Make Its Own Six-Monthly HIV Prevention Jabs By 2027. But There's A Hitch

The South African government says it could fill the potential gap in the number of doses  it will need of the twice-yearly HIV prevention jab to end Aids by 2043  by… Read more »

South Africa: Anatomy Of A Hospital - Groote Schuur In A Time Of Budget And Staffing Cuts

From porters to engineers, hospital staff navigate chronic underfunding and staffing shortages while maintaining world-class care at one of South Africa's most storied medical… Read more »

South Africa: How Big Tobacco Stalls South Africa's Smoking and Vaping Law

When first introduced, strict rules about tobacco advertising in South Africa helped to cut smoking from 32% to 24% in a decade. But 20 years later the country isn't the public… Read more »

South Africa: What One Mom Learned When A Teacher Ripped Out Her Son's Hearing Aid

A teacher yanked her son's hearing aid out of his ear, mistaking it for an earbud. It was a harsh lesson for one mom who learned first hand what happens when schools fail our kids… Read more »

South Africa: Is the NHI Channelling Operation Dudula's Healthcare Blockades?

This week, the High Court ruled that blocking foreigners from healthcare is unconstitutional. So why does the National Health Insurance Act say that's what we should do when it… Read more »

South Africa: Two Superbugs Cause Over Half Of The Infections That Kill Newborns In Soweto. The Germs Are Outsmarting Treatment Fast

Two superbugs cause over half of the infections that kill newborns in Soweto. The germs are outsmarting treatment fast Read more »