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 »

South Africa: Three Mental Health Breakdowns. One Rural Clinic. And A Lesson In Ubuntu In A Time Of Scarce Resources

On a recent day, Indira Govender, a doctor in a rural community in northern KwaZulu-Natal, was busy with her weekly session at the local clinic when she witnessed three people… Read more »

South Africa: SA Becomes The First African Country to Register the Twice-a-year Anti-HIV Jab — at Record Speed

South Africa has become the first African country — and our medicines regulator the third worldwide — to register the revolutionary twice-a-year anti-HIV jab,… Read more »

South Africa: The Six-Monthly Anti-HIV Jab Could be in 360 Clinics by February. Who Should Get the First Doses?

One in ten clinics in South Africa — across 22 health districts in six provinces — could start to hand out a twice-a-year anti-HIV jab as early as February if the… Read more »

South Africa: Time to Innovate, Not Panic. Here's How South Africa Should Plan for HIV Without Donor Funding

Although taxpayer money now funds the bulk of South Africa's HIV programme, getting to the point where we have the largest HIV treatment programme in the world, would not have been… Read more »

South Africa: From Toilets to TB - Candice Andisiwe Sehoma's Life of Activism

From discontinued insulin pens to overpriced TB drugs, meet the young South African holding drug makers to account on behalf of patients. Read more »

Africa: Africa's Floods and Droughts Messing With Our Minds. Researchers Try to Figure Out How

When climate disasters strike Africa, the physical damage is obvious. But we're only beginning to understand the psychological toll. Here's why Western definitions of trauma can… Read more »

South Africa: The Six-Monthly Anti-HIV Jab is Coming. But Can South Africa Keep Track of Millions of Users?

In April next year , South Africa plans to start rolling out an anti-HIV jab,  taken only twice a year, that could end Aids in the country  within 14 to 18 years . But… Read more »

South Africa: Meet the AI Chatbot That's Talking to Young South Africans About Sex, HIV and Self-Harm

Young women are contracting HIV faster than anyone else in South Africa, with about four out of every 10 new infections coming from just this group, even though they make up only… Read more »

South Africa: Two Drugmakers Will Sell The 6-monthly Anti-HIV Jab for The Price of The Daily HIV Prevention Pill

Two Indian generic drugmakers — Hetero and Dr Reddy’s — will be funded by the Gates Foundation and Unitaid, respectively, to produce and sell the twice-a-year… Read more »

South Africa: The Falling Down Place

The scars left by the April 2022 flash floods aren’t obvious to visitors to this part of Inanda, the township just northwest of Durban. The earth seems to have healed itself,… Read more »

South Africa: The UN Had a Plan to Fight Deadly Lifestyle Diseases. Industry Pressure Killed Most of It

- The first draft of the United Nations political declaration on noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) was unequivocal. “We will increase taxation on tobacco, alcohol, and… Read more »

South Africa: The UN Had a Plan to Fight Deadly Lifestyle Diseases. Industry Pressure Killed Most Of It

At the United Nations  General Assembly high-level meeting  in New York next week, South Africa is expected to join other countries in signing a watered down… Read more »

South Africa: Are There HIV Meds in the Water? Here's What the Science Says

An old research report turned up in the headlines last month and left South Africans worried about our water systems. Bhekisisa joined up with Africa Check to find out how good… Read more »

South Africa: How SA Influencers Help the Tobacco Industry to Spread Confusing Messages

Sbusiso Leope, better known as DJ Sbu, is part of a social media campaign that's been pushing back on parts of the tobacco Bill that is in front of Parliament. He's just one of… Read more »

South Africa: Tickbox Consultations Without Truly Listening Won't Save the NHI. Changing Governance Structures May

If the government is serious about building trust in the health sector, it must start by fixing the way the  National Health Insurance (NHI)  will be governed.… Read more »