South Africa: Signed and Stalled - Critical Healthcare Deal in Gauteng Teetering On the Brink

An extended impasse over a vital agreement for training and improved hospital management between the Gauteng Department of Health and Wits University remains derailed, despite… Read more »

South Africa: Where Are We in the Search for an HIV Cure?

Highly effective treatments for HIV have existed since the mid-1990s. But while these treatments keep people healthy, we do not yet have a safe and scalable way to completely rid… Read more »

South Africa: Women in SA Could Have Access to a Three-Monthly HIV Prevention Ring By 2026

A flexible silicone ring that slowly releases antiretrovirals is one of just two long-acting HIV prevention products registered for use in South Africa. Results from a new study… Read more »

South Africa: How Tissue Donations in KZN Are Helping to Boost Our Understanding of TB

Some patients at KwaZulu-Natal hospitals are donating lung tissue for use in TB research. Sue Segar tracks what happens to these tissue samples and explores why these samples are… Read more »

Africa: 56 000 TB Deaths in SA in 2023, According to WHO

An estimated 56 000 people in South Africa and 1.25 million around the world died of TB in 2023, according to just-published figures from the WHO. This means that in 2023 TB… Read more »

South Africa: Why Including Pregnant Women in a TB Study in SA Was a Big Deal

Pregnant women are typically excluded from clinical trials of new TB medicines. This has led to a lack of solid scientific evidence on how best to treat women who fall ill with TB… Read more »

South Africa: NHI Offers an Opportunity to Boost Primary Healthcare - We Must Seize It

To see National Health Insurance primarily as the setting up of a state-run medical aid scheme risks underplaying its massive potential to restructure how public healthcare… Read more »

South Africa: Highrises, Hellholes and Healthcare - Hillbrow's Heritage Story

Hillbrow started out as Johannesburg's first health hub in the late 1880s. It's also been a suburb associated with pimps and prostitution, a middle finger to the Nationalist Party,… Read more »

South Africa: Efficacy of 6-Monthly HIV Prevention Jab Confirmed in Second Major Study

In June, we heard what could be this year's biggest HIV breakthrough: a twice-yearly injection can prevent HIV infection. Findings from a second large study of the jab has now… Read more »

South Africa: NHI Act Offers No Answer to High Medicines Prices

The National Health Insurance Act does not deal with the systemic issues that cause high prices and inequity in medicine access, and government is not listening, argues Fatima… Read more »

South Africa: Nelson Mandela Bay Clinics Under Siege As Crime Threatens Healthcare

A series of robberies at healthcare facilities in the Eastern Cape has disrupted services, with patients sometimes left waiting outside while clinics limit the number of people… Read more »

South Africa: How Will NHI Unfold? Here Are Three Possible Scenarios

As health department officials move to set up National Health Insurance's basic structures, including its board, several experts say the scheme remains a pipe-dream, doomed to the… Read more »

South Africa: Why People Stop Taking Their HIV Treatment and What We Can Do About It

Stopping antiretroviral treatment when you are living with HIV can result in increased HIV transmission, illness, hospitalisation, and eventually death. To combat such… Read more »

South Africa: Virchow Prize Winner Prof Lucy Gilson On SA's NHI - 'Service Delivery Requires People, Not Just Money'

Professor Lucy Gilson scooped the prestigious international Virchow Prize. She chats to Biénne Huisman about her upbringing, unexpected dive into the world of public health,… Read more »

South Africa: Mandatory Health Insurance for South Africa Is an 'Upgrade' On NHI, Proponents Say

The idea of mandatory medical scheme coverage for employed people has made a comeback after the case for it was made at a recent conference. The policy move was previously on the… Read more »

South Africa: High-Stakes Head of Health Post in Northern Cape Trapped in a Merry-Go-Round

The Northern Cape health department has had several heads of department in the last five years. Spotlight unpacks the implications of this leadership instability and asks what it… Read more »

Africa: SA Has the Third Highest Suicide Rate in Africa - There Are Steps We Can Take to Tackle It

South Africa has the third highest suicide rate in Africa and Africa has higher rates of suicide than any other continent. In the wake of World Suicide Prevention Day on September… Read more »

South Africa: How to Save More Mothers From Dying During Childbirth

COVID-19 temporarily reversed South Africa's hard-won reduction in maternal mortality, but the death rate has now stabilised, and hopes are high that the downward trend will… Read more »

South Africa: Glenda Gray's Fierce Fight for Science, the Covid-19 Ruckus, and the Bathroom Row About HIV Drugs

After a decade at the helm of the country's primary health research funder, Professor Glenda Gray will focus again on doing the science. She tells Spotlight's Biénne Huisman… Read more »

South Africa: Living With a Cleft - 'I Smile, but Without Showing Teeth'

The ongoing psychological, functional, and aesthetic challenges experienced by people with cleft lip and palate underscore the need for an individualized, lifelong, and… Read more »

South Africa: What Can South Africa Do to Prepare for Snake Antivenom Shortages?

Some researchers argue that South Africa should look into using "expired" doses of antivenom if the country once again struggles to make enough of the treatment - something which… Read more »

South Africa: No Silver Bullet for Bridging SA's Healthcare Divide, Say Delegates At Hospital Conference

With South Africa's healthcare system facing a myriad challenges, experts at a health conference have put forward a range of practical solutions to address some of the country's… Read more »

South Africa: Access to Contraception and Mental Healthcare Services Are Critical to Empowering Women in Rural Areas

The lack of access to essential healthcare services in rural areas worsens the challenges women face, particularly when it comes to early pregnancy and gender-based violence.… Read more »

Congo-Kinshasa: SA's HIV Burden a Concern As New Mpox Strain Spreads in DRC - but Much Still Unknown

The African Centre for Disease Control and World Health Organization have raised the alarm following a drastic uptick in mpox cases. This surge is being driven by a new strain of… Read more »

South Africa: #inthespotlight | Beyond the Hype, What Might AI Actually Mean for Healthcare in South Africa?

With varying degrees of success, artificial intelligence has begun to play the role of research assistant, radiologist, health educator, and even therapist. In this Spotlight… Read more »