November 08, 2023
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, 2023
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, 2023
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, 2023
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, 2023
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, 2023
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, 2023
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, 2023
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, 2023
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, 2023
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, 2023
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 09, 2023
Uganda: Interview - a Simple Device Used After Birth Can Help Save Lives, Says Award-Winning Young Innovator
As a child growing up in the Ugandan capital of Kampala, Maureen Etuket used a screwdriver to dismantle electronic appliances and toy trucks. "I was around eight, nine years old,"… Read more »
October 06, 2023
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, 2023
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, 2023
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, 2023
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, 2023
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 »
September 28, 2023
South Africa: How Does SA Measure Up Against New TB Recommendations?
A new report from the Lancet Commission on Tuberculosis (TB) titled 'Scientific advances and the end of tuberculosis' makes several recommendations for how governments should go… Read more »
September 27, 2023
South Africa: Many in Eastern Cape Still Denied Health Services Despite Some Improvements, Report Finds
A woman in her forties who is living with HIV says she was denied services at a public healthcare facility because she didn't have a transfer letter, resulting in her treatment… Read more »
September 26, 2023
South Africa: Mixed Reactions Over Gauteng Jobs Campaign and What It May Mean for Health
In June this year, the Gauteng government launched a major recruitment drive called Nasi iSpani. As explained on Business Live by Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi, the Nasi iSpani… Read more »
September 22, 2023
South Africa: Better Data and Transparency Needed If We Are to Live Up to TB Rhetoric At UN
There is a renewed global commitment to tackle tuberculosis (TB) from global leaders who are meeting in New York today for the United Nations High-Level Meeting on TB. The meeting… Read more »
September 21, 2023
South Africa: Clinical Associates Praised At Rural Health Conference, but Questions Remain Over Government Backing
South Africa faces chronic healthcare worker shortages and the country's Human Resources for Health Strategy 2030 has warned of an impending healthcare worker crisis. The shortages… Read more »
September 20, 2023
South Africa: 'The Only Good TB Bacillus Is a Dead One', Says UCT's Prof Valerie Mizrahi
World-leading tuberculosis researcher Professor Valerie Mizrahi was 35 when her mother Etty started losing weight and coughing furiously. After healthcare professionals in… Read more »
September 18, 2023
South Africa: Concerns Raised At Public Health Conference Over Freezing of Healthcare Worker Posts
The National Treasury's Cost Containment Letter sent to government departments instructing, among others, the freezing of posts was one of the big themes underlying talks about… Read more »
September 15, 2023
South Africa: Orthopaedic Surgery - What Is Behind SA's Long Waiting Lists?
As of last year, there were 3 449 patients waiting on orthopaedic surgeries in five provinces - Free State, Mpumalanga, KwaZulu-Natal, Northern Cape, and Limpopo - according to a… Read more »