July 06, 2023
South Africa: Concerns Over Treatment and Care for People With Schizophrenia Not Limited to Public Sector
In response to a question posed in parliament, Minister of Health Dr Joe Phaahla last year disclosed that at the time, South Africa had only 451 public sector psychiatrists and… Read more »
July 05, 2023
South Africa: #WhatItsLike - Top Forensic Pathologist On His Career At the Autopsy Table
Warning: This article contains references to suicide and graphic descriptions of dead bodies that some readers may find upsetting. Read more »
July 04, 2023
South Africa: SA Aids 2023 - New Treatments and Guidelines to Benefit Children, With More Advances On the Horizon
Several sessions at the 11th SA AIDS conference, recently held in Durban, highlighted the worrying fact that key HIV numbers such as treatment coverage are much lower in children… Read more »
July 03, 2023
Africa: Face to Face - 'Fail Your Way to Success', Says Prof Behind Pioneering Drug Discovery Group At UCT
Inside Professor Kelly Chibale's office the bookshelves are packed with awards. On the walls, framed photographs include his class photo at Cambridge University in the United… Read more »
June 30, 2023
South Africa: With the Right Interventions We Can Help Many More Men Start and Stay On HIV Treatment
June is Men's Health Month and while the focus is mostly on men's attitudes about their health, it is also worth reflecting on the health sector's attitudes toward men. Read more »
June 29, 2023
South Africa: Funding Secured for Massive TB Vaccine Trial
A massive and much-anticipated phase 3 trial of an experimental tuberculosis (TB) vaccine is set to proceed after funding for it has been secured from two large philanthropies.… Read more »
June 28, 2023
South Africa: HIV Prevention Shots and Vaginal Rings - This Is Why SA Pilots Have Not Yet Started
Last year Spotlight reported that pilot projects testing out a new HIV prevention injection and a vaginal ring in South Africa would start early in 2023. Yet, as delegates gathered… Read more »
June 27, 2023
South Africa: Mpumalanga Health Department Responds to Latest Clinic Monitoring Findings
According to the latest report from community-based clinic monitoring group Ritshidze, users of public sector health facilities in Mpumalanga are experiencing shorter waiting… Read more »
June 23, 2023
South Africa: Taking a Spoon to a Knife Fight - Is SA Ready for Rising Obesity Rates?
Experts describe rising obesity rates in South Africa as an "urgent crisis", "a tsunami" - even an "epidemic" - that is costing lives, not to mention billions of rands. Tackling… Read more »
June 22, 2023
South Africa: Right of Reply - Reducing the Surgical and Cancer Treatment Backlogs Is an Urgent Priority
Recently an opinion piece was published on this platform bemoaning what the author described as a "... lack of urgency" to tackle the backlog of cancer treatment in Gauteng,… Read more »
June 21, 2023
South Africa: Sobering Moments At Opening of SA Aids Conference
Amid the festivities during the opening ceremony of the 11th SA AIDS Conference in Durban on Tuesday, there were also several sobering moments. Chief among these was when co-chair… Read more »
June 20, 2023
South Africa: In-Depth - Why Is the Northern Cape Missing Its TB Targets?
Albert Molutsi is a tuberculosis (TB) survivor who lives in Gasehunelo in the predominantly rural JT Gaetsewe District in the Northern Cape. He tells Spotlight he depends on a… Read more »
June 19, 2023
South Africa: Can South Africa Meet Diabetes Targets, and Would We Know If We Did?
South Africa has the highest prevalence of diabetes in Africa, according to the International Diabetes Federation (IDF). In 2021, an estimated one in nine adults in the country had… Read more »
June 15, 2023
Africa: In-Depth - What It Means to Build Genomics Capacity in Africa
South African scientists - notably, the team headed by Professor Tulio de Oliveira - were thrown into the global spotlight through their pivotal role in detecting and monitoring… Read more »
June 14, 2023
South Africa: Hospital Histories - 151 Years Later, the Drumming of Little Feet At Brooklyn Chest Hospital
As Dr Julian te Riele unlocks a steel gate, excited young voices yelp, "Doctor, doctor, doctor!" Soon after, little bodies are huddled and pressed around his legs. Read more »
June 13, 2023
South Africa: Community-Based Testing Boosts Diagnosis of Infectious TB, Study Finds
Every year, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), tens of thousands of people who fall ill with tuberculosis (TB) in South Africa are not diagnosed. Globally, of the… Read more »
June 12, 2023
Africa: Antibiotic-Resistant Bugs Claim Over 200 000 Infants Globally Per Year, Finds Major Study
"The death of a child affects us all. Witnessing the loss of a newborn baby who has sepsis is terribly traumatic, especially so when antibiotics used to treat the child are… Read more »
June 09, 2023
South Africa: Worrying Lack of Urgency As Gauteng Health Sits On Money Earmarked to Outsource Urgent Cancer Treatment
It is almost three months since - partly through the efforts of SECTION27 and Cancer Alliance - money was made available to the Gauteng Health Department to outsource radiation… Read more »
June 08, 2023
South Africa: In-Depth - Are Measles, Mumps, and Diphtheria Outbreaks Harbingers of Worse to Come?
So far this year the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) has issued reports on three different outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases - measles, mumps, and… Read more »
June 07, 2023
Africa: Professor Soraya Seedat On the 'Workings of the Brain' and the Realities of Psychiatry
Behind Professor Soraya Seedat's desk in her office on the University of Stellenbosch's Tygerberg campus in Parow, hangs a striking gold-framed painting by a patient diagnosed with… Read more »
June 06, 2023
South Africa: Is SA On Track to Solve Its Nursing Crisis?
Nurse shortages and the training of nurses in South Africa were in the spotlight at a two-day conference on the future of nursing hosted by the South African Nursing Council (SANC)… Read more »
June 02, 2023
South Africa: The Complex Interplay Between TB and Liver Problems
People in South Africa who fall ill with tuberculosis (TB) often also have other health issues. HIV, which drives much of the TB epidemic in South Africa, is the most obvious… Read more »
June 01, 2023
South Africa: Part of Child Protection Is Allowing Children to Be Themselves When It Comes to Gender
South Africa is observing Child Protection Week from 29 May to 5 June to shine a spotlight on the rights of children as enshrined in the Constitution and the Children's Act. The… Read more »
May 29, 2023
South Africa: Interview - Dr Lebogang Phahladira On His Journey From Studying By Candlelight to Winning a Major Schizophrenia Research Award
In his Twitter biography, 40-year-old Dr Lebogang Phahladira describes himself as "a rookie clinician-researcher who keeps trying and trying". Now, he is just back from Toronto,… Read more »
May 26, 2023
South Africa: Groote Schuur Hospital Clears Backlog of 1 500 Surgeries
Much of South Africa's public health sector is plagued by long waiting times for surgery, a situation that was made much worse by the COVID-19 pandemic. Now, an inspiring project… Read more »