South Africa: In-Depth - the Court Ruling That Gives Qualifying Pharmacists the Green Light for HIV, TB Meds Without Script

Specially trained and accredited pharmacists in South Africa will now be allowed to provide people with medicines to prevent HIV and tuberculosis (TB) and to treat uncomplicated… Read more »

South Africa: Surgeries Delayed At Charlotte Maxeke As Key Machine Decommissioned Before Replacements Are Ready

What appears to be a poorly planned decommissioning process of a specialised angiogram machine has led to a three-month delay before patients will be able to access potentially… Read more »

South Africa: TB Contact Tracing Helps Save Lives - This Is How It Works in SA

Globally an estimated 850 000 lives could be saved by 2035 if short-course tuberculosis (TB) preventive therapy is provided to people living with HIV and contacts of individuals… Read more »

South Africa: Incentives Seem to Work in Private Healthcare, Why Not in Public?

Doing 'the right thing' for one's health, be it eating well, exercising, or going for an annual HIV test or blood pressure check, is easier said than done. One way to nudge people… Read more »

South Africa: Women in Health - 'No One Taught Me How to Treat a Sick System,' Says Leading Young Professor

In high school, a guidance councillor told Salome Maswime that she would never be accepted at medical school. Undeterred, in 2001, Maswime successfully enrolled for an MBChB… Read more »

South Africa: What Climate Change Might Mean for Malaria in South Africa

Malaria-carrying mosquitoes will, and are already moving to new habitats as the earth warms up due to climate change. They are expected to breed faster and bite more often. As a… Read more »

South Africa: SA's New Mental Health Plan and the Problem of Stigma

Before being diagnosed with bipolar disorder Type 1, Sifiso Mkhasibe says he was often labelled as the "black sheep" of the family and he did not know where to go for help. He was… Read more »

South Africa: There Are Paths to Quality Universal Healthcare Besides NHI

One of the most damaging aspects of our public discourse on National Health Insurance (NHI) is the mistaken notion that the only two options are NHI and the status quo. Often… Read more »

South Africa: Mixed Responses to Gauteng Health's Latest Security Plans

Following reports of healthcare workers who have been bitten, punched, hit in the face, robbed, assaulted, or even killed in healthcare facilities in Gauteng, the province's health… Read more »

South Africa: Growing the Beta Variant - Young Scientist Remembers the Day They Danced in the Lab

In a Durban laboratory in 2020, there was dancing and scientists jumping with joy when Dr Sandile Cele realised they had finally successfully "grown" the SARS-CoV-2 Beta variant.… Read more »

South Africa: The Complexities of Traditional and Medical Circumcision in the Eastern Cape

There is compelling scientific evidence that Voluntary Male Medical Circumcision (VMMC) is both safe and significantly reduces a man's risk of becoming infected with HIV. While… Read more »

Africa: Statin Lowers Cardio Risk in People Living With HIV, Large Study Finds

HIV increases a person's risk of developing cardiovascular disease (CVD), but there are unanswered questions on how to best manage this elevated risk. One such question is whether… Read more »

South Africa: HIV Investments Remain No-Brainers, but Some Things Need to Change

Making the case for governments and donors to pump money into the HIV response has become more difficult over the last decade. This is partly a result of the notable successes… Read more »

South Africa: Centres for Gender Based Violence Support Working Well - Experts Say We Need More of Them

It's a rare sunny winter morning on the Cape Flats. We are standing inside a small building on the premises of the Heideveld Community Health Centre. This is a Thuthuzela Care… Read more »

South Africa: Going Viral - Dr Chivaugn Gordon On Medical School With a Difference

With humour and wearing an occasional wig, Dr Chivaugn Gordon teaches medical students about serious women's health issues. During hard lockdown she delighted students at the… Read more »

South Africa: In-Depth - How Big a Problem Is TB in SA's Schools?

The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that 304 000 people in South Africa fell ill with tuberculosis (TB) in 2021. Since only a fraction of people who breathe in TB… Read more »

South Africa: In-Depth - a Tale of Two Make-Do Clinics in the Rural Eastern Cape

In 2007 during a two-day imbizo in the Eastern Cape, then-President Thabo Mbeki told the community of Ugie and surrounds in the Joe Gqabi District, "to not wait for the government… Read more »

South Africa: Over 4.7 Million People Placed On New HIV Medicine Over Four Years

In what is likely one of the largest treatment rollouts in South African history, well over four million people living with HIV have started taking the antiretroviral dolutegravir… Read more »

South Africa: Breakthrough Hepatitis C Cures Slowly Becoming More Widely Available

Almost a decade after they were first proven to be safe and highly effective, game-changing medicines to cure hepatitis C are finally becoming more widely available in South… Read more »

South Africa: In-Depth - Children Are Still Dying of Malnutrition in the Free State

Even in 2023, infants under five years in the Free State are still dying from a lack of healthy food. From April to June this year, 21 children in the province died from severe… Read more »

South Africa: Analysis - Will New Leadership Signal a New Dawn At the Health Professions Council?

Eleven registrars in 11 years with Dr Magome Masike becoming the latest to take up the hot seat at the troubled Health Professions Council. He does not shy away from this… Read more »

South Africa: Hospital Histories - Valkenberg Today... and 130 Years Ago

In Cape Town between the Liesbeek and Black Rivers, Valkenberg Psychiatric Hospital's original building - dating from around 1770 - cuts an imposing silhouette. One of the area's… Read more »

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 »

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 »

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 »