Bhekisisa

Bhekisisa has vacancies for two more health journalists and one engagement officer.

What do you do when there aren’t enough rural doctors? In Zimbabwe, village healthcare workers, trained over three weeks, are plugging the gaps.

Diabetes is different from other non-communicable diseases, this author says. It can’t be spread in a literal sense — instead, it is often forced upon people by factors beyond their control. What happens when you have no say on your genetics or all you can afford is processed food?

Opposition groups and others often argue that academic matric marks alone should determine whether someone gets into medical school – not factors such as race that people can’t control. But research finds that when it comes to making a good doctor, grades aren’t everything.

The data from 440 000 COVID patients reveal that non-white people in South Africa were far more likely to die than their white counterparts. These researchers argue it’s not about genetics or biology.

Smoking in the west is declining. So the tobacco industry is looking to untapped markets in lower-income countries to hook new smokers.

Abortion is legal in South Africa. But bad treatment, stigma, a lack of privacy and long waiting periods for abortions at government clinics can drive people to illegal providers. A reproductive health researcher and an abortion doctor explain backroom abortions and what can be done to make it easier to go the safe route instead.

Obesity is a growing worldwide trend. In Kenya, over a million five to 19-year-olds will be obese by 2030. At the same time, the East African nation is also stalked by hunger. More than three million people don’t have easy access to good nutritious food. These kiddies are fighting the problem – one taekwondo class at a time.

South Africa is training more doctors than ever but there isn’t enough money to employ them, leaving about 14% of hospital posts for doctors vacant while 20% of doctor positions at clinics were empty in 2021 as well.

The ring on each side of an inner condom can give you more sexual pleasure. The outer ring can give the clitoris an extra tickle and the inner ring can stimulate the tip of the penis. Users say the thin material that inner condoms are made of make sex feel more natural than with a male condom.