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Thirty years ago, having a drink or two every day was thought to be good for your heart — thanks in part to the so-called French paradox. But research now shows that even a little alcohol can up the chance of developing some types of cancer.

The global rise in tuberculosis cases is showing no signs of slowing down. The need for a new vaccine is as urgent as ever, and now a local pharmaceutical company is joining the race to find one. Find out more about the work they did to propel themselves into this position.

In 1969, Esther Mwaikambo became Tanzania’s first female doctor. Today, she is arguably also the country’s most famous. She tells Sean Christie how public healthcare in Africa has changed — and what she wishes for the future.

What should journalists do when presidents say the wrong thing — report the story or bury it? A medical doctor, editor, Rhodes Scholar and New York City’s health commissioner during COVID take a deep dive.

We will see more pandemics like COVID in the future — which is why political leaders are convening in New York today at the United Nations first ever high-level meeting on pandemic preparedness. Being able to make vaccines locally can stop Africa having to be at the back of the queue waiting for medicines the next time round. Here’s how.

Up to one in five people can get long COVID — a condition in which someone keeps on feeling ill for months after their initial symptoms have cleared up. A drug called Paxlovid can lower the chance of developing the long-haul version of COVID. But at what cost?

The Earth is getting hotter and extreme weather events are becoming more common. It’s bad news for our lives. We break down how climate change links to poor health.

As extreme weather events such as storms and floods linked to climate change disrupt water and sanitation systems, we can expect to see diseases like cholera, which spread through dirty water, pop up more often — and affect more people. In this interview for Bhekisisa’s monthly TV show, Health Beat, Mia Malan spoke to infectious diseases expert Tom Boyles about the link between climate change and disease outbreaks.

The appointments for the heads of two more of the five directorates of the National Health Insurance (NHI) were approved on Monday. These two positions will oversee user and service provider management and healthcare benefits and provider payment design. In the latest episode of Bhekisisa’s monthly TV show, Health Beat, Mia Malan asked the health department’s Nicholas Crisp and Sasha Stevenson from Section27 how the NHI will play out.

From growing up without a telephone to her appointment as the chief director of digital health systems in the national health department, the sweep of Milani Wolmarans’s life story is as wide as it is inspiring. Sean Christie spoke to her in Tshwane.

We’ll update this page with the latest figures of the cholera outbreak in South Africa.

Follow our live coverage of the second Presidential Health Summit, which is being held in Boksburg on 4 and 5 May.

The food industry will get a tax break to ease the effects of loadshedding on the cost of groceries. But there’s more that the industry can do to keep a basic basket of foods affordable, writes the head of the DG Murray Trust, David Harrison.

British American Tobacco in South Africa says 200 of its workers will be out of a job soon, but public health researchers argue they’re using misleading figures to back the retrenchments.

Anne von Gottberg and Cheryl Cohen are two of South Africa’s foremost scientists. We’ve got them and their colleagues to thank for the country’s world class surveillance of SARS-CoV-2. But this powerful duo are also experts on how to bridge divides — and married.

Afrigen Biologics, a Cape Town pharmaceutical company, has made Africa’s first COVID jab as part of the World Health Organisation’s mRNA vaccine technology transfer hub. How did they do it and what’s next?