A rehydration robot, a pinch test & more: Tips to help health workers spot...
Follow our live coverage of the health department’s 23 May briefing on South Africa’s cholera outbreak.
Five years of compulsory state service for these doctors. Will it stop brain drain?
The Nigerian government wants to stop medical professionals from leaving to countries including the United Kingdom and the United States by making it mandatory for doctors to work in state hospitals for five years.
#SliceOfLife: ‘I remember worrying she was cold in the tray.’ My six hours that...
In 2020, 1.9-million children were stillborn according to a new report from the World Health Organisation. Read how one woman’s experience of stillbirth inspired her to start a mental health support group for parents who lost a child during pregnancy.
‘There’s nothing un-African about being gay’: A mother’s plea for gay children’s right to...
In this moving account, an HIV activist describes her relationship with her gay son and her fears over Uganda’s homophobic bill that criminalises his sexuality.
Stricter rules: Why better food regulations will help us fight obesity
Health problems linked to obesity — such as diabetes or heart disease — cost South Africa’s public health system up to R36 billion in 2020. In the latest episode of Bhekisisa’s monthly TV show, Health Beat, Mia Malan spoke to public health researcher Susan Goldstein about how regulations about how foods are sold can help to prevent obesity.
5 steps, fast: This plastic sheet and pouch can stop thousands of women from...
Researchers have found a way to slash life-threatening bleeding after birth by 60%, according to a study presented at the International Maternal Newborn Health Conference in Cape Town last week.
#SliceOfLife: I took on Big Pharma and won
Around the time Phumeza Tisile was receiving treatment for extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis (XDR-TB), the cure rate for patients with that form of the disease was 15%. Tisile beat XDR-TB despite the odds, but not without a cost: she lost her hearing.
#HealthBudgetVote: How will provinces spend their money?
Health Minister Joe Phaahla will table his budget for the 2023/2024 financial year on 9 and 10 May. Get everything you need to stay on top of the developments, all in one place.
The anti-HIV injection will be made in SA: Here are 4 benefits of the...
The two-monthly HIV prevention injection, CAB-LA, will be made in South Africa, at the Indian drug company Cipla’s Benoni and Durban plants. But a start date for production hasn’t yet been announced.
Presidential Health Summit: The health department missed 60% of its 2018 goals
Follow our live coverage of the second Presidential Health Summit, which is being held in Boksburg on 4 and 5 May.
The perils of missing teeth & wrinkled skin: Will a new law curb witch...
Anyone can be accused of witchery, but older women in South Africa’s rural areas are the most common victims. Now, the South African Law Reform Commission argues a new law could help to protect people from violence while respecting their right to religion and belief.
‘I skip meals to make my insulin last longer’: The problem with Big Pharma’s...
The price of insulin in the United States will drop dramatically but people in low-income countries, who spend close to 100% of their income on the life-saving medication, won’t benefit.
#SliceOfLife: I survived the most deadly type of TB, but it cost me a...
Goodman Makanda survived the most drug-resistant form of tuberculosis that scientists know of, but he lost a lung to the disease in the process. Now, he says he would “rather die” than take handfuls of TB medicine again.
‘She can’t discern jam from Vaseline’: Advice for the children of Alzheimer’s patients
In South Africa, a gene test that will tell you if you’re at risk for Alzheimer’s disease costs R3 600. But major organisations warn people against using these home kits without also getting counselling to help them work through the results — regardless of the outcome.
Why the cruel treatment of obese people is one of the last great stigmas
The stigma that obese and overweight people face is similar to that seen in the early days of the HIV epidemic, when people used to say that it was someone’s own fault for getting infected, says Francois Venter, an HIV doctor and director of the Ezintsha research centre at the University of the Witwatersrand.
‘The world’s most neglected disease’: Why leprosy still runs rampant amongst Bangladeshi tea pickers
The WHO may have declared leprosy eliminated in 1998, but Bangladeshi tea pickers continue to be infected by the thousands.