Articles

With a black beret “à la the EFF” and fire-engine red scrubs, Ebrahim Variava is not scared to speak out against the ills of a broken public health system — something that got him suspended from his post as head of internal medicine at the Tshepong Hospital in Klerksdorp in 2020, at the height of the COVID-19 crisis. Meet the doctor for whom patients are always the priority.

In the past five years, none of the targets political leaders adopted after the previous round of high-level discussions on the fight against tuberculosis (TB) at the United Nations General Assembly have been met. Today, talks will focus on how to get us back on track to end the disease by 2030.

The third day of high-level meetings at the 78th United Nations General Assembly is dedicated to talks on universal health coverage. In South Africa, this means talking about the proposed National Health Insurance fund — something that’s getting people hot under the collar. We’ve put together a one-stop page with information to support constructive debate.

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.

South Africa’s Competition Commission will investigate the American drugmaker Johnson & Johnson for the high price it has been charging the country for the tuberculosis medicine bedaquiline, as well as for extending the tablets’ 20-year patent to block cheaper generics from entering the country.

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?

In rural India, people with TB got healthy food parcels and vitamin pills. Their chance of dying from the disease dropped by 60% and passing on the infection to someone in their family fell by 40%.

Our burning fossil fuels makes the Earth warmer, causing weather patterns to change. In areas with lots of air pollution, this can make it even harder for people with lung diseases to breathe. And those who have least, will be affected most.

Will the proposed National Health Insurance (NHI) scheme make things worse rather than better? Here’s the response to this question from the head of the NHI, Nicholas Crisp.

Thousands of South African women die of cervical cancer, caused by the human papillomavirus, every year. But it needn’t be so: it’s preventable and treatable — if caught early enough. Gynaecologic oncologist Langanani Mbodi explains to Mia Malan what can be done to help government patients.

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.

When a child is emotionally manipulated by one parent to hate the other, the legal system and therapists grapple with how to help families repair their relationships. Here’s why so-called parental alienation cases are contentious.

HIV home visits in a Malawi village worked so well that the same visits are not also being used for conditions such as diabetes, high blood pressure and cancer.

Is the water in your tap safe? What about cleaning that in storage tanks? In this Health Beat interview, Mia Malan speaks to environmental scientist Ayesha Laher about the state of South Africa’s water systems, how you can test your water for germs and what you should do if your water isn’t clean.

By 2025, South Africa wants 95% of people with HIV who are on treatment to have infection levels so low that they can’t transmit the virus to someone else. But this can only happen if they stick to taking their medication — which is where we’re falling down at the moment. A recent court ruling that allows people to get their medicines from private pharmacies may help.

A new tool may help to keep workers who breathe in silica dust safe from silicosis — at less than R50 a prick.