Articles

Novo Nordisk has cited “capacity limitations” as its reason for deciding to stop supplying human insulin pens to the health department. But the company is now making more of its newer diabetes and weight-loss drugs — which it sells for much more than insulin. What happens when a pharma company decides to stop making lifesaving medication because it’s no longer profitable enough?

The way in which Gauteng’s social development department has treated nonprofits’ funding this year reminds, to some extent, of the provincial health department’s conduct in the Life Esidimeni saga. Lisa Vetten writes why it’s important that government’s decision-makers be held accountable.

Social development budgets in Gauteng have been steadily declining, from R2.13-billion in 2022/2023 to R1.9-billion this year. Non-profit organisations say funding they’ve relied on for years is halted without adequate explanation, leaving some of them with no option but to close, and residents with no alternative care.

The health department has asked drugmakers to submit prices, and how much they can make, of the two-monthly anti-HIV jab, CAB-LA — 18 days after it accepted a donation of 231 000 doses from the US government. The shot can cut down our new HIV infections by more than a quarter over 20 years. But will generic companies come in with a low enough price?

Around 10% of South Africa’s 280 000 TB cases in 2022 were in children. But because it’s so difficult to diagnose the disease in this group, four in ten kids with TB aren’t treated. Researchers at the National Health Laboratory Service were planning to test a new way to find the bug in kids later this month — until a cyberattack put a spanner in the works.

The findings of a legal inquest set up to decide whether there is enough evidence to prosecute Gauteng health department officials and workers of nonprofits for criminal charges, will be released today. The inquest revolves around the unnatural deaths of 141 out of 144 government mental health patients who died when they were transferred from private psychiatric hospitals in Gauteng, Life Esidimeni, to community organisations.

An inquest has found that Gauteng’s former health MEC, Qedani Mahlangu, and former head of mental health, Makgabo Manamela, can be held responsible for the death of Christine Nxumalo’s sister, Virginia Machpelah. Nxumalo was one of the first Life Esidimeni family members who spoke out about the death of a loved one. But it came at a devastatingly high cost. Here’s why.

The world has 18 months left — until the end of 2025 — to reach targets countries like South Africa signed up to in 2021. So where’s SA at? That’s tricky to answer, because the country uses four different ways to track this — and the numbers are not the same. We break down which set of data the health department uses to report to UNAids and what the other sets are for.

Government clinics often run out of contraceptive medicines, which has been the case since 2015. The latest Stop Stockouts and Ritshidze report shows that...

On 22 August South Africa’s second — and highly controversial — presidential health compact was signed by the government and various sectors. The second compact is controversial because prominent organisations that served on the steering committee of the drafting of the first compact refused to sign it.

Since July last year, a small revolution has been taking place at Mays Chemist in Melville, Johannesburg — and one that could make a real difference to HIV prevention in South Africa. But because of a drawn-out court case, a valuable opportunity to slow down new HIV infections in the country may be lost, researchers say.

Extreme heat, heavy floods, air pollution and infectious diseases will make dealing with diabetes harder and increase rates of the disease, research shows. In the latest edition of Climate Connection, we unpack what changing weather patterns will mean for keeping blood sugar levels in check.

Four days after our TV show, Health Beat, was broadcast on eNCA — the Freedom Recovery Centre, which helps drug users sober up, got confirmation from the Gauteng government that they would receive the subsidy they had been waiting for for months. Without it, they would have had to close their doors.

Compromise isn’t a word favoured by the Health Minister, Aaron Motsoaledi, when it comes to rolling out universal healthcare, despite objections from some of the ANC’s coalition partners. Mia Malan sits down with Motsoaledi to find out how he plans to deliver National Health Insurance amid legal challenges, little money and a system that needs fundamental fixing.

On Wednesday, Parliament’s newly appointed portfolio committee on health sat to discuss the proposed new Tobacco Bill for the first time since the government of national unity was formed. In 2021, more than a quarter of South Africans older than 15 used tobacco. We break down three tactics Big Tobacco uses to stall the Bill’s approval.

August has been an incredible month for Bhekisisa. With 360 000 unique visitors and just under 430 000 pageviews, our traffic went through the roof. Read our monthly newsletter to find out what we were up to in August — and what our top five stories were.