Articles

Robert F. Kennedy Jr has fought Big Pharma and Big Food, but he’s also spread dangerous misinformation about vaccines, fluoride and even HIV. Now he’s going to run the US health system.

Community health workers — also known as ooNomakhaya in isiXhosa — fill a major gap in healthcare in hard-to-reach places. Which is why the National Health Insurance (NHI) needs to make sure they are part of the plan, writes Bulungula Incubator’s Sigrid Kite-Banks.

Following the execution of Muhsin Hendricks, the openly gay imam who created safe places for queer Muslims to practice their faith, Zackie Achmat reflects on the dangerous ways religious communities fuel hate — and his own banning from the community over 30 years ago.

Roughly 60 000 South Africans die in a year from diseases that are not caused by an infection such as tuberculosis (TB) or HIV — before they turn 70. About a fifth of these deaths are from diabetes, which is now the country’s leading cause of death, killing about 1.5 times more people than TB. But without getting better at diagnosing and treating people with diabetes, trying to hit a global goal for lowering these deaths anytime soon will be futile, experts say.

All types of foodborne illnesses — whether from eating germ-infected, pesticide-tainted or fake food — are putting South Africans’ health in danger. Could a single agency to oversee food safety be the answer?

Several HIV treatment clinics in Cape Town, Johannesburg and the Eastern Cape, funded by the US government, temporarily closed down this week after receiving stop-work orders from the new Trump administration. Waivers have since been announced for projects handing out lifesaving medicines, but everyone’s confused as to whether their projects qualify.

The Boikanyo Mentally and Disabled Children Centre in Temba in northern Gauteng is home to kids with cerebral palsy, autism and Down’s syndrome. But when they turn 18, many have nowhere to go.

At the height of Aids denialism in South Africa, little data was available on the proportion of people infected with HIV. But the Human Sciences Research Council’s first national survey in 2002 was a turning point, and since then data has driven decisions — with South Africa today having the biggest antiretroviral programme in the world. Here’s how the numbers paint SA’s HIV story.

Health Beat examines South Africa’s drug policy and finds out why policing and health are operating in silos, instead of following our National Drug Master Plan.

In 25 years, new HIV infections in South Africa have dropped from around 1 463 each day to about 370. But HIV “is still an issue”, experts say. Follow our timeline to see how South Africa’s response to the epidemic has changed over the years — and read the Bhekisisa stories that made headlines.

Pepfar-funded projects in South Africa have received waiver letters in which they’ve been asked to review their activities. But the national health department, which receives Pepfar funding that makes up 17% of the department’s HIV budget, has not received a waiver letter.

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.

SA’s budget can only afford to employ 800 of 1 800 unemployed doctors, despite vacancy rates for public sector facilities ranging between 5% and 22%.

It’s a shocking reality: most children in our country feel they need mental health support — that’s according to Unicef. Health Beat finds that depression and anxiety, especially in teens, are playing out in complex ways like self-harm.

A third of the Global Fund for HIV, TB and Malaria’s money comes from the United States. The other contributions come from other wealthy governments and philanthropic organisations.So what happens if the Trump administration decides to cut its contributions to the Fund? We work it out.

As climate change intensifies, a toxic legacy grows more dangerous in Soweto. Residents living beside an old mine dump face health problems as more floods and heatwaves worsen the dangers of mining pollution.