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The youngsters have successfully completed their initiation and are now regarded as men. The campsite where the initiates stayed is burnt after the initiation is completed.

The boys who lost their manhood

During this initiation season, we look back at what happened in 2013 when bungled initiations cost boys their penises.

TB talks: Will #UNGA78 change these three lives?

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.

From Moshi to Moscow: How a girl from the slopes of Kilimanjaro became Tanzania’s...

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.

Why our changing climate is bad for your health

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.
Tens of thousands of men crisscross Zimbabwe as long-haul truck drivers and the risks they face aren't just on the road.

Go inside the trucker craze fuelling a blackmarket in dangerous ‘sex enhancers’

The products themselves could be dangerous and are likely to encourage high-risk sexual behaviour.

Caught in the middle: When divorced parents use kids as pawns

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.

Teletubbies and friends: Inside the bizarre science behind your child’s favourite show

What makes the world’s most successful children’s TV programmes so addictive – and so strange? Linda Geddes explores the research on kids’ TV, what it’s teaching us about childhood development, and how that can help make programmes for the better.

If the price is right: The anti-HIV jab could be in clinics by August...

South Africa’s medicines regulator will announce a decision on the approval of a two-monthly HIV prevention jab within days. If the shot is approved, the health department could start rolling it out on a large scale within nine months — but that depends on the injection’s price.

#ToiletPaperPromises: Why Limpopo’s schools still have pit toilets

Nine years after a Grade R learner, Michael Komape, drowned in a pit toilet at his school in Limpopo, 2 334 schools in the province still have these structures on their premises. Here are the hits and misses of the education department’s efforts to get rid of them since — and what they can learn from India.

Breathing in a deadly dust: How a drop of blood can help

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

From Alexander Bay to Tshwane: Meet the health department’s Mrs Impossible

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.
Vicious cycle: At some point

Painkillers can be a big headache

Migraine sufferers may not realise that drug overuse can be a large part of the problem.

Elsa and Nosipho: They both sell sex for a living, but in opposite worlds

Does sex work legislation have an impact on violence and the spread of HIV? We follow two women who operate in opposite worlds to find out.
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Kids are having sex. We need to help teen moms, not punish them

Otlotleng Moolikwe fell pregnant after having sex with her boyfriend when she was 13 years old. And she’s not the only one. One in six South African teenagers between 15 and 19 years old have had a child. Here’s how to help them stay in school.

Suspicion, stigma and systems: Africa’s healthcare story

At a conference towards the end of last year, some of the great names in African public healthcare shared their lessons about what can — and can’t — work on the continent, from setting up new hospitals to implementing national health insurance. Sean Christie was there.

Out of ‘T’ and out of hope – SA’s trans men face year 2...

A stockout of the version of testosterone (made by Pfizer) used by state facilities and nonprofits is entering its second year. It’s left transgender men in South Africa, who use the hormone as part of gender-affirming treatment, with few options. Find out what lengths they’re forced to go to get the medicine.