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A pack-a-day smoking habit during pregnancy will reduce a baby's birth weight by an average of 230g

‘I saw the world through the blurry lens of an oxygen tent’

With the severe effects of the habit on the unborn child now widely known, why do pregnant mothers refuse to give up?

Yogan Pillay, SA’s healthcare’s insider outsider

Yogan Pillay has worked under every health minister since 1994, making him the ultimate healthcare insider. Now he’s an outsider, but one with tremendous influence. Sean Christie visited him at home in Pretoria to hear what he’s been up to.

Teenagers are sent to these camps to purge ‘The West’. They leave bruised and...

“Dhaqan celis” was a term used by Somalis that used to mean the practice of going back home to stay with relatives and learn more about your culture. But it’s taken on a whole new – much darker – meaning. Read more on this practice.
The quest for a better life may be going virtual.

Gaming medicine: Virtual reality is bringing real-time relief for chronic pain

Virtual reality isn’t just for video games anymore. It’s revolutionising medicine, including the way we manage pain.
Despite concerns about the drug

Why science could finally be close to solving this birth control riddle

We could be just months away from knowing whether Depo-Provera use is linked to a higher risk of HIV infection in women.

The dark smell of illness: One family’s struggle for news from inside the ICU

You can’t visit family members with COVID-19 in hospital. So how do you find out how they’re doing? Mia Malan from the Bhekisisa Centre for Health Journalism documented one woman’s story.

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.
Stranded: Thomas Nukeri

Xenophobia violates Health Act and migrants’ rights to care

Refugees run the border crossing gauntlet of lions, rivers, rape and theft hoping for a better life.
During the Ebola outbreak hospitals were seen as dumping grounds for the dying

Africa’s oldest psychiatric hospital a stark reminder of war and a forgotten people

After Sierra Leone’s civil war, money poured in for mental health services. But a decade later, there's little left to help Ebola’s victims.
Being bilingual is better for your brain. Now

Speak more than one language? This is what it does to your brain.

Speaking more than one language could lead to better tests scores and even being a more empathetic person.
The youngest daughter of Samantha Benjamin* is HIV positive because her mother didn’t seek medical help.

Ignoring prenatal HIV care leads to a lifelong burden

Mothers blame themselves and their children can never give up their antiretrovirals.
Sold on the idea: Asiphe Ntshongontshi used the family calendar to keep track of when she took the HIV prevention pill. She lives in Masiphumelele outside Cape Town close to a youth centre and clinic that dish out the tablet.

One she called the ‘minister of love’. The other? He was the ‘minister of...

Since the country’s rollout, less than a quarter of people who’ve started taking the HIV prevention pill are young women — despite high HIV rates.

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.
Rachel Daniel

‘I was married to a Boko Haram’: What happens when a victim returns to...

Eighty two of the Chibok school girls, kidnapped by Boko Haram in Nigeria three years ago, have been released. But what now?
Bleak outlook: Life on the streets is grim

The streets where homelessness, abuse and mental illness meet

With almost 50% of homeless people suffering from mental illnesses, according to a study, we spoke to four people who live on Durban's streets.
From the informal market to booming business: Could this be the future of water?

Water in Ghana from pipe to packet: Is there a hidden cost to this...

In a country where pipes can stop short of reaching home, cheap sachets of water sold on the street could be an unlikely solution, but at what cost?