Long Form

Long Form Journalism by the Bhekisisa Team

Desperate: Alexandra McDonald

Pharma sets price on life with world’s most expensive drug

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Rare diseases lead to development of new drugs that, like other rare commodities command high prices.

Meet Andy Gray, the ‘insider’s insider’ of SA drug policy

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Pharmacy expert Andy Gray is the “insider’s insider” in South Africa’s public health sphere. Get to know him better here.

Can you pause a pandemic? Inside the race to stop the spread of COVID-19...

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Tracing the close contacts of people who test positive for coronavirus disease is a delicate dance. Here’s why these health workers wait for the cover of darkness to take action.

SA’s moonlight sonata: The illegal cash cow draining specialist care at state hospitals

Specialist doctors at many state facilities aren’t showing up to work despite earning millions of rands a year in taxpayer money. The consequences for patient health can be devastating but not everyone agrees on the solutions.
Find out what women go through in India and the United States to access abortion and contraception.

Tales from Trumpland: Health workers will be forced to bury aborted fetal tissue

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In the war on women's bodies, the casualties stretch far beyond US' 50 states.
Bleak outlook:

The unforgiving days of too much wine and never enough roses

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A cruel, unrelenting cycle of poverty, drinking and fetal alcohol syndrome robs families of all hope.

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

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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.

A doctor born of hope

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This man from rural Eastern Cape had to travel all the way to Cuba to make his dream of becoming a doctor come true. Now, he is back home and treating patients at the same hospital his mother used to sell fruit in front of when he was a boy.
Survivor: Thulani Sibisi

#SowetoMarathon: Why this prostate cancer survivor is running today

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A marathon runner with prostate cancer uses his skill to promote awareness and encourage testing.
In 2013 the psychology’s bible

When the sorrow doesn’t end: Could chronic grief be a medical condition?

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The pain of bereavement is supposed to ease with time. When it doesn't, psychiatrists call it 'complicated grief' and it can be treated.
High-priced technology puts a price tag on life.

This disposable piece of technology might save your life – if you can afford...

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Many diabetics are dependent on expensive blood sugar testing strips to stay alive. Most in South Africa can't afford it.
Many school learners can’t afford sanitary pads. But an organisation in Rwanda is working with the country’s banana farmers to change this.

What do your period and bananas have in common? Find out

In Rwanda, schoolgirls can now buy locally produced, cheaper sanitary towels.
Scans have been used to compare brain activity between people who took psilocybin

Therapists test psychedelic chaos to cure depression and addiction

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Psychiatrists have since turned to antidepressants, mood stabilisers and antipsychotics that aren’t curative.
Gifted: Dembe Ndou keeps the pupils and teachers entertained with her beautiful voice and extraordinary skill on the keyboard.

Autism and its uncommon angels

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Dembe Ndou learned to play piano in no time at all, but simply chatting is a complex challenge.
Of the new refugees from South Sudan

Walk in the footsteps of South Sudan’s lost children

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Refugee resettlement camps offer a safer space for South Sudanese children, who make up 64% of all refugees in Uganda.
Making waves: Women on Web offers an online portal that dispatches an abortion pill to people across the world.

‘I told them I had a miscarriage. But the nurses knew what had really...

Go inside the international network of women willing to break the law to give people access to termination of pregnancy services.