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A teenager receives a vaccination

How this country is beating anti-vaxxers at their own game

One in three French people think vaccines are unsafe. Here's how the country is fighting antivaxxers through social media.

Is DIY HIV testing the latest Cape Town trend?

It starts with a swab but does it end with a diagnosis? Why the trickiest part of DIY HIV testing happens after the test.

How Groote Schuur — and a bit of tango — primed Ntobeko Ntusi to...

In 2016, when renowned South African cardiologist Ntobeko Ntusi stepped into the role as head and chair of the University of Cape Town’s (UCT) department of medicine, he took on both responsibilities and a legacy that most would have baulked at, amidst much scrutiny. He spoke to Sean Christie about his life’s trajectory, shortly before he joins the South African Medical Research Council as its new president and CEO.
TB remains a leading cause of death in South Africa.

Anyone can catch this drug-resistant bug. Surviving treatment is another story.

For years, catching this drug-resistant bacteria meant painful treatment that risked your hearing and mental health. Now, that could be changing.
Unprescribed: Students are using the drug Ritalin to stay focused for exams.

‘Smart drugs’ rife at universities

Students are abusing schedule six pills ahead of exams – with the help of their doctors.
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The long walk back to yourself: How this hospital revolutionised rural rehabilitation

Bhojana Mathunywa was attacked by four men for bag of tobacco. Now, slowly but surely, this team of rural therapists is helping him recover the everyday skills he lost. (Dylan Bush, Bhekisisa)

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

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

Bosasa, Gavin Watson & the human cost of corruption

Bosasa bribed its way into contracts. Meet the four-year-old who paid the price.

Fear of the F-word: Why Somalia won’t say ‘famine’ as 7.8-million go hungry

Somalia is facing a humanitarian crisis. Many people have been displaced due to climate change-induced droughts, and conflict between the army and al-Shabaab has left many regions without food.
Soured celebration: Photographs of Winnie Makalateng's grandson brings back memories of her daughter

Mothers haunted by hospital hell

Our children’s lives were lost due to the negligence of the Mpumalanga health system, say grieving mothers.
A bicycle ambulance arrives at Trinity Hospital in southern Malawi

Pedal power: Malawi’s ‘rickshaw’ bush ambulances cycle the sick to care

Already used in countries like Namibia, the ambulances could help cut child and maternal mortality rates.
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What happened to HIV activist Zackie Achmat?

Zackie Achmat was one of the most vociferous voices against former president Thabo Mbeki’s HIV denialism in the late 1990s and early 2000s. He now lives in downtown Cape Town and fights state capture — and broken trains.

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.

‘The world’s most neglected disease’: Why leprosy still runs rampant amongst Bangladeshi tea pickers

The WHO may have declared leprosy eliminated in 1998, but Bangladeshi tea pickers continue to be infected by the thousands.
cerebral palsy

A parent’s place? Meet the women fighting for space at SA’s rural hospitals

Botched births and infections can leave many babies with a life-long inheritance: Cerebral palsy. Many will be dependent on caregivers for their entire lives, but could switching up the way we think about treating the condition provide children and carers some respite?

Son of Sekhukhuneland: Why Motsoaledi won’t let go of the NHI 

When our profile writer, Sean Christie, asked Aaron Motsoaledi for a form of life story share, South Africa’s health minister responded with a swift biographical flyover. But Christie was more interested in a sense of the experiences that lie behind the bullet points, both good and bad.