Long Form

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

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.
Period tax: Although funding has allowed for the first round of free pad deliveries in KwaZulu-Natal

#FreeToBleed: Here’s why Mboweni’s announcement of free & tax-free pads matters

Choosing between eating & bleeding through your uniform has a cost. Take a look at the reality behind the budget in this one from our archives.
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The lost particles of grief: How COVID-19 is changing death

From grandmothers to gravediggers, the sudden, suffocating deaths of the coronavirus pandemic is affecting people in all sectors of South African society. Here’s one Cape Town family’s story of life after death. 

Why COVID school closures are making girls marry early

The pandemic’s impact is long-term: the UN warns that it could lead to 13 million more child marriages over a decade.
Men play a crucial role in keeping babies HIV negative.

Love & other drugs: Men could make all the difference in keeping your baby...

Men can help to prevent new HIV infections by showing up for their partners. Here’s how:
Four-month-old Samson Salo receives a dose of vitamin A at the Madamani Dispensary during Malezi Bora.

This costs just cents and could prevent half-a-million children from going blind

The substance is critical in pregnancy and in the development of children; a lack of it has dire consequences.

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.

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.
The Gauteng government has three months to pay families affected by the Life Esidimeni tragedy.

Gauteng mental health services: ‘They treated him like you don’t even treat a dog’

A decision by the Gauteng department of health has left at least 36 dead but has the scandal lifted the lid on the horrors of mental healthcare?
Loveth was trafficked from Nigeria to Italy. Since PIAM was founded

Trafficked to Turin: The Nigerian women forced into sex work abroad in Italy

Thousands of women are lured from Nigeria to Italy annually by the promise of a new life, only to find themselves trapped in the sex trade.

The unbearable loneliness of COVID-19

There are no visiting hours for COVID-19 patients. Instead, there’s anxiety, fear, stigma and potential grief. But there’s also — at least some — resilience.
Priceless: A quarter of a million rand. That’s how much Cammi Morris faced paying for her lifelong hormone replacement therapy before she fought back

Becoming: Why most medical aids don’t pay for transgender care

For transgender people, gender-affirming care can be a matter of life and death. But medical aids still see it as a choice rather than a necessity.
Happy Maifadi and her young son Enhle benefit from ongoing peer support from mothers2mothers.

Mother mentors a boost for health

HIV-positive pregnant women get sound advice from mothers who can empathise.

Seaside towns swallowed by sand: Somalians battle with climate change

Strong winds, trees being cut down and drought drive sand to pile up and swallow the houses of the ancient seaside town Hobyo, Somalia. Will promises to green the desert save families who have been forced to move before?

Cobras & cures: Why the world is running chronically low on snake antivenom

Millions will be bitten by venomous snakes each year and for many, antivenom will remain painfully out of reach. Here's why.
Nigeria’s maternal mortality is high. But if mothers such as Oluwakemi Junaid won’t go to hospital

Old birth rites, new ways

When bringing a new life into the world risks taking another, even old traditions have to adopt new ways.