Long Form

Long Form Journalism by the Bhekisisa Team

Sydney Mokoena has not been able to access a doctor for eight months.

Life-saving medical care not available to ‘people of nothing’

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Appalling conditions in Free State hospitals reveal a health care system that seems to be corrupt from top to bottom.
Edith Kanengoni is a peer educator — one of 10 women recruited and trained by the House of Smiles to help other street mothers get medical help and improve their parenting skills.

Raising hope: From street child to mother

Abandoned as children, women in Harare are now teaching one another to fight for their futures.
Emergency: The collapse of cancer care in public hospitals in KwaZulu-Natal has resulted in patients having to wait for

KZN cancer patients sent home with panados as treatment waiting lists grow

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State cancer patients have nowhere to turn, even if their cancer is treatable.
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.
Two decades and three South African Human Rights Commission investigations later

Does South Africa need a Human Rights Commission?

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History repeats as old health emergencies emerge anew. Is the health ombud the person to lead fights the Human Rights Commission started?
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.

The long walk back to yourself: How this hospital revolutionised rural rehabilitation

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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)

A tale of two pandemics: Is COVID-19 repeating the mistakes of HIV’s past?

In South Africa, two outbreaks are colliding and one thing may shape the future of both.

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.

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

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Each year, millions will be bitten by venomous snakes and for many, antivenom will remain painfully out of reach. Discovering why is a tale...

‘I missed a dose for the first time’: How the KZN floods derailed HIV...

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The April 2022 floods in KwaZulu-Natal, left Mfundo Shezi without HIV treatment for two weeks. He had no way of getting more because the centre he frequents was closed for two weeks – and his ID book was washed away.
What happens when anesthesia works as well as it should?

This is what it’s like waking up during surgery

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General anaesthetic is supposed to make surgery painless. Now there’s evidence that one person in 20 may be awake when doctors think they’re under.
Nongezile Sinkala walked 7km across hilly terrain and thick bush to get to the nearest taxi rank to take her sick grandson to the hospital.

‘God make us strong, I beg you, keep Luphumlo alive’

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Mia Malan describes the arduous trek an Eastern Cape woman had to undertake to get medical attention for her sick grandson.
A girl living with albinism has her eyes tested. A new regional plan by the African Commission on Human and People's Rights calls for the affordable provision of eye care and sunscreen to people living with the condition.

Waiting to disappear: The danger of being too pale

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Ikponwosa Ero went from a child who felt different to the United Nations’ first independent expert on albinism.
The quest for a better life may be going virtual.

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

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Virtual reality isn’t just for video games anymore. It’s revolutionising medicine, including the way we manage pain.
A high proportion of Egypt’s population is blind or visually impaired but this does not stop them playing football. The ball rattles as it moves

Football like you’ve never seen it: On the pitch with this blind soccer team

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Blind football represents hope and belonging for Egypt's one million visually impaired.