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Bikers travel to health communities to deliver TB treatment.

Bikers go full throttle to speed up TB cure in Zimbabwe

A programme with the health department sees motorbikes being used to deliver drugs to people in far-flung places who can't afford the fare.
Keneth Ndua demonstrates his stove invention

Ndua’s stove keeps a lid on cholera in Kenya

Women said they couldn't afford to boil water and cook, so a local inventor rolled up his sleeves.
Ellena Baziliyo and her daughters.

Malawi drought: “I’m pregnant, but I’ve got nothing to eat.”

Some rain has fallen yet crop yields are still expected to be poor, but aid programmes have opened the door to a more sustainable future.
Social justice organisation

Game-changing technology for blind people – at a price

Groundbreaking technology could revolutionise the future for the blind - but the exorbitant costs make it inaccessible.
Tholakele Memela sought help when she realised the symptoms for HIV and a sangoma’s calling were similar.

Sangomas learn to meld muti with conventional medicine

Traditional and Western healers team up to treat patients with HIV and tuberculosis because many people consult more than one health system.
An Apostolic woman walks along train tracks on her way back from a mountain prayer session.

Mothers and babies at risk in Apostolic church ‘birth camps’

Leaders of Zimbabwe's Apostolic sects are warming to the idea of women giving birth at health clinics.
Remote: Zodwa Zulu*

It’s only 32km to the state clinic, but for the poor that’s a world...

Some residents in rural towns in Mpumalanga have to chose between buying food or going to the doctor.
Goodness Mbatha says the Treatment Action Campaign protested about conditions at Mamelodi Hospital.

Labour contracts stall upgrades to Mamelodi Hospital

The Gauteng health department has admitted to problems at the facility, seen by the public protector.
Scans have been used to compare brain activity between people who took psilocybin

Therapists test psychedelic chaos to cure depression and addiction

Psychiatrists have since turned to antidepressants, mood stabilisers and antipsychotics that aren’t curative.
LSD hit the clubbing scene and is now a highly controlled substance.

Return trip: Psychedelics are back

In the first of a two-part series, a band of doctors set out to reclaim LSD and ecstasy for mental health treatments.
Lifting a load: Aerobics is helping sometimes suspicious elderly people in Diepsloot to deal with mental illness in their families and community.

Gogos step up for peace of mind

Depression among the elderly is largely overlooked, but exercise can help to counter it.
Not feeling it: A funeral parlour worker says there is not much for the youth to do in the Limpopo town of Makhado

In Makhado, the cat’s in the cradle

Cat' or 'intash' joins tik and nyaope in the playground as dealers target bored children.
Khayelitsha has one of the highest TB burdens globally, and health care professionals work long hours to help patients fight the deadly lung infection.

If SA wins the fight against TB, the world will benefit

South Africa lost nearly 100 000 people to TB last year – three-quarters of whom were HIV-positive. Reducing the burden will benefit the economy.
From the inside: The risk of TB infection at Pollsmoor can be sharply reduced if aggravating factors such as overcrowding and poor ventilation are addressed.

Unlikely perk of prison life: Free, speedy TB treatment

South African jails are making notable strides in screening for, and curing, tuberculosis.
Despair: Lindiwe Mkwanazi didn’t know what was wrong with her until a biopsy showed she had tuberculosis in her knee. She struggles to walk so her mother

Undercover tuberculosis: How SA’s top killer slips in under the radar

Healthy lungs don’t mean you’re off the hook: tuberculosis can take root anywhere in the body.
The notion of violence as a national health priority has yet to take hold

Violence-laden South Africa’s burden of disease

The notion of violence as a national health priority has yet to take hold, even among health professionals.