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A poster celebrating Ethiopia’s prime minister

‘The choice is this: If we go we will be killed; if we stay...

In the rarely visited town of Gedeb, fears are rife over state plans to return 150 000 people to areas they fled because of ethnic violence.
South Africa’s rolled out the world’s first pill-popping ATMs. Now what?

How to get South Africans to buy into the next big thing in medicine

These ATMs can decrease the number of patients in clinics but health workers are not helping to achieve that goal.
A woman brings in a bucket of fish in Gunjur village

China’s overfishing of Africa: The lure and the lies

Scientists and campaigners warn that factories in coastal villages are wreaking environmental and economic havoc.
A field of maize devastated by Cyclone Idai

Cyclone Idai: ‘I don’t know how my children will survive’

Why the storm may have conspired with a savage drought to deliver a deadly second blow to Zimbabwe where 70% of people are in dire need of food.
Why this country is thinking outside the box whene it comes to cervical cancer screening and the HPV vaccine.

Shots, myths & cash: The perilous road to curbing cancer

Before 2011, this country couldn’t screen for cervical cancer let alone prevent it. Since then everything’s changed.
Families await medical treatment outside the All India Institute of Medical Sciences. Ayushman Bharat

‘This is the first time government has done something concrete for the poor’

This country tested out a national health insurance. Find out what happened next.
Honeybee harvesting pollen. WWF is piloting beekeeping and ecotourism initiatives in the Madagascan village of Kivalo.

What happens when you can’t fight climate change? You use what you’ve got to...

In Kivalo, where cyclones, overfishing and rising seas threaten livelihoods, beekeeping offers an unlikely alternative to fishing.
Young people seeking sexual healthcare often shy away from clinics because of nurses' attitudes towards them. Virtual reality could help to change that.

Virtual reality and SA’s quest for happier nurses

South Africa's public health nurses are infamous for having bad attitudes. Could a pair of goggles help them change their ways?
Lung health experts are concerned about the long term affects of vaping. Should you be too?

Smoke, spies and lies: Should you throw away your e-cigarette?

South Africa’s top public health experts sat down to discuss the safety of e-cigarettes. The verdict? Stay away.
Would you betray your partner in crime if it meant you could avoid jail? Here's how this mentality can push up the price of medicines.

SA just endorsed a draft resolution that could bring Big Pharma to its knees

Presented this week at the World Health Assembly, the document could usher in a new era in affordable healthcare. Here's why we need it.
What happens when anesthesia works as well as it should?

This is what it’s like waking up during surgery

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.
Yahya Jammeh peddled fake HIV ‘cures’ complete with alleged human rights abuses. But he also banned female genital cutting

This former dictator invented a fake HIV cure, but banned female genital cutting

Having banned female genital cutting, his ousting was good for democracy, but but bad for women's bodies.
José Malumbu has been mourning his son's death for over a decade.

Meet the man behind the search for his child who died on #Bosasa’s watch

When this toddler died at Leratong Hospital, his body disappeared. Here’s what happened when his parents went back there more than a decade later.
In the company of women: Judia

The village where men are banned

Inside the Kenyan village that began as a refuge for survivors of sexual violence.
Sold on the idea: Asiphe Ntshongontshi used the family calendar to keep track of when she took the HIV prevention pill. She lives in Masiphumelele outside Cape Town close to a youth centre and clinic that dish out the tablet.

One she called the ‘minister of love’. The other? He was the ‘minister of...

Since the country’s rollout, less than a quarter of people who’ve started taking the HIV prevention pill are young women — despite high HIV rates.
Water hyacinth isn’t just good at being abundant – its foliage also contains a high ratio of carbon to nitrogen. The combination makes it ideal as a renewable gas source via bio digesters like this one.

Why the fight against this weed could pay off handsomely for an energy-strapped SA

This invasive plant clogs our dam and rivers but in Kenya, it’s become the next big thing in renewable energy.