Short Form

The gravediggers of Kano: Why doctors and diggers alike face grim choices in this...

This country has more than 200-million people, so why has it only logged 22 000 coronavirus tests?

Tongues & other taboos: Why queer sex ed is good for everyone

Lesbian teenagers have a lower chance of getting a sexually transmitted infection, but the threat remains. Even though South Africa’s sex education curriculum includes all the right lessons to help pupils of all sexual identities have safe sex in theory, the information that filters through to them is still up to individual teachers.
Grandmothers working with the Friendship Bench project chat before counselling sessions begin.

Curbside counselling? These ‘friendship benches’ bring mental health closer to home

One in four Zimbabweans suffers from mental illness, but untrained female health workers are setting a new benchmark for the treatment of patients.

‘Call me Tumi’: Meet the young woman who heads SA’s medicines regulator

Boitumelo Semete-Makokotlela leads the country’s medicines regulator, the South African Health Products Regulatory Authority (Sahpra), a public entity few people knew about until the COVID-19 pandemic hit. COVID triggered a noisy scramble for vaccines, tests and treatments that needed to be approved — often embroiled in politics.
Mobile tech: A malaria-fighting secret weapon for Africa?

Let’s talk about sex, baby – help is just an SMS away for young...

​Nearly 36 000 young Mozambicans have signed up for SMS-based health counselling but will the new technology curb HIV infections?
Displaced people carry water containers on their heads at Tomping camp

South Sudan: From war to water crisis

The start of the rainy season in the war-torn country could spell a cholera outbreak.
Aisha Danyaya recovers from surgery in the Children’s Hospital in Sokoto, Nigeria. The disease can be fatal. (Adavize Baiye, MSF)

Inside the flesh-eating disease you’ve probably never heard about but should

Less than 15% of patients seek out care for this vicious form of gangrene.
Through its branches

How many of these iconic protest posters can you recognise?

Here's the story of the Treatment Action Campaign or how a handful of people created a global movement that changed the world.
A man takes a dose of methadone at Ar Rahman mosque in Kuala Lumpur

Myths and methadone: Will Egypt’s laws bend to the rising tide of drug abuse?

The real revolution is yet to come when it relates to the country’s opioid epidemic.
Pregnant woman

Solar power, text messages fight maternal deaths in rural Cameroon

Solar power, solar electricity and mobile technology are helping to reduce the rate of maternal mortality in Cameroon.
Sipho Gceya* lost part of his penis after a botched circumcision

Play gives initiates who lost their manhood a voice

A Johannesburg director has taken up the continuing tragedy of botched circumcisions.
Presumption of innocence: Benny Malakoane.

Former Free State health MEC: They call me a killer, I know I’m a...

In this 2014 interview, former Free State health MEC Benny Malakoane says that detractors are still alive is proof of the good work under his watch.
Maternal mortality in Uganda continues to be a development challenge.

Save a little money, save a little life

A grassroots Ugandan health initiative has significantly reduced maternal deaths.
Vicious cycle: At some point

Painkillers can be a big headache

Migraine sufferers may not realise that drug overuse can be a large part of the problem.
In Pondoland

Man severely beaten for speaking out about his penis amputation

Three people have been arrested after a Pondoland initiate who lost his penis and spoke out about it in public was beaten for "shaming the custom".

Sexual violence and unintended pregnancy in South Africa: Is there a link?

A study among adolescents and young women in South African universities found that girls who had experienced sexual violence were more likely to report an unintended pregnancy compared with those who had never experienced sexual violence.