Superbugs could cost you an arm or a leg: Why hospitals need more money...
Germs are outsmarting medicine faster than South Africa’s overburdened facilities can keep up with. There are ways to cut resistance, but such plans need more money for them to work.
Tipsy at breaktime: Do liquor ads increase underage drinking?
Young South Africans are exposed to lots of liquor advertising, but the two bills which were designed to change this remain stuck in the pipeline.
The secrets locked up in period blood
Endometriosis is a disease that causes the cells that line the uterus to start growing in other parts of the body. This can lead to excruciating pain for those affected but diagnosis can take more than a decade. These researchers are looking at period blood to learn about the disease and how to spot it faster.
Why SA women with postpartum depression go unhelped
The social and economic factors faced by women do not disappear once they become pregnant. Without additional support those problems get much worse and can be bad for their families too.
Meet the health workers saving lives – earning a measly R670 a month
What do you do when there aren’t enough rural doctors? In Zimbabwe, village healthcare workers, trained over three weeks, are plugging the gaps.
How to pick good doctors: Why race, language & where people come from must...
Opposition groups and others often argue that academic matric marks alone should determine whether someone gets into medical school – not factors such as race that people can’t control. But research finds that when it comes to making a good doctor, grades aren’t everything.
Modern-day oracles? Meet the scientists tracking COVID’s crappy future
Far fewer people are testing for COVID-19 than last year this time, but most people flush. Water in the country’s drains can pick up a spike in cases or can help to pick up a threatening new variant in time for clinics to prepare for an influx of patients.
Maize, malnutrition & martial arts: Inside the hidden food crisis driving hunger and obesity
Obesity is a growing worldwide trend. In Kenya, over a million five to 19-year-olds will be obese by 2030. At the same time, the East African nation is also stalked by hunger. More than three million people don’t have easy access to good nutritious food. These kiddies are fighting the problem – one taekwondo class at a time.
Could rural students solve SA’s doctor dilemma?
South Africa is training more doctors than ever but there isn’t enough money to employ them, leaving about 14% of hospital posts for doctors vacant while 20% of doctor positions at clinics were empty in 2021 as well.
Would you swap your antidepressant for a mushroom?
The active ingredient in magic mushrooms could help treat depression in people who have had no success with traditional treatments.
Burn them — Here’s what happens to expired COVID vaccines
Vaccines don’t last forever. When they reach their expiration date, the jabs need to be disposed of in a way that ensures they aren’t retrievable. A waste management company explains how this is done.
Four ways SA’s latest COVID surge is different
There are still some COVID figures that people can use to gauge when to mask up or avoid large crowds to decrease their risk of catching the virus.
What the latest COVID stats can tell us – and what they can’t
COVID figures have never captured the full extent of the pandemic, but such numbers are becoming even less useful since fewer people are testing.
COVID, skin contact & kangaroos: How SA’s hospital rules are adapting
Policies to stop the spread of COVID-19 in South Africa have had a negative impact on maternal and newborn health care.
Starving in the city: Why SA’s richest province is hungry
South Africa’s Constitution makes food a human right, but 11% of the country’s people are hungry. Here’s why.
Here’s what will happen in SA if the US reverses abortion rights
In the United States, the end of national abortion rights could be closer than we think. In South Africa, laws to permit terminations don’t have to be in trouble – people struggle to get abortions anyway.