News and analysis

Measles is one of the world’s most contagious diseases. But cases almost completely disappeared through mass vaccination campaigns. As we once again attempt to end a pandemic through vaccines, here are some lessons to take away for the roll-out of COVID jabs.

There's more to the data — and social media — backing the latest tobacco-funded ad campaign.

We take a look at some of the unlikely customers hitting up SA's breast milk banks.

In the coming months, we’ll be publishing a series of analyses that plunge into the two sides’ arguments as they rally to fight for the nations’ lungs. Here, we take a look at the tobacco control players in South Africa.

Russia’s COVID vaccine, Sputnik V, is plagued by a series of red flags and question marks surrounding its clinical trials and results. Here’s how the jab took a shortcut and created sceptics about its underlying science.

Heatlhcare workers have some creative solutions to some of the biggest challenges facing the COVID-19 response, like shortages of masks & ventilators.

Europe tried putting clearer labels on food to get people eating healthier. But the same approach won’t work in South Africa. Here’s how to get people away from processed food and find healthier, affordable alternatives.

Lobbyists pushing for vaping as a way to help people quit smoking insist taxing e-cigarettes like traditional smokes will lead down a similar path as the state-sanctioned project of denying HIV treatment to state patients.

Gauteng — the province with the most confirmed COVID-19 cases — is also one of the two provinces with the lowest uptake of quarantine facilities.

New research reveals complex relationships between harsh parenting and violence later in life for children.

South Africa previously rolled out the oral polio vaccine which must be stored at minus 20 degrees Celsius like the Pfizer jab. Here’s what it takes to keep up the cold chain.

South Africa’s medicines regulator recently approved a branded version of molnupiravir, a new COVID treatment. Cheaper generic versions are on the cards. But affordability does not necessarily mean equal access.

Checkpoints in the scientific system are put in place to ensure that research can be sped up in a safe way. But during the COVID pandemic, the accelerated timeline to push research out in an effort to help has exposed gaps in the process that allow bad science to slip through.

Abortion has been legal for more than 20 years in SA but many people still don't know when or where they can get safe terminations. These can help.

Mathematicians are exploring models to figure out how COVID vaccines should be distributed to have the biggest impact. Should they give it to older people to prevent deaths or to young adults - the main spreaders - to slow down infection rates? 

New data from Pfizer confirms the lifespan of their COVID vaccine in a refrigerator is more than six times longer than initially estimated.