News and analysis

Cancellation letters, which end millions of rands of South African universities’ US-government funded HIV and TB research grants with immediate effect, started to roll in over the weekend. Fears are rife that the Trump administration might stop all grants, which holds devastating implications for the country.

A third of the Global Fund for HIV, TB and Malaria’s money comes from the United States. The other contributions come from other wealthy governments and philanthropic organisations.So what happens if the Trump administration decides to cut its contributions to the Fund? We work it out.

There were empty seats in San Francisco last week at an annual international science conference which has delivered some of the world’s most groundbreaking HIV research. It was a throwback to another era — a time when Aids activists were fighting for their lives — and a frightening glimpse of the future under the Trump administration.

SA’s budget can only afford to employ 800 of 1 800 unemployed doctors, despite vacancy rates for public sector facilities ranging between 5% and 22%.

The major backer of the lenacapavir roll-out is assuring nervous researchers that they will keep their part of funding promises. It’s a good economic investment, says the Fund’s Peter Sands, into a game-changing drug that could save millions of lives.

Healthcare doesn’t come cheap and rolling out National Health Insurance will cost a lot of money. The NHI Act says that funding healthcare for all should come from tax. But with tax payers already under pressure, will there be enough money to cover everyone? We do some sums to look at different options.

Pepfar-funded HIV organisations in South Africa, who receive their funds through the United States Agency for International Development, USAID, woke up to letters that...

Cities around the world — including Johannesburg and Cape Town — have tried out car-free days to clear the air and keep people healthy. But only a few have been as long-running as Kigali. What’s their secret?

Offering state HIV patients who qualify a six-month supply of antiretroviral (ARVs) pills at a time, so that they only have to return to clinics or community pick-up points twice a year to collect their medication, is one of the goals in the health department’s contingency plan to cope with the near collapse of US-funded HIV projects. This will lower the work load of health workers, the strategy that was sent to provincial health departments and public health facilities on 11 February, says.

Roughly 60 000 South Africans die in a year from diseases that are not caused by an infection such as tuberculosis (TB) or HIV — before they turn 70. About a fifth of these deaths are from diabetes, which is now the country’s leading cause of death, killing about 1.5 times more people than TB. But without getting better at diagnosing and treating people with diabetes, trying to hit a global goal for lowering these deaths anytime soon will be futile, experts say.

The original grants of Pepfar-funded organisations who are funded through the Centres for Disease Control have been reinstated. This is because a federal judge enforced a temporary restraining order blocking US President Donald Trump’s administration from freezing federal grants.

Pepfar-funded projects in South Africa have received waiver letters in which they’ve been asked to review their activities. But the national health department, which receives Pepfar funding that makes up 17% of the department’s HIV budget, has not received a waiver letter.

On Monday night, the US Embassy in Tshwane issued a press release, confirming Bhekisisa’s earlier story, published on Monday, that projects funded via the President’s Emergency Plan for Aids Relief, Pepfar, are exempted from President Donald Trump’s executive order that bans foreign aid to South Africa.

South African projects funded through the President’s Emergency Plan for Aids Relief, Pepfar, are exempted — at least until the end of April — from the executive order that US President Donald Trump issued on Saturday.

How much money would HIV and other health programmes in South Africa stand to lose because of US President Donald Trump’s order to freeze foreign funding? We work it out — even though official dashboards and websites where these figures used to be went dark last week.

All types of foodborne illnesses — whether from eating germ-infected, pesticide-tainted or fake food — are putting South Africans’ health in danger. Could a single agency to oversee food safety be the answer?