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Could smart lockers help people to stay on their meds?
What’s a Pelebox and can it make medicine collection in the public health sector easy enough for people to fetch their meds each time? People in the Eastern Cape are desperate for such solutions — but can the provincial health department afford it?
MomConnect turns 10: Why the state could soon send flood and heatwave warnings to...
MomConnect, a health department mobile app, which close to 5-million moms who rely on public health services have used, turns 10 today. The app was put in place to make giving birth safer and could also have an exciting new feature soon: sending early warnings about dangerous weather to pregnant women and moms of young children.
Find out which province might spend the most on medical negligence claims
The government is facing close to R78-billion in medical negligence claims, which is nearly 80% of the budget used to treat people when they’re sick. But not all of the cases are legit. Find out what the data reveals.
1 in 7 moms in SA are teens. We dive into the numbers
Data from the latest District Health Barometer show that close to 365 teenagers give birth in South Africa every day. Ten of those daily teen births are to girls younger than 15. Experts say the numbers reveal deeper issues in society that lead to a vicious cycle — from school dropouts to unemployment and poverty across generations. We unpack the numbers.
No mpox jabs for SA yet — but WHO and Africa CDC will help...
By 9 September, South Africa had 25 laboratory-confirmed mpox cases in three provinces (Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal and the Western Cape), with three people dying from the virus.
3 tricks Big Tobacco uses to stop SA’s anti-smoking Bill from becoming law
On Wednesday, Parliament’s newly appointed portfolio committee on health sat to discuss the proposed new Tobacco Bill for the first time since the government of national unity was formed. In 2021, more than a quarter of South Africans older than 15 used tobacco. We break down three tactics Big Tobacco uses to stall the Bill’s approval.
PINs and pills: Are vending machines the answer to contraceptive stockouts at clinics?
Government clinics often run out of contraceptive medicines, which has been the case since 2015. The latest Stop Stockouts and Ritshidze report shows that...
Why our traffic went through the roof in August
August has been an incredible month for Bhekisisa. With 360 000 unique visitors and just under 430 000 pageviews, our traffic went through the roof. Read our monthly newsletter to find out what we were up to in August — and what our top five stories were.
Will mediation stop dodgy lawyers in SA from milking the health department?
South Africa spends too much money on medical malpractice lawsuits and wants to pursue new ways to settle these cases out of court. Find out how mediation can help solve these disputes quicker and save the health department money.
[READ]: The second presidential health compact — and full report
On 22 August South Africa’s second — and highly controversial — presidential health compact was signed by the government and various sectors. The second compact is controversial because prominent organisations that served on the steering committee of the drafting of the first compact refused to sign it.
Medical aids are out under the NHI — even if it means the end...
Even if it means the end of the government of national unity, the bit in the NHI Act that says medical aids will effectively cease to exist, won’t be scrapped, says Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi. But the Act could be adapted to allow everyone — including asylum seekers and undocumented migrants — to get HIV treatment.
A dose of their own medicine: Should SA force big drug makers to let...
Novo Nordisk’s deal with local manufacturer Aspen to produce insulin in vials aims to supply the diabetes treatment for Africa, but critics say it doesn't deal with the real issue: South Africans have a right to use insulin pens, but these are running out in public hospitals because of Novo Nordisk’s decision to not tender to sell it to the health department anymore.
Lenacapavir: What it would it take to get the 6-monthly anti-HIV jab to SA
Speed, scale and price would sway whether the drugmaker Gilead’s twice-a-year anti-HIV jab, lenacapavir, will be able to markedly slow down new infections in South Africa. What needs to happen for SA to get the jab? Find out.
SA wants to buy the 2-monthly anti-HIV jab — 18 days after a US...
The health department has asked drugmakers to submit prices, and how much they can make, of the two-monthly anti-HIV jab, CAB-LA — 18 days after it accepted a donation of 231 000 doses from the US government. The shot can cut down our new HIV infections by more than a quarter over 20 years. But will generic companies come in with a low enough price?
#Aids2024: 4 sets of data — which one does the government use to track...
The world has 18 months left — until the end of 2025 — to reach targets countries like South Africa signed up to in 2021. So where’s SA at? That’s tricky to answer, because the country uses four different ways to track this — and the numbers are not the same. We break down which set of data the health department uses to report to UNAids and what the other sets are for.
#Aids2024: SA has taken up US donations of CAB-LA — and will roll out...
Before the end of the year, 867 government health facilities will start to roll out the two-monthly HIV prevention injection, CAB-LA. The US government’s Aids fund, Pepfar, has donated 231 000 doses over two years to South Africa — 96 000 of the doses will arrive between October and December.