News and analysis

Families hold vigil for the 143 mental health patients who died in the Life Esidimeni tragedy. Now

#LifeEsidimeni: This official may have just thrown Mahlangu under the bus

Suspended head of Gauteng health Barney Selebano's court bid to avoid testifying at the ongoing arbitration could keep him off the stand for months.
Heartbroken: Frans Makoetla holds a portrait of his mother.

Hospital under observation

State officials have visited Dihlabeng and the Free State health MEC says he will follow suit.
But could legalising South Africans' right to die put society's most vulnerable in harm's way?

Denying the right to die may be state-sanctioned torture, legal body says

As the country’s landmark euthanasia case heads to the appeal court, lawyers argue that keeping the practice illegal could violate the Bill of Rights
Specialists are fleeing the under-resourced public sector – and it's about to get worse

Recession risks hitting healthcare where it counts

Experts warn state clinics and hospitals are likely to further deteriorate as the public purse shrinks.
Read how almost two decades of research backs the assertion that when people are on effective HIV treatment and have undetectable viral loads they can't pass the virus onto others.

A short history of the big discovery that redefined safe sex for HIV-positive people

How science discovered that ARVs can bring the levels of HIV in the blood to levels so low it’s virtually undetectable – and impossible to transmit.
The Pretoria high court has dismissed Wouter Basson's review application.

Truth has prevailed, says Basson victim’s wife

Family members of victims of Wouter Basson have expressed relief that the apartheid-era doctor has been found guilty after a six-year trial.

Back to school? Why paediatricians are torn on whether kids should be part of...

As countries around the world begin preparing their plans for rolling out a COVID vaccine, one group remains on the sidelines — children. With some candidates only recently receiving emergency approval for use in adults, they are still in the early stages of seeing how these jabs will work in children. But some paediatricians think it’s worth waiting.

Politicking, pandemics and prestige: What’s really behind the squabbles at South Africa’s high-level COVID-19...

The sphere of the politics of science is intense and complex — the larger the problem, the bigger the payoff to solve it.

Floods, food and families: Why climate change makes eating well harder

Even though there is enough food in South Africa to feed the whole country, not everyone can access that food. Women-headed homes are especially hard hit when it comes to hunger, and as weather patterns change because of global warming, this could worsen. Will political parties in the upcoming election care?
(Albert Gonzalez Farran

Angola’s yellow fever outbreak: Vaccines desperately needed

Only six out of ten Angolan children have been vaccinated against yellow fever.
Sex workers in South Africa struggle to access HIV treatment.

A long road ahead to reduce HIV among South Africa’s sex workers

More than half the female sex workers in South Africa's three largest cities are HIV positive, but less than a third are on antiretroviral treatment.
What started as a bizarre press release touting a "potential HIV cure" has gone viral leading media houses all over the world to lash out over firm Zion Medical's latest claims.

South Africa is placed on alert for ‘superbug’ as drug-resistant yeast infections rise globally

Health experts warn of a potentially fatal fungal infection that is said to be spreading in hospitals.
A participant of the HVTN 702 HIV vaccine trial receives her first dose ahead of the public launch of the vaccine in 2016.

HIV vaccine trial stopped after jab found ineffective

In South Africa, scientists halted what promised to be a ground-breaking HIV vaccine study called HVTN 702 early after the jab offered no protection.
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Come back for boosters: Why time alone is not enough to get people to...

Fully vaccinated adults in South Africa will be able to choose whether to get the Johnson & Johnson or the Pfizer vaccine when they queue for a booster dose.
Within days of taking office

Will quackery guide Trump’s global health policy?

The US remains one of the leading funders of global health but will this change on president-elect Donald Trump’s watch?
Advocates for the partial decriminalisation of sex work overlook that the buying of sex in SA is already criminalised and this has not curbed demand

#AIDS2016: Sex workers stuck in a tug of war between science and conservatism

Is the South African Law Commission's recommendation to sentence convicted sex workers to 'diversion programmes' a latest symptom of a country torn?