Parents, here are 8 measles outbreak questions — answered
We answer the biggest questions surrounding the current measles outbreak and explain who is eligible to get an extra vaccination.
Ozempic: A hashtag & a helpful effect collide & drain global stocks of a...
Medicine shortages are common. But what happens when a shortage of an effective medication happens because people who the medicine isn’t intended for are drying its stocks? We explain here.
Decriminalising sex work can protect sex workers – and everybody else – from GBV
South Africa has published proposed changes, in the form of a draft Bill, to legislation that makes sex work illegal. If parliament votes in favour of the amendments, sex work will be decriminalised. Public comment on the suggested changes closed on 31 January.
What’s behind the Big Tobacco job cuts? A guide to SA’s illegal tobacco trade...
British American Tobacco in South Africa says 200 of its workers will be out of a job soon, but public health researchers argue they’re using misleading figures to back the retrenchments.
‘They fail us, year in and year out’: Why community health workers are ditching...
In South Africa, trade unions have a reputation for having workers’ back. But for many of the country’s community health workers, these organisations are no longer an ally.
‘It’s not a feminine thing. It’s a family thing’: How men can boost contraception...
There are more unplanned pregnancies in countries where men hold more power in society, likely because women don’t have a say in how many children they have. The opposite is true when men support their partner’s use of contraception.
Our 10 most-read stories of 2022
Before the festive season kicks off, take a look at Bhekisisa’s most-read stories of 2022.
HIV treatment in SA is changing. Here are 7 things you need to know
The HIV drug dolutegravir is the star of new treatment guidelines from the government and the Southern African HIV Clinicians’ Society. From 2023, the medicine will be the go-to drug in all treatment plans — for infants, children and pregnant women.
The anti-HIV jab has been approved in SA, says Sahpra. Here’s why it will...
South Africa’s medicine regulator has registered CAB-LA, a new anti-HIV jab. But for how much will drugmaker ViiV Healthcare sell it to the government? We asked them in our TV programme, Health Beat.
Good, bad & ugly: How SA’s fight against GBV & femicide is going
Between April 2020 and September 2022, 988 women were killed by their intimate partners, police data shows. In about the same time, the government achieved just 1 in 5 of the targets in its action plan to fight gender-based violence and femicide.
‘Today I’m a nurse, a cleaner, a clerk & a plumber’: Step inside Africa’s...
Doctors at Africa’s biggest hospital were left scrambling on Tuesday when they had to work without nurses, admin clerks or service staff. Find out how it played out at Chris Hani Baragwanath.
Go inside SA’s biggest hospital during a national strike
Bhekisisa health reporter Jesse Copelyn is inside Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital, where nurses have downed tools as part of a national strike – the third labour action for 2022.
Bhekisisa gets a merit award for COVID reporting
Our team has received a fifth national award for our COVID reporting, this time from the National Press Club for “fearlessly reporting the facts and science” of the pandemic.
Don’t talk to me, talk to my lawyer: The plan to stop SA’s fake...
The Special Investigating Unit has a year to track down dodgy lawyers and patients who file fake medical negligence claims. Plus, a new draft bill proposes that the state pay less for negligence.
‘We will see patients dying and falling in the street’: Tigray could run out...
The war in Ethiopia has prevented humanitarian groups from supplying the country’s northern Tigray region with food and medicines, leading to critical shortages of insulin.
Inside SA’s mRNA hub: What it looks like and how it works
Afrigen Biologics, a Cape Town pharmaceutical company, has made Africa’s first COVID jab as part of the World Health Organisation’s mRNA vaccine technology transfer hub. How did they do it and what’s next?