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There are fewer than 10 paediatric heart surgeons in South Africa's public health sector - forcing tiny patients to wait months for surgery.

MDGs: Child and maternal health needs critical care

Despite increased efforts to improve child and maternal health, countries are still lagging behind in meeting their Millennium Development Goals.
Reportedly up to 80% of women infected with HPV don’t develop cancer with their “immune systems clearing it out naturally”.

Cervical cancer’s deadly contradiction

Despite cervical cancer being the most preventable form of cancer, it is afflicting more South African women than any other kind.
Ericka Torres's son

Viruses, vaccines and superbugs: The biggest health stories of 2016

This year wasn’t pretty but from its ashes may rise important scientific advances that could change the course of history.
Bhekisisa bagged five awards at the Discovery Health Journalism Awards on Wednesday night. From left: Amy Green, Mia Malan and Ina Skosana

Health matters: Let’s Bhekisisa it

The M&G's new health journalism centre is ready to make its mark, scrutinise and inform.
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The poison peaks of Dandora: Why plastic bag bans aren’t enough to cut pollution...

Kenya banned single-use plastic bags in 2017, but Nairobi’s waste collectors are still inundated with plastic. Can a new law pin responsibility on the manufacturers?
A new study by Doctors Without Borders

In Marikana’s shadow: One in four women in Rustenburg has been raped, says study

As South Africa marks the anniversary of the massacre, a new study reveals how women’s bodies are a battleground in the country’s platinum belt.

Taken by storm: Why climate change will make transactional sex more common

Researchers say transactional sex will become more common because of a rise in climate change-related droughts and floods. Droughts and floods cause financial hardship, and therefore increase the market for sex in exchange for rewards.
South African doctors are giving antibiotics to healthy patients

Impoverished patients benefit from rejected drug patent

After a seven-year battle, India's government has successfully defended its right to reject drug patents if a medicine doesn't deserve one.

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.
Do almost half of South African men really smoke?

Should you believe the latest smoking figures from this tobacco-funded non-profit?

Claim: 49% of men and 34.1% of women in South Africa smoke tobacco. Is this true? Africa Check investigates.
Close to one-third

War declared on the ‘superbugs’

Several initiatives are under way to stop the abuse of antibiotics.

The facts beat the quacks: Our #COVID19SA vs. our #HIV response

Reporting on Covid-19 and HIV in South Africa is like day and night, Mia Malan, who has reported on both epidemics, writes.
Fewer than 15 countries on the continent fund more than half of their national immunisation programmes.

Could six injections a year protect you from HIV infection?

A new injectable drug could change the face of HIV prevention and the revolution might start right here in South Africa.
A study says primary school teachers may have an influence on how healthy their pupils are.

Teachers may be losing the battle of the bulge

A new study argues a teacher's health habits could influence pupils'choices.
In the Eastern Cape’s OR Tambo district

Fed-up NHI doctors say they are nothing more than glorified nurses

GPs working in the National Health Insurance’s biggest pilot site say they won't stay because of drug stock-outs, staff shortages and long queues

How prejudice strips people with disabilities of their sexual and reproductive rights

Many people with physical disabilities find it hard to access sexual and reproductive health services — and it’s often the prejudice of those without disabilities that stands in their way.