News and analysis

The United Nations Programme on HIV and Aids, UNAids, has released its latest HIV figures. Fewer people got infected with HIV in 2022 than...

HIV home visits in a Malawi village worked so well that the same visits are not also being used for conditions such as diabetes, high blood pressure and cancer.

A new tuberculosis vaccine is being tested in South Africa as part of a large trial in which about 20 000 people from seven countries will get their shots. We visited a rural site in KwaZulu-Natal to see how it is being rolled out.

For added excitement and endurance in your sex life, maybe skip the sex drugs.

In rural India, people with TB got healthy food parcels and vitamin pills. Their chance of dying from the disease dropped by 60% and passing on the infection to someone in their family fell by 40%.

The appointments for the heads of two more of the five directorates of the National Health Insurance (NHI) were approved on Monday. These two positions will oversee user and service provider management and healthcare benefits and provider payment design. In the latest episode of Bhekisisa’s monthly TV show, Health Beat, Mia Malan asked the health department’s Nicholas Crisp and Sasha Stevenson from Section27 how the NHI will play out.

It’s too soon to tell what effect the COVID-19 pandemic had on teen pregnancies. But here’s what the data shows so far.

Over 5 000 Palestinians have died since October 7, when an attack by the armed group Hamas killed around 1 400 Israelis, and led to heavy retaliation. A 35-year-old civilian in Gaza details life under siege.

Dirty air makes it hard to breathe. Add hotter days or extreme cold into the mix and it will become harder still, especially for people who already have lung problems. In the latest episode of Health Beat, Mia Malan spoke to Caradee Wright, a public health specialist at the Medical Research Council, about what climate change will mean for people who already struggle to breathe, and what can be done about it.

Follow our live coverage of the health department’s 23 May briefing on South Africa’s cholera outbreak.

A recent spate of massacres has reignited the conversation about firearm control. It’s an emotional debate, but what does the evidence say about the kind of policies that work to prevent gun violence?

The normalisation of gender discrimination is blamed as the crucial factor that makes women and girls vulnerable to human traffickers.

Men who have sex with men can now take on-demand pre-exposure prophylaxis, or PrEP, safely.

Big changes are coming to South Africa’s fight against sexually transmitted infections, according to a draft of the country’s fifth HIV action plan.

Head injuries from sport could be linked with someone developing brain disease later, says new guidance from experts. They’re calling for more time during games for players to be checked thoroughly — which could mean rules of play may have to change.

To help keep kids safe from drug overdoses, lawmakers in the US state of Colorado say schools can have an anti-overdose medicine in their emergency kit — and are making it available cheaply or even for free. But not all schools are signing up. Here’s why.