News and analysis

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.

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.

Before the festive season kicks off, take a look at Bhekisisa’s most-read stories of 2022.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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?

Millions of South Africans suffer from common mental health illnesses but don’t have access to psychologists or psychiatrists. Registered counsellors are trained to relieve this burden but they’re struggling to find work in the public sector. Here’s why.

Children who are exposed to lead — a metal found in certain paints and batteries — can face a series of problems as they grow up, ranging from heart problems to violent behaviour. While the government has introduced laws to combat lead exposure, experts worry that they aren’t effectively implemented or enforced.

In July, loadshedding left Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital without a CT scanner, a piece of equipment that could have helped a patient who had suffered a serious brain injury.

South Africa’s health facilities aren’t geared up to help teens with TB to complete their treatment. As a result, the preventable, treatable disease was the leading cause of death among adolescents in South Africa between 2008 and 2018.