News and analysis

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?

Migrants are being blamed for South Africa’s struggling health system – again. But poor governance, and a shortage of staff and hospital beds are the real issue.

The United States government has appointed the first African head of its Aids fund, Pepfar. John Nkengasong, a Cameroonian virologist with US citizenship, will need to establish the potential impact of America’s change in abortion legislation on Pepfar funding rules.

A cheap antibiotic (called doxycycline) used to treat skin infections and to stop people from getting malaria could also work to prevent chlamydia, gonorrhoea and syphilis, found a United States study in men who have sex with men and transgender women.

Researchers have found that 96% of global health conferences happen in high- or middle-income countries. Less than four in 10 attendees at these gatherings are from poorer nations that have the highest burden of disease.

Forty-four new National Health Insurance (NHI) positions, based at the national health department head office in Tshwane, will be advertised in the coming weeks and filled by January 2023.

Germs are outsmarting medicine faster than South Africa’s overburdened facilities can keep up with. There are ways to cut resistance, but such plans need more money for them to work.

Young South Africans are exposed to lots of liquor advertising, but the two bills which were designed to change this remain stuck in the pipeline.

Endometriosis is a disease that causes the cells that line the uterus to start growing in other parts of the body. This can lead to excruciating pain for those affected but diagnosis can take more than a decade. These researchers are looking at period blood to learn about the disease and how to spot it faster.

The social and economic factors faced by women do not disappear once they become pregnant. Without additional support those problems get much worse and can be bad for their families too.

What do you do when there aren’t enough rural doctors? In Zimbabwe, village healthcare workers, trained over three weeks, are plugging the gaps.

Opposition groups and others often argue that academic matric marks alone should determine whether someone gets into medical school – not factors such as race that people can’t control. But research finds that when it comes to making a good doctor, grades aren’t everything.

Far fewer people are testing for COVID-19 than last year this time, but most people flush. Water in the country’s drains can pick up a spike in cases or can help to pick up a threatening new variant in time for clinics to prepare for an influx of patients.

Obesity is a growing worldwide trend. In Kenya, over a million five to 19-year-olds will be obese by 2030. At the same time, the East African nation is also stalked by hunger. More than three million people don’t have easy access to good nutritious food. These kiddies are fighting the problem – one taekwondo class at a time.

South Africa is training more doctors than ever but there isn’t enough money to employ them, leaving about 14% of hospital posts for doctors vacant while 20% of doctor positions at clinics were empty in 2021 as well.

The active ingredient in magic mushrooms could help treat depression in people who have had no success with traditional treatments.