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Do you know which COVID vaccine you’re going to pick as your booster dose? Here’s a handy guide to the latest research on the mix and match approach.

How long are the gaps between the end of one COVID wave and the start of another? In South Africa, it’s been about three months consistently, says epidemiologist Salim Abdool Karim.

Private clinics started to offer phone-in abortion services when COVID-19 lockdowns began in 2020. Forty one per cent of the terminations of pregnancies Marie Stopes South Africa did since January 2020 were such self-managed terminations. Mohale Moloi asked Melusi Dhlamini, who headed up the introduction of self-managed abortions by Marie Stopes at the time, how such terminations work.

The health department won’t buy any more COVID vaccines this year. That includes Sinopharm, Sinovac and jabs for children.

The vaping industry is up in arms because of two new proposed laws. A fight is bound to ensue, but tobacco control is a very particular game. This video will help you get to know the players ahead of public hearings.

South Africa’s medical regulator is currently reviewing applications for an oral COVID treatment called molnupiravir. The tablet can reduce people’s chances of falling very ill or dying from the disease. Here’s how it works.

Two drugs to treat COVID-19 have recently become available. These aren’t substitutes for a vaccine, but they could help at-risk people from developing severe disease. Here’s what you need to know about the new pills on offer.

One of the scientific breakthroughs that came with the COVID-19 pandemic was the introduction of new vaccine technology, like those used in the Pfizer jabs. A new vaccine plant in Cape Town will now make similar vaccines on local soil, but making these specialised shots often require some hands-on help.

In this podcast, Bhekisisa editor Mia Malan gets to the bottom of the most common questions asked about South Africa’s fourth wave of SARS-CoV-2 infections driven by the Omicron variant. Her guest is Waasila Jassat of the National Institute for Communicable Diseases.

Over half of all women killed in South Africa are murdered by their partners. Here are stories from two mothers who lost children to gender-based violence in Bushbuckridge, Mpumalanga — and what could have been done to prevent this abuse.

Reports of a rare heart condition linked to the Pfizer COVID vaccine should not deter teens from getting the jab.

HIV prevention pills can reduce your chances of contracting HIV through sex by up to 96%. The pills are becoming easier to access with over 2 000 South African hospitals and clinics making them available for free. We find out how much university students know about this prevention option.

The use of ivermectin to treat COVID-19 remains unproven with little to no evidence that it works. Although the medication can now be legally accessed with a doctor’s supervision, some people continue to use the animal version of the drug. Here’s why that’s dangerous.

For now, booster COVID vaccines are mostly offered to those with weakened immune systems. Here’s what we know about how long COVID shots can protect you.

December holidays are upon us and so are family braais, going to the movies and sports events. But is it safe to do these things? Well, yes and no. It depends how many people there are, how far they’re sitting from each other and how much ventilation there is.

South Africa has enough unused doses of Pfizer vaccines to immunise half of the country’s 6.5-million children aged 12 to 17. This means matriculants will be protected as they sit their final school exams. But they’ll only be getting one dose of the two-shot vaccine.