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The Bhekisisa Centre for Health Journalism is based in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Bhekisisa is one of only a few media outlets in the Global South specialising in solutions-based narrative features and analysis. We not only uncover problems but also critically evaluate the solutions meant to fix them. It’s an approach we also take with our opinion pieces.

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Outdated discourse of treatment versus prevention ... obscures elementary points for which we currently lack a common language.

Common sense needed in HIV fight

A recent international Aids conference lacked input from those living with the HI virus.

Health or human rights? False dichotomy could fuel a resurgence in forced HIV testing

More than three decades ago, HIV activists fought against mandatory testing. Now an old battle is finding new life.
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Why SA supermarkets should slash the price of these 10 foods by a fifth

The food industry will get a tax break to ease the effects of loadshedding on the cost of groceries. But there’s more that the industry can do to keep a basic basket of foods affordable, writes the head of the DG Murray Trust, David Harrison.
Helen Zille has the right to her opinion

If HIV denialists have not been pardoned, why should the DA excuse Helen Zille?

Aids has taught South Africans why denialism can't be tolerated – whether it comes from Thabo Mbeki or Helen Zille.
National guidelines say babies should get nothing but their mother’s milk for the first six months of life. But fewer than one in 10 women makes it to six months.

‘I thought I’d breastfeed my baby for a year. That dream was short-lived’

We tell moms to exclusively breastfeed. But we don’t tell them about all the things that get in the way of that, including depression.
South Africa is making progress in treating drug-resistant TB.

SA makes great strides in treating ‘strong’ TB

The country has one of the highest tuberculosis burdens. But it is rapidly gaining access to new diagnostic tools and medicine for drug-resistant TB.
South African patients qualify for HIV treatment if their CD4 count – a measure of a person’s immunity – is 350 or lower.

A chink in the armour of HIV

Media reports about HIV-infected people being cured of the virus should be read with caution but could these cases give us clues about an antidote?
Levy Mosenogi was the man tasked to lead the relocation of almost 2000 mental health patients out of state-sponsored private care at Life Esidimeni facilities.

#LifeEsidimeni: Why seemingly good people came to do very, very bad things

At least 141 mental health patients. As officials take the stand as part of arbitration hearings, a disturbing thread runs through their testimonies.
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Mia Malan: Eight lessons COVID taught me about journalism

During a crisis such as the COVID pandemic, people have simple demands of the media: how to protect themselves, which government rules they have to follow, and what the future holds. Mia Malan gives eight lessons COVID holds for newsrooms.
Helen Zille's short-sighted tweets about HIV and Aids fuel HIV stigma.

​#AIDS2016: Yes, Helen Zille racism and inequality do fuel the spread of HIV

The Western Cape premier should know that inequality, not just science, lies at the root of the Aids epidemic.
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‘We only write about them when they are dead’: Hate killings of black lesbians...

Nearly three decades after South Africa’s first Gay and Lesbian pride march, journalist and researcher Nechama Brodie takes a look at the violent history the country’s black lesbians have endured.
The SA government needs to make a back-up plan for spending on HIV/Aids

#AIDS2016: As donor funding falls, SA must come up with a plan to stretch...

It will cost the country R30-billion a year to treat and prevent HIV by 2020, so the state has to lower costs and be clever with its health spending.
Africa is doing well to immunise against diseases. But the continent still needs support for healthcare.

What can we learn from Angola’s yellow fever outbreak?

The country's yellow fever outbreak is a timely reminder that African countries can't get complacent with their vaccination efforts.
What started as a bizarre press release touting a "potential HIV cure" has gone viral leading media houses all over the world to lash out over firm Zion Medical's latest claims.

Company with false HIV ‘cure’ admits trial was not registered with regulatory body

Zion Medical can't explain the poor treatment Ugandan patients got as part of its 'trial' and its recent announcement may have added to the harm.
Faux facts are travelling at lightning speed across the internet and they're bad for your health.

The rise of anti-vaxxer bots: Fake news is going viral — it’s bad for...

How do you outrun a lie when science shows misinformation spreads faster than fact?
Post-partum pregnancy can be prevented through correct contraceptive use.

Five African states help women prevent pregnancy right after birth

Postpartum or after birth family planning can reduce one in three maternal deaths, one in 10 infant deaths and one in five child deaths.