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South Africa’s HIV programme is the biggest in the world, but now it’s been cut thin, with the loss of billions in US funding. Health economists warn of a surge in new infections and deaths if South Africans forgo their treatment. Could an expensive HIV jab be the answer?

Francois Venter, a big rock climber, once drank tequila with the PhD-holding virologist rockstar Dexter Holland of The Offspring and, more recently, publicly excoriated both the president and the health minister for their inaction on the HIV funding crises. As Sean Christie quickly learned, that’s just how one of the country’s top HIV researchers rolls.

Elon Musk admitted to using it for depression, Friends actor Matthew Perry died from using too much of it and in South Africa, some ketamine healthcare providers are serving it up irresponsibly. So what’s ketamine all about?

More than half a million previously diagnosed people with HIV have been started on HIV treatment since the end of February, the health minister says. But can a big jump in 10 weeks really be? We look at the numbers.

As politicians, activists and researchers duke it out from labs and clinics and press conferences, those who have the most to lose from the HIV funding cuts told Bhekisisa they have been left to fend for themselves. Which is bad news for all of us.

About 40% of the health workers who collected data in the country’s HIV hotspots either lost their jobs in February or will be jobless in September, leaving a massive knowledge gap in their wake. Experts warn not knowing what we don’t know is dangerous.

It's been two decades since the denialism war was won in South Africa. Now HIV scientists and government are pitted against each other once again, with one side saying the health minister is in denial over the impact of US funding cuts and the minister is accusing the activists and the media of overblowing the crisis and spreading disinformation.

Today, people over 50 make up the second largest group of South Africa’s HIV-positive population. But as people age, health problems like high blood pressure, heart disease and diabetes rise too, which means more and more people will have to be treated for these conditions — on top of getting HIV care. We look at what the numbers show.

Women have had the right to choose to end their pregnancies for 30 years in SA — and government facilities that offer the service do it for free. Here’s what is (still) driving so many of them to unsafe providers.

Trump’s slash and burn to foreign aid has hit HIV programmes hard. Here’s what this Limpopo clinic has been doing to prepare for such cuts — and what they’ve learned about surviving over the past 20 years.

R6.65-billion — or $350-million. That’s how much South Africa receives in annual funding from the US government’s National Institutes of Health. If the country loses all of its NIH funding, the country could lose 70% of its medical research capacity, Bhekisisa’s data team’s sums reveal.

Instead of the Aids denialism of decades past, it’s US funding cuts that could lead to up to 300 000 more HIV infections in the next four years. Activists like Sisonke Msimang say the past has some answers for the current fight.

The health department is convinced that all US government funding for HIV and TB projects in SA will end by September 30. The department has calculated that it needs R2.82-billion to plug the gap for the rest of the financial year after the Trump administration cut more than half of such support to the country in February. But these funds have yet to be raised, and the stakes are high.

A modelling study shows the six-monthly anti-HIV jab, lenacapavir, could end Aids in SA by 2032 — but only if between two and four million HIV-negative people in the country would need to use the jab every year over the next eight years. How much should we pay for it?

Cancellation letters, which end millions of rands of South African universities’ US-government funded HIV and TB research grants with immediate effect, started to roll in over the weekend. Fears are rife that the Trump administration might stop all grants, which holds devastating implications for the country.

A third of the Global Fund for HIV, TB and Malaria’s money comes from the United States. The other contributions come from other wealthy governments and philanthropic organisations.So what happens if the Trump administration decides to cut its contributions to the Fund? We work it out.