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South Africa needs to get more than 550 000 HIV-positive men on antiretrovirals before the end of next year to help the country meet its targets for ending Aids by 2030. But in the past it’s been difficult to get men to take up — and stay — on HIV treatment. Could building an all-male sports-like team with a coach help solve it?

Players, coaches and teams: Here’s how men could help SA score an HIV goal

South Africa needs to get more than 550 000 HIV-positive men on antiretrovirals before the end of next year to help the country meet its targets for ending Aids by 2030. But in the past it’s been difficult to get men to take up — and stay — on HIV treatment. Could building an all-male sports-like team with a coach help solve it?

Could smart lockers help people to stay on their meds? 

What’s a Pelebox and can it make medicine collection in the public health sector easy enough for people to fetch their meds each time? People in the Eastern Cape are desperate for such solutions — but can the provincial health department afford it?

1 in 7 moms in SA are teens. We dive into the numbers

Data from the latest District Health Barometer show that close to 365 teenagers give birth in South Africa every day. Ten of those daily teen births are to girls younger than 15. Experts say the numbers reveal deeper issues in society that lead to a vicious cycle — from school dropouts to unemployment and poverty across generations. We unpack the numbers.

PINs and pills: Are vending machines the answer to contraceptive stockouts at clinics?

Government clinics often run out of contraceptive medicines, which has been the case since 2015. The latest Stop Stockouts and Ritshidze report shows that...

Why our traffic went through the roof in August 

August has been an incredible month for Bhekisisa. With 360 000 unique visitors and just under 430 000 pageviews, our traffic went through the roof. Read our monthly newsletter to find out what we were up to in August — and what our top five stories were.

[READ]: The second presidential health compact — and full report

On 22 August South Africa’s second — and highly controversial — presidential health compact was signed by the government and various sectors. The second compact is controversial because prominent organisations that served on the steering committee of the drafting of the first compact refused to sign it.

Health Beat #22 | Aaron the Outspoken: Do all roads lead to NHI?

Compromise isn’t a word favoured by the Health Minister, Aaron Motsoaledi, when it comes to rolling out universal healthcare, despite objections from some of the ANC’s coalition partners. Mia Malan sits down with Motsoaledi to find out how he plans to deliver National Health Insurance amid legal challenges, little money and a system that needs fundamental fixing.

Medical aids are out under the NHI — even if it means the end...

Even if it means the end of the government of national unity, the bit in the NHI Act that says medical aids will effectively cease to exist, won’t be scrapped, says Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi. But the Act could be adapted to allow everyone — including asylum seekers and undocumented migrants — to get HIV treatment.

Why you can’t get anti-HIV pills or jabs at your local pharmacy — yet

Since July last year, a small revolution has been taking place at Mays Chemist in Melville, Johannesburg — and one that could make a real difference to HIV prevention in South Africa. But because of a drawn-out court case, a valuable opportunity to slow down new HIV infections in the country may be lost, researchers say.

A dose of their own medicine: Should SA force big drug makers to let...

Novo Nordisk’s deal with local manufacturer Aspen to produce insulin in vials aims to supply the diabetes treatment for Africa, but critics say it doesn't deal with the real issue: South Africans have a right to use insulin pens, but these are running out in public hospitals because of Novo Nordisk’s decision to not tender to sell it to the health department anymore.

Lenacapavir: What it would it take to get the 6-monthly anti-HIV jab to SA

Speed, scale and price would sway whether the drugmaker Gilead’s twice-a-year anti-HIV jab, lenacapavir, will be able to markedly slow down new infections in South Africa. What needs to happen for SA to get the jab? Find out.

SA wants to buy the 2-monthly anti-HIV jab — 18 days after a US...

The health department has asked drugmakers to submit prices, and how much they can make, of the two-monthly anti-HIV jab, CAB-LA — 18 days after it accepted a donation of 231 000 doses from the US government. The shot can cut down our new HIV infections by more than a quarter over 20 years. But will generic companies come in with a low enough price?

#Aids2024: 4 sets of data — which one does the government use to track...

The world has 18 months left — until the end of 2025 — to reach targets countries like South Africa signed up to in 2021. So where’s SA at? That’s tricky to answer, because the country uses four different ways to track this — and the numbers are not the same. We break down which set of data the health department uses to report to UNAids and what the other sets are for.

#Aids2024: SA has taken up US donations of CAB-LA — and will roll out...

Before the end of the year, 867 government health facilities will start to roll out the two-monthly HIV prevention injection, CAB-LA. The US government’s Aids fund, Pepfar, has donated 231 000 doses over two years to South Africa — 96 000 of the doses will arrive between October and December.

Eight things Motsoaledi and Phaahla have in common

Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi faces a massive challenge: rolling out a controversial NHI Act by a government of which only four out of 11 governing parties support the legislation. Does he have the skills? Mia Malan reports.

What the NHI won’t fix

Thirty years into democracy, South Africa still struggles with rolling out mostly well-designed policies. But if the circumstances in which a health system has to work aren’t fixed, simply passing a law to give everyone access to healthcare won’t change things for the better. Here’s why.