Social workers, researchers and teachers are desperate for more psychosocial support for children and adolescents in South Africa. They say it’s a “no-brainer” that every school needs a social worker. The issue of mental illness among learners has made recent…
South Africa’s progress on reducing preterm births has stagnated over the past decade. In 2020, 1.2 million babies were born in South Africa. Thirteen percent (154 800) were preterm or born too soon. South Africa is among the top five…
Victoria Satchwell was desperate when she called the fifth pharmacist asking them to dispense abortion pills for an almost 10-week pregnant client. The woman is a 19-year-old rape victim living in Vredefort, a small farming town in the Free State.…
By Hannah Zhihan Jiang Molly Grieves, 47, has struggled to find work for years, but a month ago she was hired as an intern cleaner at the Helen Joseph Hospital through the Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP). The EPWP is…
By Hannah Zhihan Jiang Shay Richard, 16, was not expecting much the first time she used Vive Teens, an AI-driven wellness app. Richard was diagnosed with anxiety and depression in 2019 when she was 13 years old. Today she is…
By Hannah Zhihan Jiang Healthcare workers (HCWs) say targeted programmes to destigmatise mental illnesses and support mental health among HCWs after the COVID-19 pandemic is needed more than ever. They stress the need to debunk the stereotype that HCWs are…
By Hannah Zhihan Jiang South Africa is edging closer to eradicating malaria but experts warn that drug resistance now poses a significant challenge to progress made in the last twenty years. The World Malaria Report 2022 confirms South Africa recorded…
By Hannah Zhihan Jiang Policies without adequate funding will have no impact on improving mental health services in South Africa. Mental health medical practitioners and advocates warn the newly approved National Mental Health Policy Framework and Strategic Plan 2023-200 will…
By Hannah Zhihan Jiang Recently the medical emergency unit at Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital (CHBAH) was unable to provide meals to all their patients. Bafana Tshabalala, a registered nurse at the unit told Health-e News that on the worst…
Dhirisha Naidoo remembers the “look of HIV” vividly. She saw it on a daily basis when she was a nurse at a mission hospital in Durban just out of college in 2004. “People were usually very thin, skin and bone,…
This is Tebogo Matlaki’s fourth time going into rehab. The 31-year-old is from Vosloorus, a township 30 kilometres southeast of Johannesburg. He lost his policeman father to gun violence and turned to drugs when he was 16 writes Hannah Zhihan…
Sebokeng Regional Hospital recently achieved a major milestone with the completion of its first successful brain surgery in 40 years. Health-e News’ Hannah Zhihan Jiang took a closer look at what it took to make this happen and how significant…
By Hannah Zhihan Jiang Dozens of Mamelodi community members waited outside the local fire station on Wednesday for the unveiling of 255 new Emergency Medical Services (EMS) vehicles for Gauteng. The community knows the pain of ambulances arriving late or…