Patients using public healthcare facilities in Gauteng report being refused access to healthcare services, shortage of healthcare workers, hostile services and punitive action for people on antiretroviral therapy (ART) who miss appointments to collect treatment. These are some of the…
Poor maintenance and water shortages are causing further delays in finishing the construction of the theatre unit at the Boitumelo Hospital in the Free State according to Montseng Tsiu, chairperson of the provincial legislature committee on education, health and social…
It is almost eight o’clock on a warm but chilly November Friday morning, Joyce Mathe from Thembisa in Ekurhuleni east of Johannesburg is hard at work collecting waste outside of people’s yards for her recycling business. The cool weather is…
by Dr Lee Randall an independent road safety researcher and co-founder of the Road Ethics Project Globally, young people aged 5-29 – especially males – are the most likely to die in road crashes. This is very concerning in Africa…
A global clinical trial for a new gonorrhoea treatment has shown promising results. The trial found that the oral antibiotic drug, zoliflodacin, is effective in treating gonorrhoea, a common bacterial sexually transmitted infection (STI) that spreads through unprotected vaginal, oral,…
By Chris Bateman, Freelance Journalist With HIV positivity among urban transgender women in South Africa estimated at 46%, it is becoming increasingly urgent for healthcare workers to undergo sensitivity training. A transgender woman is a person who was assigned the…
Public health facilities in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) face a shortage of health workers; there are limited pick-up points for HIV treatment; and key populations continue to face hostile attitudes from healthcare workers and a lack of privacy. These are just some…
Karen Hofman, University of the Witwatersrand and Susan Goldstein, University of the Witwatersrand Death rates in South Africa have declined slightly during the past few years. But the country faces a steady rise in both death and disability caused by…
By Chris Bateman, Freelance Journalist Only two-thirds of children in South Africa getting treatment for HIV are virally suppressed. Viral suppression is a measure of how well antiretroviral (ARVs) drugs reduce HIV viral load. A high HIV viral load suggests…
In South Africa more than one in three adults have hypertension. The condition is responsible for one in two strokes.
The global measures to end the tuberculosis epidemic are showing signs of recovery post-Covid. More cases have been diagnosed and the number of people who died from the disease has gone down. Despite this apparent recovery, the World Health Organisation…
One out of two South Africans with diabetes don’t know they have it. Such high levels of undiagnosed diabetes have devastating consequences. By the time they are diagnosed, people often have advanced organ damage.
The disease is endemic to 14 of the 16 countries that make up the SADC region.
Charles Shey Wiysonge, Stellenbosch University The BCG vaccine for TB has been used for 100 years. It is largely effective for children under five, but less so in older people and can’t be used on patients who have certain medical…
The health sector has taken a knock following finance minister Enoch Godongwana’s announcement of cuts to the HIV programmes as well as spend on health infrastructure in the medium term budget policy statement on Wednesday. The minister’s speech gave a…
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