Creator
Anna-Maria van Niekerk
The first generic weight loss drug hit SA in August — with many expected to follow. Will it be enough to kill the black market?
As patents expire, generic versions of blockbuster weight-loss and diabetes drugs like Ozempic arrive in South Africa. But will price drops be enough to end the dangerous black…
‘This is how we do it’: 30 years of caring for a son with cerebral palsy
Keneilwe Dikoma's life changed forever when her son Lorato was diagnosed with cerebral palsy at six months old. For three decades, she has navigated the complexities of care in…
Health Beat #39 | Inside SA's illegal weight-loss drug trade
South Africa faces a surge in illegal weight-loss drugs, as expensive GLP-1 medicines drive a black market for cheaper, untested versions. This trend raises serious health…
Could the NHI fuel anti-immigrant sentiment?
Amid rising anti-immigrant sentiment and violence in South Africa, a clause in the National Health Insurance (NHI) Act threatens to deny HIV treatment to refugees, asylum…
Here’s how to make drug addiction a health issue, not a criminal one
Experts say South Africa’s contradictory approach to drugs — treating addiction as both a disease and a crime — is fuelling a worsening crisis in places like Westbury, where…
Can talks save South Africa’s NHI from a courtroom war?
Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi has met the South African Medical Association — one of the organisations taking him to court about the National Health Insurance Act — to talk…
Obesity: the chronic disease that isn’t treated like one
A review of 37 studies found that when people stop taking weight-loss drugs like Ozempic, the weight comes back
Cutting: Why teens turn to self-harm when they don’t have words for their pain
For some teenagers, emotional pain manifests as deliberately cutting, burning, hitting, biting, scratching or picking at their skin
Court orders government, police to block vigilantes from two clinics — and put up warnings at entrances
The judgment complements a November ruling meant to stop groups such as Operation Dudula from blocking foreign nationals from entering government hospitals and clinics and…
Is the NHI channelling Operation Dudula’s healthcare blockades?
While groups like Operation Dudula flood the zone with fear, confusion and misinformation around healthcare access for foreign nationals, that space has been easy to muddy,…
One in seven mothers in South Africa are teens, data shows
Nearly 365 teenagers give birth in South Africa every day, with 10 of those daily births to mothers younger than 15
Will the new Eastern Cape govt give people of Ngcobo back their 24/7 health centre?
After 2022, the Ngcobo Community Health Centre in the rural Eastern Cape ceased operating 24 hours every day because spiralling crime and dry taps made it impossible for workers…