Creator
Bhekisisa Team
Health features and news from across Africa by Bhekisisa, the Mail & Guardian's health journalism centre.
Elon Musk, depression and South Africa’s cowboy ketamine clinics
Ketamine has been used for decades as an anaesthetic drug, but in the past few years, more and more psychiatrists have been using it for hard-to-treat depression
Why so many newborns and foetuses are abandoned in landfills and the veld
Researchers from the University of the Witwatersrand have gathered data from the Diepkloof Forensic Pathology Service in Soweto to better understand why so many women turn to…
Toxic storm brewing in Soweto’s Snake Park neighbourhood
Residents living beside an old mine dump face health problems as floods and heatwaves worsen the dangers of mining pollution
Budget 2025: Jobs for only 800 of 1 800 unemployed doctors
This is despite vacancy rates of 5% to 22% in government clinics and hospitals
How South Africa’s HIV fight has changed
In 25 years, new infections have dropped from about 1 463 each day to about 370, but HIV ‘is still an issue’, experts say
TB talks: Will #UNGA78 change these three lives?
In the past five years, none of the targets political leaders adopted after the previous round of high-level discussions on the fight against tuberculosis at the United Nations…
[WATCH] Where SA’s specialist doctors go when managers aren’t looking
Government hospitals face shortages of specialist doctors. To make it worse, not all of them are showing up to work
WATCH: Could new abortion rules in the US affect the world’s biggest state HIV fund?
The US government has appointed the first African head of its Aids fund, Pepfar. John Nkengasong, a Cameroonian virologist
SA teens, you’re next in the queue for a vaccine — no parental permission required
Teenagers between the ages of 12 and 17 will be able to register to receive their Covid-19 jab from 20 October. This group will be given only one dose of the Pfizer vaccine, for…
Gift of the jab: Six tips for when you speak to the Covid unvaxxed
Vaccination campaigns that promote how having the Covid-19 vaccination will benefit individuals rather than society are more effective to convince people who are neutral or…
Covid-19 vaccinations: How are the provinces doing?
South Africa’s vaccine roll-out is happening – slowly. Only 3% of eligible adults have been fully vaccinated. KwaZulu-Natal is leading the pack with the Eastern Cape hot on its…
South Africa’s not reaching herd immunity. Our new goal is containment
South Africa’s stop-start roll-out is not the only reason herd immunity is unrealistic for 2021. A constrained vaccine supply and new variants also play a role
#SayHerName: The faces of South Africa’s femicide epidemic
This is an ode to the women whose names made it into news outlets from 2018 to 2020. It’s also a tribute to the faceless, nameless women whose stories remain untold.
16 sites on 17 February: Eight things you should know about SA’s J&J vaccine roll-out
Eighty thousand Johnson & Johnson jabs will arrive in South Africa on Tuesday and be taken to 16 sites where healthcare workers will be vaccinated
Johnson & Johnson vaccines could arrive in South Africa next week
We spoke to experts, looked at the data and relistened to the health department’s briefings to break down the revised roll-out plan