Mail & Guardian
Mail & Guardian
Mia Malan

Creator

Mia Malan

Mia Malan is Bhekisisa's editor-in-chief and executive director. Malan has won more than 20 African journalism awards for her work and is a former fellow of the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at Oxford University.

Clinics in South Africa and Zambia don’t yet have enough doses of the groundbreaking anti-HIV jab lenacapavir for everyone who wants it. How do you persuade people to want a new medicine when there isn’t enough of it to go around? Photo: Tara Winstead/Pexels

Meet four people who got the HIV prevention jab

As South Africa rolls out the six-monthly HIV prevention injection, Lenacapavir, four people from high-risk groups explain why they chose the shot over daily pills and what their…

South Africa’s first generic semaglutide injection launched in August — and Sahpra is considering 13 more applications. Photo: Haberdoedas Photography/Pexels 

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…

Donor funding is shrinking just as science has delivered powerful new medication that could dramatically cut new HIV infections. Photo: Felipe Varanda/IAS

Aids is no longer exceptional. What happens now?

The International Aids Conference in Rio de Janeiro highlighted a stark reality: the era of Aids exceptionalism is ending amid unprecedented funding cuts. As science delivers…

#Aids2026: Bhekisisa analysed SA’s first LEN roll-out data. Here's what it found

South Africa accounts for over half of all lenacapavir (LEN) users in Africa, with health department data revealing 31,297 of the continent's roughly 60,000 users are in the…

#Aids2026: Daily pill. Monthly pill. Six-monthly jab. Why choice matters

For the first time, Merck has granted generic manufacturers, including three African companies, permission to produce an investigational monthly HIV prevention pill, alimatravir,…

Costly legal weight-loss drugs are fuelling a black market in unregistered versions, including retatrutide — an experimental medicine still in trials. (Anna-Maria van Niekerk)
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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…

As anti-immigrant protests gather momentum, a clause in the NHI Act could deny many refugees, asylum seekers and undocumented migrants HIV treatment — despite Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi saying that would "work in reverse" in the fight against HIV. Would the health minister be prepared to change that if the Constitutional Court rules the Act can go ahead? (Delwyn Verasamy)
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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…

Lenacapavir, the six-monthly anti-HIV jab, which prevents HIV through sex, is now stocked for free at 360 government clinics in six provinces. (Jay Caboz)

How to use the anti-HIV jab — and where to find it

The six-monthly anti-HIV jab, which prevents HIV through sex, is now stocked for free at 360 government clinics in six of South Africa’s provinces. How does the jab work, how do…

Our anti-HIV jab will be rolled out in six weeks. But funding cuts hollowed out the system needed to deliver it

The uptake of the once-every-six-month HIV prevention jab lenacapavir (LEN) in South Africa will be heavily affected by the Trump administration’s funding cuts to the country, a…

Complex organised crime networks are fuelling a health crisis that is getting worse and addiction treatment isn’t keeping up.

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…

Our LEN is here; Now for quality checks in Ireland

SA’s first consignment of the twice-a-year anti-HIV injection, lenacapavir — 37 920 doses — arrived last week at OR Tambo Airport via two shipments from Dublin. The batches…

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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…

South Africa’s National Aids Council, Sanac, has asked local drug companies to submit applications by April 7 to make generic versions of lenacapavir, an anti-HIV jab that could end Aids by 2043 in the country. Sanac will submit a shortlist of successful applicants to the producer of the original shot, Gilead Sciences, by July. (Tim Wege)

Bringing it home: SA is leading the charge to make anti-HIV jab for Africa 

South Africa’s National Aids Council, Sanac, has asked local drug companies to submit applications by April 7 to make generic versions of an anti-HIV jab that could end Aids by…

After being diagnosed with HIV at 33, retired Constitutional Court justice Edwin Cameron never thought he’d make it to 40. He’s now 73 and part of a generation that is growing older thanks to antiretrovirals and, he says, the activism that made sure it was available in South Africa. Photo: Stefan Els
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HIV made him expect to die at 40. At 73, Edwin Cameron asks: Who’s planning for our ageing survivors?

At 33, the retired Constitutional Court justice thought he had, maybe, seven years left. His story traces the arc from certain death because of Aids to a chronic, manageable…

Health economics research estimates that obesity cost South Africa approximately R33.2 billion in 2020, equivalent to about 15% of government health expenditure and roughly 0.67% of GDP. (Yunmai/Unsplash)
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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