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.
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…
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…
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,…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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