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 you know if you need it and where can you find it? We’ve got you covered with answers to 13 questions
With a R3.8 billion boost to help South Africa move away from fossil fuels like oil and coal for producing energy, how well is the country doing on keeping its promise to help the world’s temperature stay at manageable levels? Bhekisisa takes a look at the data in the first of a three-part series
Northern Mozambique has been absorbing what humanitarian groups call “multiple shocks” for years. Conflict, cyclones, cholera, displacement; each arriving before the last has been processed, each landing on a health system already buckling. What happens to people’s minds in conditions like these? And who is there to help?
A new HIV prevention injection could change the course of the epidemic — but only if people trust it. Research shows we can pre-empt the false claims forming around it. The window is open now
On 5 June, South Africa is about to begin one of its most important HIV prevention drives in decades. The country will start to roll out an HIV prevention injection that has to be taken only twice a year. Will the launch become more than a symbolic event that shows what serious HIV prevention leadership looks like at a time when donor funding is shrinking and global uncertainty is growing?
From throat and anal cancers to reduced fertility, the human papillomavirus poses serious risks to men that go largely undetected and unvaccinated. South Africa vaccinates girls but boys are left out
Amid the mostly depressing HIV headlines of recent times, concerned as they mainly are with the deadly impacts of donor defunding, South Africa’s imminent roll-out of a twice-yearly HIV prevention injection called lenacapavir (LEN) has been a spot of bright light. Staff in 360 healthcare facilities spread across the country stand trained and ready to […]
The outbreak has entered a more serious phase after authorities confirmed that two cases detected in SA involve the Andes variant
The clustering of Africa summits in 2026 is not coincidental. It reflects a continent whose geopolitical and economic weight is growing and whose governments are increasingly confident in setting their own agendas
In less than a month, South Africa will start rolling out the most potent HIV prevention medication the world has seen. But that alone doesn’t guarantee that HIV-negative people who need this twice-a-year injection — called lenacapavir — will use it
Shame, silence and incomplete sex ed are stopping South African girls from getting treated for sexually transmitted infections — even as rates remain stubbornly high
Health officials are monitoring possible exposures in Gauteng after passengers linked to a deadly cruise ship outbreak passed through South Africa, with one patient in critical condition in Sandton
The Global Fund to Fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria will start to cut its grant support to South Africa in just two years, with its final grant ending in eight years. Some experts are worried the government isn’t doing enough to plan for it
New research shows a steep decline in adolescent pregnancy rates across all nine provinces from 2021 to 2025, reversing course from previous years. It’s good news, even if it’s not clear why it’s happening
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 new report has found. Researchers conducted in-depth interviews with doctors, nurses, peer counsellors, transgender and young people, sex workers, gay and bisexual men and government health workers with personal experience of the funding cuts in Cape Town and Johannesburg
In Burkina Faso, more than 70 languages are spoken, armed conflict continues to escalate and half the country’s psychiatrists have left. With few mental health services available, families and traditional healers absorb what the system cannot
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 illicit drugs plague the community
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 reached the country six weeks later than expected. The delay of the shipment meant the health department couldn’t start its roll-out on April 1, as it had originally planned, and had to postpone it to mid to late May
As wars disrupt fuel supplies and health systems, more women are being forced to give birth without timely access to skilled care
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 about “things we have in common”. President Cyril Ramaphosa is planning to meet Business Unity South Africa again after an initial meeting in 2024, during which they discussed alternatives to the NHI
Norbert Ndjeka was born on World TB Day. Decades later, he would reshape how South Africa treats the deadliest forms of the disease
The HIV prevention shot, lenacapavir, will be rolled out at South African clinics within the next couple of months and from 2027, the health department will also buy generics. But how best to spend the HIV prevention budget so that the country can drive infections down as fast as possible? We take a look at what the modelling data shows
Six years after Cyclone Idai ripped through Beira, the city’s wounds — physical and psychological — are still raw. As a new storm gathered in the Indian Ocean in February, journalist Sean Christie found a city caught in a permanent state of waiting for the next disaster to hit.
This year on 4th March, the global health community will unite to raise awareness about the fact that there are numerous root causes for obesity. In particular this year, the Foundation wishes to highlight the fact that obesity is also classified as a medical condition. Guided by the World Obesity Federation, using the theme: “8 billion […]
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 2043 in the country. The original version of the once-every-six-months shot, known as lenacapavir, is produced by the US pharmaceutical company, Gilead Sciences. Sanac will submit a shortlist of successful applicants, who met the requirements of the Council’s expression of interest call, to Gilead by July.
Together with sanitary pad and pantyliner manufacturers, specialists say there is no evidence of a health risk even though a UFS study has found they contain hormone-disrupting chemicals
As the Earth becomes hotter, we’re seeing more floods and droughts. Flooding can make superbugs spread faster and further. And heat helps germs adapt faster
Manufacturers and industry groups argue that endocrine-disrupting chemicals in menstrual products are present at extremely low levels and do not compromise safety
A pending court complaint alleges bias after the regulator voted to block radio advertisements about the dangers of sugar
Chemicals linked to fertility problems and cancer were detected in all sanitary pads and pantyliners tested
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 condition at 73. He asks what happens when the generation who fought for life finally get to grow old
A review of 37 studies found that when people stop taking weight-loss drugs like Ozempic, the weight comes back