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A wandering albatross pair at Marion Island.
(Chris Oosthuizen)

Tests confirm presence of high pathogenicity avian flu on South Africa’s Marion Island

Six bird species have been infected on the remote sub-Antarctic island

The Free State department of education has confirmed that it had to shut schools in the Xhariep district after 100 pupils were infected with influenza B and human rhinovirus.

Free State schools reports human rhinovirus outbreak

The provincial health department ordered the schools to shut their doors after about 100 pupils were infected with the virus, as well as influenza B

The Klipspruit river polluted by sewage and mine waste in Soweto. (File photo by Delwyn Verasamy)

Water, air and soil pollution is spawning deadly superbugs

Environmental waste, especially pharmaceuticals and toxins, needs high-level action to stop its major contribution to antimicrobial resistance

A health worker conducts a coronavirus rapid antigen test at a Testaro Covid-19 testing site in the Goodwood district of Cape Town, South Africa, on Thursday, Dec. 2, 2021. South Africa announced the discovery of a new variant, later christened omicron, on Nov. 25 as cases began to spike and the strain spread across the globe. (Dwayne Senior/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Meet the scientists tracking Covid-19’s crappy future

Water in the country’s drains can pick up a spike in Covid-19 cases or a threatening new variant in time for clinics to prepare for an influx of patients

Top shot: The drug tocilizumab reduces Covid deaths but it is expensive and in short supply in Kenya. Photo: Brian Ongoro/Getty Images

Unvaccinated, untreated: Africa may not get its fair share of Covid-19 drugs

Only 18 countries are using dexamethasone, while tocilizumab and sarilumab can cost hundreds or thousands of dollars a dose

Billboard in Freetown, Sierra Leone reads “Ebola, Survivors are our Heroes & Heroines. Stop The Stigma !!!”

Africa in brief: August 21 – 28

What’s been happening on the continent this week?

To the rescue: In Barcelona, a man wearing face mask walks by a work by Italian street artist TvBoy named The Three Vaccines, depicting the graces dressed in AstraZeneca, Moderna and Pfizer labels, which consciously references Raphael’s classic painting The Three Graces. (Josep Lago/AFP)

Vaccine hesitant? An expert answers questions people have

Safety, side-effects and the jargon-filled scientific information explained for those who have concerns about getting vaccinated

Proactive: Teachers and support staff queue for the Covid-19 vaccination at Universitas Hospital in Bloemfontein in the face of the more transmittable Delta variant. (Mlungisi Louw/Gallo Images/Volksblad)

Covid-19 crash course: Everything you need to know about viruses, variants and vaccines

Covid-19 variants are new versions of the virus that are smarter at surviving. But before we can understand what these changed forms mean for vaccines, we first need to go back…

What are the various Covid-19 vaccines being used in SA and how well do they work?

The vaccines being used to fight the pandemic take at least two weeks after inoculation to become effective — and nonpharmaceutical interventions remain crucial

Worldwide resistance: Anti-lockdown activists in Dublin, Ireland, protest during that country’s level five lockdown against what they see as impending forced vaccinations. (Artur Widak/NurPhoto)
On Saturday, November 28, 2020, in Dublin, Ireland. (Photo by Artur Widak/NurPhoto)

Disinformation harms health and democracy

Conspiracy theorists abuse emotive topics to suck the air out of legitimate debate and further their own sinister agendas

Increased intensity: A nurse in a Covid-19 isolation ward at the George Mukhari hospital gives her patients their meals. Healthworkers say it almost feels as if they’re dealing with a different virus during the second wave. There are far more patients and deaths, and the disease seems more intense. (James Oatway)

Inside George Mukhari hospital’s second wave

The Bhekisisa Centre for Health Journalism and James Oatway visited George Mukhari academic hospital to document the second-wave realities experienced by doctors and nurses