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South Africa has rolled out lenacapavir — a twice-yearly injectable that offers near-complete protection against HIV. Photo: Mufid Majnun/Unsplash
HIV AIDS

What the HLM must deliver for Africa

South Africa, a leader in HIV response with the world's largest antiretroviral treatment programme, advocates for sustained and predictable global resourcing at the High-Level…

  • Aaron Motsoaledi
4 min read
HIV AIDS

Why the HLM Matters: I was born with HIV – do not make decisions about me without me

A 22-year-old South African HIV activist, born with the virus, shares her powerful perspective on living with HIV and calls on world leaders at the High-Level Meeting on HIV/Aids…

  • Ibanomonde Ngema
3 min read
HIV AIDS

Why the High-Level Meeting on HIV matters

Diagnosed with HIV in 2000 when it was a death sentence for many Africans, the author reflects on 25 years of the fight against the epidemic. Ahead of the UN High-Level Meeting…

  • Yvette Raphael
6 min read
PUBLIC HEALTH

Why the HLM matters: The world cannot afford to lose this moment

The UN General Assembly High-Level Meeting on HIV/Aids is set to address the alarming decline in political will and funding, which threatens to unravel decades of progress in HIV…

  • Alankar Malviya
5 min read
Mother of five, Josephine Saranam (left), lives in constant worry for the safety of her 15-year-old daughter, Lorna (right). Lorna is one of 300 students from Goulubu village in Rigo District, Central Province, Papua New Guinea, who swim across the Kemp Welch River each day to attend school. The journey raises serious safety concerns, particularly for adolescent girls who must seek privacy in nearby bushes to change after crossing. During floods, many students are unable to cross, leading to frequent absenteeism.
CLIMATE CHANGE

From floods to heatwaves: nearly half of children face stacked climate shocks

A new Unicef analysis reveals that nearly half of the world's children, approximately 1.1 billion, are living with multiple, overlapping climate threats. These hazards, including…

  • Sheree Bega
4 min read
PUBLIC HEALTH

Ebola is back. So are the double standards

Just four years after COVID-19, the US is demanding an Ebola quarantine camp in Kenya, while Western countries impose travel bans on African nations. This article explores the…

  • Linda Nordling
12 min read
The refusal to allow the cruise ship to dock in Cape Verde is an expression of the post-Covid-19 post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) from which the world suffers. Photo: Cruisemapper
ANDES VIRUS

A cruise ship, hantavirus and global PTSD

The memory of the Covid-19 shock shapes how governments and publics react to any new outbreak with even a hint of international spread

  • Anthony Ohemeng-Boamah
5 min read
Four toilets, built in 2013 by the organisation Candice Andisiwe Sehoma founded, are still flushing, although floods of raw sewage flow daily through the streets of Alexandra. (Sean Christie)
AIDS

Building toilets, fighting TB: Candice Andisiwe Sehoma’s life of activism

From discontinued insulin pens to overpriced TB drugs, meet the young South African holding drug makers to account on behalf of patients

  • Sean Christie
10 min read
Sign outside the offices of an organisation in Mozambique that was defunded by USAid. Photos: Jesse Copelyn
AFRICA

Mozambican children die after US funding cuts: Who bears responsibility?

The least the Trump administration could have done was provide ample warning that it was going to cut aid

  • Jesse Copelyn
10 min read
HIV treatment has, for the first time, been made in Africa.
AFRICAN ECONOMY

The Global Fund has just made history – now it must start a revolution

Africa’s first locally made HIV treatment is more than a milestone, it’s a political, economic and moral turning point in the fight for health sovereignty

  • Tian Johnson
6 min read
If all of its National Institutes of Health funding falls away, the country could lose 70% of its medical research capacity
CLINICAL TRIALS

The US’s NIH funds R6.65 billion of research in South Africa

If all of its National Institutes of Health funding falls away, the country could lose 70% of its medical research capacity

  • Linda Pretorius
  • Jacques Verryn
10 min read
Lenacapavir could end Aids in South Africa by 2032. How much should we pay for it? (Canva)
AIDS TREATMENT

The six-monthly anti-HIV jab could end Aids in SA by 2032

A modelling study released in March gives a clue at which price the jab, lenacapavir, would be worth the health department’s while

  • Mia Malan
12 min read
Donald Trump criminalised Cuba’s medical brigade and shot down USAid – but Cuba’s biotechnology industry could step in regarding HIV/Aids.
CUBA

South African-Cuban link: Trump’s targets can help each other

There is an urgent need to build health sovereignty and sustainability to break dependence on donations

  • Nontobeko Hlela & Varsha Gandikota Nellutla
7 min read
At least 66% of recent cases were performed by healthcare professionals, in an attempt to legitimise the practice. (David Harrison)
CHILD PROTECTION

Report finds female genital mutilation more prevalent than previously thought

At least 66% of recent cases were performed by healthcare professionals, in an attempt to legitimise the practice

  • MG Reporter
4 min read
(Unless South Africa’s Covid-19 vaccine uptake improves soon, the country will be saddled with well over seven million expiring doses of Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine by July — with nobody to offload them onto. Photo by Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
COLLABORATION

Collaboration is key for equitable access

Equitable access to Covid-19 vaccines, therapies and diagnostics is a moral duty

  • Bada Pharasi
3 min read