Articles

The implementation of the NHI is effectively frozen in court and constitutional clashes, blocking South Africa's most sweeping health overhaul since 1994. We talked to health economist Susan Cleary to find out whether the NHI is a wise way forward.

Reporters Qaanitah Hunter and Estelle Ellis offer five tips on how researchers can break into the headlines, fight misinformation and make their science count where it matters most.

As the president delays the implementation of the NHI, Health Beat examines the court and constitutional clashes blocking South Africa’s most sweeping health overhaul since 1994.

When researchers talked with dozens of girls and young women aged 15–24 across South Africa, they found drinking is on trend, as well as...

Superbugs are a big public health issue. So is climate change. Put the two together and the problem becomes even bigger. Here are 11 questions and answers that make it easy to understand why.

A pending court complaint alleges bias after the regulator voted to block radio advertisements about the dangers of sugar.

At 33, retired Constitutional Court justice Edwin Cameron thought he had, maybe, seven years left. His story traces the arc from certain death from Aids to a chronic, manageable condition at 73 — and asks what happens when the generation who fought for life finally get to grow old.

The tobacco industry is getting ready for the final showdown as South Africa’s Tobacco Bill heads into its last rounds, pulling out its well-worn talking points on illicit trade and high taxes. We talked to tobacco economics expert Corné van Walbeek to unravel fact from industry fiction.

After a year of US funding cuts across global public health, including South Africa’s hard-hit HIV programmes, new realities are settling in. We spoke to Mitchell Warren from the New York-based HIV advocacy organisation Avac to find out what that means for South Africa.

Many mothers who work as domestic workers have to make an impossible choice: keep your job or breastfeed your child. It’s a decision that carries lifelong health consequences for their babies. A decade-old proposal could help break the cycle.

For the past three years, Buhle Sikade, 22, has been using an injection that gives her almost foolproof protection against getting HIV through sex — medicine that around 456 000 other HIV-negative people in South Africa will be able to get from 360 government clinics for free from April 1. Here’s what it’s done for her and how it works.

A growing body of evidence suggests that unpredictable weather linked to climate change has the potential to injure people’s minds, leading to an increase in the development of common mental disorders such as depression and anxiety. Sean Christie travelled in rural western Burkina Faso recently, where a combination of seasonal flooding, infernal heat and violent attacks has farmers operating under immense strain.

The tattoos on Zandile Simelane's arms tell a story that most people can’t read. Hidden beneath the delicate blue ink of flowers and butterflies, dull white scars rise, remnants of the time when cutting herself seemed like the only way to express how much she was hurting.

Today, exactly a year ago, on January 20, Donald Trump was inaugurated as president of the United States (US) — and overnight, US policies on HIV funding for countries like South Africa changed. So where are we a year later? How are countries funding their HIV work now and how has international aid changed?

We talked to experts in obesity, tobacco, artificial intelligence, HIV, TB and the NHI to find out what we can expect — and what we can’t — this year.

The top read stories this year were focused mainly on Trump’s funding cuts and the 6-monthly anti-HIV jab set to roll out next year. But our staff picks were more nuanced. Read what you most read and we most loved.