Latest
Weight gain with new antiretrovirals: Its complicated
The ARV dolutegravir will soon become part of standard first line HIV treatment in South Africa. Two leading experts discuss what we do and do not know about dolutegravir and weight gain.
Doc explains healthcare for transgender people
Dr Anastacia Tomson outlines the barriers to adequate, safe and informed health care for transgender people.
Stockout of Depo-Testosterone is life threatening
Depo-Testosterone, an affordable injectable hormone, has been out of stock in South Africa for more than three months. The shortage has been described as life-threatening. Karin Schimke reports.
System-wide neglect of the transgender population
The recent stock-out of a hormone used in gender-affirming treatment for transgender men has revealed a system-wide neglect of a large sector of the South African population. Karin Schimke reports.
#Vote4Health: Still no end in sight to orthopaedic disaster in Free State
Orthopaedic surgery backlogs have become old news at Bloemfontein’s Pelonomi Hospital, but it’s still fresh hell for the patients admitted every day and forced to sleep on chairs, on floors and on stretchers pushed up against corridor walls waiting for beds, often for weeks.
New guides to advocating in AIDS councils
Spotlight has developed two new advocacy guides for members of provincial or district AIDS councils. One focuses on TB prevention and the other on retention in care.
Silicosis: The names in Paragraph 7
Photographer Thom Pierce reflects on the news that 10 out the original 56 applicants in the silicosis class action have died. Pierce was a key part of a team that created the "Price of Gold" exhibition.
New science: Highlights from CROI2019
Last week the Conference for Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI) was held in Seattle, USA. Spotlight did not attend this year’s conference, but fortunately all CROI abstracts and presentations are made available online. Below we have picked some highlights of relevance for South Africa.
Posted about Treatment in 2017
#Vote4Health: Healthcare after the elections
Who will be South Africa’s next Minister of Health and what will be the impact of May’s national and provincial elections on South Africa’s ongoing health crisis?
#Vote4Health: Lusikisiki push for condoms in schools
In Luskikisiki in the Eastern Cape girls as young as 11 years old are falling pregnant and becoming HIV-infected, prompting renewed calls by the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) that government condoms are distributed at primary schools. Biénne Huisman attended a community meeting in Lusikisiki.
Spotlight’s Vote4Health
In the run-up to South Africa’s general elections in May 2019 Spotlight will be publishing a series of articles under the banner #Vote4Health.
#Vote4Health: New hope as Lusikisiki finally gets a new clinic
In Lusikisiki, in the OR Tambo District of the Eastern Cape, the so-called Village Clinic had become emblematic of a faltering health system, in a rural area fraught with chronic illness and early death due to rapidly-spreading HIV and tuberculosis. Biénne Huisman went to Lusikiki to take the community's temperature. Photographs, Halden Krog.
Recent Episodes
Episode 6: Justice Edwin Cameron addresses the TAC 20-year celebrations
Justice Edwin Cameron of South Africa’s Constitutional Court recently addressed attendees at the TAC’s 20-year celebrations. We bring you a
recording of what he had to say to TAC members, supporters and allies.
Episode 5: Dr Fareed Abdullah on South Africa’s AIDS response
Dr Fareed Abdullah of the SA MRC, previously CEO of SANAC, recently addressed the TAC’s 20-year celebrations. Listen what he had to say about the history of South Africa’s AIDS response and where we are now.
Episode 4: Marijuana, health and the law in South Africa
Host Nomatter Ndebele chats to Dr Michael Herbst of the Cancer Association of South Africa about the landmark Constitutional Court judgement on the possession and use of marijuana and the judgement’s implications for the health of people in South Africa.
Episode 3: Sasha Stevenson on what NHI and HMI means for healthcare reform in South Africa
At a recent civil society meeting jointly hosted by SECTION27 and Spotlight, Sasha Stevenson, head of health at SECTION27, presented on the implications of NHI and HMI for access to healthcare in South Africa. We now make her informative and thought-provoking presentation available as a podcast. (We apologise for the poor quality of the recording.)
Videos
Cry Ndlovu Cry
Ndlovu Care Group and patients have been at the centre of a battle with the Limpopo health MEC who ended the contract and wants the almost 4 000 healthy HIV patients transferred to battling state clinics.
VIDEO: #FireBenny
The Treatment Action Campaign and partners recently held a meeting to establish the Free State People’s Health Coalition. More than 500 TAC members also took to the streets and delivered memorandums to the police and National Prosecuting Authority demanding an update on the charges against Health MEC Dr Benny Malakoane. This is a short clip of …
VIDEO: The Price of Gold
Judgment in the historic Silicosis Class Action, Bongani Nkala and 55 Others v Harmony Gold Mining Company Ltd and 31 Others, will be handed down in the South Gauteng High Court tomorrow (Friday 13 May 2016) at 9am. If the class is certified it will be the largest class to ever be certified in South Africa and …
VIDEO: TB Aware: Nulda Beyers
TB scientist Professor Nulda Beyers speaks about the critical needs to employeers to enable employees to get tested and treated for TB. Credit: Thom Pierce
