Broadly neutralising antibodies (bnAbs) are one of the most active and exciting areas in HIV research. Last year Spotlight reported on a “proof of concept” study showing that a specific bnAb can successfully prevent infection with certain strains of HIV. Now, we also have intriguing findings suggesting that bnAbs may have a role to play in the treatment of HIV in children. Elri Voigt reports.
One of the great paradoxes in healthcare in South Africa is that, while we have impressive healthcare expertise in the country, most of our provincial health departments are poorly managed. Spotlight editor Marcus Low considers what this means for efforts to build state capacity in general, and for healthcare in particular.
Women and girls seeking abortions are often forced to seek informal, illegal, and unsafe abortions as a result of various systemic barriers. Khanyisa Mapipa, Sibusisiwe Ndlela, and Thokozile Mtsolongo look at the state of abortion services in the public sector in the Eastern Cape.
Despite Eastern Cape Health authorities acknowledging that the continued use of mud clinics is a concern, rural residents still have to make do with these dilapidated clinics. Luvuyo Mehlwana visited some of these mud clinics to speak to some residents and asked the provincial health department about their plans to address this.
The Northern Cape Health Department has been without a permanent department head (HOD) since July 2020 and an acting head has been suspended following his arrest in August last year on charges of fraud and corruption. Organised labour and opposition parties in the province are concerned over the impact that the leadership instability has on healthcare services. Refilwe Mochoari reports.
It is business as usual at the Free State Department of Health with the acting Head of the Department Godfrey Mahlatsi back at work after he was released on R5 000 bail on 11 February. Mahlatsi is accused of contravening the Public Finance Management Act, while some of his co-accused face charges ranging from corruption and fraud to money laundering. The alleged fraud and corruption led to an R8.7 million loss to the department. Refilwe Mochoari reports.
In January, Cape Town-based biotechnology company Afrigen Biologics announced that it has successfully produced a lab-scale batch of a mRNA vaccine against COVID-19 that is similar to that made by pharmaceutical company Moderna. Catherine Tomlinson takes an in-depth look at how Afrigen managed to reach this point and what further challenges have to be overcome before mRNA vaccines can be produced at scale in South Africa
On 17 February, Deputy Health Minister Dr Sibongiseni Dhlomo led a march against unsafe abortions in Rustenburg, North West, but a march alone cannot eliminate barriers that prevent women and girls from accessing safe abortions in the public health system. Much more is needed, argue Sibusiwe Ndlela, Khanyisa Mapipa and Thokozile Mtsolongo in an open letter.
HIV and ageing were one of the hot topics at the recently held Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections. Elri Voigt reports.
Even though the rate of new HIV infections in young women and adolescent girls remains stubbornly high, provision and uptake of pills that can prevent HIV infection have generally been slow and lagging. One potential solution presented at the recent Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections is to provide the pills at schools. Tiyese Jeranji reports.
An HIV prevention injection taken every two months was recently approved in the United States. Several HIV activists interviewed by Thabo Molelekwa say that access to the injection should be prioritised in South Africa and that we need to do a better job in rolling out the injection than we did with the rollout of prevention pills.
While there are nine experimental tuberculosis (TB) vaccines in advanced trials, the vaccine pipeline beyond those nine prospects is relatively depleted. Adele Baleta reports on this and much more from the virtual Global TB Vaccine Forum held last week.