Gauteng MEC threatens schoolgirls’ bodily autonomy with compulsory implant

Gauteng MEC threatens schoolgirls’ bodily autonomy with compulsory implant

The bodily autonomy of young women and girls is under threat as Gauteng Health and Wellness MEC Nomantu Nkomo-Ralehoko intends to make the contraceptive implanon compulsory for learners as long as their parents consent. This approach to addressing teenage pregnancy is misguided and unlawful, argues Khuselwa Dyantyi. 

Read More

Health in 2025: Spotlight’s top 4 questions for the year ahead

Health in 2025: Spotlight’s top 4 questions for the year ahead

From the ongoing political and legal battles over NHI, to the far-reaching health impacts of political change in the United States, it is set to be another tumultuous year for healthcare in South Africa and around the globe. Here’s Spotlight’s top four healthcare questions for 2025.

Read More

Health in 2024: The year in fewer than 1 000 words

Health in 2024: The year in fewer than 1 000 words

From the NHI Act to major advances in HIV prevention, it has been another busy year in the world of healthcare. Spotlight editors Marcus Low and Adiel Ismail recap the year’s health developments and identify some key trends in fewer than 1 000 words. 

Read More

Proposed Health Professions Act Amendment a double-edged sword

Proposed Health Professions Act Amendment a double-edged sword

The Democratic Alliance intends to propose legislation that would allow healthcare professionals to do community service and internships in private hospitals. Such a legislative change risks exacerbating some of South Africa’s healthcare inequalities, argues Bulela Vava.

Read More

South Africa’s AIDS response: Progress, challenges, and opportunities

South Africa’s AIDS response: Progress, challenges, and opportunities

Ahead of World AIDS Day 2024, Professor Salim Abdool Karim and Dr Nikita Devnarain argue that South Africa needs a concerted effort to reduce new HIV infections in young women and to prepare for the rollout of long-acting forms of HIV prevention alongside a well-functioning HIV treatment programme.

Read More

Why the fuss about long-acting antiretrovirals for HIV?

Why the fuss about long-acting antiretrovirals for HIV?

HIV prevention injections that can provide two, or even six, months of protection per shot have arguably been the biggest HIV story of the year. Ahead of World AIDS Day, Professor Francois Venter assesses the state of play and the critical next steps with these potentially game-changing new tools in the fight against HIV.

Read More

NHI offers an opportunity to boost primary healthcare – we must seize it

NHI offers an opportunity to boost primary healthcare – we must seize it

To see National Health Insurance primarily as the setting up of a state-run medical aid scheme risks underplaying its massive potential to restructure how public healthcare services are organised and funded, and with that, its potential to boost the delivery of primary healthcare services in South Africa, argues Russell Rensburg.

Read More

NHI Act offers no answer to high medicines prices

NHI Act offers no answer to high medicines prices

The National Health Insurance Act does not deal with the systemic issues that cause high prices and inequity in medicine access, and government is not listening, argues Fatima Hassan.

Read More

Why people stop taking their HIV treatment and what we can do about it

Why people stop taking their HIV treatment and what we can do about it

Stopping antiretroviral treatment when you are living with HIV can result in increased HIV transmission, illness, hospitalisation, and eventually death. To combat such disengagement with HIV treatment, Professor Graeme Meintjes and colleagues argue we need smarter differentiated care and better education of healthcare workers, people living with HIV, and communities.

Read More

SA has the third highest suicide rate in Africa – there are steps we can take to tackle it

SA has the third highest suicide rate in Africa – there are steps we can take to tackle it

South Africa has the third highest suicide rate in Africa and Africa has higher rates of suicide than any other continent. In the wake of World Suicide Prevention Day on September 10th, clinical psychologist Vincenzo Sinisi asks what can be done to bring down suicide rates.

Read More

Living with a cleft: “I smile, but without showing teeth”

Living with a cleft: “I smile, but without showing teeth”

The ongoing psychological, functional, and aesthetic challenges experienced by people with cleft lip and palate underscore the need for an individualised, lifelong, and multidisciplinary approach to managing the condition, argues Kholofelo Mphahlele.

Read More

Access to contraception and mental healthcare services are critical to empowering women in rural areas

Access to contraception and mental healthcare services are critical to empowering women in rural areas

The lack of access to essential healthcare services in rural areas worsens the challenges women face, particularly when it comes to early pregnancy and gender-based violence. Celene Coleman and Hanifa Mahlangu argue for strategies that prioritise the empowerment of rural women through improved access to contraception and mental health services.

Read More