Researchers around the world are drawing an ever-more distinct line between rising global temperatures and negative effects on maternal, foetal, and infant health. One of these researchers is Professor Matthew Chersich of the Wits Reproductive Health and HIV Research Institute. Ufrieda Ho chatted to Chersich after he delivered his inaugural lecture at the end of August.
In July this year temperatures in some parts of the Free State dropped as low as minus 8 degrees Celsius while in some hospitals patients were told to bring their own blankets or brace the cold without. Although the provincial health department denies any linen and blanket shortages, Refilwe Mochoari found patients who say otherwise.
The Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) elected new leadership at its recently held seventh national congress. Thabo Molelekwa attended the congress and asked TAC leaders about the organisation’s focus in 2022 and beyond.
Head of general surgery at Groote Schuur Hospital, Professor Lydia Cairncross is a sharp thinker and straight talker. Whether it is on issues of equity and social justice or on how to strengthen quality healthcare – Cairncross speaks her mind. Tiyese Jeranji spoke to her as part of Spotlight’s Women in Health series.
Being a midwife is not a career for her, says Sebabatso Tsosane – it’s a calling. Refilwe Mochoari spoke to Tsosane – a midwife, lecturer, and founder of the Free State-based organisation Black Women Arise – about her passion to empower women with knowledge about their sexual and reproductive health as part of Spotlight’s Women in Health series.
When Professor Petro Terblanche joined biotechnology start-up Afrigen three years ago, she had no idea that the team she was heading up would create the continent’s first mRNA vaccine. But that wasn’t the first time Terblanche had been at the forefront of cutting-edge scientific work. Aisha Abdool Karim spoke to her as part of Spotlight’s Women in Health series.
Passionate about community psychiatry, Professor Lesley Robertson spent the bulk of her career as a psychiatrist pushing for mental health reform in South Africa. Now, as head of the community psychiatry clinical unit at Sedibeng District Health Service, she is still pushing – among others to improve the essential medicines lists for psychiatric medicines and shore up community-based networks of churches, community groups, and assisted living homes as soft landings for people in need. Ufrieda Ho spoke to her as part of Spotlight’s Women in Health series.
South Africa is seeing fewer medication stockouts than in previous years but contraception shortages continue to be a problem in the country, according to a new report from the Stop Stockouts Project. Injectables, the most widely used method in South Africa, accounted for three-quarters of contraception stockouts reported. Aisha Abdool Karim unpacks what this means for women’s sexual and reproductive health.
At one stage during the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr Angela Hartwig was the only doctor at Adelaide Hospital in the Eastern Cape. She also fell ill while pregnant and working, and ended up in a COVID-ward. Despite the challenges the pandemic dished out to health facilities and health workers, especially in rural areas like Adelaide, she remains passionate about rural health. Bienne Huisman spoke to her as part of Spotlight’s Women in Health series.
The worsening climate crisis poses a threat to women and girls and their access to healthcare in the country. Matshidiso Lencoasa argues that although the ongoing climate crisis is daunting, it can serve as an opportunity for budgeting and policy-making processes to centre the most vulnerable and protect women’s right to healthcare.
Dr Thesla Palanee-Phillips is the Director of Clinical Trials at the Wits Reproductive Health and HIV Institute (Wits RHI) at the University of the Witwatersrand. As part of Spotlight’s Women in Health series, Elri Voigt spoke to her about what set her off into a career in science, the significance of the ASPIRE trial that she co-chaired, and juggling motherhood and her career.
It is estimated that in 2021, around 0.3% of sexually active people in the Western Cape were taking antiretroviral medicines to prevent HIV infection. This is substantially lower than the national estimate of 1%. Elsabé Brits asks why uptake in the Western Cape is lagging behind most other provinces.
