The number of people in South Africa on antiretroviral treatment remained roughly unchanged from 2024 to 2025, according to just-published estimates from the leading mathematical model of HIV in the country. This suggests that the disruption of US aid for HIV services has slowed the growth of our HIV treatment programme, but the impact so far is not as severe as some researchers feared it might be. Marcus Low reports.
Along dusty roads in northern KwaZulu-Natal, Biénne Huisman speaks to youth leaders, community mentors and leading scientists who are collaborating to bring a groundbreaking HIV prevention jab to this area where HIV infection rates remain stubbornly high.
We can generally trust that the medicines we buy at pharmacies contain what they are supposed to and that they were manufactured according to good quality standards. In his latest column, Dr Andy Gray zooms in on the regulatory scaffolding that enables this trust.
At his Durban office, Professor Willem Hanekom tells Biénne Huisman about taking a ventilated young patient to the Sea Point promenade, living with HIV, the need for an African research agenda, and the recurring joy that has defined his career.
Young people with kidney disease in South Africa often fall into the gap between the paediatric and adult healthcare systems. One innovative clinic in Cape Town is offering a solution tailor-made for this group. Elna Schütz reports.
Substance abuse is both a symptom and a consequence of untreated mental illness, and government needs to urgently step in to confront this dangerous overlap, argues Gauta Mashego of SECTION27.
Fifteen years ago, when Christoff and Tarryn Bell fell in love with a severely ill baby in a KwaZulu-Natal orphanage, they had no idea this would kickstart a journey which would see them caring for numerous abandoned children with life-limiting illnesses. Sue Segar reports.
When Thokozile Ndlovu found out that her baby had a life-limiting illness, she went from pillar to post looking for medical help. Her journey took her to one of the only places offering hope, the Butterfly Palliative Home in Ingwavuma in KwaZulu-Natal. Sue Segar reports.
From 5–7 May, the Constitutional Court will hear two of the multiple challenges to the NHI Act. Sasha Stevenson, Executive Director of SECTION27, considers what will be on the line in these first potentially landmark cases that deal with the process that led to the Act.
The Western Cape health department is ramping up its workforce with 800 new frontline posts. After years of austerity and with long lists of vacancies, questions now turn to how soon the new posts will translate into staff on the ground. Christina Pitt reports.
It has been a bruising year or so for medical researchers in South Africa with the US pausing, cancelling, and then resuming some grants. But as bad as things were, what played out wasn’t the worst case scenario, and momentum is now building toward recovery.
Bukhosi Mdletshe works as clinic manager at the Ensingweni clinic in in KwaZulu-Natal, and in his words, paying his dues to the rural community that raised him. Sue Segar and Thom Pierce spent some time with Mdletshe for Spotlight’s Rural Health Heroes series.
