In the nineties, the optimism of the oppressed and dispossessed was tempered by the fear of the previously advantaged of losing a way of life they had come to accept as normal. Stories of their imminent demise dominated fireside discussions.
Biénne Huisman speaks to Nomafrench Mbombo about the long journey from doing domestic work in East London to being the MEC for Health in the Western Cape.
Cryptococcal meningitis is the second leading killer of people with HIV, behind only tuberculosis. Yet, access to a new, better medicine that can save lives remains limited.
The Limpopo health department, which has a track record of dodgy aeromedical contracts, has awarded a lucrative three-year tender to a joint venture including Buthelezi EMS (BEMS), a private emergency medical services company which is under investigation by the Special Investigating Unit, the Hawks and National Treasury.
Marcus Low takes an in-depth look at the politics of NHI, explores the concerns people have with the NHI Bill, and asks what it will take for people in South Africa to find more common ground.
The Public Service Commission (PSC) made a surprise visit to the Cecilia Makiwane Mental Health Unit – 10 days after Spotlight published its investigation into a whistleblower’s plea about the unit’s dire state.
Sasha Stevenson considers what has changed between the 2018 draft NHI Bill and the version released two weeks ago to see how, if at all, thinking and planning for NHI has developed.
While a combination of drugs including now FDA-approved pretomanid is probably the best treatment for XDR-TB, it is still not clear whether or not pretomanid itself is safe and effective.
The new tuberculosis medicine pretomanid has just been registered by the United States Food and Drug Administration. What are the implications for South Africa?
SAHPRA inherited a backlog of around 16 000 medicine regulatory applications from the MCC. How can this backlog be processed and medicines regulation improved in future?
The root causes of high prices—unchecked patent-granted monopolies—remain in place. Once again, thousands of lives are being lost on the altar of profiteering. Mark Heywood and Zain Rizvi argue why South Africa must urgently adopt a new patent law.
Might an ambitious scale up of active case finding be just what is needed to break the back of South Africa’s tuberculosis epidemic?