COVID-19: SA’s TB response already impacted
South Africa’s extensive COVID-19 response is already impacting the fight against tuberculosis (TB) with a decline in TB testing and at least one TB ward being turned into a COVID-19 ward.
COVID-19: Is SA’s testing criteria too restrictive?
There are some healthcare workers who feel South Africa’s COVID-19 testing criteria should be broadened. Amy Green asked some local health experts for their views.
COVID-19: The Pros and Cons of high-speed science
Scientific research on COVID-19 has been published at an unprecedented scale and speed, but some fear that this is at the cost of scientific rigour. Adele Baleta explores the pros and cons of high-speed science.
COVID-19: Some homeless people choose streets over shelters
As most people in South Africa prepare for another week in their homes under South Africa’s national COVID-19 lockdown, Amy Green spoke to some of Johannesburg’s many homeless persons about why they choose life on the street over government shelters.
COVID-19: What the lockdown means for sexual and reproductive health services
Access to reproductive healthcare services is almost always time sensitive and not something that can simply be placed on hold because of the COVID-19 lockdown. It remains as important as always to provide services that reinforce women’s rights to dignity, autonomy and to access healthcare services, including reproductive healthcare services, writes Thuthukile Mbatha and Tendai Mafuma.
COVID-19: Concerns mount over plans to protect prisoners
Despite measures implemented by the Department of Justice and Correctional Services to protect inmates since the start of the COVID-19 outbreak, there are concerns among some civil society organisations and legal experts about the adequacy of these measures, writes Elri Voigt.
COVID-19: All you need to know about the flu
Every year around 40 000 people are hospitalised with influenza in South Africa and around 11 000 die of the disease. Spotlight interviewed leading Professor in Vaccinology Shabir Madhi about the flu and its implications for the fight against COVID-19.
COVID-19: Why is SA not testing more?
Government has rolled out an intensified screening and testing campaign in the hope of finding more COVID-19 cases during and after the lockdown period, but the disparity between the country’s testing capacity and the actual number of tests being conducted remains substantial.
COVID-19: The time for procrastination over patents is over
Unless timely action is taken, South Africa could be faced with a new form of “pharmaceutical apartheid,” like that experienced in the early days of the AIDS response, writes Professor Yousuf Vawda & Professor Brook K. Baker.
COVID-19: Community Healthcare Workers are crucial to SA’s response
The Department of Health has announced that it will rely on community healthcare workers to assist with tracking and tracing potential COVID-19 cases but has not provided assurances about how it will protect these workers during the process and beyond, writes Nontsikelelo Mpulo and Tendai Mafuma.
COVID-19: The kids are not all right
Children experience anxiety and panic as acutely as adults do; only they might be better at hiding it. There is concern that the COVID-19 pandemic and national lock down will lead to an increase of physical and emotional abuse towards children and that the economic fallout of the pandemic will add a new dimension of hardship to children’s lives.
COVID-19: Patent victories from HIV fight are now more relevant than ever
Around the turn of the century developing countries fought for and won safeguards to promote access to medicines in international trade law. These safeguards are now being heralded by lawmakers around the world as critical legal mechanisms that nations can and must use in the fight against COVID-19, writes Catherine Tomlinson.