Last year a South African woman took a multibillion-dollar United States pharmaceutical company to court with the aim of securing access to life-changing cystic fibrosis medicines. That case has now been dropped following a reduction in the price charged for the medicines in South Africa. Catherine Tomlinson reports.
Over the last four years South Africa has taken large strides in making HIV prevention pills available at public sector clinics, but uptake has not been as good as some may have hoped. Thabo Molelekwa asks several experts why this might be.
Almost a decade after they were first proven to be safe and highly effective, game-changing medicines to cure hepatitis C are finally becoming more widely available in South Africa. But not all the regulatory and other challenges behind the delay have yet been overcome and, as a result, access remains relatively limited for now. Catherine Tomlinson reports.
Johannesburg-based investment banker Cheri Nel is the driving force behind a court case that may result in dramatically expanded access to life-changing new cystic fibrosis (CF) medicines. Biénne Huisman asked Nel about the motivation behind the court case and what it is like to live with CF.
Spotlight recently reported on a court case aimed at expanding access to breakthrough new treatments for cystic fibrosis (CF) and on how this debilitating disease is diagnosed in South Africa. Now, in Part 3 of this special series on CF, Catherine Tomlinson turns the spotlight on how the disease is currently being treated in the country, while the new treatments are still largely out of reach.
Cryptococcal meningitis is the second top killer of people living with HIV in South Africa. In the second of a two-part series on access to treatment for the condition, Catherine Tomlinson puts the Spotlight on the drug liposomal amphotericin B (part one looked at flucytosine).
On 17 February, Deputy Health Minister Dr Sibongiseni Dhlomo led a march against unsafe abortions in Rustenburg, North West, but a march alone cannot eliminate barriers that prevent women and girls from accessing safe abortions in the public health system. Much more is needed, argue Sibusiwe Ndlela, Khanyisa Mapipa and Thokozile Mtsolongo in an open letter.
The sudden closure of Thusong District Hospital in the North West has left healthcare workers and patients confused and frustrated with some patients still turning up at the hospital gates, not knowing where to go for medication and other healthcare services. Nthusang Lefafa reports.
