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.
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.
In 2014, South Africa launched an HPV vaccination campaign targeting 9-year-old public school learners in Grade 4. It involves delivering two doses of vaccine six months apart. Laura Owings asks how the campaign is going and what recent real-world HPV vaccine effectiveness data from the United Kingdom might mean for South Africa.
As much as 20% of births in South Africa are the result of unplanned or unintended pregnancies. One way to reduce the rate of unintended pregnancies is for men who do not wish to have children to undergo male sterilisation in the form of vasectomy. Siyabonga Kamnqa asks how easy it is to get a vasectomy in South Africa and why relatively few men opt for this form of contraception.
Among several significant barriers to accessing abortion services, experts cite a lack of management support at health facilities, costs, fear of breach of confidentiality and stigma. Many of these barriers are compounded in rural areas. Tiyese Jeranji reports.
Abortion providers say self-managed abortions can give women more autonomy over their bodies, but access to this form of abortion remains limited in South Africa. Tiyese Jeranji looks at what exactly self-managed abortion entails.
The COVID-19 pandemic and South Africa’s national lockdown has exacerbated existing challenges the LGBTQI+ community and sex workers experience in accessing sexual and reproductive healthcare services. Tiyese Jeranji reports.
Under COVID-19 lockdowns in South Africa and elsewhere, many public services have been interrupted, including sexual and reproductive health services. Thuthukile Mbatha considers the heavy toll these interruptions have taken on people’s lives.
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.
By Nomatter Ndebele – It was business as usual at the International Aids conference in Durban in July 2016. The South African Minister of Health was about to address a plenary session when two young girls took to the stage.
