Monkeypox: Our top 10 questions answered
This week South Africa recorded its first case of monkeypox. Spotlight asked the experts and consulted WHO and NICD documents for answers to our top ten questions about monkeypox.
Shorter, simpler DR-TB regimen expected later this year
A new six-month treatment regimen for drug-resistant forms of tuberculosis is expected to be rolled out in the public sector later this year – current regimens take anything from nine to 18 months. Catherine Tomlinson unpacks why the switch is important and outlines what still needs to happen to make it a reality.
EDITORIAL: Government claims to value healthcare workers, its actions suggest it does not
The headline-making persecution of paediatrician Dr Tim de Maayer is part of a wider trend whereby principled public sector healthcare workers are often abandoned to the whims of managers who are vindictive, incompetent, or both. Add the slow movement on South Africa’s healthcare worker policy, the poor management of the Health Professions Council, and the short shrift given to healthcare workers’ concerns about National Health Insurance, and the picture that emerges makes a mockery of government’s talk of valuing healthcare workers.
Unacceptably long wait for surgery in Free State, healthcare workers and patients say
Surgical waiting lists are not unexpected in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, but there are indications that the situation is particularly acute in the Free State, and possibly for reasons that are not directly related to the pandemic. Also, the department of health failed to offer any explanation or details of current surgery waiting lists and waiting times reported by healthcare workers and patients. Refilwe Mochoari reports.
COVID-19: What role for masks, sanitising, and ventilation in the new normal?
South Africa’s fifth wave of COVID-19 infections was comparatively small and is already abating. As with the fourth wave, infection was much less likely to result in hospitalisation or death than in the first three waves. In light of these changes in the pandemic, Aisha Abdool Karim asks what the “new normal” should look like when it comes to mask-wearing, ventilation, hand sanitising, and other preventive measures.
NHI Lawmakers: Interview with FF Plus MP Philip van Staden
On being a member of Parliament, Philip van Staden from the Freedom Front Plus says he is living his childhood dream. Biénne Huisman spoke to him about his career in politics, his thoughts on national health insurance, his passion for the health portfolio, and his time as a member of the Gauteng Legislature after the Life Esidimeni tragedy.
Positive signs for new TB testing strategy
Under a new tuberculosis (TB) diagnosis strategy, people considered to be at high risk of TB are offered molecular TB tests, even if they do not have any symptoms. A landmark study in 2020 showed that such a strategy can help diagnose more people more quickly. Now, early indications are that it also works in the real world and South Africa’s lab service says they can cope with the increased demand. Tiyese Jeranji reports.
Opinion: The new health system we build through the NHI must be green
The recent floods in KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape showed us how climate change harms people’s health and healthcare services. On the other hand, modern health care systems contribute to climate change through large greenhouse gas emissions. In the development of South Africa’s National Health Insurance system we have an opportunity to address both these sides of the challenge that climate change poses for health systems, argues Dr Louis Reynolds of the People’s Health Movement SA.
ANALYSIS: NHI Bill – clause-by-clause headbutting begins in Parliament
In what is expected to become a verbal minefield littered with the usual ideological quips, the members of Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Health this week started the clause-by-clause deliberations on the National Health Insurance (NHI) Bill. Alicestine October assesses the first leg of the deliberations and issues set to pop up in the next round of deliberations, starting with clause 5 of the Bill next week.
Over 3million people on new HIV drug, but not all smooth sailing
In 2019, the Department of Health started providing the antiretroviral drug dolutegravir as part of HIV treatment in the public sector. Three years later, close to 3.2 million people in South Africa are taking dolutegravir every day. Even so, the rollout of dolutegravir hasn’t all been smooth sailing. Elri Voigt investigates how the massive undertaking of switching millions of people to a new drug has gone.
Lives depend on SA finding more stem cell donors
Unathi Mtengwane from Zeerust in the North West needs a compatible stem cell donor for a transplant that could save his life. However, for some patients who can’t find a compatible donor the process can be arduous, expensive, and littered with legal barriers, writes Thabo Molelekwa.
Open letter: Dear Minister Phaahla, the ‘medical tourist mom’ is little more than a convenient myth.
Health Minister Dr Joe Phaahla recently announced in Parliament that his department will conduct a study on the treatment of foreign nationals at public health facilities in South Africa. Phaahla singled out foreign nationals (pregnant women) seeking maternity services as the major concern, but the idea of the medical tourist mom is a myth, writes Kholofelo Mphahlele in this open letter.
