Despite some improvement, the community-led monitoring group Ritshidze’s second report on key populations highlights that sex workers, people who use drugs and LGBTQIA+ community members are often still discriminated against when trying to access public health facilities. This can lead to treatment interruptions and some stopping their clinic visits. Nthusang Lefafa reports.
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.
The ongoing stockouts of contraceptives grossly violate individuals’ and couples’ reproductive rights but alternative measures have not been put in place. If the issues of access to contraceptives are not dealt with, the country will face a baby boom and a rise in HIV infections at the end of the current pandemic writes Thuthukile Mbatha and Annah Maluleke.
