A survey of 49 000 teenagers in the Western Cape reminds us that preventing violence does not begin in a hospital, a police station or a courtroom. It begins much earlier, in families, schools, sports fields, faith communities and neighbourhoods, writes Western Cape Provincial Minister of Health and Wellness Mireille Wenger.
Eight months after the Supreme Court of Appeal gave the green light for specially trained pharmacists to dispense antiretrovirals without a script from a doctor, the programme remains stuck in the starting blocks. With enabling permits now seemingly on the horizon, Angela Tembo and Dr Deanne Johnston ask if there has been sufficient planning to make the initiative a success.
A court battle over blocked access to Johannesburg clinics has exposed how responsibility for ensuring access to healthcare services is divided between national, provincial and local government. Ahead of local government elections in November, Christina Pitt investigates where exactly the dividing lines lie.
Which vaccines are in use in South Africa and how does our vaccination schedule measure up to international standards? In this #InTheSpotlight special briefing, Catherine Tomlinson unpacks the recent history and details the vaccines currently being used in the country.
There are 12 childhood vaccines in wide use in South Africa. This guide unpacks what you need to know about each of them.
Ten years after its launch in the United States, a new, more effective shingles vaccine is finally set to hit the market in South Africa. While the vaccine, called Shingrix, should soon be available at private sector pharmacies, it seems unlikely that it will be provided in the country’s public healthcare system any time soon.
Provincial debt to the National Health Laboratory Service is not just a financial governance matter, but also a public healthcare service delivery risk that affects diagnoses, treatment, disease surveillance, and government’s ability to protect vulnerable patients, writes Faith Muthambi, chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Health in the National Assembly.
To Professor Salim Abdool Karim, excellence should be the only standard. In science, he says he is inspired by imaginative thinking such as that of American comic publisher Stan Lee, co-creator of Spider-Man. Biénne Huisman sat down with him in his office in a glass-encased building on the University of KwaZulu-Natal’s medical campus.
Though the available statistics are patchy, there is little doubt that too many children with life-threatening or life-limiting illnesses in South Africa are unable to access palliative care. With limited state investment, NGOs have stepped in, but the need for care still far exceeds what is available. In part 3 of a Spotlight special series on palliative care for kids, Sue Segar zooms out to look at the national picture.
As South Africa marks 50 years since the June 1976 youth uprising for a dream of freedom, a new generation of young people dreaming of an HIV-free future gave their time, trust, and participation to help deliver a breakthrough new HIV prevention product that was launched this June, writes Ntando Yola.
The South African Health Products Regulatory Authority, with the South African Pharmacy Council, recently announced what was described as a crackdown on a compounding pharmacy. They allege “critical regulatory non-compliance” in relation to the compounding of unregistered medicines. In his latest Inside The Box column, Dr Andy Gray provides some background to the issues at stake, while recognising that some key elements remain contested.
With a new six-monthly injection, South Africa last week launched the most promising new HIV prevention tool in years, but much of the infrastructure that made HIV prevention services accessible to high-risk groups has been dismantled over the last year. Amy Green asks whether we can successfully deliver this breakthrough technology without the trusted pathways that were decimated by cuts to aid from the United States.
