Childhood immunisation programmes have saved many millions of lives and prevented much suffering. Yet, immunisation programmes have lost momentum over the last decade or so. In this #InTheSpotlight special briefing, Elri Voigt unpacks the available data and considers how immunisation efforts might be revitalised.
In several countries, the public is given an opportunity to share their views with regulators before new medicines are registered or to engage with those choosing essential medicines. In South Africa, however, opportunities for such public participation remains limited. In his latest Inside The Box column, Dr Andy Gray takes a look at how public participation is handled elsewhere and how it could be improved here.
Despite the country’s relative wealth, South Africa has shockingly high levels of childhood malnutrition and stunting. Biénne Huisman spends some time with a small team who have made it their business to bring solutions to the table and to get nutritious meals to the kids of farm workers in the Western Cape.
Groote Schuur Hospital in Cape Town has one of the busiest emergency centres in the Western Cape. As it turns to the public to raise R20 million for the opening of a new emergency centre, Dr Deidre McPherson chats to Biénne Huisman about the hospital’s trauma frontline.
Unlike with medicines, and with a few exceptions, South Africa’s regulator does not assess whether diagnostic tests and other medical devices on the market are safe and work as they are supposed to. The regulator has however started down a road that should eventually lead to the regulation of all medical devices in the country. Catherine Tomlinson unpacks the details.
Thousands of people in South Africa are waiting for a life-saving organ transplant, but our very low organ donation rates mean that many won’t get a transplant in time. Elri Voigt asks the experts why our donation rates are so low and what can be done about it.
We need to confront the racialised and class-based structures that still dictate society’s oral health outcomes, argues Dr Bulela Vava as we head toward the end of this year’s National Oral Health Month.
The courts have spoken. The health ombud has issued devastating reports. The Auditor-General has again put damning evidence on the table. Civil society has protested. Yet, the devastating crisis in Gauteng’s health system shows no sign of improvement.
Activists say the Gauteng department of health’s late appeal to a court judgement that compels it to act on cancer treatment backlogs is raising more questions about what the department believes it stands to lose from not doing as the courts have ruled, reports Ufrieda Ho.
Since President Cyril Ramaphposa signed the NHI Act into law last year in May, eight different groups have challenged it in court. One common argument is that it is irrational and unreasonable to restructure the health system when there’s no money to do so. In this feature, Spotlight dissects how the argument is being applied, and whether it has any chance of success.
A dire picture for HIV/Aids funding emerged at the 12th South African AIDS Conference, raising the call for resilience, adapting and also for government to raise its game, reports Ufrieda Ho.
Journalist Sue Segar and photographer Thom Pierce recently visited Emalahleni in Mpumalanga to report on how air pollution is impacting the health of people in the area. In part 3 of this Spotlight special series, we zoom in on the science of air pollution and what it does to the human body.
