As Charlotte Maxeke Hospital missed its date to reopen this month after a fire in April, there are concerns that the true cost of the fire is still to be counted and that the fire is just another indication of a health department and fire service in crisis. Ufrieda Ho reports
With the COVID-19 mass vaccination rollout set to start on 17 May, many more people, for now, those older than 60 years, will receive their jabs. Elri Voigt looked into what, if anything, will change for those who have been vaccinated, and what other countries have done in this regard.
The growing crisis in many of South Africa’s clinics has reached a point where patient care is being compromised and there is a deepening worry that people living with HIV are being pushed out of treatment, argues Anele Yawa and Lotti Rutter. In this op-ed, they ask whether repeat prescription collection strategies are simpler and quicker than waiting in long clinic queues.
COVID-19 numbers have in recent weeks been rising in the Free State, leading some to fear that the province might be at the beginning of a third wave of infections. Refilwe Mochoari asked the Department of Health, unions, and opposition political parties whether the province is ready for a third wave.
Public health emergencies place immense power in the hands of executive leadership. This can pose a risk of creeping authoritarianism. Professor Narnia Bohler-Muller and Dr Benjamin Roberts explore the lessons that can be drawn from the findings of the University of Johannesburg and the Human Sciences Research Council’s online survey on the public’s views on lockdown regulations.
Medico-legal claims in the public healthcare sector have been sharply increasing since at least 2014 and are taking huge bites out of already stretched provincial budgets. Motheo Brodie and Sasha Stevenson of SECTION27 assess what impact a recent court judgment and proposed legislation might have on the problem.
Last year there were over a thousand unidentified and unclaimed bodies in Gauteng mortuaries. Thabo Molelekwa asked health authorities in Gauteng about plans to address this backlog.
Oral health is critical to people’s overall health, but a dire shortage of oral health practitioners in the public health sector means that many people are not getting the oral healthcare services they need. Luvuyo Mehlwana spoke to health officials and oral health experts about the state of oral health services in the country.
On 17 May South Africa’s mass COVID-19 vaccination programme is expected to finally kick off. This will start a long race against the clock in which every day and every vaccination matters. We should aim to administer at least 250 000 vaccine doses a day, writes Spotlight editor Marcus Low.
Roughly two in five people newly ill with TB worldwide are never diagnosed. In South Africa, this amounts to about 120 000 to 160 000 people per year. A large new study called XACT III is testing ways in which more people can be diagnosed and started on TB treatment more quickly. Tiyese Jeranji reports.
Developing COVID-19 vaccines in less than a year came from repurposing multiple, decade-old vaccine research platforms, but too many lives were lost, and a new goal of developing vaccines in 100 days is needed to counter the next global pathogen, experts say.
Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), commonly known as drones, have been used for more than two decades to deliver medical supplies and food aid to disaster-hit areas – and new uses for these devices are constantly being found. Siyabonga Kamnqa looks at where and how drone technology is used in South Africa’s healthcare services.
