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.
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 Department of Health allows some public sector doctors and nurses to moonlight in the private sector, but the relevant policy and its implementation caused much controversy over the years. Set against the wider management dysfunction in several provincial health departments, the issue is now coming to a head. Joan van Dyk reports.
The year’s biggest health story by far has been the cuts to US aid for health and US support for health research. But it’s also been a year of important HIV prevention developments, NHI court cases, ongoing crises in some of our provincial health departments, and some first steps toward accountability for the corruption at Tembisa Hospital.
It is not a stretch to say that the NHI Act has been one of the most controversial pieces of legislation in post-apartheid South Africa.
The number of HIV viral load tests is significantly lower than expected, according to an analysis of data from the National Health Laboratory Service which Spotlight and GroundUp obtained through the Promotion of Access to Information Act.
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.
A new respiratory syncytial virus vaccine to protect infants from severe illness is available in South Africa’s private sector but not yet in public clinics. The country’s advisory group on immunisations has recommended making it available to all pregnant women. Catherine Tomlinson reports that this proposal is now under review by the National Department of Health.
The Special Tribunal has ordered four ambulance companies run by Thapelo Buthelezi to pay back a total of over half-a-billion rand. The matter relates to contracts awarded by the Free State government, which were first reported on in Spotlight’s #Health4Sale series of investigative articles in 2018.
Trade unions, medical associations and universities are raising the alarm that Gauteng budget cuts at the cost of doctors’ take-home pay will have dire consequences for public sector health. Meanwhile, the National Minister of Health has convened a committee to review the future of overtime for state doctors. Ufrieda Ho reports.
