The regulation of complementary and alternative medicines in South Africa has been hotly contested in recent decades, including in court rooms. In his latest column for Spotlight, Dr Andy Gray unpacks the legal background and the current state of this still unfolding regulatory saga.
A high-profile court case has thrust the legalities of compounding medicines in South Africa into the spotlight. Behind the immediate legal issues, hide a series of unresolved questions about how we should ensure that compounded medicines used in South Africa are safe, argue Professor Renier Coetzee and Lara van Niekerk.
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.
Fake and substandard medicines, along with bogus healthcare practitioners, pose a growing threat to patient safety in South Africa.
From unregulated weight loss injections to unsafe pain tablets, substandard and falsified medical products pose a threat to the health of people. Elna Schütz reports on how regulators are fighting the problem in South Africa.
We can generally trust that the medicines we buy at pharmacies contain what they are supposed to and that they were manufactured according to good quality standards. In his latest column, Dr Andy Gray zooms in on the regulatory scaffolding that enables this trust.
The sale of illegal medicines is a significant threat to public safety. In his latest Inside The Box column, Dr Andy Gray asks whether the South African Health Products Regulatory Authority has the necessary tools at hand to provide protection in this area.
In South Africa, as in many places, pharmaceutical companies are not free to change medicine prices as they wish. In his latest Inside The Box column, Dr Andy Gray unpacks how medicines prices are regulated in the country and considers how this regulatory framework might change.
There has been much confusion and misunderstandings about how cannabis and associated products are regulated in South Africa, with government’s own missteps adding to the uncertainty. In his last Inside The Box column for the year, Dr Andy Gray clearly sets out the current legal and regulatory situation and where we’re heading.
It is estimated that around half a million people living with HIV in South Africa don’t know they are living with the virus. One way to help these people is by offering them the means to test themselves in the privacy of their own homes. As Catherine Tomlinson explains in this Spotlight special briefing, such self-screening tests are part of our HIV response on paper, but in reality, the tests are massively underutilised.
