At his Durban office, Professor Willem Hanekom tells Biénne Huisman about taking a ventilated young patient to the Sea Point promenade, living with HIV, the need for an African research agenda, and the recurring joy that has defined his career.
Cuts in United States funding for global health research over the past year dealt a heavy blow to South Africa’s health research ecosystem, which has historically been heavily reliant on US financial support. Catherine Tomlinson looks at what the South African Medical Research Council has done to weather the storm and what they have planned for the next few years.
A massive and much-anticipated phase 3 trial of an experimental tuberculosis (TB) vaccine is set to proceed after funding for it has been secured from two large philanthropies. If the trial’s findings are positive, the vaccine is likely to become the first new TB vaccine in over a hundred years to be widely used. Marcus Low reports.
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.
