Analysis: Why has the price of this cancer medicine risen and fallen by over a thousand percent since 2016?

Posted in: Access to Medicines, Healthcare system, Latest

Lenalidomide is an important medicine used for the treatment of multiple myeloma – a type of bone marrow cancer that is not curable and typically requires long-term, ongoing treatment. Over the last decade, the price of this drug has fluctuated dramatically in South Africa and patients and their doctors have gone to extreme lengths to access it. Catherine Tomlinson unpacks the remarkable recent history of lenalidomide.

Analysis: Why has the price of this cancer medicine risen and fallen by over a thousand percent since 2016?

Face to Face: Prof Helen Rees on SAHPRA, women’s rights, and her appetite for justice

Posted in: COVID-19, Healthcare system, HIV/AIDS, Latest, Reproductive Health

As a rebellious teenager growing up in the British town of Harpenden, Professor Helen Rees would sneak out to attend anti-apartheid talks. Today, she is a renowned scientist and chair of South Africa’s medicines regulator. Biénne Huisman chatted to Rees about her career, prioritising women’s reproductive health, and her role at the South African Health Products Regulatory Authority.

Face to Face: Prof Helen Rees on SAHPRA, women’s rights, and her appetite for justice

Still many unknowns, but long-COVID is real and deserves support for rehabilitation, says expert

Posted in: COVID-19, Healthcare system, Latest

There is still no test to diagnose long-COVID and also no cure. It’s the fallout of the pandemic that is fast becoming a mounting health concern. Ufrieda Ho reports.

Still many unknowns, but long-COVID is real and deserves support for rehabilitation, says expert

Digital X-rays boosting TB diagnosis, assessment finds

Posted in: COVID-19, Latest, TB, TB

Many people with tuberculosis (TB) in South Africa are never diagnosed or are diagnosed only once their symptoms have become quite severe. One solution to diagnosing more people more quickly is the expanded use of new digital X-ray technology. Now, an independent assessment of digital X-ray pilot projects in six districts in South Africa sheds light on how well this intervention works in the real world. Tiyese Jeranji reports.

Digital X-rays boosting TB diagnosis, assessment finds

In-depth: The complex relationship between TB and mental health

Posted in: Healthcare system, Latest, Mental Health, TB, TB

Tuberculosis (TB) disease and all the disruption and stress that goes along with it can take a toll on someone’s mental health, and mental health problems can in turn make someone more vulnerable to TB. In the wake of World Mental Health Day 2022, Tiyese Jeranji explores the complex links between mental health and TB.

In-depth: The complex relationship between TB and mental health

Good and bad news about new TB vaccines

Posted in: Edition 10: Drug-resistant TB, Edition 7: TB, Healthcare system, Latest, TB, TB

While there are nine experimental tuberculosis (TB) vaccines in advanced trials, the vaccine pipeline beyond those nine prospects is relatively depleted. Adele Baleta reports on this and much more from the virtual Global TB Vaccine Forum held last week.

In Focus: Global strategy to end Cryptococcal Meningitis in people living with HIV

Posted in: HIV/AIDS, Latest

Cryptococcal meningitis is the second biggest killer of people living with HIV after tuberculosis (TB). Now, a global initiative, the Ending Cryptococcal Meningitis Deaths by 2030 Strategic Framework aims to get the gold standard drug to treat cryptococcal meningitis – flucytosine – registered in countries that need it. Amy Green reports.

In Focus: Global strategy to end Cryptococcal Meningitis in people living with HIV

For next pandemic we need vaccines in 100 days, says expert

Posted in: Latest, TB

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.

For next pandemic we need vaccines in 100 days, says expert

Tens of thousands of people with TB in SA not diagnosed, survey

Posted in: Latest, TB

Over 150 000 people who had TB in South Africa in 2018 were not diagnosed, according to findings from South Africa’s long-awaited National Tuberculosis Prevalence Survey. One reason for this is that an unexpectedly high number of people do not show the typical TB symptoms and are never x-rayed. Amy Green reports.

Tens of thousands of people with TB in SA not diagnosed, survey

Analysis: SAHPRA decision on ivermectin shifts heavy responsibility to doctors

Posted in: Latest

In allowing section 21 applications as part of a controlled compassionate access programme, SAHPRA has essentially shifted the responsibility for deciding whether the anti-parasitic ivermectin is safe and effective enough to be used in the treatment of COVID-19 to doctors. This places an enormous responsibility on doctors, writes Adele Baleta.

Analysis: SAHPRA decision on ivermectin shifts heavy responsibility to doctors

Sub-clinical TB: Fascinating SA research helps push frontiers of TB science

Posted in: Edition 10: Drug-resistant TB, Latest, TB

While likely millions of people in South Africa have latent tuberculosis (TB) infection, only between three and 10% of these people ever fall ill with TB. Cutting-edge research conducted in South Africa has now taken us a significant step closer to a test that can predict who will and who will not fall ill with TB. Such a test, if simple and affordable, could potentially revolutionise TB prevention efforts.

Sub-clinical TB: Fascinating SA research helps push frontiers of TB science

COVID-19: What local vaccine production actually means

Posted in: Latest

South Africa is set to produce its first vaccine in 25 years, but it won’t be a COVID-19 jab. Plans are however in place to “fill and finish” COVID-19 vaccines in South Africa. Laura Lopez Gonzalez has the details.