New HIV infections are still a major driver of the epidemic. According to UNAIDS adolescent girls and young women are disproportionately affected. Around the world, this population group accounts for about 4000 new infections every week. In South Africa, where…
Wishing and praying for rainfall, that is how Oscious Maluga spends most of his days. Maluga is a smallholder farmer from Mabila, a water stricken village outside Sibasa in Limpopo. The 30-year-old grows various crops on his five hectare farm…
Sixty-three-year-old Maria Nemakonde is just two years away from retirement, something she’s not quite looking forward to. Nemakonde is a teacher at a school for children with special needs in Shayandima, outside Thohoyandou in Limpopo. And she’s worried about what…
Elizabeth Masinge struggles to get the wheelbarrow over the rocky gravel road near her home in Bode Village, outside Giyani in Limpopo. The 69-year-old zig-zags across the road, trying hard to control the load: two 25-litre containers full of water. …
Eastern Cape patients using public health facilities report being turned away, those living with HIV being shouted at, while key populations face hostile services from healthcare workers. These are some of the findings outlined in a new report by Ritshidze,…
Shadrack Mashabane is a traditional healer based in Bushbuckridge in Mpumalanga. He is one of 15 traditional healers who, in March, completed training to provide HIV counselling and testing. In an interview with Health-e News, the 37-year-old says that since…
Patients using public health facilities in the Free State face hostile services, staff shortages, and long waiting times. Some patients have even reported being turned away and denied care. These are just some of the findings of a report published…
“I don’t even want to leave the house. I am scared that I might leak urine or faeces in public – this usually happens when I am at home. I am stressed most of the time, and live with consistent…
Access to TB prevention treatment and antiretroviral (ARV) medication is about to get easier in South Africa. People will soon be able to get a range of HIV services from pharmacists with special training. South Africa’s HIV treatment programme is…
The quality and availability of water have been a major issue at two hospitals in Kwa-Zulu Natal (KZN). At Montebello Hospital in Ndwedwe families have to bring water when visiting sick relatives because the tap water at the hospital is…
The National Department of Health has less than 10 days to hand over all the copies of the Covid-19 vaccine procurement contracts to the Health Justice Initiative (HJI). This follows a court judgement handed down by the North Gauteng High…
Residents in over 96 villages in Giyani, Limpopo, have been relying on a single ambulance for medical emergencies since the beginning of the year. “When you contact the Giyani EMS station for an ambulance, they will tell you straight that…
Patricia Maluleke* is fraught with worry. The unemployed 29-year-old from Thohoyandou, in Limpopo, recently had a baby girl and it’s been a struggle. “My daughter is only four-months old, but I am already facing uncertainty whether I will be able…
Waiting and hoping. That is how critically ill, 44-year old Guy Read has spent the past four years. Read, who suffers from a kidney disease, has been on the waiting list for a transplant for four years now. He is…
Tuberculosis (TB) experts in South Africa are concerned about the slow uptake of TB preventive treatment (TPT). The people most at risk of TB disease aren’t receiving the protection they need. Dr Norbert Ndjeka, Chief Director of TB Control and…