Author: Njih Favour

Patients with fractures admitted to Bophelong Hospital in Mahikeng, North West, face repeated surgical postponements without proper consultation or reasonable explanation. One patient, a DA councillor in Tswaing Local Municipality, Kagiso Mangwejane, tells Health-e News that he waited two weeks for an operation when he was admitted to the hospital for a fractured femur in May.   Despite multiple scheduled surgeries, his operation was postponed six times, most recently due to the unavailability of theatre nurses. His surgery was eventually done at the beginning of June, and he’s currently recovering at home.  “What is happening at Bophelong Provincial Hospital is a…

By Candy Jacobs, Khayelitsha Health Forum Executive Every day, 148 people in South Africa die from tuberculosis (TB). TB is a preventable and curable disease, yet it continues to disproportionately affect vulnerable communities.  Beyond the appalling mortality statistics, TB poses a variety of challenges – lack of awareness, stigma, competing health worker demands and difficulties in accessing health care, with the result that many people infected with TB do not get diagnosed or treated. Tackling these issues requires a “whole-of-society” approach, where every South African has a role to play – we all know someone affected by TB. Therefore, we…

By Dr Fatima Hoosain: surgeon with a special interest in breast and thyroid cancer  The trend is unmistakable: younger people are being diagnosed with cancer more frequently. Over the past three decades, global research has revealed a concerning surge in early-onset colon and breast cancers, with very little data available on what is driving this disturbing trend. Let’s look at the numbers Early-onset cancers refer to malignancies diagnosed in individuals under the age of 50. According to a presentation by Irit Ben-Aharon, Md, PhD, at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) Annual Meeting 2024, the incidence of all early-onset cancers…

Maria (we have withheld her surname) sits in her home and holds her granddaughter Teresa. (Photo: Jesse Copelyn/Spotlight/GroundUp) News & Features 19th June 2025 | Jesse Copelyn Part one: How the Trump Administration abandoned orphans with HIV In Mozambique, the health system is overwhelmingly built on US money. When the Trump administration instantly pulled much of this funding without warning, disease and death spread. Spotlight and GroundUp visited one of the worst affected regions to describe the human toll. Hospitals run short of life-saving drugs. Doctors and nurses are laid off en masse. Hospital lines get longer and longer. Some…

The U.S medicine regulator, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), has approved a drug that’s touted as the catalyst to ending AIDS as a public health threat by 2030. The long-acting injectable, Lenacapavir, has shown 100% effectiveness in preventing HIV infection from a single jab every six months.  But there are concerns that the price set by the manufacturer, Gilead, is far too expensive for low- and middle-income countries, which carry the highest HIV burden. While the pharmaceutical giant has not officially announced the cost, UNAIDS Executive Director Winnie Byanyima says it’s understood that “the intended market price is around…

Maria (we have withheld her surname) sits in her home and holds her granddaughter Teresa. (Photo: Jesse Copelyn/Spotlight/GroundUp) News & Features 19th June 2025 | Jesse Copelyn Part one: How the Trump Administration abandoned orphans with HIV In Mozambique, the health system is overwhelmingly built on US money. When the Trump administration instantly pulled much of this funding without warning, disease and death spread. Spotlight and GroundUp visited one of the worst affected regions to describe the human toll. Hospitals run short of life-saving drugs. Doctors and nurses are laid off en masse. Hospital lines get longer and longer. Some…

19 Jun Executive Forecast 2025: In Conversation with Dr. Boitumelo Semete-Makokotlela Posted at 10:01h in News & Updates by Ntokozo Msiza Pretoria, 18 June 2025 Meeting highlights: Crisis-Driven Resilience and Standards: SAHPRA maintained strict scientific standards and operational integrity during the COVID-19 pandemic, focusing on responsiveness without compromising safety or quality, while also strengthening collaboration with national and international stakeholders.  Support for Local Manufacturing and Strategic Vision: A major 2025 priority is to release a draft policy that supports local manufacturers and transitions from reactive crisis management to long-term strategic planning, including preparation for AI and advanced therapies.  The Impact of U.S.…

On a Wednesday afternoon in Botshabelo’s H section in the Free State, Teboho Montwedi* takes a long drag of his cigarette as he watches learners from a nearby school milling about.  Montwedi hasn’t been in school for six years. The 24-year-old dropped out of high school in 2019 when he was in Grade 10.  “My aunt was hard on me about it and my life became difficult. I hated maths, I hated Afrikaans, I hated my class teacher.”  According to Statistics South Africa, only 52,1% of adults older than 20 have completed matric, around 5% of men who didn’t finish…

#InsideTheBox is a column by Dr Andy Gray, a pharmaceutical sciences expert at the University of KwaZulu-Natal and Co-Director of the WHO Collaborating Centre on Pharmaceutical Policy and Evidence Based Practice. (Photo: Supplied) Comment & Analysis 18th June 2025 | Andy Gray It is easy to claim one is “following the scientific evidence”, but what does it mean to actually do so? In his latest #InsideTheBox column, Dr Andy Gray considers how evidence-based health policy and guidelines can and should be made. The recent firing of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advisory body on immunisation policy, allegedly…

In honour of Youth Month Health-e News asked community journalists to tell us about the biggest issues facing young people in their community. This submission is by Tholakele Mbonani from Ekurhuleni. Once upon a street in Duduza, laughter echoed. Children played with bare feet and wild hearts. The sun-kissed tin roofs and dreams were stitched into the sky with kites made from old plastics and rods. Hope lived here not perfectly, but proudly. But that was before the dust turned dark. Now, if you walk these same streets, you will not see those children. You will see ghosts, boys with…