[ad_1] As the midday sun intensifies, Busisiwe Khumalo is inside her homein Maitland, Cape Town. Residents in the Western and Northern Cape have been warned of extreme heat and discomfort this week. Screenshot The extreme heat reminds Khumalo of a difficult period in December 2025, when her 12-year-old son suffered from heat stress due to outside temperatures soaring as high as 39 degrees Celsius. “One day, he started sweating. His temperature was high. He also had a severe headache,” says the single mother. “I went to the clinic, and the nurses told me it was because of the heat. He…
Author: Njih Favour
[ad_1] Countries like South Africa benefited in very concrete ways from multilateral forums. (Photo: Shutterstock) Comment & Analysis 11th March 2026 | Marcus Low Funding cuts over the last year or so have created a crisis for multilateral health institutions. Which institutions emerge from this crisis, and in what form, will have real consequences for the health of people in South Africa, argues Spotlight editor Marcus Low. In recent weeks, there has been a glut of articles from global health big-hitters, all concerned with how multilateral health institutions should, or should not be re-designed. These include articles from Philippe Duneton,…
[ad_1] This project is funded by: Learners at high schools around Finetown and Lenasia in the south of Johannesburg are using leftover cooking oil to add flavour to their school nutrition programme lunch. Some children have been eating this residue for more than five years in school and at home. The oil, containing fried-food residue, is drained from frying pans and machines at fast-food outlets. Instead of safely discarding it, staff at some of these outlets sell it to learners and street vendors. Health-e News spoke to a manager at one of the local fast-food outlets who says they were…
[ad_1] This project is funded by: EASTERN CAPE: Residents of Cefane Hoek, a rural village near Ngcobo, Eastern Cape, say they have been cut off from clinics, schools and emergency services after floods washed away the only bridge connecting their community to nearby towns. The bridge, which connects the village to Ngcobo and Elliot, was destroyed during heavy rains that hit part of the province last month. Villagers say the bridge was washed away by the recent floods. (Photo: Siyabonga Kamnqa) Elderly residents say the situation has made it even harder for them to access medical care. Seventy-four-year-old Nosakhele Godlwa…
[ad_1] Finding hearing loss in children as early as possible helps them develop and learn at the same pace as other children who can hear normally. (Photo: Shutterstock) News & Features 9th March 2026 | Hannah Abrahams Despite the proven benefits of newborn hearing screening and early intervention, universal screening is not yet mandated in South Africa and is only available at a few public hospitals. Thousands of babies are born with hearing loss in South Africa each year, however, most are often diagnosed only after the crucial early years for learning language. Hearing loss is the most common sensory…
[ad_1] Sharon Mbonani grew up frequenting clinics in eMbalenhle, a township in Mpumalanga, seeking treatment for chronic sinus infection. In 2015, she attended a training workshop organised by the environmental advocacy group, Greenpeace, and learned how pollution affected her sinuses. “I thought it was something that comes with the seasons,” says the 30-year-old mother of one. “It affected me my entire life. I took a lot of pills for sinus disease and medication for allergies.” Sinusitis, which causes the spaces inside the nose and head known as sinuses to become inflamed and swollen, is a respiratory infection that can be…
[ad_1] This project is funded by: An eight-year-old boy from Muyexe village near Giyani, Limpopo, drowned in an abandoned borrow pit filled with rainwater, prompting calls for authorities to be held responsible. A borrow pit is an excavated area where material has been dug for use at another location. Grade 4 learner Siyabonga Maluleke, from Muyexe Primary School, was buried at the weekend after his body was recovered on 19 February. Siyabonga Maluleke (8) was buried last week. “At around 2pm, (on 18 February) my child returned home from school and then went out with his three friends,” says…
[ad_1] Maryke Bezuidenhout checks her patient Qhamkile Gumede’s wheelchair during a home-based visit. (Photo: Thom Pierce/Spotlight) News & Features 5th March 2026 | Sue Segar Maryke Bezuidenhout is constantly on the road in rural, northern KwaZulu-Natal visiting and helping people with disabilities where they live. As part of Spotlight’s new Rural Health Heroes series, writer Sue Segar and photographer Thom Pierce tagged along with her. On a sweltering Wednesday morning in Makwakwa in the far north of KwaZulu-Natal, about 20 kms from the southern border of Mozambique, a bakkie drives up to a small home in the middle of the…
[ad_1] This project is funded by: Health authorities have confirmed a tuberculosis (TB) outbreak among homeless people staying in North Beach, Durban. Nearly 200 people who currently live in tents at North Beach tested positive for TB, sparking urgent public health interventions. KZN health mobile TB screening. (Photo: Phumzie Mkhungo) The KwaZulu-Natal Department of Health has deployed screening teams to the site to test residents and begin treatment for those who test positive. This is part of the national TB recovery plan to mitigate disruptions caused by COVID-19 lockdowns. Contact tracing is also underway to limit further spread of the…
[ad_1] A team of trainee sprayers learning how to cover indoor surfaces with insecticide. (Photo: SAMRC). News & Features 4th March 2026 | Joan van Dyk Get to know South Africa’s malaria experts as they outrun hitchhiking mosquitoes and pollution-hardy bugs while navigating a regional funding collapse and a spiralling climate crisis. A month after deadly floods hit parts of South Africa, Thabiso Ledwaba is still on edge. Others in Limpopo’s provincial government are picking up the pieces of a deadly crisis that has already happened, but for Ledwaba, the disaster only begins once the floodwaters recede, and it unfolds…