Author: Njih Favour

In the rural town of Ngcobo in the former Transkei in the Eastern Cape, an athlete turned philanthropist is working to alleviate the plight of young rural girls – one sanitary pad at a time.  Marathon runner, Vuko “Vince” Loqo, says he was touched by the many stories of girls in far-flung, deep rural areas who are often forced to miss school when they are menstruating. Through his foundation, Ithemba Support Foundation, he’s embarked on initiatives to fundraise for sanitary pads for needy rural girls. “Whenever I run a marathon, I ask for sanitary pad donations from businesses and organisations,”…

Experts are excited about two new jabs that can provide several months of protection against HIV infection per shot. (Pixabay rework by Spotlight) News & Features 2nd September 2025 | Catherine Tomlinson The health department has plans to roll out lenacapavir, a twice-yearly HIV prevention injection, in a select group of public sector clinics by April 2026. Meanwhile, little progress has been made towards rolling out a two-monthly prevention injection, despite the four-year head start this product had on lenacapavir. Injections that provide months of protection at a time against HIV infection have been hailed by several leading experts as…

Inkosi Albert Luthuli Central Hospital is KwaZulu-Natal’s only public hospital with a functioning cardiac unit. (File photo: Hush Naidoo/Unsplash) News & Features 1st September 2025 | Chris Bateman Doctors have blown the whistle about a crisis at one of KwaZulu-Natal’s most important public hospitals, saying it is functioning far under capacity due to a series of crippling cuts. The Inkosi Albert Luthuli Central Hospital in Durban’s Cato Manor is operating at around 40% below surgical capacity, according to senior doctors there. As one of a small number of central hospitals in South Africa, it provides specialist services unavailable elsewhere in…

Earlier this month, the court in Gauteng once again ruled that the provincial health department needs to urgently clear the backlog of cancer patients waiting for treatment. (Photo: Gauteng Provincial Government) News & Features 28th August 2025 | Ufrieda Ho In the latest chapter of a long-running legal battle over the Gauteng Department of Health’s obligation to provide people in the province with radiation oncology services, the department has suffered another loss in the courts. Spotlight assesses the legal situation and asks what it means for people still waiting for the life-saving treatment. With another court loss suffered this August,…

27 Aug SAHPRA Approves Mpox Test Using African Medicines Regulatory Harmonisation (AMRH) Continental EUL Procedure Pretoria, 27 August 2025 –The South African Health Products Regulatory Authority (SAHPRA) has approved a molecular test kit for Mpox , Cobas MPXV, for use on the Cobas 6800/8800 Systems, within nine working days through a collaborative and harmonised review process under the African Medicines Regulatory Harmonisation (AMRH). Rapid and accurate testing is essential for early detection and to enable timely treatment, and effective containment of the virus. SAHPRA’s Medical Device Unit, utilising both the World Health Organization (WHO) Emergency Use Listing (EUL) report and the African Medicines Regulatory Harmonisation (AMRH)…

Professor Rachel Jewkes, one of the world’s top researchers into gender based violence, at her office at the SAMRC in Pretoria. (Photo: Elri Voigt/Spotlight) News & Features 27th August 2025 | Elri Voigt From anti-apartheid activist to top rated researcher, Professor Rachel Jewkes has spent her career trying to make the world a better place for women. Spotlight spoke to her about her journey to South Africa from the United Kingdom and how she became one of the country’s leading researchers on gender-based violence. Professor Rachel Jewkes’ colourful office on the first floor of the Gauteng branch of the South…

This project is funded by: Months after a measles outbreak was declared in South Africa, some parents remain resistant to getting their children vaccinated.  According to the National Institute for Communicable Diseases, more than 480 of the 700 cases in the country have been diagnosed in Gauteng.  Children need two doses of the measles vaccine – at 6 months and 12 months – for full protection. But uptake is low.  “Immunisation coverage for the second dose of the measles vaccine remains below 75% in both Johannesburg and Tshwane, which are considered below the level required to prevent outbreaks,” the Gauteng…

#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 25th August 2025 | Andy Gray Rather than trying to do everything from scratch, medicines regulators from different countries are increasingly sharing the load between them by ‘relying’ on each other’s work. In his latest #InsideTheBox column, Dr Andy Gray explains how such ‘reliance mechanisms’ can help regulators make decisions more quickly and efficiently, and digs into the details of how South Africa can…

South Africa is among the first countries in line to receive doses of lenacapavir, the six-monthly injection for HIV prevention. According to national health department projections, the country could start rolling out lenacapavir in 2026.     “This is just the projected timeline. If we do have lenacapavir coming in and we have all the support, we hope that we could start by March to April 2026 – depending on regulatory approval and depending on availability of resources,” says Hasina Subedar, senior technical advisor for HIV Prevention in the National Department of Health.    Studies done in various countries, including South Africa, have…

Primrose Modisane finally has her ID number but it came at a high price. Her mother Phumulani Tshuma died of incurable throat cancer in 2023, just four months after she got her ID card, which Modisane is pictured holding. (Photo: Madelene Cronjé/LHR) News & Features 22nd August 2025 | Joan van Dyk When South Africans get caught up in the country’s often dysfunctional home affairs system, sometimes even DNA evidence isn’t enough to prove their citizenship. This can, among others, have consequences for people’s ability to access healthcare services. For foreign nationals, navigating the system can be even harder. On…