Author: Njih Favour
A few minutes after giving birth to her daughter, Philasande Mbutuma (30) from Kraaifontein in Cape Town felt something unusual, a movement in her stomach that she couldn’t explain. “I felt something moving inside me right after giving birth naturally. I immediately told the doctors about it while I was still in the delivery room,” she says. Doctors performed a scan to investigate the ongoing movement in her abdomen, and what followed shocked not only her, but the medical team at Karl Bremer District Hospital. While nurses were examining her newborn in the hospital delivery room, Mbutiuma was surprised to…
Crucial health research is being stopped because the US government is cutting funding. (Photo: CDC/Unsplash) News & Features 9th May 2025 | Jesse Copelyn US funding for clinical research in South Africa is incrementally being cancelled. This is happening through at least two processes – the first is by banning certain kinds of foreign grants called sub-awards (which is affecting everyone globally). The second is by failing to issue routine renewals of grants for clinical studies in South Africa. Spotlight and GroundUp break down the current situation. On 1 May, the US National Institutes of Health (NIH), which is the…
Many state doctors work far beyond their contracted hours due to emergencies, understaffing, and other factors. (Photo: Mulyardi/Unsplash) News & Features 8th May 2025 | Ufrieda Ho Trade unions, medical associations and universities are raising the alarm that Gauteng budget cuts at the cost of doctors’ take-home pay will have dire consequences for public sector health. Meanwhile, the National Minister of Health has convened a committee to review the future of overtime for state doctors. Dysfunction in the Gauteng Department of Health hit home hard for many public sector doctors on 29 April when their overtime payments due for the…
Saidy Brown was only 14 years old when she tested positive for HIV. She remembers the feelings of shock and confusion as if it were yesterday. “I was in Grade 10 and our school had been invited to a Youth Day event. I was one of the learners chosen to attend,” she recalls. At the event, different NGOs were hosting HIV awareness sessions. “They told us about voluntary counselling and testing and said it was free if we wanted to test for HIV. Naively, I got tested thinking I was creating memories from my trip. Indeed, memories were created when…
This project is funded by: For the estimated 2000 residents of Freedom Farm informal settlement, situated on the boundary of the Cape Town International Airport aircraft runway, the sound of airplanes taking off and landing is a constant background noise. Some shacks forming part of this community are erected as close as 500 metres from the aircraft runway on the northern boundary of the airport. Residents of these shacks live with the clattering and clanging of corrugated metal sheets-the building materials of their homes. An unemployed young man who lives with his sister in Freedom Farm, who spoke under the…
This project is funded by: Nomaswazi Zulu* (23) is a sex worker in Durban, KwaZulu-Natal. She found out she has HIV in 2018 and has been taking antiretroviral drugs (ARVs) since. For the past seven years, Zulu would make the 113 km trip home to kwaMaphumulo to collect her meditation from the local clinic every 3 months. “When they found out that I was travelling up and down, the other girls told me about a mobile clinic that comes to South Beach on some nights. Most of them were receiving their treatment from this clinic,” she tells Health-e News. Instead…
While tuberculosis is curable, recovery doesn’t necessarily mean the lungs return to their original, pre-illness condition. (Photo: Robina Weermeijer/Unsplash) News & Features 5th May 2025 | Chris Bateman There are over three million people alive in South Africa who have been cured of TB. But even after being cured, many continue to suffer the long-term after-effects of the disease. To find out more about this under-recognised problem, Spotlight recently attended a global gathering of experts focused on life after TB. Post-TB lung disease affects an estimated 60% of everyone who has been cured of TB. That is according to Dr…
By Dr Morena Makhoana, CEO of Biovac As the United States scales back funding for South African health research and cuts its funding support for 15,000 local health workers, and for global vaccine purchaser Gavi, the case for self-reliance in health has never been more pressing. There’s an increased recognition that the country needs to prioritise domestic health spending, and self-sufficiency in medical treatment, and develop local pharmaceutical manufacturing. In fact, South Africa has well-established medical infrastructure and could become a biotech hub in Africa. The continent has a growing population and young demographics, which offers a guaranteed market and…
Professor Adrie Bekker explains the findings of a study on two novel formulations for the administration of dolutegravir in babies born to mothers living with HIV. (Photo: Biénne Huisman/Spotlight) News & Features 30th April 2025 | Biénne Huisman Research led by Professor Adrie Bekker is paving the way for an important HIV medicine to be made available to neonates in a way that is both safe and much more convenient than previous options. Spotlight met with the passionate clinician-scientist at her office in Cape Town. Two new ways of giving the important HIV medicine dolutegravir to newborn babies have been…
DNA is a form of biological evidence found in almost every cell of the human body. DNA testing is one of the most powerful tools in the pursuit of justice, particularly in the case of rape or sexual assault. But South Africa is grappling with a staggering backlog of DNA backlog on 140,000 rape cases, raising serious concerns about the efficiency and responsiveness of the forensic system. Dr Vanessa Lynch, is the regional director for DNAforAfrica, a company that works around forensic DNA profiling. Health-e News speaks to her about the urgent need to strengthen forensic processes. How does DNA…