Author: Njih Favour

This project is funded by: Residents of Kliptown in Soweto say they’ve been forced to live under inhumane conditions and in an unhealthy environment. For more than 20 years they’ve been using plastic, chemical non-flush toilets. Some community members claim that they’ve fallen ill as a result.  Chemical non-flush toilets rely on a combination of chemicals to break down waste and control odour, including formaldehyde.  Professor Martin Onani, head of the chemistry department at the University of the Western Cape warns of the potential health hazards associated with plastic chemical non-flush toilets.  “Direct or indirect exposure to toilet chemicals could…

At the end of March, 17-year-old Bongani Nthangase from Chatsworth, Durban, died after being robbed and stabbed outside a popular restaurant on Durban’s North Beach. His passing and response from police, raised many questions on social media, about why police could not allow bystanders to assist in transporting him to the hospital, which was just 2km away. Nthangase who was at the beach, was approached by two young men, demanding his cell phone and other valuables. He didn’t have any valuables to hand over, but the robbers stabbed him and fled the scene.  The teenager was left in the beachfront…

#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 12th May 2025 | Andy Gray Clinical trial participants appear to be well protected in South Africa, particularly as the country’s guidelines recognise the risks of research with international collaborators. The sudden end of US-funded clinical trials, however, is exposing some limitations of ethics codes and guidelines, argues Dr Andy Gray. Participation in a clinical trial that involves the use of an investigational product,…

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…