To limit the damage from the US research cuts, the SAMRC mobilised a rescue fund of about R600 million. (Photo: Shutterstock) Comment & Analysis 17th April 2026 | Spotlight Editors It has been a bruising year or so for medical researchers in South Africa with the US pausing, cancelling, and then resuming some grants. But as bad as things were, what played out wasn’t the worst case scenario, and momentum is now building toward recovery. For decades, the United States government has been the world’s top funder of medical research. When it started cutting research funding last year, South Africa…
Author: Njih Favour
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What started as a quick fix to improve his sexual performance turned into a medical emergency for Sizwe Mthembu (42) in November 2025. After taking two sex enhancer pills he bought for R15 from a street vendor on Victoria Street in Durban, he developed a prolonged and painful erection that lasted more than 24 hours. “I was terrified,” he says. “That’s when I went to a doctor and was diagnosed with priapism, a condition I did not know anything about before.” Dr Ntlotleng Mabena, a medical practitioner, explains that taking such pills without proper medical assessment can be especially risky…
More than 33 000 healthcare workers helped patients more than 20 million times in the Western Cape in the last financial year. (Photo: Shutterstock) News & Features 21st April 2026 | Christina Pitt The Western Cape health department is ramping up its workforce with 800 new frontline posts. After years of austerity and with long lists of vacancies, questions now turn to how soon the new posts will translate into staff on the ground. The Western Cape health department is adding more than 800 staff to frontline and support services in a bid to strengthen a health system in which…
Forty-year-old Thulisile Nkosi* carefully counts the pills in her bottle before handing over a few to her friend. ”The tablets in the bottle are 28, so when I give her, I make sure I have some left until my next appointment.” The pills are PrEP — pre-exposure prophylaxis — the daily medication that prevents HIV infection when taken correctly. Nkosi often shares them with her friend. “I don’t ask a lot of questions, I just give her pills as she asks,” she says. “We drink alcohol together, sharing is caring, I am being neighbourly, I do not want to make…
Residents in Kagiso, on Gauteng’s West Rand, gathered in 2020 to share their input on the NHI Bill. (Photo: Rosetta Msimango/Spotlight) Comment & Analysis 23rd April 2026 | Sasha Stevenson From 5–7 May, the Constitutional Court will hear two of the multiple challenges to the NHI Act. Sasha Stevenson, Executive Director of SECTION27, considers what will be on the line in these first potentially landmark cases that deal with the process that led to the Act. The public discussion on National Health Insurance has gone from abstract; to alternatively excited or worried about implementation; to dizzying references to a range…
Every month, 65-year-old Joseph Ntshala* visits Finetown Clinic in the south of Johannesburg to collect his hypertension medication. And at every visit, he has to prepare to spend the whole day at the facility. “I arrived at 8 am so that I can be quickly helped. Arriving early or late at this clinic makes no difference. It’s quarter to three, and I have not seen any nurse or had my vitals taken,” a frustrated Ntshala tells Health-e News on the day we visit the facility. The line stretches all the way down the passage leading to the consulting rooms into…
Thokozile Ndlovu with her baby Xolinathi, who receive home-based support from a dedicated team from one of the only palliative care homes in rural KwaZulu-Natal. (Photo: Thom Pierce/Spotlight) News & Features 28th April 2026 | Sue Segar When Thokozile Ndlovu found out that her baby had a life-limiting illness, she went from pillar to post looking for medical help. Her journey took her to one of the only places offering hope, the Butterfly Palliative Home in Ingwavuma in KwaZulu-Natal. About eighteen months ago, Thokozile Ndlovu, realised something was seriously amiss with her six-month-old baby, Xolinathi. “He was having seizures, his…
By Dr Patrick Ngassa Piotie, Chairperson of the Diabetes Alliance A few years ago, during the implementation of the Tshwane Insulin Project, we encountered a troubling reality. Across our primary healthcare facilities, we saw patients living with diabetes presenting with dangerously high HbA1c levels, a clear indicator of suboptimal management and a high risk of life-threatening complications. Yet, too often, these patients were not receiving the care they needed. It wasn’t because our healthcare workers didn’t care. It wasn’t because we lacked clinical guidelines. It was because the system simply couldn’t “see” them. Patient records were paper-based. Data was fragmented.…
Tarryn and Christoff Bell with their biological daughters, Illy (left) and Sienna, and their adopted son, Joshua. (Photo: Supplied) News & Features 29th April 2026 | Sue Segar Fifteen years ago, when Christoff and Tarryn Bell fell in love with a severely ill baby in a KwaZulu-Natal orphanage, they had no idea this would kickstart a journey which would see them caring for numerous abandoned children with life-limiting illnesses. It all started for Christoff Bell, a medical doctor, and his social worker wife, Tarryn, when they met baby Ncami, in the Mseleni Children’s Home in 2011. At the time, Christoff…
One passenger got severely ill on the ship. (Photo: X/SABC) Hantaviruses are a group of viruses carried by rodents like rats and mice, and can cause severe disease in humans. Not all hantaviruses cause disease in people, and only a small number like the Andes Hantavirus, are known to make humans sick. How is it spread from rodents to humans? People usually become infected when they breathe in dust particles contaminated by the droppings, urine, or saliva of rodents, in enclosed or poorly cleaned spaces. It does not spread easily through casual contact. How is it spread from person to…
