Two women, two breast cancer journeys. In the first article of a new Daily Maverick and Spotlight special series on cancer in South Africa, Biénne Huisman speaks with rugby referee Aimee Barrett-Thero...

A crucial hotline run for nearly 20 years from the slopes of Devil's Peak in Cape Town for healthcare workers anywhere in South Africa, from the country’s busiest urban hospitals to far flung resource...

One of the top killers of people living with HIV in South Africa is a fungal infection caused by spores found all around us. In this Spotlight special briefing, Elri Voigt unpacks what we know about t...

On June 5 2026, an HIV prevention injection will for the first time become available at some of South Africa’s public sector clinics. In this Spotlight special briefing, Marcus Low and Elri Voigt pull...

HIV treatment has been improved and simplified significantly over the years yet a small fraction of people living with HIV still take complex multi-pill regimens. Elri Voigt reports on a new combinati...

By March 2027, the health department aims to have 1.5 million people living with HIV on a new programme where they can get a six-month supply of antiretroviral medicines at a time. Early indications s...

The number of people in South Africa on antiretroviral treatment remained roughly unchanged from 2024 to 2025, according to just-published estimates from the leading mathematical model of HIV in the c...

The Department of Health allows some public sector doctors and nurses to moonlight in the private sector, but the relevant policy and its implementation caused much controversy over the years. Set aga...

The only tuberculosis vaccine we have is a century old and offers only limited efficacy in children. With leading South African researchers involved in the pivotal clinical trials of three new tubercu...

Journalist Ufrieda Ho passed away of cancer on 9 March 2026. In a career spanning three decades, she wrote for The Star, Daily Maverick, Spotlight, and many other publications.

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 heal...

In South Africa, as in many places, pharmaceutical companies are not free to change medicine prices as they wish. In his latest Inside The Box column, Dr Andy Gray unpacks how medicines prices are reg...

Bogus medical practitioners threaten the health of patients and undermines trust in doctors. The problem might be growing, but so is the fight against it. Elna Schütz reports.

Auditor-General has condemned “no-consequence culture” in government

Hundreds of industry professionals marched in Cape Town calling for a meeting with trade and industry minister

South Africa had several “family chats” in which President Cyril Ramaphosa addressed the nation during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. He should do the same for tuberculosis, argues Dr Janet Gidd...

As HIV, TB and other treatments are updated in our public healthcare system, it is critical that healthcare workers and counsellors stay on top of the latest developments. One innovative programme makes use of short lessons delivered over WhatsApp to provide such training. Sue Segar reports.

This week marks one year since the US Presidential Administration issued a deeply cruel executive order freezing foreign assistance, halting billions of dollars in already-approved funding under the b...

As HIV, TB and other treatments are updated in our public healthcare system, it is critical that healthcare workers and counsellors stay on top of the latest developments. One innovative programme mak...

From the limited rollout of a new HIV prevention jab to developments with new weight loss medicines, to high-stakes court cases relating to National Health Insurance (NHI), 2026 is set to be another t...

Vigilantes have unlawfully prevented people they deemed to be foreign nationals from accessing public healthcare services. SECTION27 health activists map out the implications of a Gauteng High Court j...

South Africa had several “family chats” in which President Cyril Ramaphosa addressed the nation during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. He should do the same for tuberculosis, argues Dr Janet Gidd...

From the first reported cases of HIV in 1981 to the latest breakthroughs in long-acting prevention, this Spotlight timeline traces key moments in the global and South African response to the virus. It...

United States funding cuts shredded specialised services at a transgender clinic in the heart of Johannesburg. But a new collaborative initiative refuses to let this be the end of the journey for tran...

The National Health Laboratory Service has provided HIV, TB, syphilis and cholesterol data, which Spotlight and GroundUp obtained through the Promotion of Access to Information Act.

From the first reported cases of HIV in 1981 to the latest breakthroughs in long-acting prevention, this Spotlight timeline traces key moments in the global and South African response to the virus. It...

It is estimated that around half a million people living with HIV in South Africa don’t know they are living with the virus. One way to help these people is by offering them the means to test themselv...

South Africa has the world's largest population of people living with HIV, which both heightens the risk of anal cancers and their severity. However, neither the collection of data nor the efforts for...

Around 54 000 people died of TB in South Africa in 2024 and 249 000 fell ill with the disease, according to new estimates from the World Health Organization. Marcus Low reports.

Hypertension is poorly managed in South Africa. Remarkable findings from a study in rural KwaZulu-Natal suggest a compelling alternative to the current model of clinic-based care – using community hea...

Over the last decade, there’s been growing evidence that people can have TB without having any symptoms. But there is still much uncertainty over how such asymptomatic TB functions in the body and how...

A landmark ruling from the Supreme Court of Appeal means specially trained pharmacists will soon be allowed to dispense antiretrovirals without a doctor’s script. Pharmacists with the required trainin...