Bhekisisa

The Bhekisisa Centre for Health Journalism focuses on reporting related to health and social justice. They create engaging narrative articles, podcasts, videos, and insightful analyses that cover various issues across Africa. Their top-notch journalism is available in both digital and print formats, reaching a wide audience that includes policymakers, academics, activists, and political figures. This often leads to changes in policies, influences national discussions, and helps reshape important conversations.

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It’s the 'Donald disease' that’s making us sick

3 weeks ago | bhekisisa.org | Tanya Pampalone

Our so-called HIV “key populations” — men who have sex with men, transgender women, sex workers and people who inject drugs, and, in Africa also young women — have been hard hit ever since the Trump administration stopped most of its HIV funding in February. Key populations have a much higher chance of getting HIV than general populations which is why Pepfar, over the past decade, allocated most of its funds to programmes working with such groups.
The case of the minister and the HIV activists: Are we entering denialism 2.0?

1 month ago | bhekisisa.org | Mia Malan

It’s been two decades since the denialism war was won in South Africa. Now HIV scientists and government are pitted against each other once again. Activists are saying the health minister is in denial over the impact of US funding cuts and the minister is accusing the activists and the media of overblowing the crisis and spreading disinformation.
Do ADHD meds work to cram during exams? - Bhekisisa

1 month ago | bhekisisa.org | Mia Malan

ADHD medication is sometimes abused, for example, when university students without the condition use it to study better. The reality, however, psychiatrist Renata Schoeman tells Mia Malan in this podcast, is that the medicine doesn’t work for people without ADHD. In fact, it can worsen their performance.
R2.82-billion. That’s what we need to plug the US funding gap — for now - Bhekisisa

2 months ago | bhekisisa.org | Mia Malan

The national health department is convinced that all US government funding for HIV and tuberculosis (TB) projects in South Africa will end by September 30. The department has calculated that it needs R2.82-billion to plug the gap for the rest of the financial year after the Trump administration cut more than half of such support to the country in February.
[LISTEN] 8 in 10 ADHD cases are genetic. Can you outgrow it?

2 months ago | bhekisisa.org | Mia Malan

In South Africa, the proportion of primary school children with ADHD who use government health facilities is as low as 1.72% because the public sector doesn’t have enough of the right health workers to diagnose people. Eight in 10 people with the condition have a child, parent or sibling with it. Many adults only discover they have ADHD when their children get diagnosed and they recognise the symptoms in themselves. Malan asks Schoeman: can you outgrow the condition? Find out.
The 6-monthly anti-HIV jab could end Aids in SA by 2032

2 months ago | bhekisisa.org | Mia Malan

A modelling study released in March gives a clue at which price the six-monthly anti-HIV jab, lenacapavir, would be worth the health department’s while. The health department needs to step in, as the US government is unlikely to stick to a December commitment to buy the medicine for countries like South Africa, along with the Global Fund for HIV, TV and Malaria.
Trump: 'Thank you for partnering with USAID and God bless America.' - Bhekisisa

Mar 16, 2025 | bhekisisa.org | Mia Malan

In today’s newsletter, Mia Malan explains how US President Donald Trump ordered USAID-funded HIV organisations in SA to shut down. Sign up for our newsletter today. THIS IS A BREAKING, DEVELOPING STORY. IT WAS LAST UPDATED AT 2.25PM. Pepfar-funded HIV organisations in South Africa, who receive their funds through the United States Agency for International […]
Is tax alone enough to pay for NHI? We do the sums - Bhekisisa

Mar 9, 2025 | bhekisisa.org | Linda Pretorius |Jacques Verryn

Healthcare doesn’t come cheap and rolling out National Health Insurance will cost a lot of money. The NHI Act says that funding healthcare for all should come from tax. But with tax payers already under pressure, will there be enough money to cover everyone? We do some sums to look at different options.
Can SA afford to not have climate-friendly ARVs?

Nov 19, 2024 | bhekisisa.org | Sipokazi Fokazi

Antiretrovirals like dolutegravir help keep people healthy. But their use adds to global warming, which drives climate change and can make us sick in the long run. Experts say switching to medicines used in smaller amounts and less often, such as long-acting anti-HIV shots like cabotegravir, could help to lower the health sector’s contribution to climate change. But we don’t have enough of them yet. Here’s what this means — and what we need to change it.
‘You won’t find a child born with HIV in this village’

Nov 6, 2024 | bhekisisa.org | Zano Kunene

Babies getting HIV from their infected mothers is rare in a cluster of 39 villages in the OR Tambo district in the Eastern Cape — despite more than a third of pregnant women in this rural part of the province being HIV positive. Here, a non-profit organisation that helps with health services for moms and their young children employ women who themselves have HIV to help infected mothers stay on antiretroviral treatment — so that they don’t pass on the virus to their babies.