By Andrew Mews and Vuyiseka Dubula Tuberculosis remains South Africa’s leading cause of death. This year alone, the country will see 500 000 cases, of which about 3% will be resistant to both of the most commonly used anti-TB drugs. The majority of these patients will have caught drug-resistant TB from someone in their community, most…
By Marielle Bemelmans After decades of struggle against HIV, there is still an urgent need to do more to stop needless deaths. Despite effective and largely affordable drugs, tools and models of care, 1.7 million die annually from Aids-related illnesses. This is unacceptable. Earlier this week, the European Commission hosted a Brussels meeting to discuss the…
By Jonathan Whittall On one of my first visits into Syria with MSF, I arrived on a cold night in a city with no electricity and shortages of food. A community under siege hosted me while they lived in fear, huddled into basements in an attempt to escape the continuous bombing. I saw field hospitals…
By Sharon Ekambaram Elbow tests and “amakwerekwere” — these are some of the new markers of difference in South Africa, but playing the politics of exclusion in public health gives new meaning to the slogan “an injury to one is an injury to all”. Although estimates vary, as many as 3.3 million migrants from neighbouring countries…
By Daniel Berman and Gregory Hussey South Africa claims with pride its status as a middle-income country and economic powerhouse but when it comes to saving the lives of children through routine immunisations, we are far behind neighbouring countries. By 2010, South Africa was already spending R1.2 billion on vaccine procurement every year but child vaccination…
