Category: Health
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Rushed and chaotic: The Life Esidimeni tragedy, in charts
In September 2015, the Gauteng department of health decided to end a contract with Life Esidimeni, a group of specialised private psychiatric care hospitals. The decision was part of a wider plan to deinstitutionalise mental healthcare users in the province by placing them into non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in communities. It was also to cut costs. What transpired was a poorly planned,…
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Death trap: Timeline of the Life Esidimeni tragedy
Life Esidimeni, a psychiatric hospital, had been contracted for 30 years by the Gauteng department of health for the long-term, specialised care of mental healthcare patients. Despite warnings from experts, the department ended the contract in September 2015. Its aim was to deinstitutionalise the patients and save costs by moving them to non-profit organisations. What…
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Cholera surges in Africa: Over 110,000 cases in 5 months
More than 110,000 cases of cholera were reported in Africa in the first five months of the year. This is half of the total reported in 2023 and more than all the cases in 2022. Last year, a cholera outbreak in South Africa claimed the lives of 47 people. The disease spread quickly in areas…
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Cholera outbreaks highlight the need for Africa to make its own vaccines
There is a worldwide shortage of cholera vaccines, and only one WHO-approved producer in the world, EuBiologics in South Korea. In February 2024, Doctors Without Borders, a medical humanitarian organisation, reported that the global cholera vaccine stockpile had been exhausted. Already in October 2022 a decision was made to temporarily reduce the dosage of vaccine…
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30 years of HIV: A public health success story
The HIV epidemic took a heavy toll on South Africa. The signs were there in 1994, when an estimated 380,000 people were newly infected with HIV. Six years later, new infections had risen to over half a million a year. All the while deaths from Aids were steadily increasing from an estimated 32,000 in 1994…
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Democracy in South Africa: 30 years in 8 charts
As South Africa marks 30 years of democracy, the legacy of the African National Congress is under scrutiny. On one hand, nearly half the population receives some form of grant funding, but unemployment rates are alarmingly high and business confidence has waned significantly. These economic challenges cast a dark shadow over the milestone that is 3 decades…
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Malaria vaccine finally to be deployed in Africa after 35 years
An initial 18-million doses of the first malaria vaccine have been assigned to 12 of the countries where malaria exacts a high toll.