Bhekisisa Centre for Health Journalism

20/04/2026

“Not mere cases… but real families.”

That was the message from Sizeni Mchunu, vice-chairperson of the Office of Health Standards Compliance, following an investigation into a neonatal death at Netcare Femina Hospital.

The report details critical gaps — from outdated protocols to failures in medication safety systems.

It also sets out what must change: stronger verification processes, better supervision, and accountability.

Click the link in our bio to read the full report.

20/04/2026

Medicines don’t go straight from the airport to clinics.

Before imported drugs are distributed, scientists test samples to confirm they are safe and still work properly.

This process is especially important for new medicines like , a twice-yearly injection that could help reduce HIV infections.

Close to 40 000 doses landed in South Africa on March 30 and April 2. But tests now first have to be performed in Ireland. The process will take around a month.

SA’s first consignment of the twice-a-year anti-HIV injection, lenacapavir — 37 920 doses — arrived last week at OR Tambo Airport via two shipments from Dublin. The batches reached the country six weeks later than expected. The delay of the shipment meant the health department couldn’t start...

20/04/2026

How is scientific evidence translated into public understanding — and action?

A guest lecture by Devi Sridhar explores how global health experts communicate risk, uncertainty and urgency in fast-moving public health contexts. Drawing on her experience across print, broadcast and digital media, the session examines both the opportunities and challenges of science communication.

Joining as discussant is Mia Malan, offering insight from the newsroom.

Register for the online session: https://tinyurl.com/2fynp8s9

20/04/2026

A new injection that can prevent HIV infection with just two shots a year has touched down.

But before patients receive it, scientists must test the medicine first. Such tests will be performed in Ireland, because no SA lab has been accredited to perform the assessments.

These safety checks make sure the drug contains the right ingredients, the right strength and no contamination.

SA’s first consignment of the twice-a-year anti-HIV injection, lenacapavir — 37 920 doses — arrived last week at OR Tambo Airport via two shipments from Dublin. The batches reached the country six weeks later than expected. The delay of the shipment meant the health department couldn’t start...

20/04/2026

South Africa has received its first shipment of the new HIV prevention injection, lenacapavir.

But before the medicine reaches clinics, scientists must first test samples to make sure the drug is safe and still works properly after the long journey to the country. The tests will be performed in Ireland.

These checks confirm the medicine contains the correct amount of active ingredient and hasn’t been damaged during transport.

https://bhekisisa.org/health-news-south-africa/2026-04-07-our-len-is-here-now-for-quality-checks-in-ireland/

16/04/2026

What does it take to report on mental health in a country of increasing violent conflict, extreme heat and flooding, where depression and anxiety are widely understood as "problems of white people" and psychosis is often attributed to spirit possession?

Our latest investigation from Burkina Faso — the fifth in our climate change and mental health series — grapples with exactly this. Journalist Sean Christie spent time with farmers, psychiatrists, researchers and NGO workers to map a mental health system under strain: shrinking human resources, departing NGOs, a colonial-era institutional architecture never fully rebuilt, and communities quietly absorbing what formal care cannot provide.

https://bhekisisa.org/article/profiles/2026-04-16-the-spirits-the-marabouts-and-the-eleven-psychiatrists-in-burkina-faso/

16/04/2026

In Burkina Faso armed conflict continues to escalate alongside extreme heat and flooding. Half the country's psychiatrists have left. Read more in our newsletter. https://mailchi.mp/bhekisisa.org/8480782-15074338-nb3qcrn17v-15074841

16/04/2026

The world’s top 100 oil and gas companies banked more than $30m every hour in unearned profit in the first month of the US-Israeli war in Iran, says the Guardian. Read their analysis in today’s .

https://mailchi.mp/bhekisisa.org/8480782-15074338-nb3qcrn17v-15074841

16/04/2026

"Families are absolutely essential in everything relating to mental health," says psychiatrist Désiré Nanema. "No matter what happens in an individual's life, always in the background is the family."

In Burkina Faso, where institutional mental healthcare is scarce and stigma runs deep, families — and communities — have long done what the health system cannot. Sean Christie travelled to Burkina Faso to ask: can that informal safety net can hold as conflict, climate pressure and poverty intensify?

https://bhekisisa.org/article/profiles/2026-04-16-the-spirits-the-marabouts-and-the-eleven-psychiatrists-in-burkina-faso/

16/04/2026

In a hotel dining hall in Koudougou, a group of farmers sat down to talk about mental health. One described an aunt who wandered from home — and the family's response: consult a marabout, dissolve Qur'anic verses in water, and hope the spirits retreated.

This is the landscape psychiatrists in Burkina Faso are navigating. The country has 11 psychiatrists for more than 20-million people. Half of its psychiatry graduates leave. And the NGOs that helped hold services together are deserting a country increasingly battered by armed conflict, floods and food insecurity.

Sean Christie travelled to Burkina Faso to ask: how do you build a mental health system in a country of 70 languages, armed conflict, dwindling resources, and deep distrust of institutional care?

https://bhekisisa.org/article/profiles/2026-04-16-the-spirits-the-marabouts-and-the-eleven-psychiatrists-in-burkina-faso/

15/04/2026

Our TV news editor, Anna-Maria van Niekerk, recently attended a health department press conference, where Health Ombud Taole Mokoena laid out what went wrong at the psych unit at George Mukhari Academic Hospital in Tshwane.

A 35-year-old woman burnt to death in the unit in 2024, with the post-mortem showing that she was alive when the fire started.

14/04/2026

Can you smell it?

Air quality rarely makes headlines.

Until it smells. Until it burns your throat. Until it sends people to clinics.

But by then, the damage is already happening.

Fossil fuels, especially coal, are a major source of both greenhouse gases and air pollutants. And when those risks combine with climate change, the health impacts don’t just add up — they multiply.

The solution isn’t subtle.

Less coal. Fewer emissions. Faster action.

Because cleaner air is one of the quickest wins we have.

In the latest Climate Health Story Project webinar, supported by the Wellcome Trust, Rebecca Garland, from , tells us more.

Link in bio.