The first step of any public health response must be prevention. Preventing new infections and containing the pandemic protects health systems from getting close to collapse.
South Africa is quite capable of delivering world-class healthcare to all its citizens. But this is constantly being hampered by an increasingly unconducive environment.
To come out of lockdown, health authorities want to see that all cases are linked, and that potentially infectious people are quarantining before they test positive. This still isn’t happening.
The presence of multi drug-resistant bacteria in goats and sheep in southwest Nigeria may be due to regular use of antibiotics and unhygienic practices by farmers.
Vaccine manufacturing doesn’t come cheap. It depends heavily on support from developed countries. It also requires much more than relaxing intellectual property rights and a desire for vaccine equity.
If universities produce graduates who can work effectively in a team, the healthcare system will be strengthened and this would improve the health outcomes for patients.
How well are the Tokyo Olympics prepared for a COVID crisis when there is still an outbreak in the country, the vaccination rates are low and athletes are asked to socially distance?
Even when we immunise all Australians who want to be protected against COVID-19, we’re unlikely to achieve herd immunity through vaccination alone. We need three other measures to open our borders.
The strong disapproval of the South African government’s handling of the pandemic is a warning that crafting persuasive pro-vaccine messages is not enough.
Relying on donor funding means that the funder ultimately determines the health priorities. This is one reason why many programmes in Africa focus on a single disease such as HIV.
The rule, which previously acted as the upper time limit on human embryo research, has been dropped, paving the way for research on older human embryos.
Dean Faculty of Health Sciences and Professor of Vaccinology at University of the Witwatersrand; and Director of the SAMRC Vaccines and Infectious Diseases Analytics Research Unit, University of the Witwatersrand
Principal Medical Scientist and Head of Laboratory for Antimalarial Resistance Monitoring and Malaria Operational Research, National Institute for Communicable Diseases
Professor and Programme Director, SA MRC Centre for Health Economics and Decision Science - PRICELESS SA (Priority Cost Effective Lessons in Systems Strengthening South Africa), University of the Witwatersrand