Many doctors and healthcare staff feel the need to practice in richer countries that offer a more stable politics, better education and opportunities for their families.
Julien Harneis
Mark Shrime, RCSI University of Medicine and Health Sciences
India, Nigeria, Pakistan and South Africa lose thousands of trained doctors each year, lured away to work in richer countries – at great cost to their nation’s healthcare systems.
Hundreds of babies are abandoned every year in South Africa.
Fati Moalusi/AFP via Getty Images
The sketchy history of international efforts to control bioweapons suggests that nations will resist cooperative monitoring of gene hacking for medical research.
Protestors burnt trucks on the main road between the city port Durban in KwaZulu-Natal and South Africa’s industrial heartland.
Photo by Darren Stewart/Gallo Images via Getty Images
The glaring failure by authorities to secure an area notorious for attacks on trucks prompts questions about, at best, utter ineptitude, or at worst, complicity.
South Africa’s Constitutional Court in session in 2018.
Alaister Russell/Sowetan/Gallo Images/Getty Images
In the 19th century, Baartman was dehumanized and mocked for her large posterior. So what does it mean when Black women today strive for ‘Sarah Baartman hips’?
Increasing vaccination calls for a targeted approach.
Brenton Geach/Gallo Images via Getty Images
Nearly a quarter of survey participants were still hesitant about getting vaccinated. Some were not even open to persuasion. Communication campaigns must be tailored to the fears of sub-populations.
Wearing masks, handwashing and sanitising were adopted quite quickly by South Africans.
Xabiso Mkhabela/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
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.
Men did more unpaid care work during COVID-19 lockdowns.
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Finding a way to increase the participation of men and fathers in unpaid care work would have an important influence on a more equal distribution between women and men.
Steve Kekana in 2020 in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Photo by Oupa Bopape/Gallo Images via Getty Images
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.
Healthcare provision in South Africa is centered in hospitals.
Sharon Seretlo/Gallo Images via Getty Images
South Africa now appears to have made a massive error in not rolling out AstraZeneca, while in the UK a study suggests a mix of vaccines may be the way forward.
Technology has been key in tackling fraud.
Mpedigree
Failure to identify, understand and address the implications of unintended consequences inhibits the delivery of quality healthcare.
Scientists from the Wildlife and Environment Society of South Africa at Scifest Africa 2019 engage with visitors.
The South African Institute for Aquatic Biodiversity
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