MUST READ | The country that performed the first successful heart transplant has very low organ donation rates. @elri-voigt.bsky.social asks the experts why South Africa's donation rates are so low and what can be done about it. www.spotlightnsp.co.za/2025/09/29/s...

The stars aligned for this interview to happen at the @samrcza.bsky.social building in Pretoria. One of my favourites so far, Prof Rachel Jewkes reflected on her remarkable career and how she "accidentally" spent a few months in the Transkei as a teenager.

HER IMPACT | For the briefest moment Dr Nomathemba Chandiwana could have had a career in music, but she carved out a career in public health. Her focus has been on HIV and most recently, bringing insights from HIV research into tackling SA’s obesity rates. www.spotlightnsp.co.za/2025/08/20/d...

Day 1 of the @sahivsoc.bsky.social conference started today in Century City. Excited to cover some of the excellent sessions for @spotlightnsp.bsky.social

BATTLE TO BREATHE | Emalahleni translates to ‘place of coal’. But for many people living here, it has also become a place of dirty air. To get first-hand accounts of their stories, Writer Susan Segar and photographer Thom Pierce travelled to Mpumalanga. www.spotlightnsp.co.za/2025/08/04/b...

FIGHTING FOR MOTHERS | Professor Susan Fawcus, a champion for maternal well-being, spoke Spotlight about her journey as a researcher, doctor, and obstetrician, and shares her fears of rising maternal mortality in an age of austerity. www.spotlightnsp.co.za/2025/07/24/s...

MUST READ | South Africa is staging a sequel to Mbeki-era denialism, only this time, the science, solutions, and costs are clearer, argues Professor @francoisventer.bsky.social‬. @groundup.org.za www.spotlightnsp.co.za/2025/07/16/f...

MUST READ | TB can be cured, but ridding the body of the bug often takes many months. In this Spotlight special briefing, @elri-voigt.bsky.social zoom in on what makes the TB bacterium so hard to beat. www.spotlightnsp.co.za/2025/07/14/i...

Excellent reporting on the human toll the US funding cuts have already had. It comes down to a simple truth: these tragedies could have been avoided.

Shingles vaccines exist, but they are very hard to get hold of in South Africa. Catherine Tomlinson unpacks why https://www.spotlightnsp.co.za/2025/05/27/why-most-people-in-south-africa-cant-get-the-shingles-vaccine/

MONDAY MUST READ | Massive gains have been made in reducing new HIV infections and deaths in children. Yet, many of the statistics for children still look worse than those for adults. @elri-voigt.bsky.social delves deeper. www.spotlightnsp.co.za/2025/05/26/a...

OPEN LETTER | Health Minister Dr Aaron Motsoaledi’s claim that over half a million people have been newly started on HIV treatment in less than six months has raised eyebrows. Anna Grimsrud and Sibongile Tshabalala-Madhlala want answers. @groundup.org.za www.spotlightnsp.co.za/2025/05/21/o...

#HEALTH4SALE | The wheels of justice sometimes turn very slowly: shorturl.at/qnlnt Join our mailing list: shorturl.at/Ntzoa

HIV activists from the Global HIV Treatment Coalition interrupted the Portfolio Committee on Health on Wednesday, calling for a response to a letter they wrote to address cuts to HIV funding cuts. Read groundup.org.za/article/hiv-... by Liezl Human

PAY BACK THE MONEY | The Special Tribunal has ordered four ambulance companies run by Thapelo Buthelezi to pay back half-a-billion rand. The matter relates to contracts first reported on in Spotlight’s #Health4Sale series. @dailymaverick.co.za www.spotlightnsp.co.za/2025/05/12/h...

HIV IN INFANTS | Despite incredible progress in reducing transmission of HIV from mothers to their babies, around 7 000 babies still contract the virus in South Africa every year. Spotlight unpacks some of the reasons behind this. www.spotlightnsp.co.za/2025/05/14/w...

Exclusive: Testing and monitoring of HIV patients across South Africa have fallen since the United States cut aid that funded health workers and clinics, with pregnant women, infants and youth the most affected reut.rs/4dibx8e

INACTION? While HIV projects unravel, President Cyril Ramaphosa and the GNU are nowhere to be seen. Minister Aaron Motsoaledi, once praised for his HIV leadership, offers no leadership, communication, or urgency, argues Professor Francois Venter. www.spotlightnsp.co.za/2025/04/23/f...

TB | A swab taken from a person's tongue shows some promise as a test for detecting TB. While unlikely to replace sputum tests and not yet approved as a diagnostic test, there might a place for these tongue swabs in the future, writes @elri-voigt.bsky.social. www.spotlightnsp.co.za/2025/04/14/t...

MORE INFECTIONS, MORE DEATHS? Will government do enough to save SA’s HIV wins? Read our newsletter: shorturl.at/c0aOr Join our mailing list: shorturl.at/Ntzoa

MUST READ | New modelling suggests a significant rise in South Africa's HIV infections and deaths is likely if nothing is done to fill gaps left by US funding cuts. www.spotlightnsp.co.za/2025/04/10/u...

The high court has ordered the Gauteng health department to “take all steps necessary” to treat a backlog of 3,000 cancer patients. The department is appealing against the ruling Read groundup.org.za/article/cour... by Liezl Human

Immigrants in Johannesburg who say they are denied health care in clinics have turned to the black market for smuggled medicines. Read groundup.org.za/article/a-th... by Kimberly Mutandiro

JUST PUBLISHED | Scientists working on TB are trying to replicate the successes of the HIV field and develop similarly long-acting formulations of TB medicines. Find out more here: www.spotlightnsp.co.za/2025/03/25/e...

TB UPDATE | The world desperately needs an effective TB vaccine to reduce the illness and death still being caused by the centuries’ old bacterium. Spotlight visited a study site in Paarl where a promising experimental TB vaccine is now being tested. www.spotlightnsp.co.za/2025/03/26/h...

THE SHOW GOES ON | Exciting HIV research emerges from major conference in US - and fears over NIH funding cuts. We have the details here: shorturl.at/ICJTu Join our mailing list: shorturl.at/Ntzoa

MUST READ | Researchers in South Africa are in limbo amid growing, but still unconfirmed, fears that over R800 million in research grants from the NIH could soon be cut. Catherine Tomlinson reports. www.spotlightnsp.co.za/2025/03/20/f...

JUST PUBLISHED | A new formulation of lenacapavir could potentially provide protection against HIV infection for as long as a year. @elri-voigt.bsky.social reports on this and other exciting research on long-acting anti-HIV medicines presented at #CROI2025 www.spotlightnsp.co.za/2025/03/20/a...

This🧵 gives a good summary of the @samrcza.bsky.social's take on the country's 2025 budget speech 🇿🇦

Researchers funded by the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) are bracing for the worst, after rumours circulated that the agency is planning to cancel grants for South African clinical studies. Read groundup.org.za/article/fear... by Jesse Copelyn

"‘It’s back to drug rationing’: the end of HIV was in sight. Then came the cuts" In @theguardian.com, IAS President Beatriz Grinsztejn and Past IAS Presidents Sharon Lewin and @linda-gailb.bsky.social warn how US funding cuts endanger decades of progress in the #HIV response.

This week's @spotlightnsp.bsky.social newsletter gives an excellent summary, and brilliant analogy, about why the 17% that PEPFAR contributes to our 🇿🇦 HIV response only tells a fraction of the story.

The abrupt withdrawal of US funding is already negatively affecting the South African health system, as shown in this excellent article for @spotlightnsp.bsky.social and @groundup.org.za

At #CROI2025, cutting-edge science highlights what’s at stake amid sweeping US funding cuts. Innovations in LA PrEP, on-demand PrEP for women, cure advances, and expanded STI efforts could transform global health—if we unite behind the evidence. Read our summary, avac.org/blog/croi202...

As we collectively navigate this huge health crisis brought on by the sudden withdrawal of US donor funds it is of utmost importance to preserve the current South African HIV response and uphold the world’s largest HIV treatment program. Full statement here: bit.ly/3Fkd6FR @spotlightnsp.bsky.social

😂 gotta love a good science meme

At #CROI2025 Rebecca Denison, @chrisbeyrer.bsky.social and others call for moral courage amid new US policies that threaten global health and #HIVprevention. Our latest CROI update covers it all, avac.org/blog/croi202... #GlobalHealth #standupforscience

More from REPRIEVE #CROI2025. Frailty prognostic for MACE HR 1.76/2.14 for pre-frail/frail vs non-frail) No impact of frailty on pitavastain effect though event number & sample size in group with frailty small.

A must-watch: Rebecca Denison, founder of Women Organized to Respond to Life-threatening Diseases (WORLD), delivers the Martin Delaney Presentation at #CROI2025 "40+ Years of #HIV: What’s Changed, What Hasn’t, What Shouldn’t, What Must" Thanks to IAS-USA for making it publicly available.

PK/safety of ONCE YEARLY LEN! Potential to address LEN barriers. Two IM formulations (F1/2) assessed in HIV-neg ppl. Tmax F1 12W, good PK to W56 & higher than Q6M LEN. F2 similar. Both safe/well-tolerated. NO NODULES!!!! Pre-treatment ice reduced injection pain. This is exciting?!?!??! #CROI2025

This is THE STORY THAT EVERYONE NEEDS TO READ to know the devastating impact of the US fund freeze on the ground. Kenya is just one example of what is happening in many other high TB burden countries dependent on US funding. #TBSky Thanks @stephanienolen.bsky.social www.nytimes.com/2025/03/11/h...

#CROI2025 day 2 opens with John Kinuthia on HIV Acquisition & Prevention During Pregnancy & Postpartum. Crystal clear overview of high incidence in pregnant women which accounts for 31% of vertical transmissions! Delivering testing & Prep in maternal child health (MCH) clinics less stigmatising

This is the kind of research one might expect to see reported at CROI two or three years from now, if the studies somehow go ahead. #CROI2025

Great to see the adolescent data on #lenacapavir for #PrEP in the PURPOSE 1 trial, "which could contribute to early inclusion in the label and guidelines, and lead to accelerated access for adolescents who need or want PrEP." #CROI2025

Another important research study that has been derailed by the US funding cuts

Spotlight journalists are attending #CROI2025 virtually. Let us know if there are any studies you’d like us to cover. So far we have some interesting HIV cure-related research, a lot of long-acting stuff, a little TB, loads of basic science, but few obviously big headline stories.

"We condemn the censoring of science!". Powerful opening words from Diane Havlir for #croi2025 "Young researchers, we have your back. Community, we are with you" Hell yes!!!

DEEP DIVE | The loss of specialised capacity and expertise, rather than the often cited 17% cut in South Africa’s HIV spending, is what threatens our HIV response: shorturl.at/VdOdE Join our mailing list: shorturl.at/Ntzoa

New #DoxyPEP research using gonorrhea surveillance data shows increased #AMR resistance in gonorrhea and other bacteria. This crucial data—and the research it enables—is at risk under the new administration’s cuts to #CDC & #STI funding. More here: www.cidrap.umn.edu/antimicrobia....

Serious flaws in SASSA system, MPs are told – again. It is unclear why the same investigators, with unclear qualifications for the job, have presented more or less the same obvious findings to Parliament a second time Read groundup.org.za/article/inve... by Marecia Damons and Nathan Geffen