HEALTH - The African Mirror

Jun

24

2026

By CAMILA C. MATOS; CHARLES SHEY WIYSONGE, and MARCIA THEREZA COUTO

Vaccine hesitancy can’t be boiled down to a single factor: what we learnt in South Africa and Brazil

HEALTH

VACCINE uptake has been declining in Brazil and South Africa over the last decade. This decline has reversed important gains in protecting children against vaccine-preventable diseases such as measles, polio, diphtheria and whooping cough. Both countries have well-established, universal and free childhood immunisation programmes. In Brazil, coverage has dropped 10-20 percentage points since 2016 and remains below the 95% target for several routine vaccines. In South Africa, vaccination coverage has steadily declined since 2015. For example, coverage for the first dose of measles-containing vaccine (MCV1), a key indicator of immunisation programme performance, decreased from 86% in 2015 to 76% in…

Jun

20

2026

By JARRED H MARTIN; JACOMIEN MULLER; JOLIZE JOUBERT VAN APPEL, and SONJA NICOLENE MOSTERT

What’s overlooked in student mental health in South Africa: social connection and sexual wellbeing

HEALTH

STUDENT mental health has become one of the defining challenges facing universities worldwide. In South Africa, these concerns are often framed around reports which point to anxiety, burnout and academic pressure. With this comes the call for expanded student counselling and crisis services. These concerns are important. Previous research has shown that university students in South Africa face mental health challenges shaped by financial strain, inequality, academic pressure and social stressors. Studies conducted during and after the COVID-19 pandemic have also shown how isolation and loss of support affected students’ mental health and wellbeing. But mental health is not only…

Jun

15

2026

By JACKSON OKATA

DRC approves the use of acoziborole, a breakthrough one-day oral treatment against sleeping sickness

HEALTH

THE Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has approved the use of Acoziborole Winthrop (acoziborole) as a single-dose oral treatment for both early- and advanced-stage gambiense sleeping sickness in adults and adolescents aged 12 years and older who weigh at least 40 kilograms. The decision follows Phase II/III clinical trials conducted in the DRC and in Guinea by the medical research non-profit organisation Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi), in partnership with the DRC and Guinea’s national sleeping sickness control programmes. The studies demonstrated that acoziborole is safe and has a cure rate of up to 96 per cent across…

Jun

11

2026

By TERESA LAMBE and REBECCA MAKINSON

The hunt for a new Ebola vaccine: two scientists explain the challenges

HEALTH

THE ongoing Ebola virus outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Uganda has now killed 61 people, with 359 confirmed cases. The Bundibugyo strain of the virus has a fatality rate of between 30% and 50%, and there is currently no vaccine approved for it. Two scientists at the University of Oxford, Teresa Lambe and Rebecca Makinson, are part of the group who are working to develop one. In early June, Oxford was one of three organisations to receive funding from the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations for this work. They spoke to The Conversation Weekly podcast about…

Jun

10

2026

By The African Mirror

TB is curable. South Africans can’t wait around for someone else’s rescue.

HEALTH

TB remains the deadliest infectious disease in the world, but it’s not killing people indiscriminately; it’s killing people in poor, developing countries. Data from the World Health Organization makes this very clear. In 2024, most TB cases were concentrated in developing regions, especially South-East Asia, the Western Pacific, and Africa. In South Africa, an estimated 54 000 people died of TB in 2024. That’s a soccer stadium full of people wiped out by TB in a single year. Meanwhile, the Americas accounted for just 3.3% of global cases and Europe 1.9%. The danger is that we get complacent about these…

Jun

02

2026

By PAUL BOWEN and RAJEN GOVENDER

HIV in South Africa: why rolling out a groundbreaking new shot will miss a critical group of men

HEALTH

THE first shipment of Lenacapavir, a long-acting injectable that prevents HIV with two shots a year, arrived in South Africa from the United States in early April 2026. Clinical trials showed close to 100% efficacy. The rollout, expected to begin in June 2026, prioritises adolescent girls and young women, pregnant and breastfeeding women, transgender people, sex workers, men who have sex with men, and people who inject drugs. These are the right populations to start with. But one group repeatedly slips through the cracks: adult, employed men in mobile, male-dominated industries, who move between work sites and home, between long-term…

May

30

2026

By OYEWALE TOMORI

Why Africa – and the world – remain dangerously unprepared for the next pandemic

HEALTH

AS the news spread about the outbreak of Ebola in mid-May 2026, the World Health Organization (WHO) released a report about pandemics. The title was: A World on the Edge: Priorities for a Pandemic-Resilient Future. The document was prepared by the WHO’s Global Preparedness Monitoring Board. It sets out why the world isn’t better prepared for pandemics, a decade after Ebola exposed dangerous gaps. And six years after COVID-19 turned those gaps into a global catastrophe. It adds that investment in pandemic preparedness has not kept pace with the rising risk of pandemics. The Global Preparedness Monitoring Board is an…

May

26

2026

By JIA B. KANGBAI

Ebola outbreak in the DRC: four reasons it will be hard to contain

HEALTH

BY the second week of the latest Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo, it was already clear that containing the spread of the haemorrhagic disease was proving to be difficult. On 17 May 2026, the World Health Organization declared the outbreak a public health emergency of international concern. This is its highest level of global health alert. It is mostly reserved for an extraordinary disease outbreak or event that is a public health risk to many countries through international spread and hence requires global coordinated efforts. According to the WHO, as of 19 May 2026, the DRC had…

May

20

2026

By WOLFGANG PREISER; CARLA MAVIAN; CHERYL BAXTER; RICHARD LESSELLS, and TULIO DE OLIVEIRA

Hantavirus in Africa: why climate change, rats and weak surveillance are worrying scientists

HEALTH

HANTAVIRUSES are not new. They have circulated for decades in rodent populations, particularly in rats and mice. Humans can become infected if they are bitten or scratched by a rodent or by inhaling aerosolised particles. These are tiny bits of rodent urine, faeces or saliva floating through the air that are contaminated by the virus. There are many different hantaviruses, but only one can spread from person to person: the Andes hantavirus from South America. This is the strain that recently killed several cruise ship passengers. Infections between humans can be prevented by closely observing people who were exposed and…

May

19

2026

By KEVIN J.A. THOMAS

Ebola survivors struggle to return to normal lives: what I found out in Sierra Leone and Liberia

HEALTH

DURING the Ebola epidemic of 2014 to 2016, Musu, a resident of Monrovia, Liberia, contracted the Ebola virus along with her husband, five sons, and daughter. A few weeks later, six members of her family died. Musu and her youngest son survived. Since then, their lives have not been the same. Her husband was the family’s sole breadwinner. Now a widow and a single parent, Musu struggles to make ends meet. As she put it, “There is no one here to help besides God. No boyfriend. No father. I am the father, the mother, the uncle, and the brother. At…