On #Mastodon I’m @[email protected] if anyone wants to link up there. Med-mastodon is a server with a medical focus, to the extent that it matters.

I am on BlueSky at marcuslowx.bsky.social

News24 | IN THE SPOTLIGHT | How will the NHI unfold? Here are three possible scenarios dlvr.it/TF3vjr

BIG READ | The second of two studies of a six-monthly #HIV prevention injection containing #lenacapavir has confirmed the jab works remarkably well. E.V. goes over the findings and unpacks some details around licenses for generic versions of the jab.

MUST READ | Hillbrow started out as Johannesburg’s first health hub in the late 1880s. It’s also been a suburb associated with pimps and prostitution, a middle finger to the Nationalist Party, and a key site of the HIV crisis, reports Ufrieda Ho. spotlightnsp.co.za/2024/10/16/hig…

FULL STATEMENT: section27.org.za/2024/10/copyri…

JUST PUBLISHED | An estimated 56 000 people in South Africa and 1.25 million around the world died of #TB in 2023, according to new World Health Organization (WHO) estimates. This means TB overtook COVID-19 as the top infectious disease killer on the planet. Marcus Low unpacks the new numbers.

MUST READ | How tissue donations in KZN are helping to boost our understanding of TB Some patients at KZN hospitals are donating lung tissue for use in #TB research. Suesegar explores why these samples are important to unlocking the mysteries of what the TB bacterium does

Excellent science writing by E.V.. UNAIDS Global yogan pillay Zameer Brey @tac Linda-Gail Bekker

I am on Bluesky as Marcus Low. There are suddenly many more accounts worth following there - and you can pick your algorithm.

Spotlight Editor Marcus Low is quoted in this piece: “There are no shortcuts. You have to earn the trust of your readers, and you can only really do that by continuously doing the type of fair and rigorous journalism that earns trust.”

Very important piece from one of our top HIV experts. UNAIDS Global yogan pillay AVAC TAC Treatment Action Group (TAG) Zackie Achmat

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. spotlightnsp.co.za/2025/03/20/fea…

THE BIG READ | The number of people living with #HIV in South Africa has for the first time reached the eight million mark. The eight million amounts to 12.8% of the population. Marcus Low spotlightnsp.co.za/2025/03/31/8-m…

MUST READ | The sudden and severe US cuts to grants from the world’s largest health research funder threaten to unravel the medical research landscape in SA. Will the government turn this crisis into an opportunity for renewal? Marcus Low spotlightnsp.co.za/2025/04/03/sa-…

PLAN OF ACTION | Professor Ntobeko Ntusi, head of the South African Medical Research Council, tells Spotlight about efforts to find alternative funding and to preserve the country’s health research capacity. SAMRC Ntobeko Ntusi Catherine Tomlinson spotlightnsp.co.za/2025/04/15/ins…

SILENT CRISIS | Many of the over three million people alive in South Africa cured of TB are likely to suffer from long-term after-effects of the disease. To learn more Spotlight recently attended a global gathering of experts on life after TB. spotlightnsp.co.za/2025/05/05/lar…

saflii.org/za/cases/ZACC/…