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A psychiatric facility in Freetown has stepped away from its colonial past and removed these ‘shackles’ from their patients.

Anne von Gottberg and Cheryl Cohen are two of South Africa’s foremost scientists. We’ve got them and their colleagues to thank for the country’s world class surveillance of SARS-CoV-2. But this powerful duo are also experts on how to bridge divides — and married.

The Foundation for Professional Development, one of South Africa’s oldest nonprofits and the main sponsor of the TB conference in Durban, accepted a R2-million research grant from an organisation that’s widely regarded as a front group for Philip Morris International.

Smoking in the west is declining. So the tobacco industry is looking to untapped markets in lower-income countries to hook new smokers.

Public health experts agree with the vaping lobby that smokers need more help to quit. They disagree, however, with the industry’s argument that imposing a sin tax on vapour products will lead down a similar path as the state-sanctioned Aids denialism of former President Thabo Mbeki’s administration.

Lobbyists pushing for vaping as a way to help people quit smoking insist taxing e-cigarettes like traditional smokes will lead down a similar path as the state-sanctioned project of denying HIV treatment to state patients.

The vaping industry is up in arms because of two new proposed laws. A fight is bound to ensue, but tobacco control is a very particular game. This video will help you get to know the players ahead of public hearings.

In the coming months, we’ll be publishing a series of analyses that plunge into the two sides’ arguments as they rally to fight for the nations’ lungs. Here, we take a look at the tobacco control players in South Africa.

Early pandemic research pointed to smokers not being at risk of severe COVID-19. This turned out to be false. Here’s why the slow pace of science means it’s easy for people to latch onto extraordinary claims despite a lack of strong evidence.

South Africa’s tobacco users are smoking fewer daily cigarettes these days, but it came at a cost. Spoilers – it wasn’t worth it.

Local tobacco companies’ market share quadrupled during the country’s temporary sales ban in 2020, overtaking Big Tobacco’s pre-ban monopoly on South Africa’s tobacco industry.

During the HIV pandemic, doctors were traumatised by the government’s indifference towards patients’ lack of access to treatment. In the case of COVID-19, some physicians say, they have to cope with the devastating consequences of most of the country’s health resources having been allocated to one disease.

A country's coronavirus response is only as good as its president, writes Lawrence Hamilton. So how does South Africa's President Cyril Ramaphosa measure up?

Industry influence and government spats stalled regulations that could have curbed harmful alcohol use in South Africa nearly a decade ago.

South Africa confirmed its first case of the new coronavirus on 5 March. But experts say the public still does not need to purchase medical masks.

Are e-cigarettes dangerous? Are they safer for you than smoking? The World Health Organisation lays out what you need to know about your favourite vapes.