Bhekisisa, the South African health journalism outlet, brought ten journalists and editors from competing publications together in Cape Town for a two-day workshop sharing its reporting on lenacapavir (LEN), the six-monthly HIV prevention injection South Africa began rolling out through state clinics in June. Participants worked through health department uptake data, met modelling scientists projecting the jab’s potential impact on South Africa’s HIV epidemic, visited a working public clinic, and heard directly from four people who’d actually received the injection through the government programme.
Editor-in-chief Mia Malan’s reasoning: good health journalism requires understanding clinical trials, regulation, and health data well enough to translate them accurately, expertise that’s expensive to build and increasingly rare as specialist beats shrink under financial pressure. Rather than treat that knowledge purely as competitive advantage, Bhekisisa chose to share it, betting that better-informed reporting across multiple outlets serves the public more than any single outlet owning the story first.
What You Can Do
- If you’re following South Africa’s lenacapavir rollout, watch for reporting from Spotlight, Health-e News, Health Policy Watch, and Bhekisisa in the coming months, several outlets are now working from a shared, deeper base of understanding.
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