André Janse van Rensburg |

André Janse van Rensburg

André J van Rensburg is a senior researcher in health systems at the Centre for Rural Health, University of KwaZulu-Natal, and a research fellow at the Centre for Health Systems Research & Development, University of the Free State. He is also an alumnus of EV4GH 2016.

South Africa’s COVID-19 Vaccine Infodemic battle

The negative consequences of vaccine hesitancy are both clear and dangerous – think of Andrew Wakefield’s legacy, for instance. His now thoroughly debunked claim that there is a link between the MMR vaccine and colitis and autism continues to be the bedrock of the “antivaxx” movement, the consequences of which still emerge. Following vi...

Let’s work towards moral and just mental health systems

Mental healthcare is fundamentally moral. It is, as Didier Fassin reminds us, “the government of the precarious”. In 2017, Reverend Joseph Maboe set out to find his son Billy, who was kept in a dilapidated institution for people living with severe mental and neurological conditions (PSMN) – serious forms of mental incapacitation – in So...

Something old, something new: Linkages and lessons in the responses to tuberculosis and Covid-19

As the global Covid-19 pandemic seems to grow exponentially at this point, we are reminded – as so often during times of crisis – how critically important responsive systems are to prevent morbidity and mortality during an outbreak. On World TB Day, we reflect how there are obvious similarities between Covid-19 and tuberculosis (TB), especi...

Blogs

Mental illness: Still the Cinderella of global health systems research

After attending the Fourth Symposium on Global Health Systems Research (Vancouver, Canada) themed “Resilient and responsive health systems for a changing world” we could not help but search for our lost glass slipper. Influenced by the catastrophic Ebola and Zika outbreaks, this flagship initiative of Health Systems Global (HSG) was immensel...