Assessing awareness and treatment knowledge of preventable blindness in rural and urban South African communities.

Background: Preventable blindness is a global public health problem. In South Africa (SA) the prevalence of blindness is increasing, with a higher proportion of cataracts than the global norm, and a large rural population with limited access to specialised eye-care services.

Objective: To determine the level of knowledge regarding preventable blindness and treatment options within a rural and urban population.

Evaluation of choices and time spent on an open online elective course by undergraduate medical students during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the weakness of relying on in-person tuition in higher education. Massive open online courses (MOOCs) have been a successful addition to higher education. In this study, educators had to replace a planned elective in the medical curriculum with an online option during the pandemic.

Developing mental health curricula and a service provision model for clinical associates in South Africa: a Delphi survey of family physicians and psychiatrists.

Background: Clinical associates are a health professional cadre that could be utilised in mental health task sharing in South Africa but this is training dependent. The objectives of the study were to identify the potential curricula content, training sites, and teaching modalities for undergraduate and potential postgraduate clinical associate mental health training and to identify the tasks that they should perform based on these curricula.

Methods: We utilised the Delphi method to reach consensus on items with the panel comprising psychiatrists and family physicians.

The acceptability of a donor human milk bank and donated human milk among mothers in Limpopo Province, South Africa.

Breastfeeding is a crucial public health approach that reduces infant morbidity and mortality by providing essential nutrients and antibodies, and breast milk is easily digested. Breastfeeding and donated milk serve as a preventative measure against necrotising enterocolitis. Additionally, they protect against viruses and nosocomial sepsis.