Background Health promotion is an effective tool for public health. It goes beyond preventing the spread of diseases and reducing the disease burden. It includes interventions encompassing the creation of supportive environments, building public health policy, developing personal skills, reorienting health services and strengthening multisectoral community actions. Aim The aim of the review was conduct an analysis on the opportunities and challenges of the use of social media for health promotion in South Africa. Methods A search of review articles on health promotion using social media conducted using Medline and Google Scholar. Secondary searches were conducted using references and citations from selected articles. Results Social media has potential of being an effective health promotion tool in South Africa. It presents an opportunity for scaling health promotion programs because of its low cost, its ability to have virtual communities and the ease of access eliminating geographical barriers. It also allows real-time communication between various stakeholders. It allows information to spread far and fast and leaving irrespective of the credibility of the source of information. There is a need to take into account country specific socio-economic issues, which may perpetuate unintended consequences related to the digital divide, data costs and the varying levels of health literacy. Conclusion Considering the opportunities presented by social media, the National Department of Health needs to review its health promotion strategy and include the use of social media as an enabler. They also need to address to explore intersectoral measures to address issues which threatening equitable access to credible health promotion information.

Background Social media has globalised compassion enabling requests for donations to spread beyond geographical boundaries. The use of social media for medical crowdfunding links people with unmet healthcare needs to charitable donors. There is no doubt that fundraising campaigns using such platforms facilitates access to financial resources to the benefit of patients and their caregivers. Main text This paper reports on a critical review of the published literature and information from other online resources discussing medical crowdfunding and the related ethical questions. The review highlighted the benefits of crowdfunding as well as the under-exploration of the risk of having patients’ desires and human rights undermined during online fundraising campaigns. Majority of these campaigns get initiated on behalf of the patients, especially the very sick and dependant. The ethical questions raised relate to the voluntariness of informed consent and the possibility of patients being used as a means to an end. Vulnerability of patients may expose them to coercion, undue influence, manipulation, and violation of their human rights. The success of these campaigns is influenced by the digital skills, pre-existing social networks and, the emotional potency. Healthcare is a public good, and online market forces should not determine access to essential health services. The benefits of crowdfunding cannot be subverted, but it can perpetuate unintended injustices, especially those arising from socio-economic factors. Conclusions Policymakers ought to monitor the utilisation of crowdfunding sites to identify policy failures and unmet essential health care needs responsible for driving individuals to use these platforms. The upholding of human rights and the fundamental respect of the individual’s wishes is a moral imperative. The need for an ethics framework to guide different stakeholders during medical crowdfunding needs further examination.

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Africans face double jeopardy on life expectancy due to poverty and constrained vaccine access. The COVID-19 pandemic caused the 2021 crude death rate in South Africa to rise from 8.7 deaths per 1000 people in 2020 to 11.6 deaths per 1000 people in 2021. Vaccination access is critical and depends on international solidarity and collaboration for sustainable programs. History points to the critical need for African countries to safeguard national sovereignty and prioritise donations with broader development objectives. Donor assistance should focus on assisting countries to rise and thrive beyond the pandemic challenges. Reducing benefactor dependency requires countries to be intentional about raising and securing financial resources to sustain vaccine access for the current and future generations. The assistance should focus on facilitating development, meaning investing in countries to thrive beyond the pandemic turbulence. For the sake of Africa’s people and her future generations, current barriers to equitable vaccine access must be scrutinised. We do not know how many vaccine booster shots will be required in the future and the impact on Africa’s health and socioeconomic standing. Global collaboration grounded on bolstering local manufacturing capacity is essential for Africa’s sustainable access and distribution.