Juta MedicalBrief

As the number of Ebola deaths rises to more than 130 in the Eastern Congo, and despite the WHO having declared a global emergency due to the outbreak in east Africa, South African officials have said there is a low risk of local transmission but emphasise the need for vigilance, reports Daily Maverick. Global health authorities, however, have warned that the number of people infected by the virus could be much higher than reported and that the outbreak could last for months. South Africa’s National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) said that based on current assessments, there is minimal chance of...

A cancer patient has triumphed in a dispute against Discovery Life, when the National Financial Ombud Scheme (NFO) ruled that when it comes to Severe Illness Benefit claims, the illness itself – not the paperwork that confirms it – is the decisive event, reports IOL. The disagreement concerned the insurer’s decision to decline the patient’s claim for the Severe Illness Benefit under the cancer category. Discovery did not dispute the validity of the claim on its merits but instead relied on a technical defence, namely that the claim arose on 21 October 2023 when cover had lapsed due to unpaid premiums. In...

Durban doctor and bodybuilder Aadil Khan has successfully appealed his bail refusal in an assault case – despite already serving a correctional supervision sentence for beating his ex-wife in a previous matter – and after two cellphones were confiscated from him while he was in hospital being guarded by police. Two sources told News24 that police had seized at least two phones from him over the past two months. They said he’d constantly phoned his ex-wife from the hospital bed and pleaded with her to help him with his case, brought by his current wife. Police spokesperson Brigadier Hlulani Mashaba confirmed...

The competition to gain medical school acceptance in South Africa is so fierce that even top-performing matriculants won’t necessarily get in and are being forced to look offshore, according to Jeremy Maggs on his daily Moneyweb programme. Fortunately, overseas degrees, particularly from Europe, are regarded as highly credible – and the good news is many South Africans who train there actually return here afterwards. Maggs said acceptance rates at leading local medical faculties are reported to be as low as 5%, with universities in Cyprus and Germany offering English-medium medical degrees as a more realistic route for strong South African applicants. However,...

Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi has backtracked and “withdrawn statements that may have been offensive” after appearing to cast aspersions on the partiality of the Constitutional Court judges presiding over challenges to the National Health Insurance Act last week, reports Business Day. A statement from the Health Department on Friday said “the Minister’s remarks should not be construed as second-guessing the judiciary’s ability to remain impartial when adjudicating challenges to the constitutionality of the National Health Insurance”. “The Minister wishes to state categorically that he has full confidence and trusts in the fairness and integrity of the judiciary and its commitment to...

Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi has said that the breakthrough long-acting HIV prevention injection Lenacapavir will be available at selected health facilities from 5 June, reports IOL. The announcement was made last week during the tabling of the department’s budget vote in the National Assembly, with the Minister describing the intervention as a major step towards eliminating HIV as a public health threat. The department would begin distributing stock to depots and health facilities within weeks, with the initial phase targeting 360 facilities in high-burden districts countrywide. The rollout will prioritise groups identified high risk groups, including adolescent girls and young women under...

The national Department of Health will revitalise and expand its priorities after being allocated R64.8bn for the 2026/27 financial year, said Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi last week in tabling the Budget, reports IOL. The focus will be on three key programmes: infrastructure development, HIV prevention, and the elimination of cervical cancer, all highlighted by President Cyril Ramaphosa in his State of the Nation Address earlier this year, during which he directed they be unfolded this year. The government has committed to tackling infrastructure at healthcare facilities in preparation for the National Health Insurance system. This will also include beefing up personnel,...

Momentum has announced it will now extend life insurance coverage to HIV-positive employees, the updated risk management framework enabling healthy HIV-positive individuals to now access full group risk protection, including Death, Disability, and Income Protection benefits above traditional automatic acceptance limits. For decades, the South African insurance industry has relied on legacy underwriting models that automatically triggered a high-risk classification for HIV-positive people, resulting in either more expensive premiums or exclusion from policies. Yet despite medical science and antiretroviral treatment (ART) having, over time, transformed HIV into a manageable chronic condition, normalising lifespans, group insurance structures have often lagged. Momentum Corporate’s update...

Concern is growing over the cheap and easily available schedule 2 products at many outlets, including spaza shops, in the Eastern Cape – with no questions asked. Daily Dispatch reports that buying illegal medication is as easy as uttering two words: “Ndithenga iyeza (I would like to buy medicine)”, which was all that was said by a Daily Dispatch and Go!& Express team at one spaza shop in Duncan Village. The money was extended to the shopkeeper through an opening in the steel protective mesh. He passed over a 100ml bottle of AstraPain Syrup (registration 27/22,0139), though it was discreetly wrapped...

Despite operating theatres at Pietermaritzburg’s Grey’s Hospital having battled with malfunctioning air-conditioners for years, the KZN Department of Health has never declared the repair projects as emergencies, the provincial Department of Public Works and Infrastructure (DPWI) has told IOL News. Changes to the “decanting strategy” to repair the aircon units have now increased the overall project budget because of the inclusion of “additional work beyond the mechanical scope due to work done by other consultants”, according to the DPWI, which says the extra challenges will slow the process of restoring the hospital’s heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) system. Updating the...

Questions have been raised and a forensic probe launched after more than R17m, apparently paid by Pietermaritzburg’s Northdale Hospital to the Msunduzi municipality for an electricity account, seems to have vanished from the City’s billing system, reports The Witness. On Monday, the hospital was told it had 24 hours to cough up for an overdue R12m electricity bill or face disconnection, but the facility’s officials insisted that millions of rands had already been paid towards the debt last year, and was able to show proof of deposits. Local Municipality CEO Nelisiwe Ngcobo and the municipality’s Operation Qoqimali team had visited the...

An alert has been issued by Gauteng Health about the increasing use of unregulated injectable substances marketed for body enhancement and sexual performance, after two serious medical cases in Ekurhuleni, reports IOL. Two people were admitted to hospital with severe complications, including organ failure, after apparently using unverified injectable products obtained through informal channels. The department said the substances were used for “body enhancement purposes, including practices commonly referred to as ‘BBL’ procedures, as well as for sexual performance enhancement”. Health officials said preliminary investigations found the products were being distributed outside regulated healthcare settings and, in some cases, were being sold...

The American state of Pennsylvania has sued the artificial intelligence company behind Character.AI to stop its chatbot from posing as doctors, reports Reuters. Governor Josh Shapiro called the lawsuit against Character Technologies the first of its kind by a US governor. It followed the creation in February of a state AI task force to stop chatbots from impersonating licensed medical professionals. In a complaint filed in the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania, the state said it found chatbots on Character.AI that claimed to practise medicine. One character, “Emilie”, allegedly told a ⁠male investigator posing as a patient with depression that she was licensed to...

South African Professors Salim Abdool Karim, Tulio de Oliveira and Keertan Dheda were among a select group of individuals to be awarded National Orders, the highest accolades conferred by the South African government, on Tuesday, reports The Post. National Orders are the highest awards that South Africa, through the President, bestows on its citizens and eminent foreign nationals who have contributed towards the advancement of democracy and who have made a significant impact on improving the lives of South Africans. The Order of Mapungubwe, which recognises South Africans who have accomplished excellence and exceptional achievement to the benefit of South Africa and...

The Biovac Institute has retained a critical three-year contract to supply South Africa with Hexaxim, the six-in-one shot provided to babies and toddlers in the national childhood immunisation programme, reports Business Day. Announced in the Department of Health’s next 36-month vaccine tender, the R5.3bn contract is crucial for Biovac’s stability, as it relies on the state for business. It had to retrench staff in 2023 after the department rejected its pneumonia vaccine in favour of cheaper imports from India. While Biovac plans to export vaccines in the future, Hexaxim remains key in the short to medium term, said Biovac CEO Morena...

Netcare has announced Melanie da Costa as its new CEO to replace incumbent Dr Richard Friedland, who retires at the end of the year after 30 years, reports News24. Da Costa, who has been with Netcare for two decades and is currently its executive director of strategy and health policy, will start off as CEO designate on 1 June, after which she will work alongside Friedland for six months to ensure a smooth transition. She formally takes over as CEO on 1 January 2027, a day after Friedland retires. Friedland was originally meant to retire on 30 September but agreed to...

Five days of no water supply at an Atteridgeville hospital took their toll on patients, staff and visitors last week, where not just the stink of the non-functioning toilets was overwhelming but where there was also no water for basic cleaning and mopping of wards, reports TimesLIVE. Even basic hygiene requirements for staff at Kalafong Hospital were being severely compromised, according to a healthcare worker on Friday, who said they had to leave the hospital and go home whenever they needed to use a bathroom. The disruption of the water supply was due to a pipe that burst in the area...

The proposed critical minerals agreement contained in the Washington health deal with Zambia has been rejected by the African county, with its government clarifying its opposition, reports Reuters. Zambia’s Foreign Minister Mulambo Haimbe said the United States had offered health support of up to $2bn over the next five years but that some ⁠of the terms regarding data-sharing would violate Zambians’ right to privacy. Additionally, Zambia had objections to the content of a proposed critical minerals agreement. “A further concern... is the coupling of the proposed agreements and frameworks to one another such that the conclusion of the critical minerals agreement...

The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), recently launched the African Strategic Advisory Group on Genomics (ASAG), which aims to independent technical guidance on the governance and implementation of genomics across the continent, reports Africa Business Communities. The initiative strengthens Africa CDC’s push to expand access to genomics technologies in support of disease surveillance, outbreak preparedness and response, precision public health, and the local development and manufacturing of medical countermeasures, it said. ASAG will support the CDC’s efforts to ensure genomics is applied ethically, responsibly, and equitably, and build on progress made through the Africa Pathogen Genomics Initiative,...

A Rustenburg hospital and three doctors are being sued by a father for the death of his daughter in the ICU, whom he alleges died after what he called a catastrophic failure of medical care, including an ICU doctor who allegedly issued instructions via WhatsApp without setting foot at her bedside, reports News24. The case in the North West High Court (Mahikeng) has cleared a critical legal hurdle after Acting Judge Thato Tsautse dismissed a bid by the ICU doctor, Dr Shuping Mokgosi of Life Peglerae Hospital, to have the lawsuit thrown out before it could go to trial. On 16...

The Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA) has been accused of dragging its heels in probing the case of the Stellenbosch doctor accused of abusing opioids and of negligent surgery that allegedly led to a patient’s death, reports News24. A former receptionist has presented a syringe, said to have been used to administer pethidine, as alleged evidence that her ex-employer Dr Pieter Henning, the ‘TV doctor’ facing various charges, was abusing opioids – with DNA test results allegedly matching his. Her complaint includes the results of the test she had sent to the HPCSA, which four months later has to...

In a significant ruling that clarifies the law on medical negligence, consumer law and tort jurisprudence (legal reasoning behind establishing liability), the New Delhi Supreme Court recently held that negligence claims do not automatically end with the death of the doctor, and that the legal heirs of a deceased medical practitioner can be impleaded in such proceedings, reports The Print. However, the court drew a crucial distinction, ruling that any liability of the heirs would be restricted to the estate inherited from the dead doctor, and would not extend to their personal rights. The judgment was delivered earlier this month by...