Juta MedicalBrief

The lack of consequence management in the National Department of Health for its complete lack of movement on its audit outcome for more than 10 years has been slammed by Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Health, which is now demanding urgent governance and financial management improvements, reports The Citizen. Also in trouble is the National Health Laboratory Service (NHLS), which was unable to even submit an audit, and with an irate Health Minister now appointing a special task team to investigate. The committee questioned the department on its 2025/26 annual report as part of Parliament’s Budgetary Review and Recommendations Report process, with...

President Cyril Ramaphosa has ordered the establishment of a government-business task force to tackle the challenges facing the pharmaceutical sector, reports Business Day. It comes in the wake of local pharmaceutical manufacturing companies’ complaints to Parliament that they are being squeezed out by government procurement policies that give greater weight to cheap imports than domestically produced medicines. The presidency recognised the crucial role of the pharmaceutical sector and would seek to facilitate government-business engagement through the task force, said the president’s special adviser for investment promotion, Alistair Ruiters. “South Africa needs a sustainable, agile, resilient and innovative pharmaceutical sector that can support...

Amid conflicting reports and rumours of a discharge, it appears Jacob Zuma was still in St Anne’s Hospital yesterday, having been admitted the previous week for undisclosed reasons. News24 reports that Minister in the Presidency Khumbudzo Ntshavheni had cautioned the public against violating MK Party leader Zuma’s privacy by demanding to know the reasons for his hospitalisation, saying in a special briefing on Sunday that his health status should be respected and that the former President was “under the care of the SA National Defence Force surgeon general”. On Sunday, News24 reported that during the week, Zuma’s family allegedly refused to...

Cyber criminals say they’ve accessed more than 80m patient records from Ampath Laboratories, one of South Africa’s largest pathology service providers, with ByteToBreach, which has attacked other major entities across Africa, including major targets in Nigeria, claiming responsibility for the breach, reports MyBroadband. The extortionists announced on a hacker forum on Tuesday that they had successfully compromised the company’s security – and published screenshots of the attack, to prove it. Ampath has confirmed the attack, saying it had immediately launched an investigation with assistance from external forensic specialists, and that the breach had been successfully contained. However, its website was taken offline...

Several of South Africa’s largest suppliers of diagnostic imaging equipment have been referred by the the Competition Commission to the Competition Tribunal for prosecution, amid allegations that they prevented other firms from servicing, repairing and maintaining their systems, reports Business Day. Under scrutiny are GE South Africa, GE Medical Systems South Africa, Siemens Healthcare and Philips South Africa, whose equipment includes X-ray, ultrasound, magnetic resonance imaging, computed tomography and PET/CT systems. The commission alleges their conduct contravenes section 8(1)(c) or, alternatively, section 8(1)(d)(ii) of the Competition Act, contributing to higher costs and fewer repair options for healthcare facilities. If found guilty...

Although surgical removal of the larynx can improve the survival odds for someone with advanced cancer of the voice box, the huge cost is their losing the ability to speak. Now, however, a skilled ENT team at a Cape Town hospital is changing that, reigniting the patient’s hopes and means to verbally communicate again by implanting a special speech valve during the same complex procedure, writes MedicalBrief. Ear, nose and throat (ENT) surgeon Dr Vincent Pretorius, who practises at Netcare N1 City Hospital, and Dr Matthew White, a specialist otorhinolaryngologist and head and neck surgeon with a particular focus on complex...

A psychiatry expert has warned that an acute lack of community-based resources and specialised beds is leaving South Africa’s public sector overstretched, reports IOL. This follows a parliamentary inquiry by the DA’s Dr Karl Willem du Pré le Roux to Health Minister Dr Aaron Motsoaledi regarding psychiatric hospital units, available mental health beds, and patient treatment statistics from 2023 onward. Experts said the issue, and a vital lack of resources, could have a cascading effect, not just on the patients themselves but on staff, and also families and communities. Saturday marked World Mental Health Day, held under the theme “Lived experiences heard:...

An 18-year-old University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) medical student has used technology to create an innovative telemedicine healthcare project that will overcome communication challenges in underserved communities – a platform using neither a phone nor mobile data, but which allows users to access healthcare through a simple code, reports The Witness. First-year student Itumeleng Mhlongo’s project, called Bridge the Gap, was founded with the aim of connecting communities with volunteer doctors using Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) technology. The pilot phase is expected to launch early next year, and she hopes to eventually expand it across South African townships and the rest...

Vanderbijlpark residents in Gauteng will have expanded and improved access to primary healthcare services with last week’s opening of the new Johan Heyns Gateway Clinic, a replacement for the former community health centre that’s being redeveloped into a hospital, reports TimesLIVE. Good news, too, is that an Emergency Medical Services base has also been established at the clinic – officially handed over to Sedibeng District Health Services and the community by Health MEC Faith Mazibuko and Emfuleni Mayor Hassan Mako on Tuesday. With 13 consulting rooms, an emergency room, a triage and vital signs area, a physiotherapy room and dispensary, the...

The upgraded state-of-the-art R200m emergency and trauma centre at Groote Schuur Hospital – which will treat up to 4 500 patients a month – was officially opened last week, reports the Cape Argus. Funded by the Western Cape Department of Health and Wellness alongside philanthropic contributions via the Groote Schuur Hospital Trust, operations began in phases earlier this year, with the Emergency Centre admitting patients from 28 July, while the Trauma Centre started operating on 12 August. The facility boasts enhanced resuscitation areas, dedicated trauma treatment zones, and upgraded clinical infrastructure, as well as essential high-tech equipment, including digital mobile X-ray...

More than five years after the massive fire engulfed parts of Charlotte Maxeke Academic Hospital, the delayed repairs have still not been completed, much to the frustration of Public Protector Kholeka Gcaleka, who paid an unannounced visit to the facility last week, reports EWN. The 2021 blaze – which saw 800 patients being evacuated – also destroyed valuable medical supplies worth more than R40m, and caused extensive damage to infrastructure and equipment. In a report earlier this year, Gcaleka found there had been unnecessary delays to the completion of the repairs, and during her visit last week, she watched as hundreds...

The University of Southern Denmark has given the green light to the controversial $1.6m CDC-funded study in Guinea-Bissau that plans to offer life-saving hepatitis B vaccines to only half of enrolled babies. An international storm erupted when news of the project was first reported in December by CIDRAP News, with health groups and political leaders condemning its design as unethical. Those concerns led Guinea-Bissau officials and administrators at the Danish university to place the study on hold for several months. Nearly one in five people in Guinea-Bissau is infected with hepatitis B, which kills 15% to 25% of people with chronic infections by causing cancer or liver failure....

Britain’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has authorised Eli Lilly’s Onswik (insulin efsitora alfa) for the treatment of type 2 diabetes mellitus in adults. The long-acting basal insulin is given via injection once weekly, and may reduce the number of injections required from up to 365 a year to 52. Onswik was registered in the US by the FDA last month, but as yet has not been authorised by the South African Health Products Regulatory Authority (SAPHRA). Julian Beach, MHRA executive director of Healthcare Quality and Access, said the authorisation in the UK follows a rigorous assessment of the available...

The US Government agency charged with combating disease outbreaks abroad is shrinking as Donald Trump’s “America First” approach to foreign policy takes hold, with concerned experts warning of the consequences of a reduction in personnel and resources, reports POLITICO. The crucial Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) offices in Angola and South Sudan were both closed last Thursday, with the office in Zimbabwe due to shut its doors at the end of the year. Current and former CDC officials told POLITICO they expect more than a dozen other foreign offices will follow in the next few years. It’s the latest...

The United Nations issued another warning last week that central Africa could be facing a major public health threat from trafficked and illicit medicines, resulting from the chasm between healthcare needs and access to safe, affordable treatment, reports africanews. TB, malaria and HIV are prevalent in the six countries comprising the Central African Economic and Monetary Community (CEMAC) but there is a scarcity of treatment and safe medicines, which if available, are often unaffordable. This fuels the illicit market for medical products, according to the new report by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), the World Health Organisation...

China has announced its candidate nomination to lead the World Health Organisation and succeed current DG Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who reaches the end of his second five-year term – the maximum – in August 2027, reports The Japan Times. In the move that could signal intent to expand its influence at the WHO after the US quit, even though questions persist about Beijing’s transparency over the Covid-19 pandemic, it has nominated maternity health expert Song Li for the job at the US agency, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said. Donald Trump has long accused the WHO of being a “puppet of...

In efforts to reduce avoidable disabilities, amputations and complications linked to chronic conditions, the Gauteng Department of Health is beefing up access to podiatry services, with 61 podiatrists now providing specialised foot and ankle care in 11 hospitals and five health districts, reports TimesLIVE. Department spokesperson Steve Mabona said the services were aimed at diabetics, people with circulatory disorders, HIV, TB and other chronic conditions, while also supporting children, older people and patients requiring rehabilitation and assistive devices. During the 2025/26 financial year, podiatrists consulted 63 046 patients and screened 34 245 people, including 14 572 diabetics. A total of 9...

US Health Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr has announced a series of initiatives to study the rare adverse effects of vaccines, including a specialist research centre, reports EWN. “We must listen to patients and families who report vaccine injuries, not dismiss or gaslight them,” Kennedy, well known as a vaccine sceptic, said last week. Kennedy has faced criticism from the World Health Organisation (WHO) and other medical experts for efforts to overhaul child vaccinations in the United States. According to the WHO, vaccination currently prevents up to 5m deaths every year from diseases like diphtheria, tetanus, influenza and measles. “The issue really isn’t whether...

Neuroscientists Karl Deisseroth, Peter Hegemann and Georg Nagel have won the 2026 Nobel Prize in Medicine for their research into light-gated ion channels and optogenetics – a method that “provides opportunities for mapping the brain in a way that we could once only dream of”, reports Euronews. Optogenetics makes it possible to show how nerve cells shape memories, feelings and behaviours in the living brain, the Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet said last week, and in winning the prize, German scientists Nagel and Hegemann and US scientist Deisseroth have “laid the foundation of a new era in neuroscience”, the institute...

A woman’s damages claim against a Cape Town fertility specialist – after a procedure led to serious complications – has been dismissed with costs by the Western Cape High Court, reports IOL. The hysteroscopic procedure by Dr Philip Zinn had resulted in a uterine perforation, followed by a bowel perforation and peritonitis, but Judge Hayley Maud Slingers found that although the doctor had failed to properly explain the material risks associated with the procedure, the patient had not established that he was negligent or that the lack of informed consent caused the harm for which she sought compensation. The woman had...

The North West High Court (Mahikeng) has dismissed – with costs – a woman’s R6m medical negligence claim against a doctor, saying she had waited too long and had thus failed to submit her claim within the prescribed three-year period, reports IOL. She had sued Dr Sam Amaoukua Adu for damages arising from medical complications after her baby’s birth in December 2019, when the child was delivered by vaccuum extraction, and she had to undergo an episiotomy. She said she later experienced serious medical problems, including the passage of flatus and faecal matter through her vagina, and claimed the complications resulted...

A “budget” plastic surgeon in the US who claims to have performed 4 000 procedures – but who has been linked to eight patients’ deaths and several allegations of botched procedures – has approached the court to have his Illinois licence suspension overturned. The state is seeking a permanent ban on Dr Ayoub Sayeg’s practice, actively pursuing a 2020 complaint linked to one of the deaths, and recently updated to include a 2018 death, and reviewing internal processes to accelerate future disciplinary cases. Sayeg is now seeking a court injunction in Illinois to lift the suspension and allow him to continue...

A New York wellness centre founder is under arrest and facing charges for the death of a 27-year-old client after her treatment went wrong, reports News12The Bronx. Luis Rojas Cabrera (56) turned himself in last week in connection with the death of Elizabeth Baron on 18 July. The Bronx District Attorney’s Office said the charges include second degree murder, and manslaughter. The indictment claims Rojas Cabrera, “introduced air into an intravenous line” during the procedure, killing Baron. According to the criminal complaint, Baron was receiving an NAD+ IV treatment at the Bereshit Lifestyle Centre, a wellness and anti-ageing clinic, when Rojas Cabrera...