Juta MedicalBrief

Residents of Mafefe village in Limpopo are being screened for asbestos-related illnesses as government moves to address contamination from abandoned mines that closed more than 30 years ago following the asbestos-linked death of a 48-year-old man this year, reports Health-e News. Mampuru Thobejane died in April, with his father, Chief Setlamorago Thobejane, saying he had been diagnosed with asbestosis after developing lung problems in May 2025, although the family had initially suspected TB. His son’s condition deteriorated and he was admitted to Mediclinic Nelspruit Hospital in February. His son lived in agony in his last days, his father told Health-e News. “Doctors...

A High Court application by compounding pharmacy iDexis for leave to appeal against an interim order prohibiting it from making medicines containing semaglutide has been dismissed, with the judge describing the application as “an abuse of process”, reports Business Day. In June, the court upheld an application against iDexis by Novo Nordisk, handing down an interim ruling banning the company from selling compounded semaglutide products pending the outcome of investigations by regulatory authorities. In dismissing iDexis’s application to appeal against the ruling, Judge Petrus van Niekerk criticised it for submitting to the court a “lengthy diatribe”, saying it failed to make...

The new TB vaccines expected to become available from 2029 could save more than 7m lives over a decade, Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, said this week, but only if sufficient supply is ensured to the countries most in need. In its Early Market Shaping Roadmap for novel TB Vaccines, it warned, however, that action is required now to prepare governments and vaccine manufacturers for the vaccines’ arrival. According to the Roadmap, demand for the vaccines among low-income countries and middle-income countries could reach, on average, 86m vaccination courses per year, with greater demand in the early years as high-burden countries seek...

Stats SA has defended its population data, which the National Department of Health said last week may have skewed its estimates of childhood vaccination coverage – and which reflected that more than 30% of babies under 12 months had not been immunised, reports Business Day. Numerous health experts have since flagged the crisis. The Health Department had told Business Day there was uncertainty over the mid-year population estimates provided by Stats SA and that it had launched a process to review their accuracy, but Statistician-General Risenga Maluleke said Stats SA stood by the accuracy of its figures, including the census and...

The continuing situation faced by unemployed doctors is reaching crisis point, with some saying the government is “holding them hostage”, and others, who are desperate, even contemplating suicide, reports The Citizen. Dr Raeesa Kathrada, from North Beach in Durban, and a member of the KZN Unemployed Doctors Association, said the state was “using our allegiance to our own oath we took to preserve lives”, pointing to the contradictory evidence of a dire shortage of doctors and yet a lack of vacancies. She said she continues to receive many messages from her distressed colleagues, with a number of them even considering ending...

When Jan-Herman Els, a young athlete and swimmer with Down Syndrome, underwent a successful liver transplant, it raised important questions for healthcare professionals, families and society about how people with intellectual or physical disabilities should be considered when decisions about complex and life-saving healthcare are made. After her son’s transplant and subsequent almost 100-day stay in the Transplant ICU, Izelle Els launched Fight Till the End: Be Brave, a national awareness initiative aimed at drawing 2 500 new organ donor registrations in South Africa as the family was made acutely aware of the critical shortage of donor organs in this...

Life Beacon Bay Hospital, one of the biggest private healthcare facilities in KuGompo (East London), is collaborating with Frere Hospital – which provides the only public sector tertiary specialist urology service for more than 3m people in the Eastern Cape – to reduce a growing urological surgery backlog, reports News24. Within the next few weeks, at least 25 patients who have been on the waiting list at Frere, which has just one full-time urologist, will have their operations free of charge. Life Beacon Bay will be providing theatre capacity, hospital facilities and clinical support services, the initiative not only helping to...

Illegal providers of abortion pills in Mpumalanga are under scrutiny as health authorities launch measures at state facilities to stem the theft of medicines, reports The Citizen. The Department of Health said it has tightened controls over abortion medication after reports that officials are selling the pills, with spokesperson Dumisani Malamule telling the Lowvelder it was cracking down on theft, diversion and illegal sales. Health facilities have introduced control books to monitor the movement of medication, he added. “Every pill is now counted and entered daily.” The department has also warned that staff found guilty will face action. Malamule said the department has...

The General Industries Workers Union of South Africa (Giwusa) plans to oppose Adcock Ingram’s proposed retrenchments and closure at its Clayville, Johannesburg plant, despite the company citing losses, under-utilisation and unprofitable products, reports The National. Giwusa said last week that it would defend every job after Adcock Ingram issued Section 189A notices proposing the retrenchment of up to 250 workers and the closure of the manufacturing plant. In a statement, the union said that any financial losses “were not the fault of workers”. The response follows a recall by the South African Health Products Regulatory Authority (SAHPRA) of specific batches of Citro-Soda...

The Global Commission on Drug Policy is urging countries to replace criminal penalties with accessible health services, social support and health services, saying that worldwide, harsh enforcement laws and punitive measures do more harm than good to young people and children, reports Daily Maverick. At the launch of the commission’s new brief, Making Children and Young People Visible in Drug Policy: A Child Rights-based Agenda for Reform,  last week, commissioner Juan Manuel Santos, a former president of Colombia, said that protecting children should be one of the fundamental responsibilities of governments, but policies needed to be judged by their results,...

Half a dozen top notch healthcare facilities in South Africa, Nigeria, Botswana and Uganda have just received accreditation awards from COHSASA, marking measurable progress in the drive for safer, more consistent care across the continent, reports Bizcommunity. Two of them –  Duchess International Hospital in Lagos and Overstrand Hospice in Hermanus, Western Cape – have achieved two-year accreditation for the first time, while the awards also mark an important milestone for South Africa’s Cure Day Hospitals. Its Bellville and Somerset West facilities are the first in the 11-hospital South African group – soon to become 12 – to secure four-year accreditation. Over...

Silicon Valley swindler Elizabeth Holmes – founder of Theranos – is already plotting a comeback from her Texas prison camp, despite being only three years into her 10-year sentence, reports the New York Post. Holmes (42), has managed to help her husband raise a reported $18m for another blood testing start-up, but an insider described her as “shameless and delusional” to think she could be taken seriously again by any medical and biotech professionals. Much like her previous company, which reached a $9bn valuation before the science behind it was proven to be bunk and she was convicted of scamming investors,...

Hundreds of US patients were sued by obstetrician-gynaecologist Dr Roger Marshall of Kansas – now a senator – for outstanding bills, and routinely charged an eye-watering 18% interest, with some also having their bank accounts garnished, reports The New York Times. One patient had to wait until 11 years, after paying off a payment plan for emergency surgery, for a judgment to be lifted. Marshall, who is currently seeking re-election, filed lawsuits against more than 700 patients during his decades-long career, according to an analysis of Kansas court records, with police making arrests in 81 of those cases for missing...

A 43-day nurses’ strike in Kenya that paralysed public hospitals has ended after the government and the nurses’ union signed a return-to-work agreement, reports ABC News. Seth Panyako, secretary-general of the Kenya National Union of Nurses and Midwives, said last week that his members would return to hospitals within 24 hours. He added that the agreement provided 45 days for negotiations to conclude on the implementation of a collective bargaining agreement that was reached in 2017 after a six-month strike. That agreement remains unimplemented due to what the government has termed budgetary constraints. The development came a day after nurses marched to...

Thai authorities have launched an investigation into the death of a British man who died after receiving a penis enlargement injection at a Bangkok clinic, reports NovaNews. Igho Ubiribo (43), a Nigerian-born influencer, died on 6 March after receiving hyaluronic acid filler hours earlier. A London coroner ruled last month that the injection had caused his death. The case has renewed concerns about medical tourism safety in Thailand, one of the world’s leading destinations for cosmetic procedures and healthcare. The country’s health ministry has ordered an investigation into Ubiribo’s death, with officials visiting the clinic last week to check whether it holds...

A woman pursuing a R2m medical negligence claim against two doctors has been given the go-ahead by the North West High Court (Mahikeng) to proceed after it dismissed an application by one of them to have the lawsuit thrown out, reports IOL. The woman alleges she suffered severe complications after the termination of her pregnancy, which resulted in the removal of one of her fallopian tubes, and is claiming more than R2m in damages. Acting Judge BF Mnyovu ruled that her case contains sufficient facts to proceed to trial, dismissing the doctor’s exception with costs. According to the judgment, the woman consulted...

The US state of Arizona has taken legal aim at L’Oreal South Africa and its US subsidiary, alleging the cosmetics company hid evidence that its hair relaxer products could cause cancer in women – as it faces thousands of similar lawsuits from users and their families, reports Reuters. Arizona Attorney-General Kristin Mayes filed the lawsuit last week, making Arizona the first state to sue over alleged cancer risks linked to straighteners. The lawsuit accuses L’Oreal of violating state consumer protection laws by marketing the products, which are used predominantly by African American women, without warning consumers about the alleged risks of...