Juta MedicalBrief

South Africa is experiencing widespread shortages of essential medicines, including folic acid, epilepsy medication, contraceptives and antibiotics, with some products out of stock for months and desperate patients leaving health facilities empty-handed, reports News24. An investigation by Rapport – sparked by a tip-off about a contraceptive shortage in the private sector – points to a national crisis felt at every level. Various sources, from pharmaceutical manufacturers to pharmacists, doctors and clinic staff, have confirmed the issue. The Department of Health’s internal “hot list”, which tracks national stock levels, shows that numerous products have been out of stock for months and that...

In a blow to Cape Town’s Life Vincent Pallotti Hospital, the High Court has refused it leave to appeal against a ruling that restored the practising and admission privileges of an oncologist accused of being racist, homophobic and sexist, reports News24. However, the group says it is determined to forge onwards with its legal battle against Dr Louis Kathan and will seek further legal avenues after its second court defeat. Kathan, who has a special interest in neuro-oncology and treats patients with both cancerous and non-cancerous brain tumours at his private practice at the Pinelands hospital, was removed from his position...

The Board of Healthcare Funders (BHF) has slammed the industry regulator’s guidance on contribution increases for 2027, saying it has failed to consider soaring healthcare costs, and risks creating unrealistic expectations among members, reports Business Day. It has now written to the Council for Medical Schemes (CMS) calling for implementation of reforms recommended by the Competition Commission’s Health Market Inquiry, including a mechanism for tariff negotiation between funders and healthcare providers. This comes amid ongoing political pressure from unions, which have been campaigning against the Government Employees Medical Scheme’s contribution increases for 2026. More recently, the Federation of Trade Unions of...

Gauteng Health officials and their girlfriends raked in luxury cars and cash as payoffs from alleged kingpin Stefan Govindraju during the Tembisa Hospital grand looting spree, show court papers filed as part of an asset seizure application in the Gauteng High Court last week, reports News24. The documents revealed Govindraju’s plans to plead guilty to a string of crimes, including using jewellery and vehicles – a McLaren, a Mercedes-Benz S63 and G63, and a Ferrari, among others – to buy off senior officials. The asset seizure application was unopposed by Govindraju in the virual proceedings and a final order was granted,...

The high cost of two newly-licensed interventions that protect babies against respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is blocking their introduction into South Africa’s public health system, says Wits vaccinologist Professor Shabir Madhi, and despite the Health Department trying to negotiate a lower price for the maternal RSV jab, which is available privately, that is also too expensive for most pregnant women. “The pricing is a huge issue,” he told the Mail & Guardian this week. RSV is a common respiratory virus, but it can cause severe pneumonia and other lower respiratory tract infections in babies. The first intervention is Abrysvo, an RSV vaccine...

The SA Revenue Services wants R1.9bn from alleged Tembisa Hospital kingpin Hangwani Morgan Maumela, who has still not been formally charged in the looting scandal, reports News24, and who the Receiver has accused of “trying to frustrate SARS in executing its constitutional mandate to collect revenue”. Maumela, his mother, Mboneni Maumela, and his sister, Rumani Maumela, acting in their capacities as trustees of the MHR Family Trust at the centre of it all, are challenging the massive bill in the Gauteng High Court and have lodged a contempt application against SARS, arguing that the taxman breached an order handed down...

South Africa is seeing a surge in mpox infections, with at least 18 new cases reported – mostly in the Western Cape – while infections across 11 African countries have also alarmed health authorities, leading to the WHO extending its standing recommendations on the disease until August 2027, reports allAfrica. In South Africa, the National Department of Health has issued a public warning for people to remain vigilant as laboratory-confirmed cases rise, with spokesperson Foster Mohale saying the situation requires “immediate and sustained public co-operation to contain”. News24 reports that the majority (15) of these cases were reported in Cape Town,...

The South African Dental Technicians Council (SADTC) is expected to consider Cape Peninsula University of Technology’s (CPUT) representations before deciding whether to forge ahead with a request to suspend its dental technology programme, reports IOL. This comes after the Western Cape High Court dismissed an urgent application by CPUT to stop the council from seeking consent from Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi to suspend its dental technology programme pending a review in the Gauteng division. The Department of Health said it was hoping CPUT would take note of the fact that it cannot, as the judgment states “refuse to participate in a...

Community unrest and the liquidation of a contractor have been blamed for further delays to the decade-long construction of the (new) Mapulaneng Regional Hospital in Mpumalanga, which was supposed to be completed in July this year, reports BusinessTech. The project, with a hefty construction cost of R2.835bn, was intended to replace the existing and dilapidated 90-year-old Mapulaneng Hospital, originally established by Swiss missionaries in 1936. Construction of the new hospital in Bushbuckridge began in phases in 2016, with a full contractual completion date of July 2026. It had an initial budget of R2.5bn. The project was reported at 78% physical progress as...

A seven-page memorandum demanding urgent intervention over poor service delivery, excessive waiting times, and patient safety concerns at the Bishop Lavis Community Day Centre has been handed to Western Cape Health and Wellness MEC Mireille Wenger, days after a 49-year-old woman died in her wheelchair outside the facility, reports News24. The local community also staged a silent picket outside the centre last week, while the provincial branch of the Health & Other Services Personnel Trade Union of South Africa (Hospersa) has called for a full investigation. Sylvia Abrahams had died shortly before 7am on 2 September after a friend dropped her...

Sufferers of a very rare, progressive neurological disorder will, for the first time, have access to an FDA-approved medication, reports MassLive News. The Food and Drug Administration has recently approved Zanvastro (zilganersen), an injection that targets the protein build-up that drives Alexander disease – a condition that, until now, had no treatment options. Emily Freilich, director of the Division of Neurology I in the FDA’s Centre for Drug Evaluation and Research, said that patients with Alexander disease were previously offered only supportive care while the disease progressed. She called the approval a “landmark moment” for the community, noting that bringing Zanvastro to the market...

A patient whose oesophagus was torn after taking a counterfeit version of experimental weight loss drug retatrutide has prompted Australia’s medicines regulator to warn about the serious risks of such products, reports The Guardian. Retatrutide has not been approved by the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) or regulators overseas, and it cannot be legally prescribed or sold in Australia. Peptides are strings of molecules – amino acids – that act as chemical messengers in the body, and are involved in a range of functions like hormone activity, digestion, immune defence and tissue growth. The peptides in retatrutide mimic hunger hormones. Despite being unapproved,...

An FDA labelling update has cautioned that unapproved use of deoxycholic acid injection (Kybella) outside the submental fat region may carry a risk of neuromuscular and other potentially serious adverse events, reports MedPage Today. A review of the FDA Adverse Event Reporting System (FAERS) revealed 129 cases of adverse events associated with use of deoxycholic acid in unapproved areas since the product was approved in 2015, the agency said in a safety communication. The reports included some serious adverse events, such as blurred or reduced vision with periorbital use of deoxycholic acid injection and muscle or nerve injury, including facial paresis...

A couple in Athens welcomed a baby daughter last week after using one of the mother’s decades-old embryos – and simultaneously, beating a government deadline, reports The Associated Press. Just months after their 21‑year‑old son died in a car crash in October, Cristina Rapti‑Tzelepi, now 54, and her husband made the decision to pursue another attempt using an embryo frozen for more than 22 years. However, she was also up against the Greek Government’s 54-year age limit for women to complete in vitro fertilisation procedures and secure approval from a national authority. When she started, time was already running short. “I only had...

Jehovah’s Witnesses have partly eased their long-standing prohibition on the medical use of donated blood, allowing members to receive products derived from blood but maintaining a ban on transfusions of whole blood – the second revision this year for the religious organisation, reports The Associated Press. The new policy says followers can receive products derived from blood donated by other people: they are now allowed to receive medical treatments that involve the use of the four main components of whole blood: plasma, platelets and red and white blood cells. It also allows members to decide – as a matter of individual...

The Gauteng High Court (Johannesburg) ruled this week that the state can use hospital records to rest the credibility of murder accused Musa Kekana in the trial of Tembisa kingpin Vusimuzi ‘Cat’ Matlala, rejecting the defence’s argument that the records were hearsay because the doctors who’d made the entries had not testified, reports EWN. Judge Carrim Moosa said that when the defence handed in the record, it did so without qualification and it cannot now refer to it as hearsay. Kekana is testifying in a trial-within-a-trial to challenge his arrest and the evidence obtained. He, Matlala and three others are facing...

Traumatised staff at the Kalbaskraal Satellite Clinic, outside Malmesbury in the Western Cape, were safely evacuated last week after a group of men barged into the facility demanding the whereabouts of a patient, reports Voice of Cape. A police spokesperson said Malmesbury SAPS was aware of reports of a shooting, but that no criminal case has been registered for further investigation. The incident prompted the clinic’s closure for the rest of the day and came hard on the heels of a go-slow strike at another community clinic – in Khayelitsha – where workers demanded urgent action after a series of hijackings...

Hundreds of orthopaedic patients – mostly children – suffered “harm” at an NHS hospital in England, which is currently reviewing cases dealt with by a suspended surgeon, reports the BBC. Kuldeep Stohr was suspended by Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge last year amid concerns about surgeries that were “below the expected standard”. A now-removed report to the hospital trust’s board stated that of the 924 patients reviewed so far, 209 “experienced harm”, most being children having elective surgery. Forty-seven were classed as severe, with one being fatal. Some are unlikely to ever fully recover. Reviews Two separate reviews were launched, and an update on one...

The Ebola vaccine was rolled out this weekend in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, with the priority being on healthcare staff in Bunia, the epicentre of the fastest-growing outbreak of the disease in history, reports AP. They and other frontline workers are being given the Ervebo vaccine that was effective in past Ebola outbreaks, caused by the more common Zaire strain. Clinical trials are ongoing to find a vaccine for the current Bundibugyo virus outbreak, which has no licensed treatment. The rollout is focusing on the Bunia and Mongbwalu zones in Ituri province, with health authorities saying the two areas are...

A police investigation into involuntary manslaughter is being opened after a Brazilian businesswoman died after undergoing six facial cosmetic procedures during surgery lasting almost a day, reports Healthandme. Andreia Vieira Gaspar (51), from Goiânia, Brazil, who died on 12 August after a deep-plane facelift, forehead lift, chin reshaping, eyelid surgery, neck liposuction and a “nanofat” injection using her own body fat, had reportedly left the operating theatre heavily swollen and struggling to breathe. Her condition worsened overnight, with neck pain and increasing breathing difficulties. She reportedly told her sister, Djiane Vieira: “Sis, I’m dying.” Her sister then sought help from the...

Hundreds of orthopaedic patients – mostly children – suffered “harm” at an NHS hospital in England, which is currently reviewing cases dealt with by a suspended surgeon, reports the BBC. Kuldeep Stohr was suspended by Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge last year amid concerns about surgeries that were “below the expected standard”. A now-removed report to the hospital trust’s board stated that of the 924 patients reviewed so far, 209 “experienced harm”, most being children having elective surgery. Forty-seven were classed as severe, with one being fatal. Some are unlikely to ever fully recover. Reviews Two separate reviews were launched, and an update on one...

A Missouri judge was urged last week by Bayer’s Monsanto unit to approve its $7.25bn proposed settlement of lawsuits alleging that its weedkiller Roundup causes cancer, saying this was the only way to resolve the litigation that has been ongoing for years, and was its final offer, reports Reuters. The company is attempting to settle nearly all existing and future Roundup cancer claims in the United States through a new class action filed in Missouri in February. Judge Timothy Boyer heard arguments from supporters and opponents of the proposed deal at a hearing in St Louis last Monday. Bayer has consistently denied that Roundup...