People
South Sudanese doctor wins UN's Nansen award
September 26th, 2018 A South Sudanese doctor, who runs an overcrowded hospital with a dimly-lit surgical theatre and no regular supply of general anaesthetics, has won the UN refugee agency's prestigious Nansen award. News24 reports that Evan Atar Adaha's Maban...
Former SA surgeon named president of US orthopaedic society
July 18th, 2018 Tuks- and Stellenbosch- trained orthopaedic surgeon, Dr J Chris Coetzee has been named president of the American Orthopaedic Foot & Ankle Society (AOFAS), the leading organisation for lower extremity medicine and foot and ankle surgery,...
SA's double-lung transplant recipient eyes the World Transplant Games
July 11th, 2018 Alice Vogt, the first South African to have two double-lung transplants and survive, is joining more than 80 other organ recipients in the sporting arena, says a Sunday Times report. The 33-year-old will compete at the National Transplant Games...
'Miracle Man' hands Comrades Marathon medal to trauma surgeon
July 4th, 2018 A man who completed the Comrades Marathon for the first time since being impaled on a 1.8m crowbar has handed his Comrades Marathon medal to the trauma surgeon who played a leading role in saving his life. “This is not only from me, I am...
SA experts appointed to top positions in IAS
June 27th, 2018 South African HIV/Aids experts are again at the forefront of the international fight against the disease, reports City Press. Last week, Kevin Osborne and Keletso Makofane, were appointed to lead the world’s largest and most powerful association...
GBMSA announces its first woman chair
June 27th, 2018 Generics and Biosimilar Manufacturers of SA (GBMSA) has announced the election of Lorraine Keyser as their new chair, the first woman to have been elected chair of the organisation since its inception 41 years ago. Keyser, who is currently...
UCT scientist is one of Fortune's 'World’s Greatest Leaders for 2018'
April 25th, 2018 The founder and director of Africa’s first integrated drug discovery centre‚ Professor Kelly Chibale‚ has been named as one of Fortune magazine’s 50 World’s Greatest Leaders for 2018, reports Business Day. Chibale‚ whose H3D Centre at...
Renowned surgeon launches cardiac foundation for African children
April 18th, 2018 While many people of his age would be retired, world renowned heart surgeon Professor Rob Kinsley, 77, is still performing miracles on the operating table. The Sunday Independent reports that the doctor from Durban who pioneered paediatric...
Urologists make SA history with high-tech kidney stone removal
April 11th, 2018 South Africa's first-ever procedure to remove kidney stones using a needle was successfully performed by a team of urologists at Inkosi Albert Luthuli Central Hospital in KwaZulu Natal. IoL reports that known as mini percutaneous...
Australian Outback nurse self-treats heart attack
April 11th, 2018 What do you do if you're in the middle of nowhere and you have a heart attack? According to a Live Science report, if you're a nurse alone in Western Australia, apparently the answer is, save your own life, damn it. A case report tells the...
UK politician’s £240,000-a-year cancer-fighting skull cap
April 11th, 2018 Former UK Labour minister Dame Tessa Jowell is using a pioneering £240,000-a-year device to tackle her deadly brain cancer. According to a Daily Mail report, it takes the form of a “skull cap” carrying an array of electrodes that fire...
SA health activist awarded UCT's President of Convocation Medal
April 11th, 2018 South African community health activist, Dr Sophia Kisting-Cairncross, has been awarded the President of Convocation Medal at the University of Cape Town (UCT), reports Business Day. The medal is awarded annually by the president of convocation...
UCT paediatrician honoured by Unesco and L'Oreal
March 28th, 2018 Professor Heather Zar from the University of Cape Town and Red Cross Children’s Hospital has been honoured for eher work on pneumonia, tuberculosis and asthma. Annually for the past 20 years, the L’Oréal Foundation has recognised five...
Johannesburg paediatrician who crowdfunded chemo drug, dies
March 28th, 2018 Johannesburg paediatrician Kerryn Neilson‚ who raised more than R1m last month to help pay for a novel chemotherapy drug‚ has succumbed to blood cancer, reports The Times. On Friday morning of last week‚ Neilson's husband Sheldon broke the...
Brain response during controlled whole-body exposure
March 14th, 2018 Dutch adventurer Wim Hof is known as "The Iceman" after establishing several world records for prolonged resistance to cold exposure, an ability he attributes to a self-developed set of techniques of breathing and meditation, known as the Wim Hof...