August 5th, 2020President Cyril Ramaphosa's administration is scrambling to deal with a wave of national outrage over evidence of billions of rands of corruption and looting of COVID-19 emergency medical relief funds, writes MedicalBrief. With continuing...
July 29th, 2020More than R2.2bn of emergency COVID-19 funds have been stolen in a corruption feeding frenzy, the news embarrassingly emerging just as the International Monetary Fund has agreed to a further R70bn in relief, writes MedicalBrief. More than 90...
July 22nd, 2020Professor Robin Wood is conducting internationally ground-breaking research into infectious disease transmission at the Aerobiology and TB Research Unit, University of Cape Town, an area in which the global response to transmission has been confused...
July 15th, 2020An exclusive, weeks-long investigation inside filthy hospitals in South Africa has exposed an extraordinary array of systemic failures showing exhausted doctors and nurses overwhelmed with COVID-19 patients and a health service near collapse, writes...
July 8th, 2020Britain's Independent Medicines and Medical Devices Safety Review has published a two-year review of "harrowing" evidence three medical interventions: a pregnancy testing drug, an epilepsy drug, and pelvic mesh, writes MedicalBrief. The Review calls...
July 8th, 2020No health system can afford everything that may be demanded of it, making priority-setting arguably the most significant and challenging health policy issue, writes Prof Solomon Benatar of the universities of Cape Town and Toronto.
Professor...
No, South Africa’s alcohol ban wasn’t the only thing that helped lower hospital trauma admissions recently, but it did play a substantial role, write professors Richard Matzopoulos and Charles Parry of the South African Medical Research Council...Public Health
A research reviewed of all published studies that assessed the vitamin D status of healthy populations in Africa found that the average prevalence of vitamin D deficiency was much higher than expected.
Reagan Mogire, at the KEMRI Wellcome Trust...
June 17th, 2020The COVID-19 pandemic has shown stark divisions between medical professionals, on the one side, and bureaucrats and politicians on the other, writes MedicalBrief. Following the national Health Department's recent demand for an official...
June 10th, 2020A study of 1,120 midlife women in a 17-year-long prospective cohort study found that women with high PFAS levels in their blood reached menopause two years earlier than those with lower levels.
Known as 'forever chemicals,' PFAS are human-made...
May 27th, 2020
The SA Medical Research Council (MRC) has abandoned what the Academy of Science of SA described as an “impulsive and high-handed” investigation into Prof Glenda Gray, MRC president and ministerial adviser on COVID-19, for comments she made in...
May 27th, 2020
The financial health of SA medical schemes during COVID-19 looks positive for 2020 but could deteriorate next year due to a ‘significant’ rise in costs, with additional claims of R7.3-R31.8bn, reports MedicalBrief. This is...
May 20th, 2020
The South African government is coming under strong criticism from medical experts on its own ministerial advisory committee (MAC), who say the present lockdown has "no basis in science" and should be ended, writes MedicalBrief. There is increasing...
May 13th, 2020
While the lockdown bought some time to bolster health resources, it has is now setting up South Africa for even greater mortality from non-COVID illnesses, said infectious disease expert and former head of the National Institute of Communicable...
May 13th, 2020
Snakebite is one of the world's biggest hidden health problems with up to 138,000 victims dying every year, and around 400,000 victims left with permanent physical disabilities or disfigurements. Those most affected live in some of the world's...
May 13th, 2020
The Sage committee of scientists advising the UK government has been split by “heated arguments” over how the country should leave lockdown. The Daily Telegraph reports that this is according to Professor Peter Horby, who said key experts had...
