Weekly Roundup
Limpopo Health struggles with ARV stockouts
The Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) says it has found stockouts of Aids medicines, antiretrovirals, at Limpopo health facilities. Groundup reports that the organisation lists 17 health facilities in which essential medicines are lacking. The most...Review of NHS food after more deaths take listeriosis toll to 5
UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock has ordered a “root and branch” review of National Health Service (NHS) food after two more patient deaths were linked last week to a listeria outbreak, reports The Guardian. The new deaths bring the number of...TAC activists call for scrapping of drug patent laws
Activists from the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) have called for the government to scrap patent laws that prevent generics of lifesaving drugs from entering the country. Health-e News reports that TAC members staged a protest at the 9th SA AIDS...UK investigation into unsafe stolen medicines allegations
Medical authorities in Britain have launched an internal inquiry after unsafe medicines for common conditions were stolen from Italian hospitals, sold to UK pharmacies and potentially reached patients. The Guardian reports that criminal gangs linked...Hepatitis B vaccine meets main goals in late-stage study
VBI Vaccines has announced that a late-stage study testing its hepatitis B vaccine against GlaxoSmithKline’s Engerix-B met its main goals, reports Reuters Health. The trial administered VBI’s Sci-B-Vac at a 10 microgram dose against a 20...Free State ready for a safe circumcision season
Health NGO Right to Care, which performed 1m medical circumcisions in five years, is prepared for the winter school holidays when many young men will choose to undergo circumcisions. Working closely with the Health Department, Right to Care is...CMS announces head of investigation into alleged discrimination
The Council for Medical Schemes (CMS) has announced that Advocate Tembeka Ngcukaitobi will head an investigation into alleged discrimination against black and Indian medical professionals in the private health sector, reports Polity. The...Patient tied to bench: Don't blame the nurse, says union
The Democratic Nursing Organisation of South Africa (Denosa) in Gauteng has defended a nurse who was implicated in a Mamelodi Hospital incident in which a 76-year-old patient was tied to a bench in a waiting area last week, sparking social media...Flu season has started but no cause for alarm — NICD
There is no influenza outbreak in South Africa, other than the normal increase of cases expected during winter, News24 quotes the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) as saying. "Every year in South Africa, we see a marked increase in...French medics protest against health budget cuts
Emergency room doctors and nurses have protested outside the French Health Ministry amid strikes at dozens of hospitals across the country as medics warned that budget cuts were leading France’s world-class health system to the brink of collapse...Northern Cape premier spends on new ambulances, not limos
New Northern Cape Premier Zamani Saul has made good on his promise to cut spending on cars for his provincial executive, instead choosing to direct that money towards buying new ambulances for the province. Polity reports that in his recent...The 'worst clinic' in SA is to be refurbished
South Africa’s ‘worst clinic’ which has never undergone renovations its 25-year existence is set to go through refurbishment. According to a Health-e News report, Lephepane Clinic was declared the country’s worst clinic – and the Limpopo...Bara security failure: Baby stolen found after tip off
A newborn baby girl stolen at the Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital was found in Diepkloof after police received a tip off that she was in one of the houses in the area, reports The Star. “The baby was found in the morning and police are...Trial looks at MRI scans to predict prostate cancer risk
Hundreds of UK men are trying out a new screening test for prostate cancer to see if it should eventually be offered routinely on the National Health Service (NHS), reports BBC News. The test is a non-invasive MRI scan that takes images of the...Three UK hospital patients die in listeriosis outbreak
Three hospital patients in the UK have died in an outbreak of listeria linked to pre-packed sandwiches, reports BBC News. Public Health England (PHE) said the victims were among six patients affected in England and the deaths occurred in Manchester...