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HIV game-change with SAHPRA approval and vaccine trial breakthrough
In what is being hailed as a breakthrough for HIV treatment in South Africa, the South African Health Products Regulatory Authority (SAHPRA) has approved...
Judge dismisses thousands of lawsuits claiming Zantac cancer link
A US judge in Florida has dismissed thousands of lawsuits claiming that popular heartburn medication Zantac causes cancer, ruling that unreliable methodologies were used...
'Acceptable loss' debate as COVID-19 becomes plague of the elderly
COVID-19 is still with us but its focus has shifted with more older people now at risk of death, a situation which has again...
Next coronavirus variant could cause more illness, SA study finds
As health experts urged government to prepare for the next pandemic, a new South African study has shown that the next coronavirus variant could...
Scientists hail Alzheimer’s breakthrough despite two trial candidates’ deaths
While the eagerly-awaited findings of a trial involving nearly 1 800 people was widely celebrated as a major breakthrough in the treatment of Alzheimer's,...
Rush to push through NHI Bill before ANC conference – but key questions still unanswered
Parliament’s ANC-dominated Health Committee is racing to complete its work on the contentious National Health Insurance (NHI) Bill, determined to get it through the...
Rising antibiotic-resistant infections prompt global study with SA hospitals
As experts sound the alarm over rising antibiotic resistance, which, according to The Lancet, was directly responsible for 1.3m deaths in 2019, the Medical...
Helen Joseph doctors’ plea for action as hospital in 'dire straits'
Doctors at the Helen Joseph Hospital (HJH) say they are on the frontline of another kind of “pandemic”: a crisis that threatens to collapse...
The plan to stop SA’s fake medical negligence claims
With the public health sector struggling to stay afloat under the weight of out-of-control, often fake, medical negligence cases, currently sitting at a combined...
Low dose statins outperform heart health supplement claims – US study
A randomised trial has found that for people without heart disease, preventive low-dose statin therapy lowered LDL cholesterol to a degree unmatched by dietary...
Blueprint for infrastructure changes in healthcare sector over three decades
The Department of Public Works & Infrastructure (DPWI) has unveiled a blueprint, published for public comment last week, to improve the country’s healthcare infrastructure...
Rising global TB deaths and infections a 'wake-up call'
For the first time in 20 years, there has been an increase in the estimated number of global TB cases and deaths, with some...
Landmark US health body decision on collision sports link to CTE
In a landmark move, the US National Institutes of Health (NIH), the world’s largest biomedical research agency, has formally acknowledged a clear causal link...
NHI inadequate for medicines provision, warns lobby group
The National Health Insurance (NHI) plan has inadequate provisions for medicines, posing a risk to everyone’s access to treatments, the Health Justice Initiative (HJI)...
SA cancer rates set to double by 2030, actuaries predict
The incidence of all cancers in South Africa, boosted by ageing and population growth and measured from 2019, will almost double by 2030. This...
TikTok turns diabetes drug into popular diet pill
Since the diabetes treatment Ozempic went viral on TikTok as a diet drug, hashtagged on the app some 350m times, the feverish popularity on social...
Experts call for more training after study flags risks of commonly-used ARV
South African medical experts have issued an alert about the antiretroviral drug that has become this country’s first-choice treatment for HIV-positive people. Dolutegravir is...
Colonoscopy may not be gold standard of colon cancer screening – large randomised trial
Results from a clinical trial in Norway have cast doubts on the commonly held belief that if everyone would get a colonoscopy screening just...
KZN surgeon’s murder charge triggers new alarm among doctors
As predicted by medical and legal experts, South African prosecutors appear to be increasingly inclined to bring murder charges against doctors whose patients die...
DoH is stuck with high hopes and scores of millions of COVID-19 doses
Despite its COVID-19 vaccination stalled and barely half of South Africans having received at least one shot, the Department of Health won’t budge on...
Alzheimer’s drug slows cognitive decline in trial – breakthrough or another false dawn?
The announcement that lecanemab, a drug candidate for Alzheimer’s disease slowed the rate of cognitive decline by 27% in a large, late-stage clinical trial,...
Clarion call for hospital load shedding exemption
There has been a growing, increasingly angry call for an end to load shedding for South African medical institutions, with healthcare providers and professional...
Worldwide type 1 diabetes cases expected to double by 2040 – Australian study
The number of people living with type 1 diabetes worldwide is expected to double by 2040, with most new cases among adults living in...
Paediatric antibiotics linked to autism, asthma and others – Swiss meta-analysis
Antibiotics, the most commonly used drugs in children, can lead to a host of adverse outcomes, including autism spectrum disorders and asthma, according to...
SA to expedite TB diagnosis/treatment as cases continue to soar
Over the next five years, the national Department of Health plans to initiate a system that supports potential tuberculosis patients from the moment they...
Wiese rescues SA's anxious high-risk doctors after insurance dilemma
Consumer retail billionaire Christo Wiese has stepped in to rescue EthiQal, a popular local medical indemnity provider, after its parent company, Constantia Insurance, was...
Scientists discover how air pollution triggers cells into cancerous states
In what has been described as a "wake-up call" about the damaging impact of pollution on human health, scientists have uncovered how fine particulates...
Big Tobacco link sees high-profile delegates pull out of SA TB conference
The withdrawal from this week’s South African Tuberculosis Conference in Durban by high profile delegates, including the World Health Organisation and the Bill &...
SA nursing under threat as UK, Canada lure staff to address crippling shortages
The global crisis of medical staff shortages – particularly nurses – is worsening, with South Africa by no means the only country critically affected....
Stents ineffective for heart failure patients – landmark seven-year UK trial
Every year, 60 000 people in the UK are diagnosed with heart failure, and many are treated with stents. In a large new study...
Why people in ‘Blue Zones’ live longer
In certain part of the world, there are areas called “Blue Zones”, where people have low rates of disease and live longer than anywhere...
UPDATED: Doctors' anxiety as curator issues cut-off order to indemnifier
Anxious doctors insured with Ethiqal, the medical indemnity arm of Constantia Insurance, are in a quandary after a provisional curator on Monday instructed the...
Foreign patients: a burden on the system, or scapegoats for poor management?
Limpopo Health MEC Phophi Ramathuba's verbal assault on a Zimbabwean patient at Bela-Bela Hospital, has again thrust forward the contentious issue of foreigners' access...
Doctors urge crisis management as Eastern Cape Hospitals collapse
Doctors at the three hospitals comprising Gqeberha’s Livingstone Tertiary Hospital have called on the Eastern Cape Department of Health to move to “crisis management”...
Smoking the leading cause of cancer deaths globally, largest study confirms
Smoking, drinking, being overweight and other risk factors are to blame for almost half of all cancer deaths worldwide, according to the largest study...
CMS faces legal action over low-cost option delays
The Board of Healthcare Funders (BHF) has launched a legal attack on the medical scheme industry regulator over its tardiness in implementing cheap, pared-down...
Zoonotic diseases: Sindbis, Langya and monkeypox outbreaks keep scientists on alert
Since COVID-19 reared its head and exploded around the globe, several previously fairly dormant diseases and viruses have also emerged, creating increasing awareness of...
A ‘Crisp’ rendition of SA’s NHI
South Africa’s two-and-a-half year COVID ordeal exposed both the ugly underbelly of the country's grossly unequal healthcare system – and the dire need for...
One in every eight adults likely infected with long COVID, large study finds
Long COVID is far more widespread than thought, a recent study shows, while another has found that a common symptom of the condition is...
Scientists discover 'breakthrough' technique to revive organs after death – Yale study
With the potential to transform transplant medicine, and buy doctors more time to save a life if applied to people, pig organs have been...