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A two-minute strategy can get your patients vaccinated against COVID
Gastroenterologist Dr Chau Che has developed a two-minute strategy aimed at persuading patients of the importance of being vaccinated against COVID-19. In MedpageToday, she...
HPCSA’s new president ponders the poisoned chalice
On the kindest reading, the guardedness of Prof Mbulaheni Simon Nemutandani, the new President of the Health Professions Council of SA (HPCSA) is understandable...
Zuma’s ‘ life-threatening emergency’ again spotlights the weaponising of medical testimony
Former president Jacob Zuma’s transfer from jail to hospital over an undisclosed “life-threatening emergency” that his lawyers say will also affect his ability to...
Noakes: Iconic study hid findings, reached unjustifiable and possibly unethical conclusions
Emeritus Professor Tim Noakes, in a study published in the journal Open Heart, has criticised the authors of one of the most influential studies...
Vaccination prospects boosted by Sisonke results and reversal on Astra-Zeneca jab
South Africa’s slow vaccination programme should get a boost from the highly encouraging results of the Sisonke clinical trial of the single-dose Johnson &...
The long, slow exit of Health Minister Mkhize is over at last
The exit of Health Minister Dr Zweli Mkhize, who had been on “special leave” since 8 June after allegations of involvement in tender irregularities,...
Efficacy and safety of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine after six months
The Pfizer-BioNTech (BNT162b2) vaccine prevents COVID-19 effectively for up to six months after the second dose across diverse populations, including 100% efficacy against the...
Lawyers circle as yet another study links rugby to brain abnormalities
A UK biomarker study shows that 23% of elite adult rugby players had abnormalities in brain structure, and half showed an unexpected change in...
Omega-3 link to improved life expectancy and cardiovascular outcomes — Two studies
Higher levels of omega-3 in the blood predicted improved all-cause mortality in people over 65, reports an international study drawing on data over 11-years...
Study supporting Ivermectin for COVID withdrawn over ethical concerns
The efficacy of Ivermectin, the drug being unofficially promoted worldwide for treating COVID-19, is again under challenge after a much cited study suggesting the...
Inquest spotlights HPCSA and SANC foot dragging over Life Esidimeni
The Life Esidimeni inquest that will decide if anybody can be held criminally responsible for the deaths of 144 mental health patients while in...
Violence and looting cripple healthcare across Gauteng and KZN
Violent unrest and looting in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng have decimated hospitals and health services. COVID-19 vaccination has ground to a halt. Lives are being...
Doctors have a statutory obligation to report ANY corporal punishment
The Constitutional Court’s finding that corporal punishment cannot be justified removed any discretion that doctors previously had as to whether the force applied amounted...
COVID-19: A ready-reference of current and failed treatments
Under the ferocious onslaught of COVID-19, there’s been a scramble not only to find new medicines but to repurpose old ones, writes MedicalBrief. Not...
Ivermectin: Studies come thick and fast; Regulators remain unmoved
Three significant studies of Ivermectin in COVID-19 have been released in the past week, with two sets of meta-analyses delivering contradictory results and the...
Lifetime cost of care in cerebral palsy medical negligence claims
Cerebral palsy (CP) diagnoses are the major factor in the billions paid in medical negligence claims by South Africa’s provincial health services and calculating...
Millions of cancelled operations due to COVID and high death risk – UK study
The first nationwide study of the impact of COVID-19 on surgery at NHS hospitals in the United Kingdom has revealed that more than 1.5...
High Court expresses doubt that ‘nonchalant’ HPCSA is fit for purpose
The continued inability of the Health Professionals Council of SA (HPCSA) to timeously register foreign-qualified medical practitioners has led to another judicial tongue lashing,...
Ivermectin significantly reduces COVID-19 mortality risk — FLCC meta-analysis
Ivermectin may reduce mortality risk in mild-to-moderate COVID-19 patients by an average of 62%, according to a meta-analysis in American Journal of Therapeutics. The...
Gauteng’s 3rd wave: 'It’s too late for anything but to just stay at home,’ warn experts
Medical scientists have warned that moves to tighten restrictions as Covid-19 cases threaten to overwhelm Gauteng hospitals are too late to be of use,...
ConCourt rejects sexual harassment doctor’s reinstatement bid
The Constitutional Court has refused former George Hospital head of anaesthesiology, Dr Charles James McGregor, leave to appeal his dismissal for sexual harassment and...
Many post-COVID patients get new medical problems, US study finds
Hundreds of thousands of people in the United States have sought medical care for post-COVID health problems that they had not been diagnosed with...
Gauteng’s 3rd Wave: Crippled public hospitals put ’severe strain’ on private facilities
With a key hospital shuttered and others crippled by recurrent water shortages, Gauteng is struggling to handle its largest wave of COVID-19 yet, reports...
Oops! So sorry about that, Zantac…
An influential study linking a popular heartburn drug to cancer has been retracted after the authors concluded that their finding was a testing error,...
SAMA's warnings on NHI Bill met with hostility
The SA Medical Association told parliamentarians that thousands of local doctors may emigrate if the NHI is adopted in its current form, reports MedicalBrief. It...
UCT neuropsychologists win a small victory against HPCSA
The persistent problems that medical professionals have in getting the Health Professions Council registration necessary in order to practise was highlighted again in the Western Cape...
Encouraging safety results from Sisonke trial of J&J vaccine in SA
The Sisonke Phase 3b clinical trial of the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine, during which an impressive nearly 290,000 frontline South African health workers...
Storm brews in SA’s medical malpractice insurance market
Local medical malpractice insurers are unhappy that the UK-based Medical Protection Society is allowed to operate in South Africa without being a licensed financial...
Digital Vibes scandal: Pressure on Health Minister increases
Health Minister Dr Zweli Mkhize faces further problems — as well as resignation pressure — with revelations that the communications company that got “highly...
FDA's fiercely contested decision on new Alzheimer drug
The US Food & Drug Administration is under unparalleled pressure over its decision on novel Alzheimer's drug aducanumab, writes Medicalbrief. Advocacy groups, desperate for...
Labour Appeal Court: Unions caused nurses' pay differential, not discrimination
The the pay differentiation between three black nursing professionals and their white colleague at the Tshwane University of Technology (TUT) was a result of...
New research propels psychedelics into the mainstream
Psychiatry is on the brink of taking psychedelic drugs mainstream, writes The New York Times. Researchers and corporates stand poised to get involved, but...
Powerful Pfizer response to Indian variant — Public Health England
Both the Pfizer and AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines showed effectiveness against symptomatic disease from the so-called Indian variant, with the Pfizer showing 88% efficacy after...
HPCSA: All medical scheme assets should go to NHI
The Health Professions Council of SA (HPCSA) told Parliament that the current reserves of medical schemes – estimated at more than R90bn – must...
SA and world COVID deaths 3x higher than official figures — The Economist
The global death toll from COVID-19 is now 10m, threefold higher than the official estimates, according to a statistical modelling by The Economist. In...
India’s COVID crisis – New cases decline but daily deaths top 4,500
New cases of COVID-19 are declining in India but the health system is failing and daily deaths continue rising, writes MedicalBrief. There have been horror...
Doctors, nurses and paramedics are 'soft targets' for criminals
Not only are doctors, nurses and paramedics on the COVID-19 frontline, but they are increasingly being seen as soft targets by opportunistic criminals, writes...
ACC-2021: Moderate drinkers have 20% lower heart risk that teetotallers
Moderate drinking, possibly by dampening stress-related neurological signals, is associated with a significantly lower risk of dying from cardiovascular disease (CVD) when compared with...
New CDC guideline admits that COVID-19 transmission is airborne
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is finally acknowledging something that health experts have been saying for a while now: COVID-19...
SIU finds legal practitioner corruption in negligence claims; Mkhize wants 'no-fault' fund
An updated Special Investigating Unit report confirms the role of some corrupt attorneys and advocates in Eastern Cape Health's R37bn medical-negligence headache, writes MedicalBrief....