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SAHPRA approves booster dose with the Pfizer vaccine
The SA Health Products Regulator (SAHPRA) has approved a third or booster shot of Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine for adults and children over the age...
State of play with Omicron – The discovery, the spread, the politics, and the science
In the past week, a new coronavirus variant has thrust South Africa into the global limelight. We have been praised for science and punished...
Tembisa 10: Claims of gigantic conspiracy by SA’s doctors, nurses and hospitals
A large portion of South Africa’s medical sector — doctors, nurses, hospital support staff and both private- and State-sector institutions — engaged in a...
Mkhize on irregular R150m tender: ‘They're comrades not personal friends'
An independent forensic investigation has found irregularities in the awarding of a R150m contract by the national Department of Health to an obscure communications...
Severe censure of medical, nursing and support staff at Tembisa 'zoo'
In a scathing indictment of Tembisa Hospital, Health Ombud Dr Malegapuru Makgoba has recommended disciplinary action against the hospital CEO Dr Lekopane Mogaladi, nine...
SAHPRA to allow the use of Ivermectin to treat COVID-19
As predicted in last week’s MedicalBrief, the SA Health Products Regulatory Authority (SAPRA) has had to moderate its hardline refusal to allow South African...
Eastern and Western Capes hit by strong resurgence of COVID-19
Although not yet defined by the Health minister as a second surge, COVID-19 cases in the Eastern Cape now amount to well over half...
After a controversial silence, President Ramaphosa speaks…
After weeks of criticism from his political opponents, as well as business organisations perturbed about persistent rumours of another hard lockdown, President Cyril Ramaphosa...
Murder of Munshi: HPCSA calls on government not to 'criminalise medicine'
Anaesthetist Dr Abdulhay Munshi was shot dead in Johannesburg on Wednesday night (16 September) in what has been described by the Health Professions Council as...
Poorly prepared Gauteng is now epicentre of pandemic
Last night, 8 July, Gauteng would become the new epicentre of the COVID-19 epidemic, Health Minister Dr Zweli Mkhize told the National Assembly in a briefing...
Worldwide freeze of hyrdrochloroquine research was based on dubious studies
Last week’s freeze by WHO, Belgium, France and Italy into the use of hydrochloroquine to treat COVID-19 was based on suspect data from a...
Independent report into St Augustine's Hospital outbreak and deaths released
The findings of the University of KwaZulu-Natal investigation into the COVID-19 outbreak that led to the closure of Netcare St Augustine’s Hospital in Durban...
Ramaphosa: Lockdown to be eased after achieving needed space for health mobilisation
In an address to the nation last night, President Cyril Ramaphosa said that the largest public health mobilisation in South African history, enabled by...
Doctor at private KZN private hospital tests COVID-19 positive
A doctor working at KwaDukuza Private Hospital on the KwaZulu-Natal North Coast has contracted COVID-19 and is in self-isolation, reports News24. "We wish...
511 SA health workers test positive for coronavirus
So far, 511 South African health workers have tested positive for COVID-19, 26 have been hospitalised, while a doctor and nurse have succumbed to...
Gilead says remdesivir show improvement in COVID-19 patients if used early
Gilead Sciences said its experimental antiviral drug remdesivir helped improve outcomes for patients with COVID-19, suggesting it worked better when given earlier in the...
COVID-19: Medical Protection Society announces two month’s free membership
With healthcare professionals’ personal and financial wellbeing being significantly impacted by the spread of COVID-19, Medical Protection Society has announced that members who have...
WHO declares Covid-19 a 'pandemic'
The World Health Organisation declared Wednesday night that the coronavirus outbreak spreading around the globe can now be characterised as a pandemic, "not a...
Mkhize: No confirmed cases of COVID-19 and no travels bans as yet
The South African government was not considering any travel or trade bans at this point, Health Minister Zweli Mkhize said in a briefing to...
Health Department's dolutegravir plans hit stumbling block
The Health Department’s plans to switch HIV patients to a cheaper pill containing dolutegravir have hit yet another stumbling block after measures instituted by...
Calls for aggressive China-style containment amid sobering WHO warning
With coronavirus deaths now exceeding 1,100 and the World Health Organisation — not an organisation inclined to hyperbole — saying that it is a...
Coronavirus outbreak outstrips SARS epidemic; deaths mount
The number of confirmed cases of the Wuhan coronavirus has overtaken the 2003 SARS outbreak inside of mainland China with more than 6,000 confirmed cases of the virus in mainland China, including 132...
'No evidence' that 12-yr-old was sodomised at Durban hospital
The KwaZulu-Natal Department of Health said that there was "no evidence" that a 12-year-old boy was sexually assaulted at Durban's RK Khan Hospital, refuting an earlier report in...
NHI 'no longer affordable' in the current fiscal environment – Treasury
The government’s ambitious and controversial National Health Insurance plans — which it insists will be implemented come hell or high water — got barely...
CMSA probe into mass surgery exam failings shows paper was fairly marked
The surgery exams failed by most of the country's final-year students were fairly marked, the Colleges of Medicine of SA (CMSA) says, following a...
Zim cops ignore court — stop injured doctors' union leader from travelling to SA
Zimbabwean police have prevented a doctors’ union leader, whose suspected kidnapping sparked wide protests, from going to neighbouring South Africa for medical treatment despite...
Gang robs St Augustine's Hospital in Durban
A gang of men overpowered guards at Durban's St Augustine's Hospital before brazenly robbing staff and making off with televisions, cellphones and a microwave...
Anti-competitive acts in UK to cost SA's Aspen almost R190m
South African drugmaker Aspen Pharmacare’s share price dropped to its worst level in five months, after the company said it had settled with UK...
NICD study shows high levels of candida auris infections in private hospitals
A National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) study shows that over two-years, there were almost seven times as many candida auris infections in private...
Med students driven to drink by Fees Must Fall protests — study
Fees Must Fall protests drove medical students to drink. Literally. The Times reports that this is according to a study at the University of...
Negligence jailing the 'last straw' for SA obs/gynae profession?
The Gauteng High Court's rejection of gynaecologist Dr Danie van der Walt's appeal against a five-year direct imprisonment for negligently causing the death of a...
High Court rejects gynae's appeal against 5-years' jail for deadly negligence
The Gauteng High Court (Pretoria) has confirmed the conviction and sentence of five years direct imprisonment for Dr Danie van der Walt, a gynaecologist...
CMS to be probed for maladministration and corruption
The Special Investigating Unit (SIU) is poised to launch an investigation into possible maladministration and corruption at the Council for Medical Schemes (CMS) and...
Health sector in Tito Mboweni's medium-term budget
The ease with which the Treasury has been able to fund President Cyril Ramaphosa’s promises to fill 2,200 critical medical posts in the provinces,...
Boycotting nursing students: 'The problem is not with us…'
Hundreds of third-year nursing students at Ann Latsky Nursing College in Johannesburg are boycotting their exams after complaining that they were not adequately prepared...
Former Gauteng Health MEC and others implicated in corruption worth R1.2bn
Twelve public servants and politicians, including former Gauteng Health MEC Brian Hlongwa and current ANC chief whip in the Gauteng Provincial Legislature, and 10...
Health Bills gazetted and open for public comment – Motsoaledi
The National Health Insurance (NHI) Bill has been published in the Government Gazette, paving the way for the Health Department to set up an...
Motsoaledi briefing on NHI and Medical Schemes Bills
Health Minister Dr Aaron Motsoaledi is to brief the media today (Thursday) on the National Health Insurance (NHI) Bill and the Medical Schemes Amendment...
Gauteng Health paid 'grossly excessive' R103m to law firm on Esidimeni
The Gauteng Health Department has paid R103m to Ngcebetsha Madlanga Attorneys for work that included an opinion on terminating the Life Esidimeni contract‚ and...
Dr Death wins Supreme Court appeal against HPCSA
An appeal by apartheid-era’s Dr Wouter Basson, dubbed Dr Death, to have two Health Professions Council of SA (HPCSA) members recused from the committee...