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From the Frontlines
Path that led to a potential polio resurgence
The first case of paralysis from polio in 25 years has travelled a long path, reports The New York Times. The 10-month-old boy in...
Queues, shoddy service plague Free State healthcare – Ritshidze report
Ritshidze’s annual report on access to public healthcare at Free State clinics reveals continuing critical systemic issues, including exceptionally long waiting times, unprofessional staff...
HIV drug trial success triumph for Professor Bekker
In a fitting acknowledgement last week at the International Aids Conference in Munich, Germany, Cape Town’s Professor Linda-Gail Bekker received a standing ovation when...
Cyber attacks create havoc in state hospitals in SA, and globally
South Africa is the latest country to fall victim to cyber criminals, who are causing chaos in global healthcare systems and hospitals, risking thousands...
Once a rural health flagship, now the 'hospital of death'
Following the passage of the National Health Insurance Act, the challenge is to bring public hospitals up to an acceptable standard, writes MedicalBrief. It will...
International health volunteers 'can harm' local relationships in Africa
Every year, thousands of international health volunteers travel to Africa with the intention of “improving health outcomes” and learning about “global health”. However, from...
Gaza doctors ‘leave patients to scream for hours’ as crisis escalates
Doctors across Gaza have described operating on patients without anaesthetic, turning away people with chronic conditions, and treating rotting wounds with limited medical supplies.
“Because...
Probe after video of assault on disabled teen at Ladysmith Hospital
An urgent investigation has been launched by the KwaZulu-Natal Health Department after a video went viral on social media of two security guards assaulting...
Six decades later, Chris Barnard's patient returns for second heart surgery
In an echo of a visit more than 60 years ago, East London’s Joseph Jordaan (68) recently returned to an operating theatre in Cape...
Seven-year wait for kidney stent removal
Overworked hospital staff battle personnel shortages, water shortages and load shedding at the rundown Helen Joseph Hospital in Johannesburg, while outpatients wait hours to...
How rural Eastern Cape hospital produced own oxygen during COVID
As the strain on the Eastern Cape’s oxygen supply increased during the first two years of the COVID-19 pandemic, with health authorities often having...
Five-year-old cancer patient undergoes SA's first rotationplasty procedure
A five-year-old bone cancer patient has been given a second lease on life after undergoing the country’s first rotationplasty procedure in Cape Town, a...
What can we learn from the tragedy of Archie Battersbee’s death?
Doctors like me agonise over the harrowing decisions around the end of treatment – but we must always be ready to listen, writes palliative...
A junior doctor’s battle to keep death at bay for state patients
A quarter of South African medical students show signs of depression. Young doctors’ mental health is especially at risk when they first start working...
Time of the essence in Steve Biko Hospital's award-winning stroke care programme
Steve Biko Academic Hospital in Pretoria, which was recently awarded the Diamond Stroke Award at an international convention for reducing treatment times for stroke...
Rebuilding a medical practice after July 2021 riots – one doctor’s story
“It is not justifiable that people destroy infrastructure, but what is the government doing?”
It’s a question asked by many after last July’s looting and...
Maverick investigation: Mother and Child Hospital's CEO denies any crisis
Problems at the only dedicated mother-and-child hospital in the country appear to have have worsened since Maverick Citizen investigated conditions a year ago, writes...
Surgery catch-up stymied by South Africa’s shortage of ICU nurses
COVID-19 meant that scores of thousands of elective surgeries were put on hold. At Tygerberg Hospital 7,000 patients were waiting for surgery by late...
Charlotte Maxeke debacle places ‘enormous load’ on Helen Joseph Hospital
Helen Joseph Hospital patients are being examined and treated in the corridors, because of a bed shortage, while the hospital’s trauma load has more...
Loss of 4,000 COVID posts a body blow to already stretched Gauteng hospitals
Gauteng Health’s decision to not renew numerous contracts of about 4,000 staff appointed temporarily to help hospitals through the COVID-19 pandemic has been met...
Four gunshot wounds but a two-week wait for surgery at George Mukhari Academic Hospital
Godfrey Thulare lay in a ward at Dr George Mukhari Academic Hospital for two weeks awaiting surgery for the gunshot wound on his leg,...
Doctors feed patients at Bara as supplies run out and medical waste piles up
Doctors are having to take lunch to patients at Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital in Soweto, Johannesburg, as a failure to pay food suppliers...
‘War crime’ accusations over attacks on Ukraine hospitals and civilians
Reports that Russian forces have put 61 hospitals in Ukraine out of operation, as well as targeting civilians have caused international anger and accusations...
Sabotage and apathy behind Gauteng Health’s failure to repair Charlotte Maxeke – Prof Mahomed
Apathy, lack of empathy and “sabotage” lie behind the failure of Gauteng Health to bring the Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital, closed since April...
Audit explains Eastern Cape’s devastatingly high COVID death toll
Eastern Cape Health has effectively collapsed, reports Daily Maverick. Its accounts are overdrawn by R979m and it’s facing medico-legal claims of more than R40bn,...
Genetically engineered pigs put xenotransplantation back in the spotlight
A flurry of firsts using organs from genetically engineered pigs – kidneys and a fortnight ago a heart – to save human lives, has...
China’s bid for Zero Covid: Economic pain, rights abuses and data manipulation
As the Beijing Winter Olympics approaches, with the announcement that tickets will not be sold due to the “grave and complicated situation of the...
World first: Transplant of pig heart on terminal US patient
In a final effort to save a 57-year-old man’s life, doctors at the University of Maryland (UMSOM) have given him a genetically modified pig-heart...
How Groote Schuur Hospital’s ICU adapted to the pandemic
How the Intensive Care Unit at Groote Schuur Hospital adapted to the unprecedented demands of the COVID-19 pandemic is the subject of a study...
’War-like’ scenes inside a Hillbrow clinic amid violent unrest
Violent unrest spilled into a Hillbrow clinic in Johannesburg at the weekend. A doctor described war-like scenes as the clinic ran out of resources...
Hospital infant deaths rocket but Bhisho’s not listening…
The infant death rate at Dora Nginza Hospital in Zwide, Gqeberha (Port Elizabeth), has skyrocketed since 2020 as crippling staff and equipment shortages are left...
Inside India’s ‘black fungus’ mucormycosis wards
The “black fungus” killing hundreds across India may be related to the highly infectious Delta variant, rather than overuse of steroids, Indian specialists believe.
The...
How 'business forums’ killed the build of a R68m Pretoria clinic
The site for a R68m clinic outside Pretoria is now a dump, after the project was halted in 2019 because of the "impossible' demands...
South America buckling as pandemic deaths rise
It's not only India that is racking up terrible COVID-19 statistics. The crisis in South America is deteriorating daily, with a region that has...
Patient diagnosed with schizophrenia branded a witch and killed
A wrap often worn by sangomas (ibhayi) and wandering in a stranger’s yard was all it took for Jostina Kate Sangweni to be branded...
Brazil's government in denial over COVID-19 catastrophe
Brazil’s healthcare system has been plunged into the most severe crisis in its history, with doctors overwhelmed and patients dying while they wait for...
Unlike the Cubans, the supernumerary registrars battle COVID-19 unpaid
While the Cuban brigade doctors earn handsome salaries on the COVID-19 frontlines, there is a small group of doctors from the African continent who...
Losing touch: The mental health cost of isolation
Humans are designed to touch and be touched, which is why so many who live on their own have suffered during the pandemic, writes...
China's drive for political influence through vaccines backfires
China’s coronavirus vaccines were supposed to deliver a geopolitical win that showcased the country’s scientific prowess and generosity. Instead, reports The New York Times,...
No filming — or dying — without KZN Health's 'official authorisation'
A viral video on social media that shows seriously ill patients lying unattended, while one patient — who later died — pleads for her...