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News Update
Transgender patients in SA face 10-year state surgery clinic backlog
South Africa’s only state gender-affirming clinic provides surgery to just four patients a year, while receiving up to 10 new referrals a month –...
Activists push for menstrual Bill for free sanitary products
Civil society and social justice advocates are demanding that Parliament treat menstrual hygiene as a fundamental human right through the proposed Menstrual Health Rights...
Hundreds of mental health patients stuck in South African prisons
More than 300 declared state patients are sitting in prisons awaiting placement in health institutions, with the Portfolio Committee on Correctional Services warning that...
FDA approves first Farxiga generics for type 2 diabetes
The first generic of dapagliflozin (Farxiga) tablets for adults with type 2 diabetes has been given the green light by the US Food &...
South Africa’s smallest surviving baby beats all odds
The parents of a baby born in 2002 – weighing just 410g – were told by doctors it would be best to abort because...
Call for probe after woman gives birth outside hospital
Community leaders from the Bluff, outside Durban, are demanding a full investigation into staff at Wentworth Hospital after a woman gave birth on the...
Early days, but South Africans warm to GLP-1 drugs
South Africans are taking to GLP-1 weight loss drugs like ducks to water, with a recent study revealing that one in 20 people is...
Millions committed at G7 One Health Summit
Pledges worth millions were committed at the G7 One Health Summit in Lyon, France last week, while South African generic drug company Aspen also...
Thugs target Cape EMS staff
Thieves who had robbed EMS staff while they were loading an elderly patient into an ambulance last week in Bonteheuwel, Western Cape, were nabbed...
Dutch activists sue state over waiting lists for mental healthcare
For the first time in Dutch history, the state is being held liable for the long waiting lists in mental healthcare, with non-profit foundation...
After failed criminal and misconduct prosecutions, Basson faces new HPCSA hearing
Dr Wouter Basson, 75, the former head of the apartheid government’s secret chemical and biological warfare programme, will face four disciplinary charges brought by...
Fed-up SA drugmakers want nominal medicine price rise justified
The national Department of Health has been asked to explain how it devised this year’s minimal 1.47% increase for private sector medicine sales, with...
Delayed anti-HIV doses of LEN land in SA
South Africa’s first consignment of LEN, the twice-a-year anti-HIV injection lenacapavir – 37 920 doses – landed last week at OR Tambo Airport via...
Emergency Bangladesh vaccination campaign as deaths rise
A fast-spreading measles outbreak infecting thousands of people across Bangladesh – and which has already led to 17 confirmed deaths – has prompted an...
GEMS takes financial strain as member claims rocket
The Government Employees Medical Scheme (GEMS) processes roughly R180m in claims and 22 000 GP visits per day, and has paid out in just...
Covid jab study grinds to a halt after recruitment struggles
In an indication of the growing resistance to vaccinations and amid a groundswell of pushback from both the US administration and weak public demand,...
Pregnant women ignore experts, swayed by Trump’s autism theories
Despite the American College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists and the American Academy of Paediatrics emphasising that the science does not clearly tie Tylenol use...
KZN Health MEC slams group's anti-ARV ‘genocide’ teachings
A religious community in KwaZulu-Natal that is encouraging members to abandon modern medicine – including antiretroviral (ARV) treatment – in favour of faith healing,...
New ‘Cicada’ Covid strain appears to be low risk – Gavi
The latest BA.3.2 “Cicada” Covid-19 strain poses only a “low additional public health risk”, say Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, after news that the “highly...
School for the blind still unfinished after eight years and R200m
A semi-completed R198m campus at the Rivoni School for the Blind in Limpopo has been left to rot after multiple delays and while pupils...
Kenyan president slams healthcare scheme critics
President William Ruto has dismissed criticism of the government’s Social Health Authority (SHA), saying opponents lack the capacity to understand or interpret the scale...
One of separated conjoined twins dies following sepsis
One of the conjoined twins from Limpopo, separated during groundbreaking and complex surgery at Mankweng Hospital, died last Friday after complications from post-operative infections,...
Popular Pretoria paramedic killed in B&B
The body of a former paramedic, who has been described as popular and dedicated, was found in a Pretoria guesthouse on Friday morning in...
R16bn deal clinches Remgro’s full control of Mediclinic
In a complex R16bn agreement, Remgro and its Swiss-based investment partner, Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC), will give the Johann Rupert-chaired firm full control of...
After 10 years, ambulances at last for Wild Coast village
After a decade-long struggle with the Eastern Cape Department of Health, desperate Xhora Mouth residents on the Wild Coast will finally have an ambulance...
UFS biobank a major boost for local research
Residents of the Free State have long been under-represented in biobanks and biomedical research, but the recently established biobank at the University of the...
ANC bigwig’s daughter to repay millions in PPE contract scandal
The Special Investigating Unit (SIU) has welcomed the two judgments handed down by the Special Tribunal last week, which reviewed and set aside unlawful...
Court denies ‘Dr Death’s’ plea to halt HPCSA proceedings
The High Court in Pretoria has dismissed an application by Cape Town cardiologist Dr Wouter Basson – ‘Dr Death’ – that would grant him...
DA flags cardiac patient deaths at Charlotte Maxeke Hospital
Cardiac outcomes at Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital require an urgent investigation by the Health Ombud, according to DA Gauteng Shadow Health MEC Jack...
Surgical crisis at Grey’s Hospital as aircon upgrade drags on
Staff and patients at Pietermaritzburg’s Grey’s Hospital are battling with ongoing surgical crises due to a malfunctioning HVAC system, with operations cancelled – and...
CMS plans code of conduct for fraud probes after racism complaints
Parliament has been assured by the Council for Medical Schemes (CMS) that it will implement the recommendations of the section 59 investigation into alleged...
Court lashes department over non-compliance in vigilante case
The Department of Health and other government respondents have failed to comply with a court order to stop anti-immigrant vigilantes from screening patients, and...
Motsoaledi vows action after hospital patient deaths
Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi has lashed out at “inhumane” treatment that led to a psychiatric patient’s death, saying conduct exposed in a recent scathing...
FDA wants drug pulled, warns of fatal liver injuries
Eight deaths and dozens of drug-induced liver injury (DILI) cases have been linked to a medication the US Food & Drug Administration (FDA) wants...
Sanitary pad saga – MPs call for regulatory reforms
MPs have called for regulatory changes to be explored, including possible amendments to make the criteria of the SA Bureau of Standards (SABS) compulsory,...
MEC claims private ambulance left patient ‘on roadside’
KwaZulu-Natal Transport MEC Siboniso Duma has claimed private ambulance service ALS Paramedics had left a patient, without medical aid, stranded on the side of...
Only 3% of South Africans using condoms as STIs rise
Sexually transmitted infections (STIs) are on the rise in South Africa, and while exact numbers are difficult to pinpoint, regional data paint a worrying...
Cape team pioneers cryoablation for thyroid cancer
In what is described as a monumental step forward for cancer treatment in South Africa, a team at the UCT Private Academic Hospital successfully...
Report flags safety of NHS diabetic patients in British hospitals
A report from Britain’s Health Services Safety Investigations Body has uncovered persistent and significant safety risks facing patients with insulin‑dependent diabetes when they are...
Pope blesses xenotransplantation for Catholics
New guidance from the Vatican says Catholics are permitted to receive transplants of animal tissues for specific medical conditions – this as advancements in procedures involving genetically modified pig...