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News Update
Gauteng Health HoD asks court to lift suspension
An urgent application is to be heard by the Labour Court from suspended Gauteng Health HoD Lesiba Malotana to have his precautionary suspension lifted,...
Doctor defends social media posts after HPCSA fine
UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Health, Dr Tlaleng Mofokeng, who was fined R10 000 by the Health Professions Council of South Africa...
Eastern Cape hospital without water for three weeks
An Eastern Cape hospital has been without water for more than three weeks, forcing doctors and nurses, and even patients, to haul 20-litre buckets...
Tshwane alert after typhoid spike
Officials in the City of Tshwane say they have stepped up investigations into a rise in typhoid fever cases in Hammanskraal and Bronkhorstspruit amid...
Aspen wins R500m payout in mRNA products dispute
South Africa’s biggest pharmaceutical manufacturer, Aspen, is expecting a R500m boost to its bank account within the next 30 days after its seven-month legal...
Pig kidney removed from patient after record nine months
An American man who lived with a genetically modified pig kidney for a record 271 days has had the organ removed and will return...
SA first to register anti-HIV jab
South Africa is the first African country – and SAHPRA the third regulator worldwide – to register the twice-yearly anti-HIV jab, lenacapavir (LEN), inking...
SIU calls for probe into Health HoD’s suspicious finances
Suspended Acting Gauteng Health HoD Lesiba Malotana received more than R1.6m in questionable ATM cash deposits, suspected to be linked to the R1.8bn looting...
Conference hears encouraging news on antibiotic data
New data by Japanese drugmaker Shionogi highlight the real-world effectiveness of cefiderocol in patients with serious infections caused by gram-negative (GN) bacteria, while GSK...
TB caucus relaunched by Motsoaledi
Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi has relaunched the SA Tuberculosis Caucus, a platform for political leaders to advance the response to the disease, as the...
Hospital oxygen plant tender unchanged despite assurances
Despite public undertakings from Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi to remove the tainted R836m hospital oxygen plan tender from the Independent Development Trust (IDT), the...
Ritshidze forced to shrink after US aid cuts
Ritshidze, the world’s largest community-led monitoring system, is in jeopardy after the cuts to US development aid announced in January, writes Chris Gilili for...
World class Groote Schuur scoops global recognition
Flagship Cape Town hospital Groote Schuur has been awarded European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) accreditation for its world-class oncology and palliative care teams.
The...
New Gauteng forensic lab misses 5th deadline
Johannesburg’s new forensic pathology services laboratory (FPS), first planned for completion in 2019 and sitting at a critical “98% complete” point, has had numerous...
New pharmacy rival likely to chase Clicks, Dis-Chem
Ambitious plans to double its pharmaceutical retail stores next year are a step closer for the SPAR Group, after getting the nod from the...
Justice sought for teen who died after clinic turned her away
A Free State community is up in arms and demanding justice after the death of a young woman who was refused care at Bophelong...
African self-reliance punted at key public health conference
The “Durban Promise”, the ambitious outcome document of the Conference of Public Health in Africa 2025 (CPHIA), will be on the menu when world leaders gather...
Surgeons remove 100 magnets from New Zealand teen’s gut
A team of New Zealand surgeons recently removed nearly 100 high-power magnets a 13-year-old boy had swallowed, and which had caused necrosis in sections...
Last Ebola patient discharged in Congo
The last Ebola patient in the Democratic Republic of the Congo was discharged a week ago, marking an important milestone in the efforts to...
Doctors, experts owed millions by Road Accident Fund
Millions are owed to doctors and other healthcare specialists, with bills stretching to a decade ago in some cases and others forced to retrench...
Hospital forced to close after R300m RAF debt
A refusal by the Road Accident Fund (RAF) to pay a private hospital for crash victims it treated led to spiralling debt and the...
Plunge in public healthcare services after Pepfar cuts
Nearly half of hundreds of public health facilities surveyed by the community-led monitoring group Ritshidze have been operating at a reduced capacity since the...
SA firms lose out on lenacapavir production
South African companies were excluded from Gilead Science’s voluntary licensing for the anti-HIV drug lenacapavir because those that were evaluated in 2024 did not...
Neurologist shortage not unique to South Africa – Motsoaledi
Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi has defended his department against accusations of healthcare system collapse, saying the global shortage of specialists was partly to blame...
Gauteng Health spends R20m on new clinic wall as old facility crumbles
Spending R20m on building only a wall at a yet-to-be-constructed clinic is “a reckless waste of taxpayers’ money by the Gauteng Department of Health,...
Medicines smuggling probe after ARVs found at bus crash site
An investigation has been launched after the discovery of dozens of packs of ARVs and prescription drugs amid the wreckage of a fatal bus...
Gqeberha's Livingstone Hospital still without CEO – seven years later
The Eastern Cape Department of Health says it is advertising the CEO post for Livingstone Tertiary Hospital for the third time – seven years...
Glenda Gray in UCT funding storm
Former president of the South African Medical Research Council and current University of Cape Town (UCT) council member Professor Glenda Gray has lodged a...
FDA flags burns, scarring from skin procedure
The US Food & Drug Administration has warned about the potential for serious injuries with radiofrequency (RF) microneedling for skin procedures, after a series...
Infant immunisations drop in Western Cape
The Western Cape Department of Health & Wellness has sounded an urgent alarm over a steep decline in infant vaccination coverage across the province,...
UFS awarded WHO grant for global traditional medicine platform
A major grant has been awarded to the African Medicines Innovations and Technology Development Platform (AMITD) at the University of the Free State (UFS) under...
SAHPRA and HPCSA sign collaborative agreement
The South African Health Products Regulatory Authority (SAHPRA) and the Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA) recently signed a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA)...
DA reports hospital copper theft to SIU
The DA has asked the Special Investigative Unit (SIU) to investigate the theft of a 100m long copper pipe from the Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe Hospital in Kimberley...
Namibia confirms first case of mpox
Namibia’s Ministry of Health and Social Services has confirmed the first case of mpox – in Swakopmund, reports The Namibian.
“Surveillance, contact tracing, and response...
Africa to get BioNTech mRNA vaccine site
Two EU bodies will fund BioNTech with up to $110m to help build its mRNA vaccine factory in Kigali, Rwanda, which is designed to locally supply...
WHO, EU to advance digital health in sub-Saharan Africa
A new agreement has been inked by the World Health Organisation and the European Union (EU) to support the digital transformation of health systems...
R2bn funding for South Africa as US backtracks on cuts
South Africa will receive R2bn over six months from the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to sustain existing HIV and Aids...
Pharmacists allowed to dispense ARVs, appeal court rules
The Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) has dismissed, with costs, an appeal by a doctor’s organisation, the IPA Foundation, aimed at stopping specially trained...
SAHPRA grants Mounjaro jab approval for weight loss
Aspen Pharmacare has received approval from the SA Health Products Regulatory Authority (SAHPRA) for the diabetes treatment drug Mounjaro (tirzepatide) as a chronic weight...
Health tender challenge exposes extent of deceit
Efforts by major players in the Gauteng tender scandals to plunder state resources knew no bounds, with well-planned ruses designed to extract money while...