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News Update
ChatGPT medical advice blamed for woman's death in lawsuit
A chatbot helped a woman taper off a lifesaving drug and hide the plan from her doctors, leading directly to her death, according to...
Millions spent on NHI despite Act’s suspension
The Department of Health has spent R1.3bn on the NHI project in the 2025/26 financial year even while the implementation of the Act remains...
ARV tender turmoil will not affect supply, department says
The supply of ARVs to South Africans will not be affected by the recent High Court judgment whereby parts of the R15.5bn tender allocations...
State allocates R1.6bn to fight national crisis of child stunting
Although the government has said it will set aside money to combat child stunting, and interventions to support pregnant women and their babies for...
Ebola kills two doctors within 48 hours
Two young doctors died from Ebola last week in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), bringing the number of healthcare professionals reported to have...
Physicians age bias lawsuit heads to trial in US
The age and disability discrimination lawsuit by the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission against Yale New Haven (Connecticut) Hospital over its cognitive and vision testing...
Kennedy okays unproven peptide jabs, despite FDA reservations
Effort to loosen rules on unproven peptide drugs, favoured by US Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr, are facing resistance from the majority of...
AI bots flood UK vape ban consultation to swing policy outcome
An analysis published this week in the journal Tobacco Control has revealed that an avalanche of bots had flooded a British Government consultation with...
CCMA to decide on community health workers’ status in Western Cape
Protesting community health workers (CHW) in the Western Cape have taken their fight for permanent jobs to the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration...
Canadian Bill allows euthanasia requests ‘in advance’
The Canadian government has introduced a new Bill allowing people to ask, in advance, to be euthanised at a later date if and when...
Medicine shortages worse a year after President’s interventions
Unpaid provincial Health Department accounts, regulatory disputes with SAHPRA, and manufacturing pressures are among the reported causes of a widespread medicine shortage in South...
Public sector access to obesity jabs still far off
The chances of the Health Department offering GLP-1 drugs to public sector patients for obesity any time soon are remote, reports Business Day.
While the...
‘Gap cover is breaking medical schemes’ – SA actuaries
Four actuaries from Medscheme, one of the country’s largest medical scheme administrators, presented evidence at the Actuarial Society of South Africa (ASSA) convention in...
800 Bronkhorstspruit contamination cases ‘not an ‘outbreak’, says Minister
Despite at least 830 people having been affected by the contaminated water in Bronkhorstspruit, and having sought medical help for gastrointestinal problems, Water and...
Queues, medicine shortages, plague clinic patients
Shortages of critical medicines and endless queues at clinics around the country are frustrating outpatients, whose anger is compounded by fear of having to...
Karoo patients travel for 10 hours for cancer care or dialysis
Patients in Beaufort West who need lifesaving dialysis and chemotherapy have to travel for 10 hours for help, with some having to book overnight...
Treasury flags perilous state of provincial Health finances
Continuing weak financial control in provincial Health Departments – and lack of improvement in audits – has been slammed by the Treasury, with a...
Malaria cases in Gauteng tied to travel elsewhere, say experts
The surge in malaria cases in Gauteng this year was not caused by mosquito bites within the province, but rather, linked to people who...
Free State records two mpox cases
Two people in Sasolburg have tested positive for mpox, with health officials saying both infections are linked to the same source, reports The Citizen.
The...
Public Protector slams Eastern Cape Health
After an unannounced visit to two hospitals in the Eastern Cape, an irate Public Protector Advocate Kholeka Gcaleka said the public health sector was...
DA bogus doctor loses expulsion bid
Bogus doctor Abdulkader Elyas, who had approached the Western Cape High Court seeking a second opinion after his expulsion from the DA, was dealt...
Indian court orders cancer drug price cuts
Cancer drug prices are to be drastically reduced in India after a retired bank clerk took her case to the Supreme Court, reports The...
First human case of Shamonda virus identified in France
A disease normally only ever found in animals has been detected in humans for the first time, with the first known case of the...
US state sues OpenAI over ChatGPT’s medical advice
The US state of Iowa’s Attorney-General Brenna Bird has sued OpenAI, alleging the company misled consumers about its product ChatGPT’s safety and reliability, including...
Nurse killed while responding to Ebola in DRC
A nurse was killed and a health worker severely injured after being attacked while responding to an Ebola alert in the Congo, reports the...
Damning UK report on failures to stop Covid spread in care homes
A public inquiry in Britain has found appalling lapses in government decisions made during the pandemic, which, among other things, allowed Covid-19 to spread...
Community Health Centre in the Cape reopens after deadly shootout
The Retreat Community Health Centre in Cape Town’s southern suburbs has reopened after a temporary lockdown last week triggered by a fatal shooting directly...
BHF calls for urgent reforms to tackle medical aid hikes
Constantly rising and increasingly unaffordable medical aid hikes are pushing consumers to the limit, and the Board of Healthcare Funders (BHF) has said households...
Surgeon loses case against SAPS for breaking Covid curfew
A neurosurgeon from Pretoria who has spent six years claiming he was unlawfully arrested en-route to the hospital to prepare for surgery during the...
Discovery triumphs in SCA appeal against RAF deductions
In a long-awaited judgment handed down last Friday, the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) has interdicted the Road Accident Fund (RAF) from making any...
Medical centre flags ‘sick note‘ scam
Local business leaders and the HPCSA have urged doctors and practices to tighten measures to avoid illegal access to their prescription and ‘sick note’...
NICD alert as SA diphtheria deaths pass 40
South Africa has recorded another death in a lab-confirmed diphtheria case, according to the National Institute for Communicable Diseases’ latest surveillance update, which says...
Gastro outbreak affects 500 in Tshwane, Makhanda
Unchlorinated water supplied by Tshwane’s Bronkhorstspruit Water Treatment Works for three weeks resulted in at least 408 people, mostly toddlers under four, contracting gastrointestinal...
Compounding drug rules revised in SA
Updated minimum standards and rules regarding the customisation of medicines, including GLP-1 treatments for diabetes and weight loss, can be expected in South Africa...
WCape incentives to reward communities for healthy lifestyle choices
An unusual incentive scheme is being trialled by the Western Cape Department of Health in which participants are rewarded for healthy choices like immunising...
Surgeries on hold as Mpumalanga hospital battles cooling crisis in heatwave
Critical issues with the cooling systems at the Rob Ferreira Hospital in Mpumalanga are resulting in surgical postponements and unnecessary delays in theatre procedures,...
Free State hospitals hit by rampant theft and crime
Relentless efforts by an organised network of serial thieves to steal critical equipment from Free State hospitals is forcing the already strained facilties to...
New CSIR pharma facility aims to reduce reliance on imported APIs
The CSIR’s brand new research facility in Pretoria, launched last week, aims to reduce the country’s massive reliance on international supplies of active pharmaceutical...
Guinea-Bissau denies approving hepatitis vaccine trial
Judicial police in Guinea-Bissau seized doses of the hepatitis B vaccine from the offices of the controversial researchers linked to a proposed clinical trial...
DRC Ebola jab trial starts soon, Kenya records second death
As the Congo’s worst-ever Ebola outbreak overtakes the 9 000-case mark, with deaths exceeding 4 000, the WHO said the first full-scale human vaccine...