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News Update
Court clarifies law on disclosing someone’s HIV status
Disclosing someone’s HIV status publicly constitutes either defamation or breach of privacy, with a Bloemfontein court recently declaring they are independent and distinct actions that must...
Parliament flags dire state of Northern Cape facilities
Chronic conditions in Northern Cape health clinics and hospitals were exposed and highlighted during a three-day parliamentary oversight visit – from crumbling infrastructure and...
Man dies from meat allergy triggered by tick bites
Last year, a previously healthy 47-year-old father collapsed and died in the bathroom of his home, with an autopsy providing no answers. CNN reports...
US-bought birth control for sub-Saharan Africa rots in Belgium
There’s a new twist in the saga of the American-purchased contraceptives intended for sub-Saharan Africa and stuck in Belgium since the Trump administration scaled...
WHO to shed 2 000 jobs
The shock withdrawal of US funding – its main donor – will see the World Health Organisation slashing its staff numbers by nearly a quarter, or...
Woman born without most of her brain turns 20
Doctors told her parents she wasn’t expected to survive past the age of four, but a Nebraska, USA, woman born without cerebral hemispheres celebrated...
TB rates fall for the first time since Covid – WHO report
Global tuberculosis rates fell about 2% in 2024 from the previous year, shows a World Health Organisation report, after rising for three consecutive years...
Beware fake weight-loss products – SAHPRA warning
The South African Health Products Regulatory Authority (SAHPRA) has issued a warning regarding GLP-1 (glucagon-like peptide-1) products being promoted and sold on social media...
Suppliers linked to Tembisa scandal still not blacklisted
Incredibly, none of the 207 suppliers implicated in the Tembisa Hospital looting sprees has yet been blacklisted, although the National Department of Health has...
US mulls plans to reject obese visitors’ visas
Overweight people applying for visas to America will need to rethink their plans in future, as US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has instructed...
SA starts ground-breaking clinical trials for oral cholera vaccine
Clinical trials testing the efficacy of the first locally manufactured oral cholera vaccine, developed by Biovac, were officially launched on Tuesday, reports TimesLIVE – which...
Godongwana concerned about plan to dump medical tax credits
Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana has expressed caution about proposals to phase out medical scheme tax credits to help fund National Health Insurance (NHI), saying...
Outrage as Gauteng Health still uses ‘blacklisted’ firms
Gauteng Health has admitted it lacks the power to blacklist suppliers linked to the R2bn Tembisa Hospital scandal, who continue to do business with...
UKZN medical school admissions graft case back in court
Seven years after being struck off the roll, a corruption case involving a Durban couple, their co-accused, and the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) medical...
Defiant Operation Dudula to appeal ruling
Operation Dudula will abide by a High Court ruling barring it from its xenophobic actions, and from denying access to public health facilities by...
Backlash after HPCSA fines UN health envoy
The Health Professions Council of SA (HPCSA) has been accused of political interference after it found Tlaleng Mofokeng – the UN Special Rapporteur on...
Transgender prisoner wins right to hormone therapy
A transgender prisoner, serving life at Johannesburg Correction Centre, has won the legal right for state-provided hormonal therapy. The Equality Court ruled that “adequate...
Special budget allocation for HIV projects not enough, warn critics
Despite Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana having tabled a special appropriation Bill providing an extra, emergency R754.5m to the Health budget in the financial year,...
Outcry over regulations for wellness, beauty industry
Opponents have slammed a proposal by the Allied Health Professions Council of South Africa (AHPCSA) to classify somatology and sports massage therapy as regulated...
Treasury's plan to feed the Eastern Cape’s starving children
The Treasury has proposed alternatives to fight hunger and reduce malnutrition statistics in the Eastern Cape after the Human Rights Commission (HRC), two years...
FDA recalls 600 000 bottles of BP drug over cancer risk
The FDA said drugmakers have recalled more than 580 000 bottles of a blood pressure medication over concerns it may include a cancer-causing chemical,...
Child Gauge flags maternal violence and neglect in SA
The country’s maternal health system is in crisis, and domestic violence is making it worse, experts say, warning that with just 11 maternal and...
Motsoaledi urges commitment to UHC at G20 meeting
At the recent G20 Health Ministers’ gathering in Polokwane, Health Minister Dr Aaron Motsoaledi called for a renewed commitment to Universal Health Coverage (UHC), ...
FDA clears costly rare disease drug despite objections
An expensive rare disease drug was approved by the US Food & Drug Administration in September despite findings by eight data reviewers that the...
Poverty, poor living conditions, drive pandemics – UNAIDS report
Poor people are likelier to fall ill, and take longer to recover, according to a newly released report by the Global Council on Inequality,...
Court orders Operation Dudula to stop targeting migrants
Members of Operation Dudula have been interdicted from “taking the law into their own hands” and uttering hate speech in their “xenophobic” campaign against...
Specialist family physicians take on big funders
Specialist Family Physicians (SFPs) – highly trained doctors devoted to whole-person care – are banding together to challenge the might of private medical funders...
Eastern Cape chemo patients left in the lurch after bungle
There appears to be no end to the problems affecting the Eastern Cape Department of Health, the latest mess coming after its account with...
Watchdog deepens Bonitas investigation
The Council for Medical Schemes (CMS) is to launch a forensic investigation into allegedly improper procurement processes at Bonitas, zeroing in on a contract...
Premier urged to probe lax contractor paid millions for hospital project
Five years after a multimillion-rand hospital project began in Ulundi, KwaZulu-Natal, the job is still incomplete, with the provincial Public Works & Infrastructure Department...
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...