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News Update
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...
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,...