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News Update
HIV activists disrupt Parliament, urging action
HIV activists from the Global HIV Treatment Coalition interrupted the Portfolio Committee on Health yesterday, calling for a response to a letter they wrote...
Call for action on booming fake drugs trade in SA
Counterfeit pharmaceutical product sales from online platforms and vendors are skyrocketing in South Africa, according to a newly-released independent report, which has called for...
Gilead forks out $200m settlement after kickbacks to doctors
Pharmaceutical company Gilead Sciences has settled a massive civil lawsuit and admitted to paying hundreds of thousands of dollars and kickbacks in the form...
US picks new bosses for top health posts
The White House has changed its mind about its nomination for America’s Surgeon-General post, withdrawing the nomination of Janette Nesheiwat in favour of Casey...
Global pandemic accord to be adopted
The pandemic treaty reached by World Health Organisation (WHO) member states in April and which took more than three years to negotiate will be...
Trump order demands price slashing from pharma industry
An executive order signed this week by President Donald Trump directing pharmaceutical companies to drop their prices in line with what other countries pay...
Top Liberian doctor struck off over qualification doubts
The head of Liberia’s doctors’ association has been banned from practising medicine after a regulatory body said it did not have evidence of his...
US cuts off Zambian aid after theft of health supplies
Zambian Ministers have reacted angrily to the United States having further slashed health aid to the country, after the American ambassador publicly referring to...
NIH grant funds first comprehensive syphilis test
With global syphilis cases on the rise, the news of a $2.7m research grant towards the development of a one-stop diagnostic test has been...
Surgeon honoured for voluntary service on Mercy Ships
An American surgeon – Dr Gary Parker (72) – who has dedicated nearly 40 years to providing free, life-changing surgeries to African patients, has...
Netcare denies refusing to treat police officer over City's debt
Netcare Hospital Division has denied claims that Netcare Milpark Hospital turned away an injured Johannesburg Metro Police Department (JMPD) officer allegedly because of a...
Donors commit emergency funding as 100 researchers lose jobs
The dire consequences of the US withdrawal of funding to South African health programmes continue, with Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi saying that more than...
Digital Vibes won R150m tender despite bid errors, court hears
Digital Vibes won a R150m tender after resubmitting its bidding documents that had been incomplete when it initially made the submission, according to testimony...
Durban clinic denies sex worker ARVs
A Durban sex worker was refused ARVs by a clinic at Addington Hospital and told to “go and work” so that she could buy...
WHO backs global use of weight-loss drugs
Marking a shift in its approach to treating the global health problem, the World Health Organisation will officially back using weight-loss drugs to treat...
UK players lobby for soccer bodies to pay brain injury costs
British campaigners say that existing support for former football players diagnosed with brain conditions – like dementia – is “not fit for purpose”, with...
Covid-19 originated in US, claims China
China has restated its case that Covid-19 may have originated in the United States, in a white paper on its pandemic response released last...
Woman brain-dead after cryotherapy session goes wrong
A French woman who was injured during a fatal cryotherapy session at a gym – that had earlier, in the same week, claimed the...
Sinkhole closes clinic indefinitely
Khutsong West Clinic, west of Johannesburg, closed indefinitely last week amid concerns over a massive sinkhole nearby.
“The facility will be closed indefinitely. The decision...
US diabetes deaths at lowest levels in years – CDC
Diabetes deaths in America have fallen to some of the lowest rates in years, according to preliminary figures from the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention,...
Patients suffer as hospitals battle bed shortages, power and water cuts
Dire conditions at several state hospitals came under the spotlight this week with reports of heavily pregnant women being made to sleep on the...
Radiology firm probed for alleged BEE fronting
A Cape Town radiology firm is facing allegations of “fronting” after an investigation launched by the Broad-Based BEE (B-BBEE) Commission, and the firm’s black...
North West private hospital frustrated by licence renewal delay
A 295-bed private hospital in the North West, which its owners say has been patient-ready for five years, potentially providing jobs to 50 people,...
Hospital staff under fire for outdoor cooking during outage
KZN Health MEC Nomagugu Simelane has called for disciplinary action against staff at Pietermaritzburg’s Northdale Hospital after a video of them cooking over a...
WHO, Unicef target ‘devious’ baby formula marketing in SA
The WHO and the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) have launched a “Babies Before Bottom Lines” campaign aimed at the “predatory and pervasive” digital...
Measles adds to Ugandan mpox crisis as death toll passes 5 400
The cumulative number of confirmed mpox cases in Uganda has hit 5 431, with 40 deaths reported since the outbreak was declared nine months...
Pacemaker to control BP gets FDA nod
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has given Breakthrough Device Designation to Orchestra BioMed for its atrioventricular interval modulation (AVIM) therapy for patients...
US man pleads not guilty to shooting of Big Pharma boss
The US man accused of murdering UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson late last year appeared in a Manhattan federal court on Friday where he pleaded...
FDA suggests swopping with beet juice, flagging ADHD risk
The US Food & Drug Administration, which has announced it will phase out petroleum-based food dyes in the coming months, says American children “have...
US detains Russian-born Harvard scientist
A ground-breaking microscope at Harvard Medical School could lead to breakthroughs in cancer detection and research into longevity. But the Russian-born scientist who developed...
Replacement rabies jab during SA shortage
The National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) has confirmed that a new rabies vaccine – Chirorab – is available in South Africa as a...
Europe failing in fight against HIV, TB and STIs
Regional health authorities have warned that many countries in Europe will miss a target to combat HIV, TB, hepatitis, and sexually transmitted infections (STIs)...
Whooping cough makes a comeback in the US
Whooping cough (pertussis) cases in the United States were nearly 16 times higher in 2024 than during the Covid-19 pandemic low in 2021, warn...
Possible arson to be probed in Tembisa hospital fires
The Gauteng Government and national MPs have not ruled out arson as a possible reason for the fires at Tembisa Provincial Tertiary Hospital, which...
UK radiological group calls for male nurses to do mammograms
Male health workers should be allowed to perform breast screening examinations to help relieve staff shortages, says Britain’s Society of Radiographers (SoR), which has...
Hospital sued for refusing liver transplant for Zimbabwean child
An urgent High Court application due to be heard in Johannesburg soon may be too late to save the life of desperately ill Vanessa...
No specific directive for AI to replace jobs, says Mediclinic
Mediclinic has issued a response to last week’s media reports about job cuts linked to the group’s artificial intelligence strategy, saying while AI initiatives...
Durban clerk arrested for practising medicine from dead GP’s office
A 52-year-old Bellair man arrested and charged with practising as a medical doctor without qualifications – for more than five years – was released...
Two fires in three days at Tembisa Hospital
Fire disrupted services at Tembisa Provincial Tertiary Hospital on Wednesday after flames engulfed the Outpatient Department (OPD) – next to the Accident and Emergency...
Aspen warns of losses due to contract dispute
Aspen Pharmacare has warned that profits could be affected by a contract dispute, which is likely to shave off several billion from its manufacturing...