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News Update
Medical aids feeling the pinch
A new analysis from AlexForbes Health, using Council for Medical Schemes data on the country’s 10 biggest open schemes and the 10 largest restricted...
UCT clinches licence to manufacture medical devices
The South African Health Products Regulatory Authority (SAHPRA) has granted a medical device manufacturing licence to the University of Cape Town’s (UCT) Biomedical Engineering...
Madhi receives leading global infectious diseases award
Professor Shabir Madhi, Dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of the Witwatersrand, has been named the recipient of the 2026...
Japan orders warning for vasculitis drug after fatalities
Japanese drugmaker Kissei Pharmaceutical has been ordered by the country’s Health Ministry to add a warning to the package insert of Tavneos (avacopan), a...
Limpopo doctor sells sandwiches to fund patients’ surgeries
A doctor in Burgersfort, Limpopo, is transforming needy patients’ lives by funding their surgeries through the sales of a popular township sandwich, called a...
Johannesburg doctors fund security to keep suburb safer
A group of doctors has resorted to funding a private security company in the bustling suburb of Mayfair, Johannesburg, to make the area safer...
Father and daughter volunteer to change lives with cleft surgery
A Cape Town father and daughter recently joined a team of volunteers who helped deliver life-changing corrective surgery to children born with cleft palates...
Scientists nabbed for smuggling mpox virus into US
Two scientists at an American government lab were charged with smuggling vials of deactivated mpox virus into the country from Africa and lying about...
Health Minister says bid plans to ‘enhance infrastructure' on track
The National Department of Health, which is to submit 11 funding bids to the Budget Facility for Infrastructure (BIF) for projects linked to various...
Fraud triggers medicine shortage crisis in Namibia
A critical shortage of medicines is pulverising Namibia’s public health sector – the first time this has happened in the country’s 36 years of...
SIU net closes in on ‘Syndicate X’ in Tembisa Hospital probe
The Tembisa Hospital probe has netted more fish, with the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) obtaining a preservation order and an interim interdict against a...
Novo Nordisk sues local pharmacy over alleged 'knock-off' weight-loss jabs
Pretoria compounding pharmacy iDexis, which was raided by the regulator and the Pharmacy Council last month, will come up against Danish pharma giant Novo...
Adcock allegedly probed for Covid-19 profiteering
Adcock Ingram is facing prosecution by the Competition Tribunal for allegedly overcharging patients for its kidney dialysis products. Business Day reports that the Competition...
Chaos and bottlenecks in Bonitas-Momentum changeover
The official ending of the 43-year-long relationship between Medscheme and Bonitas Medical Fund on Monday, when Momentum Health stepped in as the new administrator...
Health Minister dismisses CoN ruling impact on NHI
The Constitutional Court recently ruled the Certificate of Need (CoN) sections of the National Health Act unconstitutional, and in a Sunday Times Q&A last...
No evidence migrants causing hospital overcrowding – SAHRC
The SA Human Rights Commission said there is no evidence or data showing that foreign nationals are causing overcrowding at local hospitals, telling a...
Commission probes Dis-Chem over customers' discount
After a complaint by Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi about a 5% discount Dis-Chem customers get on non-dispensary products, an investigation has been launched by...
Rehab centre owner and staff face assault, murder charges
The owner of a controversial Eastern Cape rehabilitation centre near Butterworth – and six of his staff – were due to appear in court...
Hundreds of children dying in outbreak the world ignores
Hantavirus and Ebola are making headlines. But another deadly outbreak is unfolding that’s barely registered on the global scene – a devastating measles outbreak...
Race to find Ebola vaccine accelerates
As the Ebola virus continues to spread, and to claim lives, three new vaccines are being developed to tackle this latest, rare species, while...
First African mRNA ‘hub’ gets manufacturing certificate
'Failure was never an option,” said Afrigen Biologics CEO Professor Petro Terblanche last week as the company – which developed an mRNA vaccine from...
Life Healthcare boss flags perils of cost-over-quality options
Occupational health standards are waning due to “inexperienced” new players, Life Healthcare CEO Peter Wharton-Hood told Business Day last week, warning that companies are...
‘Filthy’ Eastern Cape hospital slammed by patient
Complaints alleging unhygienic and filthy conditions at a hospital in Gqeberha have been deflected by the Eastern Cape Department of Health, which said the...
Gauteng Health ‘fails to honour Deokaran’, claims DA
The DA in Gauteng has called the province’s Health Department disrespectful after it ignored a legislature motion requiring it to report within six months...
Gauteng Health labelled a 'mafia' after hospital repair scandal exposed
In response to scathing findings by the Public Protector, a committee has been established that will ensure long-delayed repairs at the fire-damaged Charlotte Maxeke...
SIU on a mission to recoup millions from illegal ambulance contracts
The Special Investigating Unit’s quest to claw back millions from controversial businessman Thapelo Buthelezi, who has frequently made headlines since 2018 and who was...
Limpopo orthopaedic surgeon shortage leaves patients waiting for years
A Limpopo man whose leg was broken in a car crash in February is still waiting for orthopaedic surgery – just one among more...
Pharmacy council tackles pharmacist shortage
The South African Pharmacy Council (SAPC) has started a process to review the Pharmacy Human Resources Plan for South Africa and tackle shortcomings, including...
HPCSA probes Wits medical programme
Wits University has defended a specialist training programme after a complaint from a trainee doctor, saying it meets national accreditation requirements but conceding that...
Concern that White Paper could block migrants from healthcare
South Africa’s revised Immigration White Paper could make it even harder for undocumented migrants to access healthcare and other basic services in this country,...
Responders struggle to contain Ebola as outbreak surges
The military governor of the Democratic Republic of Congo's Ituri province, the epicentre of the Ebola outbreak, has likened the struggle to contain the...
Gauteng Health fails to vet thousands of childcare staff
The Gauteng Department of Health has not vetted nearly 40 000 staff who work with children, raising serious concerns about child safety and patient...
NICD finds two polio virus strains in Cape wastewater
The Department of Health has said there is no need to panic after the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) detected two polio virus...
Netcare picks up pace on AI implementation
Netcare is sprinting ahead with digitisation and AI, with CEO Richard Friedland saying the financial benefits of spending on these are already overtaking the...
NHLS flounders as Health Departments owe R11bn
The total collapse of the National Health Laboratory Service appears imminent if provincial Health Departments owing it nearly R11bn don’t pay their high outstanding...
Dis-Chem drawn into SAHRC probe of racist post
Dis-Chem has become embroiled in a reputational furore after the SA Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) launched a formal investigation into social media posts reportedly made by...
KZN Health to investigate Pietermaritzburg hospital allegations
A complaint lodged with the South African Human Rights Commission has prompted action from the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Health, which has now launched an...
Call for justice after forced sterilisations
Government has been slammed for its prevarication and failure to assist the HIV-positive victims of forced and coerced sterilisation, reports The Citizen.
Local NGO Her...
More than 200 KZN ambulances in the sick bay
Nearly half of the entire fleet of KwaZulu-Natal Department of Health ambulances is sitting in workshops awaiting repairs, with diagnostic delays, inflated parts replacement costs...
South Africa forges ahead with tech-driven strategy to fight diseases
A new era of artificial intelligence (AI) and other technological and breakthrough innovations will help the country fight HIV, TB and cervical cancer, said...