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News Update
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...
Another four mpox cases in SA
South Africa has recorded four new lab-confirmed mpox cases, bringing the cumulative national total to 26 cases since 1 January 2026, up from 22,...
Nigeria confirms first Ebola case
The Nigerian health ministry said a woman had been diagnosed with Ebola in the capital, Abuja, after travelling from Uganda, reports Sky News.
This is...
SA call for action against illegal obesity medicines suspected in US deaths
Big Pharma in South Africa and the US is calling for urgent crackdown on illegal medicines, especially unregulated obesity drugs like retatrudite, which is...
Unpacking the Health Department's response to NHI ad spending
Deputy Department of Health DG Nicholas Crisp appeared before Parliament last week to account for the allegations in an investigation published on 27 September...
MPs flags Health Department’s stalled audit progress
The lack of consequence management in the National Department of Health for its complete lack of movement on its audit outcome for more than...
President appoints task team to address pharma challenges
President Cyril Ramaphosa has ordered the establishment of a government-business task force to tackle the challenges facing the pharmaceutical sector, reports Business Day.
It comes...
Specialist doctors dispatched to care for Zuma in private hospital
Amid conflicting reports and rumours of a discharge, it appears Jacob Zuma was still in St Anne’s Hospital yesterday, having been admitted the previous...
Cyber thieves access 80m Ampath patient records
Cyber criminals say they’ve accessed more than 80m patient records from Ampath Laboratories, one of South Africa’s largest pathology service providers, with ByteToBreach, which...
Medical equipment firms face tribunal over monopoly allegations
Several of South Africa’s largest suppliers of diagnostic imaging equipment have been referred by the the Competition Commission to the Competition Tribunal for prosecution,...
Second chance with voice box surgery during larynx removal
Although surgical removal of the larynx can improve the survival odds for someone with advanced cancer of the voice box, the huge cost is...
Bottlenecks, bed shortages for SA’s mental health patients
A psychiatry expert has warned that an acute lack of community-based resources and specialised beds is leaving South Africa’s public sector overstretched, reports IOL.
This...
UKZN student’s telemedicine project will bridge healthcare gap
An 18-year-old University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) medical student has used technology to create an innovative telemedicine healthcare project that will overcome communication challenges in...
New Vanderbijlpark clinic, EMS base, to boost local healthcare services
Vanderbijlpark residents in Gauteng will have expanded and improved access to primary healthcare services with last week’s opening of the new Johan Heyns Gateway...
Groote Schuur’s new ER/trauma centre open for business
The upgraded state-of-the-art R200m emergency and trauma centre at Groote Schuur Hospital – which will treat up to 4 500 patients a month –...
Public Protector seeks answer over Charlotte Maxeke Hospital repairs
More than five years after the massive fire engulfed parts of Charlotte Maxeke Academic Hospital, the delayed repairs have still not been completed, much...