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News Update
DoH warns of chaos if calls to end State of Disaster are heeded
With the end of South Africa’s current national State of Disaster due in a few days, a number of scientists and politicians have called...
Bed shortage has patients sleeping on floors at Northdale Hospital, PMB
Patients are being given medical treatment and having drips administered while on benches, in wheelchairs and on the floor at Maritzburg’s Northdale Hospital, which...
Patient, nurses, attacked at Mediclinic Brits by man wielding drip stand
A patient has been left traumatised, dependent on sleeping pills, after she and three nurses were attacked by another patient wielding his drip stand.
Hazel...
New Year ushers in flurona — a rare and potentially deadly double infection of flu and COVID
In the first week of 2022, the first case of flurona, a rare new double infection of coronavirus and influenza, was diagnosed in a...
France detects new variant in traveller from Cameroon
A new COVID-19 variant has been detected in a traveller who returned to France from Cameroon, the hospital IHU Mediterrannee in Marseille announced, reports...
Madhi lashes DoH and calls for end to State of Disaster
Prominent vaccinologist and an infectious diseases expert Prof Shabir Madhi has called for and end to the State of Disaster and the disbanding of...
SIU investigation into Cuban doctor training programme
The Cuban Doctor Training Programme is being investigated by the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) following a Department of Health internal audit, Health Minister Dr...
Zimbabwe wants compensation for brain drain of nurses and doctors
Zimbabwe is approaching the United Nations and aid agencies to discuss possible compensation as it faces a brain drain in its heath sector, with...
Thousands of unvaccinated South Africans believe vaccines harmful
A study by the University of Cape Town has revealed that at least a quarter of South Africans who have not been vaccinated against...
New radiotherapy machines in storage while Gauteng patients are turned away
While thousands of cancer patients await treatment from public hospitals in Gauteng, and increasing numbers of them are being turned away at overwhelmed facilities,...
Zuma’s medical parole unlawful and he must be returned to custody — High Court
UPDATED
The Gauteng High Court late yesterday (15 December) ruled that the decision of Arthur Fraser, the former National Commissioner of Correctional Services to release...
Pathology labs slash ‘exorbitant’ PCR test charges after Competition Commission intervention
Following the intervention of the Competition Commission, the top three private pathology laboratories have cut the price of gold-standard polymerase chain reaction (PCR tests) ...
SAMA: Compensation Fund changes will cause doctors to cease treatment
In a survey of its members, the SA Medical Association (SAMA) said 76% of those who work with people injured at work will stop...
China offers 300,000 free vaccine jabs to SANDF troops
China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA), which over the past year has made vaccine donations to militaries in 28 countries, has offered 300,000 free doses...
Court application to challenge constitutionality of ‘certificate of need’
The controversial “certificate of need”, in terms of which healthcare practitioners will have to apply to the State for approval regarding where they may...
SA life insurers: Doubling in death claims since COVID-19 started
South Africaʼs biggest life insurers received 22,544 mortality claims against fully underwritten life policies in the 19 months after the start of the first...
Top SA cop investigating PPE fraud killed by poison, not COVID
A case of murder has been opened after the death of Lieutenant-General Sindile Mfazi, whom police sources confirmed didn't die of COVID-19, as previously...
Nigeria to destroy a million expired COVID-19 vaccines
Nigeria will destroy around 1m expired COVID-19 vaccines, Faisal Shuaib, head of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), said on Monday (13...
EU provides €100m for COVID-19 training in 12 African countries
A dozen African countries have been thrown a lifeline after the European Union (EU), through the United Nations Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF), availed a...
Schoub: More SA children get COVID, but 'not a priority to vaccinate them'
As the cases of COVID-19 positive children continue to grow during the fourth wave, questions are being raised as to why they appear to...
SA’S trans community panics over Pfizer's testosterone hormone therapy shortage
THE transgender community is facing a dire shortage of testosterone hormone therapy treatment and fear many could resort to the black market. The shortage...
‘Outraged’ SAMA threatens court action over placement of almost 5,000 junior doctors
The SA Medical Association (SAMA) is considering going to court to compel the government to finalise placement of junior doctors for internship and community...
AU calls in its members to lift travel bans on SA and its neighbours
The African Union has called on member states to urgently rescind travel bans imposed on South Africa and its neighbours, after the detection of...
SAMATU complains that DoH discriminates against Cuban-trained doctors
The South African Medical Association Trade Union (SAMATU) has written to Health Minister Dr Joe Phaahla, complaining about his department's continued discrimination against Cuban-trained...
More than a quarter million of South Africa's vaccine doses wasted
South Africa has lost 274 312 COVID vaccine doses to wastage, equating to an estimated R83m in lost money through avoidable waste, including damages,...
Gauteng Health to dump almost R13m of ‘expired’ sanitiser
As Gauteng Health Department workers brace themselves for an imminent COVID-19 fourth wave, there are calls for an investigation into expired bottles of sanitiser...
SA’s surgical backlog: 14,000 patients wait two years for 40-minute cataract procedure
After nearly two years of COVID-19, which has increased backlog of postponed non-essential surgery, people with benign conditions are now becoming emergency cases, health...
MSF takes SAHPRA to task for delay in meningitis drug approval
Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has criticised the SA Health Products Regulatory Authority (SAHPRA) for delaying the registration of an anti-fungal medicine which could help...
Charlotte Maxeke Hospital still ‘a death trap’ for staff and patients
No beds for new admissions, oncology patients who are moved at risk of infection and are receiving suboptimal care, and patient overflows sent out...
Next pandemic could be more lethal than COVID, AstraZeneca creator warns
Future pandemics could be even more lethal than COVID-19 so the lessons learned from this outbreak must not be squandered, Professor Dame Sarah Gilbert,...
SAHPRA 'will destroy’ Defence Force’s R215m of illegal Cuban drugs
The SA Health Products Regulatory Authority (SAHPRA) will destroy 970,000 vials of the drug Heberon — touted as a wonder cure for COVID-19 —...
SA medical students assaulted by Cuban police were partying – Dhlomo
Deputy Health Minister Dr Sibongiseni Dhlomo told MPs that South African medical students, who were assaulted by police in Cuba early last month, had...
Aspen to produce its own branded vaccine for Africa, in J&J deal
Aspen Pharmacare, SAʼs biggest pharmaceutical manufacturer, has announced a groundbreaking and non-binding agreement with Johnson & Johnson to produce its COVID-19 vaccines under licence...
Swiss voters back COVID-19 pass law in ill-tempered referendum
With new COVID cases in Switzerland seven times higher than they were in mid-October, Swiss voters have firmly backed the law behind the country’s...
Kenya’s COVID clampdown: Extensive restrictions on the unvaccinated
New national COVID preventative measures, such as proof of vaccination, have prompted anger in Kenya, where fewer than 5% of the country’s citizens have...
England’s ‘demoralised and broken’ GPs vote for industrial action
An overwhelming 80% of England’s GPs have voted for limited forms of industrial action in protest against the government’s drive to force them to...
Discovery’s mandatory jabs policy sends staff vaccination rates soaring
The COVID-19 vaccination rate among Discoveryʼs SA employees has risen from barely a fifth to 94% in the three months since it announced plans...
Business for SA wants ‘urgent’ restrictions on the unvaccinated
Business for South Africa (B4SA) is calling for a rapid move to restrict access to public indoor areas that are not required for emergency...
HPCSA disciplinary committee rulings for October 2021
A doctor fined R50,000 for running a practice ill-equipped to deal with emergencies and another suspended for five years for failing to investigate or...
Rage across Europe: COVID lockdowns trigger riots and police fire
Europe is in the grip of violent backlashes against new COVID restrictions imposed to deal with a record number of new cases on the...