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News Update
PSA demands reinstatement of suspended hospital managers
The Public Servants Association of South Africa (PSA) has called on the Mpumalanga Department of Health to escalate the reinstatement of hospital managers it...
Most mpox cases can’t be tracked, says Africa CDC
The Africa Centres for Disease Control & Prevention says that while cases of mpox are steadily increasing across the continent, nearly three-quarters of them have...
Patients wait 24 hours to see doctor at struggling Eastern Cape hospital
Gqeberha’s Livingstone Hospital, one of the biggest in the Eastern Cape, is buckling under the strain of chronic staff shortages – from doctors and...
Lupus treatment trial paused after deaths
The US Food and Drug Administration has placed a clinical hold on Kezar Life Sciences’ mid-stage trial of experimental drug for lupus, after the company...
Rwanda starts Marburg vaccine trial
Rwanda launched a vaccine trial against the Marburg virus on Sunday in desperate efforts to combat an outbreak which has already killed a dozen...
British MPs to vote on assisted dying
The UK has become the latest country to consider assisted suicide legislation, with MPs, for the first time in almost a decade, set to...
Snake anti-venom stocks dry up again
The production of snake anti-venom in South Africa appears to have come to a standstill again, with health practitioners – as well as vets...
Gilead inks deal for generic HIV drug supply to low-income nations
Gilead Sciences has granted royalty-free licences to six generic drug manufacturers to make and sell cheaper copycat versions of its HIV prevention medicine in...
Toenail oil ‘doesn’t cure fungus’, says regulator
A commercial promising a wonder cure for infected toenails – and which has drawn dozens of complaints over the years – has again drawn...
Zambia to manufacture cholera vaccine
In a collaboration between Zambia and China, a recently signed Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed between the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) and China’s JIJIA...
UK doctor struck off after leaving unsecured records in flat
A British doctor, who was already suspended when she left abortion papers, psychiatric reports and other confidential patient records at her rented flat after...
African drug makers urged to adopt a regional approach
US global Aids co-ordinator John Nkengasong has called on African pharmaceutical companies to investigate the possibility of a regional manufacturing approach, to take advantage of...
UK launches major study of personalised cancer therapies
A large-scale collaborative study of personalised cancer therapies could offer clinicians a real-time view of how well treatments are working, say scientists, and decide...
SAHPRA rejects woman’s bid for cancer drug not yet registered in SA
An Umhlanga woman (53) is battling cancer and bureaucracy in attempts to acquire medication that might save her life.
Ina Requilet has an aggressive mutation...
Eastern Cape teen dies while waiting for ambulance
A teenage girl died after waiting six hours for an ambulance, with her desperate parents being unable to call for help because the Eastern...
Health Department dithering over HMI, says BHF
The National Department of Health has denied dragging its heels over plans to make the cost of healthcare more affordable, after the Board of...
Pfizer withdraws sickle cell treatment after deaths
Pfizer is withdrawing its sickle cell disease treatment Oxbryta from all markets where it has been approved, citing risks of a painful complication and deaths.
Pfizer...
World leaders pledge to slash AMR by 10%
A UN High Level Meeting on Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) last week has pledged to reduce – by 10% – deaths from drug-resistant bacteria over...
Slow progress on Pfizer’s plan to sell cheap drugs to poor nations
Two years after launching a plan to make its medicines available to 45 low-income countries at not-for-profit prices, Pfizer has only signed up 10...
Marburg virus kills eight in Rwanda
Eight people have died from an outbreak of Marburg virus in Rwanda, most of the victims being healthcare workers, the country’s Health Minister has...
Western Cape youngsters drive province's HIV spike
Findings of an extensive survey released by the Human Sciences Research Council last week include that sexual debut before the age of 15 –...
Africa gets pledges of $800m for mpox response
African countries and partners have pledged more than $800m towards the continent’s mpox response amid surging infection, said the director-general of the Africa Centres...
US senator accuses Novo Nordisk of greed
More than 40 000 Americans risk dying if Novo Nordisk doesn’t lower the prices of its diabetes and weight-loss drugs Ozempic and Wegovy, according...
Colon cancer therapy fails late-stage trial
A combination of Merck’s experimental drug and blockbuster therapy Keytruda had failed a late-stage trial testing it in previously treated patients with a type...
Professor Glenda Gray appointed new GARDP board chair
The Global Antibiotic Research and Development Partnership (GARDP) has announced the appointment of distinguished scientist and leader in the medical research community, Professor Glenda...
Chronic illness fuels substantial medical aid hikes
Private medical scheme members should brace themselves for substantial premium hikes next year, attributed to a combination of a surge in chronic conditions and...
Gauteng lacks safety compliance, Health Committee hears
Already humiliated by recent scathing headlines about their services, Gauteng hospitals are also failing to comply with occupational health and safety regulations, while others...
CMS rejects request for autoimmune guidance
The Autoimmune Alliance of SA (AASA) has had its call for guidance on funding costly treatments rejected by the medical scheme industry regulator.
The advocacy...
Gauteng initiates plan to improve health outcomes
The Gauteng Department of Health (GDH) will implement a new plan to prevent unwanted outcomes at state facilities.
Since the beginning of 2023, the GDH...
Health official in court accused of fraudulent credentials
A deputy director in the Free State Department of Health, Mmulutsi Winston Mokwai is embroiled in a fraud scandal after allegations that he used...
Unclaimed body count in state mortuaries tops 3 000
State mortuaries countrywide are becoming desperate as unclaimed bodies pile up, with the government urgently calling for families with missing loved ones to contact...
Lasker research award for Abdool Karims
South Africa’s infectious disease specialists, husband and wife team Quarraisha and Salim Abdool Karim, are among the nominees for the international Lasker Awards, a...
Virus causing paralysing illness spikes in US wastewater
A respiratory virus that sometimes paralyses children is spreading across America, raising concerns about another possible rise in polio-like illnesses, according to US health...
Swiss police swoop after suicide pod used for first time
Police in Switzerland have arrested several people after the controversial “Sarco” capsule, designed to allow its occupant to commit suicide, was used for the...
FDA clears Apple’s new sleep apnoea feature
The FDA has cleared Apple’s new sleep apnoea detection feature, which analyses a metric called “breathing disturbances” via an accelerometer measuring wrist movements indicating normal...
Musk’s vision implant gets FDA’s breakthrough device tag
Elon Musk’s brain-chip start-up Neuralink announced last week that its experimental implant aimed at restoring vision has received the US Food and Drug Administration’s...
WHO and FIFA launch global concussion campaign
A concussion awareness campaign has been launched by FIFA, the international football federation, in partnership with the World Health Organisation (WHO), in line with...
Patient found hanged in Gauteng hospital bathroom
A 36-year-old female patient admitted to Dr George Mukhari Academic Hospital in Ga-Rankuwa on Saturday was found dead in a bathroom, hanging by a...
Health Ombud to investigate Helen Joseph Hospital
Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi has asked Ombudsman Professor Taole Mokoena to initiate a probe into Helen Joseph Hospital, saying he doesn’t want “the Gauteng...
Survey shows HIV rates soaring in Mpumalanga
Nearly 900 000 people in Mpumalanga (or 17.4% of the population) are HIV positive, giving it the dubious title of province with the highest infection in the country, according...