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News Update
JAMA launches AI website
In acknowledgement of the increasing importance of artificial intelligence in healthcare, a website devoted to research and news related to AI and machine learning...
Why SAMA is staying out of NHI negotiations
The SA Medical Association has ‘deliberately’ not partnered with Business Unity South Africa (Busa), and funders in their ongoing negotiations with President Cyril Ramaphosa...
Minister tweaks community service posts to reduce shortfall
A shortfall in community service posts for doctors and several other disciplines will be adjusted by converting an over-supply in other fields, Health Minister...
AG scathing about R150m health contract
A scathing report from the Auditor-General suggests that the National Department of Health (NDoH) appeared to deliberately evade legislation and regulations to grant a...
KwaZulu-Natal hospital disputes claim of patient neglect
Pietermaritzburg’s Northdale Hospital has denied ignoring the plight of a patient who arrived needing urgent treatment after suffering a seizure.
The family of the patient...
Eastern Cape hospital CEO racks up R574 000 in hotel bills
An Eastern Cape hospital CEO has been staying in hotels since 2022 – at a cost of more than half a million rands –...
KZN hospitals battle monkey menace
Monkeys are running riot in KwaZulu-Natal’s government hospitals, with suggestions to overcome the problem including that staff carry water guns to shoot the cunning...
SIU probes Eastern Cape Health contracts
A total of 19 contracts in the Eastern Cape Department of Health – ranging from cleaning services to meat deliveries – will undergo scrutiny...
Durban doctor leads the way with research on breast cancer trends
A recent study by Durban’s Dr Mpoi Makhetha on breast cancer patients in KwaZulu-Natal is believed to be the first of its kind in...
Parliament staff’s medical tests ‘on hold’
Parliament has suspended the planned medical tests of its 1 200 support staff “pending further review and consultation”, it said, allowing for “thorough engagement...
Tragedy sparks concern over medicinal cannabis oversight
A recent tragic case in Australia has cast a spotlight on the booming but little-policed cannabis industry now being accessed by hundreds of thousands...
GPs urged to test for Fragile X in women
Doctors have been urged to test patients for a genetic condition that is the most common inherited cause of learning disability, with experts saying...
Pepfar chief pushes for extension of programme
USAids relief programme head John Nkengasong is committed to persuading Congress to return to granting a five-year reauthorisation of the programme, he said in...
Cholera warning for Gauteng after river sampling
Communities living along the Harts and Vaal Rivers in Gauteng have been warned that routine raw water sampling last month detected the presence of...
Gauteng Health expands HPV jabs to private schools
Vaccination against the human papillomavirus (HPV) will now be available to girls aged nine to 15 at private schools in the province, Gauteng Health...
Zealand, Boehringer get FDA ‘breakthrough’ status to treat MASH
Denmark’s Zealand Pharma and German partner Boehringer Ingelheim have won the US Food and Drug Administration’s Breakthrough Therapy status for the review of their...
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...