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News Update
Free State Health MEC promises support for foreign-trained medics
Free State Health MEC Viceroy Mahlatsi has committed to “facilitating ministerial engagements with the HPCSA, Pharmacy Council and SANC to find a way of...
Three major hospital projects in pipeline for Cape Town
The Western Cape Department of Health says it is going full steam ahead with its plans for new facilities and three major projects that...
NHLS back on track after cyber hack
South Africa’s 230 health laboratories, which service 85% of the population, are back in action and all systems fully restored after the disruption and...
Gauteng Health in trouble for unpaid R1bn owed to suppliers
The Gauteng Department of Health is in hot water again, this time after a summons by the provincial Health Portfolio Committee to explain why...
Polokwane Hospital X-ray unit blows up
A massive blast in the X-ray department at Polokwane Hospital in Limpopo last week injured three people and abruptly curtailed services, with patients having...
Lung cancer vaccine trial launches in UK
A new vaccine that fights lung cancer is being tested for the first time on patients in the UK, with researchers saying it could...
UK launches global-first study to ID stem cell super donors
Britain has just launched a world-first study to identify people who could be stem cell super donors, with scientists planning to analyse DNA samples...
UK doctors’ union calls for curb on vapes
The British Medical Association is urging Ministers to introduce legislation to curb the “epidemic” of vaping in the UK, saying the devices should only...
Measles closes Northern Cape schools
Four schools were closed in the Northern Cape on Thursday last week after an outbreak of measles, with cases having rapidly escalated from 16...
Outbreak of hand, foot and mouth disease in Free State
A small suspected outbreak of hand, foot and mouth disease (a strain of the Coxsackie virus) has been confirmed by the provincial Health Department at...
New Wits burns unit opens at Bara
Wits University has opened its new Roy McAlpine Burns Unit at the Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital – which has the only public burns...
Maye Musk scholarship for Master's nutrition students at UFS
Elon Musk’s mother, Dr Maye Musk, has founded a scholarship to support serving students who intend to study nutrition or dietetics at the University...
Doctors now among targets for extortion racket thugs
Healthcare facilities and professionals are the latest to be targeted by extortion racketeers, with one East London doctor forced to close his practice and...
No need to panic, say SA experts as DRC buckles under mpox spread
The outbreak of mpox on the African continent – that spurred the WHO into declaring it an international public health emergency last week –...
Eastern Cape women's lives at risk in maternity wards, commission finds
The conditions in Eastern Cape maternity wards are so dire that they are contributing to patients’ and infants’ deaths, says a report from the...
Call for moratorium on nurse recruitment from battling countries
The International Council of Nurses (ICN) wants the WHO to enforce a “time-limited moratorium of active recruitment of nurses” after a spike in nurse...
Gauteng Health rollover funds cut after failure to spend budget
The Gauteng Department of Health has received Treasury approval to roll over only R530m of the R1.1bn it failed to spend in 2023/24, which...
Fed-up union wants action from Health MEC on Umlazi Hospital
The “inhumane working conditions” at Prince Mshiyeni Memorial Hospital in Umlazi, Durban, need urgent intervention from Health MEC Nomagugu Simelane, the Public Servants Association...
Medical aid membership constant but 'unsustainable'
The number of medical scheme members has stayed nearly constant at 9m over the past decade, according to Sanlam Private Wealth (SPW), which says...
Mass exodus of vets from South Africa
Veterinarians are leaving South Africa en masse, the resulting critical shortage creating vacancies in clinics, especially in rural areas, and with those professionals remaining...
Groote Schuur heart museum under threat of closure
The outlook looks bleak for the Heart of Cape Town Museum, commemorating the first heart transplant 56 years ago by Dr Christiaan Barnard in...
Thousands of transgender US teens had double mastectomies
A Manhattan Institute report has revealed that “gender-affirming” mastectomies for patients under 18 are more common than thought, and that at least 50 of the...
Concern as ‘super-strength’ gonorrhoea gets more drug resistant
Gonorrhoea is becoming increasingly resistant to antibiotics, and could be untreatable in the future, health officials have warned as a report reveals a rise...
Indian court forms medical task force after doctor’s rape, murder
After the recent rape and murder of a female trainee doctor on hospital premises, the Indian Supreme Court (SC) has constituted a National Task Force...
Senior Eastern Cape Health official on drunk driving charges
The Eastern Cape Health Department’s deputy director-general (DDG) for HR and Corporate Services, Nwabisa Mavuso, was released on R1 000 bail last week after...
Health DG probed after R500 000 bribery allegations
Allegations that Dr Sandile Buthelezi, director-general of the National Department of Health, used health employees, contractors and companies to solicit and conceal a R500...
How the provinces stack up in state oncology treatment
Depending upon where you live, the wait for cancer treatment at a public facility can be more of a death sentence than the disease...
Department blames pharmacies for delay in Covid vaccines payment
The National Department of Health (NDoH) has blamed non-compliance, poor data capturing and other reasons for 28 pharmacies not being paid for vaccines that...
Eastern Cape to ‘repurpose’ 19 state hospitals
The flailing Eastern Cape Department of Health will “repurpose” 19 small hospitals – those with fewer than 50 beds – in efforts to save...
Tribunal rules R257m PPE contract invalid
A massive R257m personal protective equipment (PPE) contract awarded by Gauteng Health to Nkhane Projects and Supply has been declared invalid by the Special...
Liberty Health to close doors
Liberty Holdings, wholly owned by the Standard Bank Group, has confirmed its health business is shutting up shop after running at a loss for...
Parliament revives tobacco Bill
The Control of Tobacco Products and Electronic Delivery Systems Bill, first introduced in the National Assembly in 2022, has been dusted off by Parliament...
MDMA therapy rejected by FDA
The US Food & Drug Administration has refused approval for mind-altering MDMA-assisted therapy, recommending instead that American drugmaker Lykos Therapeutics carry out further studies on...
NHS rolls out osteoporosis drug for menopausal women
A new drug that helps prevent bone fractures in women – and increases bone density by stimulating the cells that make new bones –...
Women-led hospital team beats blaze
Staff at a private hospital in Kroonstad, who have been praised for taking the lead in fighting an encroaching veld fire that was heading...
US rolls out flu jab to combat bird flu risk
A major flu vaccine campaign is being launched for US farm workers as concerns mount over the spreading bird flu virus in the agricultural sector, with...
Global call for more pathogen research to prepare for next pandemic
The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) and the World Health Organisation (WHO) have urged scientists and political leaders to bolster global research to...
Musk’s second patient gets brain implant chip
Just six months after the first implant, Elon Musk’s Neuralink has successfully implanted a chip into a second paralysed patient’s brain, the procedure having...
Gaza to get 1.2m polio jabs amid outbreak fears
The World Health Organisation (WHO) is planning to send 1.2m polio vaccines to Gaza within the next fortnight after the virus was detected in...
US study flags high vitamin D deficiency rates
Nearly a quarter of the US population is estimated to have a deficiency in vitamin D, particularly black women aged 20 to 29, according to data...