HomeNews Update
News Update
Infant RSV drug gets green light from FDA panel
AstraZeneca and Sanofi’s drug to prevent respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) has been given approval by a US regulatory panel, for use in infants, potentially...
More than 120 unregistered doctors arrested in ongoing blitz
An ongoing crackdown by the Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA) has led to the arrests of 124 unregistered doctors by the SAPS,...
New 3D mobile mammograms for Gauteng
A state-of-the-art R3.8m 3D mammogram machine, housed in a distinctive, bright pink truck, in Gauteng, will make it easier to spot minor abnormalities that...
SA scientists collaborate to tackle water crisis
Multiple health and environmental emergencies are being predicted by South Africa’s Scientific Advisory Group on Emergencies (Sage), which warns that the cholera deaths in...
US cancer drug shortages lead to rationed treatment
America is suffering through one of the most severe shortages of chemotherapy drugs it has seen for three decades, with as many as 100...
No respite as SA’s snake antivenom shortage continues
South African snake experts and others say the country’s shortage of snake antivenom has been a major health risk since the end of last...
Penicillin shortage affects children’s antibiotics, warns Pfizer
A spike in adult syphilis cases has led to an announcement from Pfizer that medication to treat this disease – and other infections –...
Carcinogenc byproduct and E-coli in NM Bay water
In samples of Nelson Mandela Bay municipality’s tap water taken in April, high levels of a cancer-causing chemical byproduct were detected at dozens of...
Ex-wife of murdered Eastern Cape GP in court for his murder
The ex-wife of a respected Nelson Mandela Bay GP, Dr Bantu Noqekwa, was arrested and appeared in a Gqeberha court last week charged with...
Doctors slam Nigeria’s five-year-community-service Bill
Nigeria’s plan to reverse the country’s brain drain and retain doctors by making it mandatory for all medical graduates to work in understaffed government...
J&J baby powder banned in Zimbabwe
UPDATED Zimbabwe has imposed an immediate ban on the importation of Johnson & Johnson (J&J) Baby Powder, citing research by the American Academy of...
New rules for Australian telehealth scripts
Australian medical authorities have instituted measures designed to prevent online medical clinics from prescribing drugs to patients without ever having seen them or spoken...
SIU to probe Rahima Moosa after ombud’s report
The Special Investigating Unit (SIU) has been asked by the Gauteng Premier’s Office to investigate Rahima Moosa Mother and Child Hospital in relation to...
More than 700 newborns died at Tembisa Hospital since 2020
The Gauteng Health Department has reported that 788 newborns died at Tembisa Hospital due to infections, immaturity-related complications, hypoxia and congenital anomalies since 2020.
Gauteng...
Limpopo Health MEC loses bid to stop HPCSA inquiry
Limpopo MEC for Health Dr Phophi Ramathuba has failed to put a stop to an inquiry by the Health Professions Council of South Africa...
NHI ‘will lead to emigration, corruption’
Business and professional healthcare groups have added their voices to the chorus of opposition to the National Health Insurance (NHI) Bill, which was rubber-stamped...
Hospital managers moved and neonatal ward upgraded after babies-in-box scandal
Five managers from Mahikeng Hospital have been transferred on a “precautionary basis” after it was revealed that babies at the institution were sleeping in...
Water crisis poses massive infection risk at Helen Joseph Hospital
A dramatic drop in water pressure and a shortage is having serious repercussions at Helen Joseph Hospital (HJH) in Johannesburg, affecting critical areas like...
Stolen IDs of pool cleaner and security guard linked to Tembisa tenders
The identities of two Limpopo women, one a municipal worker and the other an unemployed security guard, were used in a scheme to wangle...
Source of cholera outbreak still unclear: Phaahla
Although the direct source of the Hammanskraal cholera outbreak is still to be determined, the search is being widened to check if transmission were...
Nurses demand bribes before babies can be taken home, foreign mothers say
Nurses at Tambo Memorial Hospital in Johannesburg are allegedly demanding money from pregnant foreign nationals in exchange for access to birthing facilities and assistance,...
Despite state of facilities, R3bn underspent by Gauteng Health
The Gauteng Health Department has underspent R2.7bn of its budget in the 2022/2023 financial year, mostly in the infrastructure budget despite the “decrepit state...
Class action threat after cholera deaths
The government is facing a possible class action lawsuit for negligence relating to the cholera outbreak from contaminated water in Hammanskraal, and which has...
Hepatitis C medicine prices to be slashed
The price of hepatitis C medication will be drastically reduced shortly, says the national Health Department, as the drugs are added to the essential...
Biovac urges investment in African vaccine-makers
Government-backed Biovac has said that investment in local products was critical, and paying a premium to emerging African vaccine manufacturers for their products would...
Ambulance shortage places Eastern Cape patients' lives at risk
Eastern Cape paramedics have accused the provincial Health Department of being responsible for the preventable deaths of critically ill residents by failing to provide...
NICD issues flu warning
The National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) has warned that pregnant women and people with HIV and chronic conditions are at high risk of severe...
Lung specialists and sniffer dogs to help schools fight vaping problem
The extraordinarily high rate of vaping in South Africa’s top private and former Model C schools has led to sniffer dogs being brought in...
Call for more awareness of depression in cancer patients
There needs to be greater awareness of patients with mental health issues, particularly among cancer patients, says the SA Society of Psychiatrists, warning that...
Call for former Premier and MEC to be held accountable for Esidimeni tragedy
Former Premier David Makhura, former Gauteng Finance MEC Barbara Creecy and former Gauteng Health MEC Qedani Mahlangu, all at the centre of the tragedy...
Unclaimed bodies pile up in SA state mortuaries
Nearly 20 forensic pathology mortuaries countrywide are running out of space because of unclaimed bodies, according to Health Minister Dr Joe Phaahla, in response...
Stellenbosch Hospital forges ahead with upgrades
The 86-bed Stellenbosch Hospital has been given a new lease on life after the Acute Psychiatric Unit (APU) was officially opened last week, one...
Toxic porridge kills 15 members of Namibian family
A total of 15 people from a family of 21 in Kavango, rural Namibia, have died after eating toxic porridge in one of the...
Reducing medico-legal claims to be included in Gauteng hospital CEOs contracts
Gauteng Health is to implement several reforms in a bid to slash the province's medico-legal claims, including holding hospital CEOs accountable.
This was said by MEC...
HPCSA and SAPS crackdown on bogus medics
More arrests have been made in the nationwide crackdown on healthcare practitioners operating illegally, with the latest case reported in the Northern Cape town of...
Field hospitals set up as cholera cases spread and deaths climb
In efforts to manage the spread of cholera in the township of Hammanskraal, north of Pretoria, Gauteng Health has set up field hospitals –...
Cancer statistics in SA skewed by incomplete data, under-reporting
The World Health Organisation said in February that about 1.1m new cancer cases are being reported in Africa annually, with about 700 000 deaths,...
Mahikeng Hospital gets 18 incubators after box saga
Mahikeng Hospital has received 18 incubators after images surfaced on social media showing newborn babies in the neonatal ward sleeping in cardboard boxes instead...
Bara oral hygienist shot and killed
A 53-year-old woman shot dead inside her vehicle outside Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital on Tuesday was later identified as the chief oral hygienist,...
Tembisa Hospital tender prices were upped by 2 000%
Investigations into the rampant corruption at Tembisa Hospital through fake and forged documentation have uncovered further intricate networks through which companies inked to extraction...