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News Update
Biovac clinches R5.3bn state vaccine contract
The Biovac Institute has retained a critical three-year contract to supply South Africa with Hexaxim, the six-in-one shot provided to babies and toddlers in...
Netcare names its next CEO
Netcare has announced Melanie da Costa as its new CEO to replace incumbent Dr Richard Friedland, who retires at the end of the year...
Water crisis overwhelms Kalafong Hospital
Five days of no water supply at an Atteridgeville hospital took their toll on patients, staff and visitors last week, where not just the...
Zambia wants US health deal uncoupled from minerals access
The proposed critical minerals agreement contained in the Washington health deal with Zambia has been rejected by the African county, with its government clarifying...
Africa CDC launches group to guide genomics governance, innovation
The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), recently launched the African Strategic Advisory Group on Genomics (ASAG), which aims to independent...
Hackers target private Durban hospital
A private hospital in Durban reacted swiftly to a ransomware breach last month after hackers gained access to its computer systems and locked part...
Health data warning for SA employers
South African employers have been warned to tighten up their management of staff health and medical records, in the light of new Protection of...
Minister questions judges’ potential bias in NHI case
Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi is concerned that the judges’ stance in the NHI case might be influenced by them being “beneficiaries” of the same...
Ex-Health MEC in court on fraud, corruption charges
Former KwaZulu-Natal Health MEC Peggy Nkonyeni (64) appeared in the KwaZulu-Natal High Court (Pietermaritzburg) last week facing fraud and corruption charges linked to hospital...
Judge sets aside tender for untested circumcision device
The award of a tender for an unproven circumcision device used in 40 provincial health districts and the military has been deemed unlawful by...
MEC orders turnaround plan after Wentworth Hospital visit
While an unannounced late night visit to Durban’s Wentworth Hospital by KwaZulu-Natal Health MEC Nomagugu Simelane was welcomed by the nursing union, it was...
Call for action over high suicide rate among SA men
In South Africa, men comprise almost 80% of all recorded suicides in the country – the second leading cause of death for people between...
Unique Cape Town centre focuses on youngsters with kidney disease
Young people with kidney disease in South Africa often fall into the gap between the paediatric and adult healthcare systems, but an innovative clinic...
Three dozen senior doctors declare Trump mentally unfit to serve
More than 30 American psychiatrists and other doctors specialising in mental health have signed a statement declaring President Donald Trump mentally unfit to serve,...
GEMS slashes premiums after uproar
The Government Employees Medical Scheme (GEMS) has caved into pressure and announced a further reduction in its 2026 contribution increase, dropping the weighted average...
Successful birth of quadruplets for Mpumalanga mother
Experts say the chances of conceiving quadruplets are extremely low, so the birth of four babies to an Mpumalanga mother last month was a...
Lifelong effects for toddler poisoned by gold cake dust
Doctors have told the parents of an Australian toddler placed in a week-long induced coma after accidentally inhaling a toxic cake decorating product that...
Life Healthcare patient numbers slip
Declining patient numbers at Life Healthcare saw the company’s share price drop by double digits last week, with the change being linked to the...
Integrated Health Hub launched by Dis-Chem
As part of a broader strategy to boost what it’s described as an integrated healthcare ecosystem, and to slash costs and improved care access,...
Global Fund to cut SA’s grant by 25% in two years – in eight years it will be gone
South Africa has less than eight years before one of the most important sources of funding for its HIV and TB programmes falls away,...
Hantavirus outbreak on cruise ship sparks alarm
The South African Health Department has said there is no need for the public to panic after three passengers died from the rodent-borne hantavirus...
SA experts baffled by drop in teen pregnancies
Contrary to the norm, the most recent statistics show that teenage pregnancies in the country are reversing their usual trend and actually dropping, leaving...
Bodybuilder doctor accused of beating another wife
A Pietermaritzburg-born doctor and professional bodybuilder appeared in a Polokwane court this week on charges of assaulting his second wife – after being convicted...
Military pensioners’ medical fund urgently needs lCU, says DA
The DA has called for intervention in the SA Military Health Service Regular Force Medical Continuation Fund (SAMHS) which faces imminent collapse, threatening the...
SAHPRA call on phenylephrine in decongestants not related to quality
SAHPRA has clarified last week’s notification on phenylephrine contained in oral cold and flu treatments in which it asked for consumer input, saying its...
UCT launches pioneering Liver Centre
The launch of a ground-breaking, multi-disciplinary liver centre, pioneered by clinicians at the University of Cape Town, represents a new dawn for patients suffering...
Ambulance crisis worsens TB burden in rural Eastern Cape – report
The scarcity of ambulances in rural areas continues to compromise patient care, particularly those with TB, reports IOL, with the Rural Health Advocacy Project...
Probe into Uitenhage Hospital stockouts
An investigation has been launched into major stock shortages at Uitenhage Hospital, with questions being asked about why the problem was not flagged earlier,...
Red Cross Children’s Hospital celebrates 70 years
The first and only stand-alone tertiary hospital in sub-Saharan Africa dedicated entirely to child healthcare, the Red Cross War Memorial Children’s Hospital in Cape...
Apology after women filmed carrying water buckets in wards
A video of mothers lugging buckets of water through an Eastern Cape Hospital ward has prompted an apology from the Department of Health after...
Toothpaste brand nailed over advertising claim
Popular toothpaste Sensodyne is no longer allowed to claim it is the “No. 1 dentist-recommended toothpaste”, unless it has a prominent qualifier – this...
New military hospital misses opening date
The tentative August 2025 opening date for the fourth SA Military Health Service (SAMHS) hospital in Gqeberha has come and gone, and although the...
Kennedy stalls $600m in jabs for poor countries
US Health & Human Sciences Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr’s push to remake the US vaccination schedule is on hold after a federal judge’s...
Ghana says no to US health deal
Late last year Zimbabwe rejected the United States’ “trade for aid” terms for a health assistance deal, and now Ghana has done the same,...
Questions after hospital discharges pain-wracked child with Panado
The KZN Department of Health has responded to a Durban mother who questioned why her daughter was discharged from Wentworth Hospital’s emergency unit with...
Action urged for sickle cell disease in Nigeria, across Africa
The growing burden of sickle cell disease in Nigeria – and across sub-Saharan Africa – has prompted calls by health professionals and researchers for...
CDC flags rise in drug-resistant Shigella
Extensively drug-resistant Shigella – the mostly sexually-transmitted bacterium that causes infectious diarrhoea – is on the rise in the United States, reports Healio.
The latest...
Anti-depressant recall in UK after wrong meds in pack
A British pharmaceutical company had recalled more than 80 000 packs of a commonly used antidepressant after a patient discovered the wrong medicine inside...
SA surgeon performs Africa’s first lymphatic bypass for Alzheimer’s
A Pretoria surgeon who this month carried out the continent’s first experimental lymphovenous bypass on an Alzheimer’s patient said there had been early signs...
SAHPRA calls for public input on flu medicines
The SA Health Products Regulatory Authority (SAHPRA) has asked consumers to report any adverse events from cold and flu products containing phenylephrine as it...