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News Update
TAC calls for six-monthly ARV supply
The Treatment Action Campaign is urging national health clinics to supply HIV patients with ARV medication supplies for six months, instead of the current...
HSPCA petitioned over big tobacco sponsorship of medical education
The National Council Against Smoking (NCAS) has lodged an objection, with more than 50 signatories, with the Health Professions Council of SA (HPCSA) over...
Pfizer pauses study after boy’s death in Duchenne trial
A child has died in Pfizer’s phase 2 study of its gene therapy candidate for Duchenne muscular dystrophy, the rare genetic disorder that primarily...
FDA recall as faulty insulin app crashes
More than 200 people with diabetes were injured when their insulin pumps shut down unexpectedly after a problem with a connected mobile app, the...
Master plan to boost SA’s medtech sector
To grow SA’s prospects in the medical technology (medtech) sector, the Department of Trade, Industry & Competition (DTIC) has unveiled a master plan aimed...
Mpox case confirmed in Gauteng
Gauteng authorities have confirmed a case of mpox at Ahmed Kathrada Hospital in Lenasia after a 35-year-old local man tested positive for the disease,...
Time for euthanasia law reform, academic says
A KZN academic, who is among a growing number of professionals calling for euthanasia to be legalised, has proposed a legal framework which empowers...
UK inquiry hears of mothers' maternity trauma
A British parliamentary inquiry into birth trauma has called for a national plan to improve maternity care, declaring that good care is “the exception rather than the...
Theranos founder Holmes has more jail time cut
Imprisoned Silicon Valley CEO Elizabeth Holmes has shaved more months from her initial 11-year-plus sentence for wire fraud and conspiracy, and is due to be released two years...
Pharmacy ARV treatment will erode GPs’ income – HPCSA
The Health Professions Council of SA (HPCSA) has warned against pharmacists being allowed to prescribe HIV treatment, saying it could affect the income of...
Overtime cuts impact on hospital services
Cutting doctors’ overtime will have a significant impact on service delivery, particularly on weekends and holidays, with one physician saying this could see hospitals...
AstraZeneca withdraws Covid jab worldwide
London-based AstraZeneca has withdrawn its Covid jab worldwide, but says the discontinuation is unrelated to legal action related to serious side effects.
“As multiple, variant...
SA to import costly cystic fibrosis drug, but few can afford it
Although US drug manufacturer Vertex has reached an agreement with Equity Pharmaceuticals to import and distribute its cystic fibrosis treatment Trikafta in SA, the...
SAMA committee member’s hunting selfie backfires
A lay pastor and a member of the South African Medical Association Research & Ethics Committee, who bragged online about getting an erection after...
Jobless pharmacists demand jobs
Unemployed community service pharmacists staged a sit-in outside the Department of Health offices in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng last week, after the national and provincial...
DA loses court case against emergency Covid restrictions
The Department of Co-operative Governance & Traditional Affairs (Cogta) has welcomed the Supreme Court of Appeal’s dismissal of the DA’s appeal over the constitutional...
Health Department weather alert app warns pregnant women
Negative effects of climate change are predicted to intensify as the world continues to warm up, and in efforts to alert pregnant women –...
Chinese scientist who first leaked Covid sequence back in lab after lockout
The scientist who in 2020 published the first sequence of the virus that causes Covid-19 has been let back into his Shanghai lab after...
CMS hits back against BHF's abuse claims
The Council for Medical Schemes has denied abusing its power to place schemes under curatorship or wasting money on unnecessary litigation, and instead, has...
Medical schemes lose R28bn to fraud every year
Fraudsters looking for gaps in the healthcare system are contributing to the rising cost of services, but medical schemes are pushing back to reduce...
Clicks pharmacy dispute resolution imminent
The resolution of the restructure of the Clicks private-label medicine business with the Department of Health is imminent, the company has suggested, with analysts...
Breast cancer screenings from 40, advises US panel
Women are now advised to have a mammogram every second year from 40 until 74, according to new recommendations from the US Preventive Services...
Mpumalanga patient waits more than a year for MRI
A bedridden father’s struggle for an MRI scan appointment has highlighted the massive healthcare challenges in Mpumalanga, where none of the main hospitals has...
Fake, social media Covid post ‘misleading’
The Health Department has dismissed social media reports of a new Covid-19 variant and asked the public to ignore the misleading message, saying the...
Nestlé to end sugar addition in baby products from year-end
Nestlé will end the practice of adding sugar to its baby food products by the end of the year, it has announced, after an...
SA could eliminate malaria by 2028 – Health Department
Despite recording about 9 800 cases last year, South Africa is on course to “eliminate” malaria by 2028 as outlined in the National Malaria...
Eastern Cape nurses demand better security after fatal robbery
A brutal robbery at a rural clinic in which a security guard died in a hail of bullets has enraged nursing unions in the...
Eastern Cape health official back in court over fraud charges
Eastern Cape Health Department spokesperson Sizwe Kupelo, who is out on R30 000 bail after his arrest by the Hawks last week for fraud,...
HIV diagnosis after dodgy ‘vampire facials’
Three American women who were diagnosed with HIV after undergoing “vampire facials” at an unregistered New Mexico medical spa are believed to be the...
Worldwide measles cases almost double in a year
Measles cases nearly doubled globally between 2022 and 2023, researchers say, with 321 582 cases worldwide last year, an 88% increase from the previous...
California nurses protest ‘untested’ AI tools
Union nurses in the US are rallying against the use of artificial intelligence (AI) tools which they described as “untested” and “unregulated” during a...
No live bird flu virus in US milk – FDA
US regulators despite an outbreak of bird flu virus among dairy cows, no live virus had been detected in the first batch of retail...
US delays ban on menthol cigarettes
In a decision that has been widely criticised, the US Government has put on hold its plan to ban menthol cigarettes, a move that...
SAMA issues apology for editorial
The South African Medical Association (SAMA) has issued an apology for an opinion piece published in the SA Medical Journal by former editor Dr...
Concern as Health Department omits insulin pens from tender
Doctors have warned that some diabetes patients’ lives could be at risk because the National Department of Health failed to list life-saving premixed insulin...
FDA heart pump recall after link to deaths and injuries
A pair of heart devices linked to hundreds of injuries and at least 14 deaths has received the FDA’s most serious recall, the agency announced...
R2.4bn needed to fill 2 012 vacant posts – Phaahla
Health Minister Dr Joe Phaahla says there are 2 012 unfunded vacant posts of medical doctors countrywide – this does not include other categories...
Suspended Tembisa Hospital boss dies
Ashley Mthunzi, the suspended former CEO of Tembisa Hospital, where almost 800 babies have died in three years and which is referred to by...
First combined heart pump and pig kidney transplant
The first transplant surgery to combine a mechanical heart pump as well as a gene-edited pig kidney has been performed on an American woman.
Lisa...
Aspen ready to help shrink global shortage of weight-loss drugs
Aspen, Africa’s largest pharmaceutical company, could potentially help ease a growing shortage of the world’s hot-selling obesity medications, said CEO Stephen Saad recently, even...