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News Update
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...
Job fears as staff, corporate ‘overhaul’ planned for Dis-Chem
A major restructuring plan is on the cards for pharmacy giant Dis-Chem, which employees fear may put several hundred jobs – from its 22...
Police boss suspended over controversial health tender
South African police chief General Fannie Masemola, who has denied any role in the controversial R360m health tender awarded to Vusi “Cat” Matlala’s company...
Dental council opposes legal action over students' accreditation
The impasse between dental technology students countrywide and the South African Dental Technicians Council (SADTC) looks unlikely to be resolved any time soon, with the regulator’s...
Court denies Health spokesman’s bid to dismiss fraud charges
The East London Specialised Commercial Crimes Court has rejected a bid by the defence to drop charges of fraud and corruption against Eastern Cape...
Court upholds dismissal of Health Department official
The firing of a Western Cape Department of Health employee for – among other things, disrespectful behaviour – was fair and reasonable, ruled the...
ConCourt should shape legal position on right to die – DignitySA
DignitySA, which is campaigning for the decriminalisation of assisted dying – and which has raised R4.6m of its R7m target so far – believes...
Novel HIV combo pill gets FDA nod
Merck has received FDA approval for its Idvynso, a combination regimen that brings its novel islatravir to market for the first time, offering an alternative...
Mystery illness in Burundi kills five
At least five people have died in Burundi, and another three dozen become ill from unexplained causes, reports CIDRAP News.
The case-fatality rate of 14%...
Lifetime smoking ban for under-18s in UK
Lawmakers in Britain have approved new and stricter smoking legislation so that children who are 17 or younger – and anyone born in the...
CDC blocks report showing Covid jabs cut hospital visits
A report showing the efficacy of the Covid-19 vaccine and previously delayed by the head of the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention...
The down side of cheap sex pills
Seeking a quick boost to enhance sexual performance is not that uncommon, but experts warn that cheap unapproved black market products, taken without medical...
Africa, Europe sign €100m in pacts to boost health systems
Three agreements have been signed between the African Union and the European Commission to reinforce and strengthen Africa’s health systems, reports Health Policy Watch.
The...
Illegal pharmacy shut down in Eastern Cape
An Eastern Cape woman woman (54) has been arrested and is facing multiple charges, including possession of scheduled substances and practising without proper registration,...
Doctor arrested over unlicensed gun
A 40-year-old medical doctor was to appear in an East London court this week after being arrested on Friday at King Phalo Airport for...
UK Biobank members’ hacked data for sale on Chinese site
DNA and other confidential health data from half a million people who volunteered for a massive British health study were offered for sale online...
Alarm over drop in Gauteng’s childhood vaccination rate
More and more children are skipping their childhood immunisations, with the Gauteng Department of Health warning that the declining rates are reducing protection against preventable diseases,...
Nigerian doctors demand justice after attacks
The Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) has demanded justice for a doctor and a nurse who were assaulted at the Kwara State University...
US cuts threaten SA’s LEN rollout – global report
The global Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) has warned that South Africa’s planned rollout of HIV prevention shot lenacapavir (LEN) is being jeopardised by...
SA teen’s leg saved in pioneering surgery with liquid nitrogen
In a South African first, a Centurion surgeon has performed a hip and limb salvage procedure using a liquid nitrogen dipping technique, saving the...
Six dead, 70 in hospital after funeral feast
Six Limpopo mourners have died and dozens more fell seriously ill after eating food served at a funeral in Mmotong-wa-Bogobe village outside Polokwane last...
Unsafe school water concerns after tests indicate E.coli
Experts have advised a number of local schools to immediately stop drinking from water tanks after testing at 72 of them found 20 samples...
Malaria outbreak alarms Gauteng officials
The Gauteng Department of Health has recorded 414 confirmed malaria cases and 11 deaths in the first three months of 2026, the fatalities overtaking...
Probe into Cape clinic staff accused of selling patient info
Cape Town police are investigating reports that some clinic staff are apparently selling patient folders to people wanting to fraudulently qualify for Sassa grants,...
Civil society unites to demand action on national diabetes crisis
Enough is enough, say 24 South African civil society organisations that have united to demand urgent, co-ordinated action on a disease that is now...
Court orders payout for retrenched healthcare workers
Six employees who worked for the healthcare NPO organisation Right to Care will be paid out six months’ salary after the Johannesburg Labour Court...