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News Update
Crisp: Vaccine apathy means SA may have to destroy COVID-19 doses
South Africa is scaling back its COVID-19 vaccination drive and may have to destroy doses because of a lack of demand from citizens as...
New dashboard lets public track COVID levels in local sewerage systems
South Africa’s COVID-19 positivity rate, the percentage of tests that indicate confirmed coronavirus infections, rose by 5% between Monday and Tuesday to 23%, and...
Groote Schuur is first hospital in SA to perform corneal neurotisation
Groote Schuur Hospital last week became the first South African institute to perform the complex ophthalmological procedure corneal neurotisation, reports TimesLIVE.
After suffering a stroke...
Dirco loses appeal bid over Cuban donation interdict
The SA government has lost a bid to appeal a ruling granting AfriForum permission to interdict it from donating R50m to Cuba. The Gauteng...
Police officer and two patients dead after Cape Town hospital shooting
The gunman involved in a fatal shooting in New Somerset Hospital in Cape Town last Saturday (7 May) is a former police officer, who...
Charlotte Maxeke casualty unit reopens but for arranged transfers only
After a prolonged closure, the casualty unit at Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital has finally reopened, but the hospital’s critical trauma and emergency unit...
Racial split on perceptions of COVID-19 risk as most US restrictions fall away
Black and Hispanic Americans are more concerned about the risks of catching COVID-19 than their white counterparts, with a much higher percentage of them...
Africa’s first vaccine plant faces closure after Aspen receives no orders
Africa’s first COVID-19 vaccination plant, established by South African pharmaceutical manufacturer Aspen at Gqeberha, may close because it hasn’t received a single order, despite...
SA tap water quality is declining, with DoWS warnings to boil drinking water
The government’s latest Blue Drop report reveals an alarming decline in water quality and management processes, with 23% of municipalities ranked at critical risk...
India pre-empts WHO: Claims ‘only’ 475,000 excess deaths in 2020
India registered about 475,000 more total deaths in 2020 than the previous year, government data released months ahead of schedule on Tuesday showed, as...
US paediatricians’ association to bin outdated race-based guidelines
Outdated, racist and flawed guidelines are to be binned by the American Academy of Paediatrics (AAP), which has followed, for years, flawed guidance linking...
40% of US adults know someone who died of COVID
With the USA poised to reach the milestone this month of 1m official deaths from the COVID-19 pandemic, 40% of American adults say they...
Crisp: Unjabbed will ‘bear the brunt’, as infections rise and vaccinations stall
Health Department Deputy Director-General Nicholas Crisp has criticised those who refuse to get their jabs, saying the “unvaccinated will bear the brunt” of the...
BLSA: Vigilance needed over State’s use of new COVID-19 powers
Business Leadership SA (BLSA) CEO Busi Mavuso says the organisation intends being vigilant in ensuring that the state’s new COVID-19 powers are used appropriately,...
NICD statistics: COVID cases rise as two Omicron sub-lineages spread across SA
Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal are being hit hard by escalating COVID infections at the moment, while another five provinces are also seeing a rise in...
Phaahla: Welcome Back strategy to reinstate abandoned HIV treatments
Health Minister Dr Joe Phaahla says there are standard operating procedures in all nine provinces to compel patients who abandoned their anti-retroviral treatment (ART)...
WHO concern over global outbreak of acute paediatric hepatitis
A World Health Organization (WHO) global alert has been issued after a mystery strain of severe hepatitis , which has been reported in 169...
Guns now beat cars as the leading cause of death for American youth
For the first time, firearm-related injuries surpassed motor vehicle crashes as the leading cause of death for children and teenagers in the US in...
Tests and wastewater analyses signal a possible 5th wave in SA
A rise in test positivity rates and the presence of the SARS-CoV-2 virus in the country’s wastewater are sounding the alarm for the arrival...
Vaccine hesitancy among South Africans is becoming entrenched – UCT
A COVID-19 Vaccine Survey (CVACS 2) by the Southern Africa Labour and Development Research Unit (SALDRU) at the University of Cape Town (UCT), led...
Workers want E Cape Health placed under administration
Health workers in Gqeberha have vowed to continue with the shutdown of clinics in Motherwell that started last Tuesday (19 April), in attempts to...
ANC warns of imminent collapse of Western Cape healthcare system
While the Western Cape has a reputation for the most efficient healthcare system in the country, the ANC’s shadow MEC of Health Rachel Windvogel...
DoH: R200m to repair KZN healthcare facilities and Charlotte Maxeke repairs expedited
The national Department of Health estimates the repair of flood-damaged healthcare facilities in KwaZulu-Natal to cost about R200m, according to head of health facilities...
UK midwives angered by trans terminology replacing anatomical terms
Maternity staff in Sussex hospitals, England, have described new terminology rules as “ridiculous” but are too scared to speak out.
The guidance issued by the...
DA concern over ‘lack of leadership’ in Gauteng Health
The DA has expressed its concern about the lack of effective leadership in the Gauteng Department of Health as COVID-19 cases shoot up in...
KZN floods: 318 autopsies, 80 healthcare facilities damaged, fears of disease
More than 80 healthcare facilities in KwaZulu-Natal have been damaged by the floods that ripped through the province last week, leaving 440 people dead...
AngloGold Ashanti field hospital: R499m upgrade to treat 147 patients
Despite its R499m upgrade by Gauteng Health, the AngloGold Ashanti COVID field hospital on the West Rand (Carletonville) has been closed and is being...
Global ventilator safety alert from Philips after one patient dies, four injured
A global safety alert has been issued by Dutch company Philips Respironics that some of its ventilators could suddenly stop working, in some cases...
UK medicines’ regulator investigates unsafe epilepsy drug being given to pregnant women
The UK’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency is investigating cases where an epilepsy drug that can cause birth defects is still being given...
Parliament’s Ethics Committee lets Zweli Mkhize off the SIU hook
Parliament’s Joint Committee on Ethics and Members’ Interests on Tuesday (13 April) has controversially cleared former Health Minister Zweli Mkhize of benefitting from the...
SAMA averts liquidation by its union over R307m
The SA Medical Association (SAMA) has averted a liquidation application as the Gauteng High Court (Pretoria) by its union subsidiary, SAMATU, in a dispute over the repayment of R307m...
MPS welcomes ‘essential’ incident and complaint guidance from DoH
Medical Protection Society (MPS) has welcomed the publication of two pieces of “essential guidance” from the Department of Health, providing healthcare professionals with timely...
England’s GPs fed up – 33% may quit within five years, survey finds
Long hours, increased workloads and difficult patients are some of the reasons why a third of England’s GPs want to hang up their stethoscopes...
Crisp: We’re not going to backtrack on implementation of NHI
The Health Department says it won’t back down from implementing the proposed National Health Insurance (NHI), which it expects to go through Parliament by...
Church group to defy vaccination regulations over Easter weekend
Members of the International Federation of Christian Churches will not adhere to the required proof of vaccination regulations over the Easter weekend.
EWN reports that...
‘Tembisa 10’ story axed from international media awards’ shortlist
Independent Media’s Baby Trade docuseries has been axed as a finalist for a global journalism award. News24 reports that the decision by the International...
Insurers record R2bn increase in claims from COVID-19 deaths
Deaths, loss of income and retrenchment saw SA banks paying out billions in life insurance and death-related claims in 2021 as a result of...
National Health Act replaces SOD but ‘heavy hand’ remains, say critics
All regulations and directions made in terms of SA’s Disaster Management Act after the declaration of the State of Disaster in response to COVID-19...
Viral video leads to investigations at Rahima Moosa Hospital
An investigation has been launched after a video surfaced of pregnant women sleeping on the cold floor at Rahima Moosa Mother and Child Hospital...
Final report on UK maternity scandal that led to 100s of brain-damaged or stillborn babies
Being forced to give birth “naturally” in efforts to suppress Caesarean rates, delays in admitting women to labour wards, repeated failures to adequately monitor...