HomeNews Update
News Update
SA putting plans in place to cope with more pandemics, says Phaahla
Health Minister Dr Joe Phaahla has, in reply to a parliamentary question, given the assurance that SA is initiating measures to protect the country...
DA calls for asbestos issues at Gauteng hospitals to be addressed
Eight hospital and six clinics in Gauteng – including Chris Hani Baragwanath and Tambo Memorial Hospital – have asbestos exposure issues, with which the...
Netcare CEO to retire next year
Long-serving Netcare CEO Richard Friedland will take early retirement from the end of September 2024, South Africa’s biggest network of private hospitals announced last...
Police use social media to bust kidney-selling ring
Police in Jakarta are investigating the illegal trade of human organs, involving police and immigration officers who were accused of helping traffickers send 122...
Task team to resolve Hillbrow mortuary backlog
With bodies piling up at Hillbrow mortuary, and hundreds of desperate families waiting weeks to claim and bury their loved ones’ bodies, Gauteng Health...
Bara’s surgery backlog spirals after flood damage unfixed
Burst pipes and extensive water damage after flooding at Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital a week ago have led to the scrapping of elective surgery...
HJI goes to court to access vaccine supply records
Judgment was reserved this week in the Gauteng High Court case in which the Health Justice Initiative (HJI) had asked for an order instructing...
UK reviews weight-loss drugs after 'suicidal thoughts'
Britain is reviewing a class of drugs used in a diabetes medicine and a weight-loss treatment sold by Novo Nordisk (NOVOb.CO) after some patients...
Imported cholera case identified in Durban
A third positive imported cholera case has been identified in Durban, according to Health Minister Dr Joe Phaahla, who said the 24-year-old patient had...
Paramedics hijacked, robbed in Pretoria
Two paramedics are receiving counselling after being hijacked, assaulted and robbed while responding to an apparent distress call in Pretoria.
The assailants used their bank...
Thousands of Gauteng patients catch hospital infections
Hospital infections, mostly due to poor infection control measures, affected nearly 8 000 Gauteng patients last year, most of them at Chris Hani Baragwanath,...
Lack of supplies and care for desperate SA stoma patients
The ongoing shortage of colostomy pouches in the public health system, where some desperate patients resort to plastic bags glued and taped to their...
North West struggles with medicines shortage
A chronic shortage of medication has been ongoing for months in North West public health facilities, according to the recently released third edition of...
Lack of ICU beds in Gauteng puts newborns at risk
A shortage of nearly 100 neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) beds in Gauteng hospitals is risking babies’ lives, especially premature and sickly infants.
The worst...
Digital Vibes graft accused closes testimony without calling witnesses
Digital Vibes corruption accused Lizeka Tonjeni is sticking to her story that part of the R160 000 deposited into her account was payment for...
Surging malnutrition data under-reported, say experts
An extra 6 000 children a year have gone hungry since Covid-19 and food price increases, but experts say reported figures are probably grossly...
Looming UK ban on over-the-counter codeine syrups
Britain’s medicines safety regulator has invited public comment on ending over-the-counter sales of codeine-based cough syrup, which is increasingly being used recreationally for its...
Cameroon children's deaths linked to toxic cough syrup
A batch of cough/cold syrup sold in Cameroon – under the brand name Naturcold – containing extremely high levels of a toxic ingredient, has...
Africa battles triple burden of malaria/cholera/measles
South Africa is not the only country struggling with an escalation in malaria cases: the same is happening in Zimbabwe, Mozambique and parts of...
Six-month reprieve for unused Pfizer jabs
Another six-month extension has been given to the shelf life of the country’s unused Pfizer Covid-19 vaccines by the South African Heath Products Regulatory...
First rise in Covid cases in six months, warn WHO, CDC
The US Centres for Disease Control & Prevention has said Covid-19 indicators in the country are rising, with emergency department visits, test positivity rates...
Ban disposable vapes by 2024, urges UK council
Councils in England and Wales want the British Government to ban the sale of single use vapes by 2024, with the Local Government Association...
Latest TikTok trend alarms health experts
The latest health-endangering fad on viral social media platform TikTok recommends adding household cleaner borax to bath water, which experts say could cause stomach...
J&J patent deal allows for cheaper generic TB drugs, but SA may lose out
Johnson & Johnson has struck a deal to allow generic versions of its TB drug to be supplied to low-income countries – but critics...
Nearly 5m South Africans placed on new HIV medicines in four years
In what is possibly one of the largest treatment roll-outs in South African history, more than 4m people with HIV have started taking the...
Free State infant malnutrition and deaths from starvation on the rise
Free State infants are still dying from a lack of healthy food, with 21 having died from severe acute malnutrition (SAM) between April and...
South Africa lags behind in genetic testing
SA is about two decades behind other countries in using genetic tests to optimise health care, say experts, who attribute this partly to medical...
Hospital staff who refused to be reallocated get R67m for doing nothing
Despite the closure of an Eastern Cape TB hospital two years ago, 45 of its staff have continued to be paid a total of...
Mpumalanga interns told to find and pay for their own digs
Medical interns allocated to facilities in Mpumalanga have alleged their hospital accommodation has been given to Cuban-trained doctors and doctors from other African countries,...
SA's lack of budget for future pandemics a concern, experts say
The head of the secretariat of the African Union Commission on Covid-19 has described as concerning the fact that South Africa has absolutely no...
European agency probes weight loss drugs’ link to suicidal thoughts
The European Medicines Agency is investigating various weight loss and diabetes drugs after it was reported that some patients had experienced thoughts of suicide...
Approval sought for two paediatric antibiotics for MDR infections
US pharmaceutical company Melinta Therapeutics is to receive funding from the government’s Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) to advance two antibiotics targeting...
Semenya wins appeal at European Human Rights Court
The European Court of Human Rights has ruled in favour of double 800m Olympic champion Caster Semenya in a case related to testosterone levels...
SA men queue for Botox, fillers
An increasing number of people – worldwide – are looking for short and long-term treatments in their quest for beauty, including in South Africa,...
HRC to probe death of patient ‘abandoned’ by paramedics
Two suspended KZN paramedics who apparently refused to walk down steps to reach a patient in distress, and who drove off after the family...
Fed-up Chatsworth hospital staff protest over conditions
Staff downed tools at RK Khan Hospital in Chatsworth, Durban, last week as nurses, admin and general workers protested for an hour over poor...
Fingerprint system to clear backlog of unclaimed bodies
The identification of unknown bodies piling up in mortuaries across the country is expected to be expedited after the launch last week of a...
WHO alert to severe E-11 infections in newborns
There has been a global rise in enterovirus-echovirus 11 (E-11) neonatal sepsis cases, with another five countries reporting infections similar to those first reported...
First over-the-counter birth control pill approved in US
The US Government has approved the first over-the-counter birth control pill, which will be available without a script to women of all ages, probably...
Call for inquiry into ‘systemic healthcare xenophobia’ against migrants in SA
Despite the Gauteng High Court having given all pregnant and breastfeeding mothers, and children under six, regardless of nationality or documentation, the rights to...