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News Update
'Militant' union to appeal court's administration order
The Health and Allied Workers Indaba Trade Union (Haitu) has filed an application for leave to appeal the Labour Court’s order granting the Department...
First person diagnosed with autism dies in the US
The Mississippi man known as “Case 1”, the first person to be diagnosed with autism and who was known as a fiercely independent savant,...
US panel recommends regular anxiety tests for under-65s
As America confronts a massive mental health crisis, the US Preventive Services Task Force has recommended that everyone under 65 should be regularly screened...
UK offers free lung screening for ex-smokers in early detection drive
In efforts to increase earlier detection and treatment of lung cancer, NHS England is offering free lung screening for all middle-aged people who have...
Prepare for more pandemics in the future, experts warn
The world needs to prepare for more pandemics, global health experts warned this week, warning that Covid-19 may have subsided but it will return.
They...
900 Northern Cape teenagers pregnant every three months
The numbers of adolescents giving birth in the Northern Cape have rocketed, with the Education Department saying 900 pupils in the 10-19-year-old age group...
Extended shelf-life may not make dent in R3.9bn vaccine stockpile
South Africa is sitting with a massive stockpile of 21m Johnson & Johnson Covid doses and nearly 8m Pfizer dozes – worth a combined...
New deadline for comment on vape, smoking laws
The Portfolio Committee on Health has announced that public consultation on the new Tobacco Products and Electronic Delivery Systems Control Bill will now end...
Contraception shortage in Gauteng
South Africa has long been experiencing a stock-out of contraceptives, with Gauteng in particular being short of 29 000 long-acting contraceptive implants in the...
Rats and cockroaches infest Polokwane Hospital
An infestation of rodents and cockroaches has patients at Polokwane Provincial Hospital in Limpopo – and their families – worried about their exposure to hospital-acquired...
Patients, staff, traumatised after hospital robbery
Police will be patrolling Carolina Provincial Hospital in Mpumalanga every hour, especially on weekends, after a gang of armed men stormed into the casualty...
Health Department director charged with corruption in Digital Vibes case
Popo Maja, senior director of communications at the national Department of Health, appeared in court yesterday on corruption charges related to the more than...
Covid-19 vaccines worth nearly R4bn go to waste – Phaahla
More than 28m vaccine doses, valued at more than R3.8bn, are due to go to waste, according to Health Minister Joe Phaahla, who also...
TB fight set back more than a decade because of Covid
The Covid pandemic has set back the fight against TB by about 12 years and led to huge reversals in the decline of cases,...
Junior doctors still unplaced for community service
Hundreds of junior doctors in Gauteng have still not been given placements for their community service programme, which is due to start on 1...
22 000 nurses for 50m South Africans, and no money for more
South Africa has only 22 090 nurses to serve more than 50m people dependent on the public health sector, and of these, more than...
Outpatients sleep on floors for days at top Bloemfontein hospital
Pelonomi Hospital in Bloemfontein used to be one of the province’s foremost public health facilities, but it has slid into the same state as...
Toxicology reports backlog now more than 35 000
Health Minister Dr Joe Phaahla has blamed the country’s massive backlog of toxicology reports on old equipment, procurement delays and a shortage of skilled...
Failed nurses’ union placed under administration
The Young Nurses Indaba Trade Union (YNITU) is appealing a Labour Court judgment that ruled it should be placed under administration for mismanaging its...
Report uncovers discrimination by Mpumalanga clinic staff
The Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) has accused public healthcare workers in Mpumalanga of violating the rights of sex workers and LGBTQIA+ groups, after the...
Construction of Khayelitsha private hospital stymied by informal settlements
Plans to build the first private hospital in Khayelitsha township, Western Cape, face a setback after clashes over the proposed relocation of informal settlement...
Phaahla explains late payments by Health Departments
Despite legislation requiring Health Departments to pay service providers within 30 days, few do, with the Eastern Cape department, particularly, struggling to to meet...
More countries affected by toxic cough syrups
The World Health Organisation (WHO) is now working with six more countries – which it has not named – to track potentially deadly children’s...
Fraud, abuse and lazy brokers send SA health costs spiralling
Fraud, waste and abuse litter the South African healthcare sector landscape, with 11% of the Covid spend alone – R14.8bn of R138bn – being...
Forty UK children hospitalised for vaping disorders
Britain’s Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health has called for an outright ban on disposable vapes after findings that 40 children were hospitalised...
MEC lashes out at parents over 26 000 teen pregnancies in eight months
KwaZulu-Natal Health MEC Nomagugu Simelane has lashed out at parents who do not take responsibility for their children, urging them to become more involved...
South American woman declared dead for the second time
An Ecuadoran woman who had been declared dead and was then hospitalised after being found alive inside her coffin has been declared dead for...
Private hospitals change focus as belts tighten
South Africa’s private hospital groups are turning to auxiliary healthcare services to boost margins, with the stagnant economy and a decline in admissions forcing...
NHI will cover Health Market Inquiry recommendations – Crisp
The Health Department has defended its failure to implement the recommendations of the competition commission’s Health Market Inquiry (HMI), saying many of the issues...
Gauteng Health forms partnership to reduce NCDs
Gauteng Health MEC Nomantu Nkomo-Ralehoko has vowed to stop premature deaths caused by non-communicable diseases in the province, partnering with the World Health Organisation,...
FDA panel backs Alzheimer’s drug
A unanimous backing last Friday of Biogen's Alzheimer’s drug by the US health regulator’s advisers strengthened the case for a traditional approval with no...
Infant RSV drug gets green light from FDA panel
AstraZeneca and Sanofi’s drug to prevent respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) has been given approval by a US regulatory panel, for use in infants, potentially...
More than 120 unregistered doctors arrested in ongoing blitz
An ongoing crackdown by the Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA) has led to the arrests of 124 unregistered doctors by the SAPS,...
New 3D mobile mammograms for Gauteng
A state-of-the-art R3.8m 3D mammogram machine, housed in a distinctive, bright pink truck, in Gauteng, will make it easier to spot minor abnormalities that...
SA scientists collaborate to tackle water crisis
Multiple health and environmental emergencies are being predicted by South Africa’s Scientific Advisory Group on Emergencies (Sage), which warns that the cholera deaths in...
US cancer drug shortages lead to rationed treatment
America is suffering through one of the most severe shortages of chemotherapy drugs it has seen for three decades, with as many as 100...
No respite as SA’s snake antivenom shortage continues
South African snake experts and others say the country’s shortage of snake antivenom has been a major health risk since the end of last...
Penicillin shortage affects children’s antibiotics, warns Pfizer
A spike in adult syphilis cases has led to an announcement from Pfizer that medication to treat this disease – and other infections –...
Carcinogenc byproduct and E-coli in NM Bay water
In samples of Nelson Mandela Bay municipality’s tap water taken in April, high levels of a cancer-causing chemical byproduct were detected at dozens of...
Ex-wife of murdered Eastern Cape GP in court for his murder
The ex-wife of a respected Nelson Mandela Bay GP, Dr Bantu Noqekwa, was arrested and appeared in a Gqeberha court last week charged with...