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News Update
Covid DIY home tests available off the shelf in SA soon
South Africans will finally be able to buy Covid self tests off the shelves – at the end of April – after the South...
Vaccine candidates offer hope for African Marburg spread
Africa’s slow but steady spread of Marburg, the Ebola-like virus that can kill as many as 90% of the people it infects, could be...
Dying UK scientist’s breakthrough with new class of antibiotics
Britain’s Kirsty Smitten (28), has achieved something that hasn't been done for nearly 40 years: created a new class of antibiotics, leading the fight...
Post-menopause testosterone patch in the pipeline
British researchers are developing the world’s only testosterone patch aimed at easing symptoms in post-menopausal women, a follow-on from the testosterone gel clinicians are already prescribing...
Phaahla asks for more funding for hospital generators, power supplies
Out of more than 200 hospitals in South Africa, just 76 are exempted from Eskom’s power cuts, with Health Minister Joe Phaahla asking Treasury...
Gauteng gets more than 200 new ambulances
The chronic shortage of emergency vehicles in Gauteng will be bolstered shortly when the province receives 255 new ambulances, to be distributed across all...
Gift of the Givers to negotiate kidnapped paramedic's release
A Gift of the Givers hostage negotiator is in Mali hoping to secure the release of Swellendam paramedic Gerco van Deventer, who has been...
MEC to face inquiry after rejecting xenophobic rant sanction
Civil society groups and activists are calling for controversial Limpopo Health MEC Phophi Ramathuba to be deregistered if found guilty at an inquiry in...
Generics green-light for new HIV drug, but Africa peeved
British pharmaceutical company GSK has signed deals with three companies allowing them to make inexpensive generic versions of its long-acting HIV preventive medicine for use...
TB drug costs to drop after J&J loses patent extension bid
People with drug-resistant TB could soon have access to critical medication at a far lower cost after Johnson & Johnson’s application to extend a...
Cable theft rife at state hospitals because of security failures
Gauteng Health spends R59m a month on rolling contracts to hospital security providers, writes Thabo Molelekwa in Spotlight, yet spokesperson Motaletale Modiba said the...
Medical aid schemes shrink, but member numbers grow
Although the number of registered medical schemes continued to decrease over the past year, the number of principal members had increased by the end...
More time for MPs to discuss NHI Bill
The FF Plus has persuaded Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Health to grant opposition parties more time to obtain their own legal opinions on the...
State working to end hospital blackouts – Ramaphosa
The government is working on exempting hospitals and other critical infrastructure from Eskom’s blackouts, President Cyril Ramaphosa has told the National Council of Provinces,...
Snakebite anti-venom stocks dwindle to 'almost nothing'
South Africa is experiencing a critical shortage of snake anti-venom, lead to bite victims receiving half the prescribed dose – if they’re treated at...
Hawks raid ANC bigwig’s home, offices in Tembisa Hospital tender probe
The Hawks have raided the home and offices of ANC Ekurhuleni treasurer-general Sello Sekhokho, a central figure in the massive R1bn Tembisa Hospital tender...
First brain surgeries in 40 years at Sebokeng Hospital
A newly-established neurosurgical unit has performed two brain surgeries for the first time in four decades at Sebokeng Hospital in Gauteng, reports News24.
The operations...
Obesity drugs may be added to WHO’s essential medicines list
The WHO is considering adding medication that combats obesity to its “essentials medicine list”, which is used to guide government-purchasing decisions in low- and...
Concern as syphilis cases in babies, women, skyrocket in Canada and US
The number of babies born with syphilis is rising at an alarming rate in Canada and the United States, an increase attributed by public...
Low-cost medical aid guidelines on the horizon
The registrar of the Council for Medical Schemes, Dr Sipho Kabane, is hopeful that guidelines for low-cost medical scheme options will be finalised and...
Cholera tests for two Gauteng rivers after baptisms
More cholera cases have been detected in Gauteng, the latest being from a series of baptisms in local rivers, bringing to 10 the total...
Cape waters absorbing chemicals, spurring drug-resistant bacteria
Scientists have flagged the possibility of drug-resistant bacteria and contaminated foods resulting from commonly used medications and pesticides being absorbed by Cape Town’s coastal...
Interns caught in crossfire of 'broken' Port Elizabeth Hospital system
Caught between overworked seniors, understocked basic medical supplies/equipment and turf-protecting nurses, routinely exhausted interns at the Port Elizabeth Hospital complex are toughing it out...
ConCourt rules against Clicks in long battle with independent pharmacies
Clicks has lost its seven-year battle with independent pharmacies over its ownership of both pharmacies and a drug manufacturer, after the Constitutional Court ruled...
Opposition parties walk out in protest during NHI meeting
Furious opposition MPs walked out of Parliament’s Health Committee last week in protest after the chair declined their request to postpone deliberations on the...
Pro bono surgeries in Remgro-Mediclinic deal
The Competition Tribunal has approved the acquisition of Mediclinic by a consortium comprising its shareholder Remgro and Switzerland’s Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC), with one...
Doctors direct orthopaedic patients to Presidential hotline
Instead of surgery, orthopaedic patients at Livingstone Hospital in Gqeberha, Eastern Cape, are being given a letter explaining that they cannot be helped because...
Robotic surgery reduces Cape backlog by 70%
There has been a 70% reduction in the backlog of elective surgeries that had accumulated during the pandemic since June 2022, thanks to robotic...
Nurses will be able to prescribe anti-depressants in SA's new action plan
Among other ambitious goals included in SA’s new five-year (2023-2028) action plan for HIV, TB and sexually transmitted infections (STIs), professional nurses could be...
Millions of Covid shots about to expire
An estimated 3.3m Pfizer jabs from South Africa’s stock of 30m Covid vaccines are due to expire tomorrow, with another 26m doses expiring at...
Gauteng to probe R708m in 'irregular' hospital security contracts
Gauteng Health is to investigate how an estimated R710m is being spent irregularly on security contracts for the province's hospitals every year.
MEC Nomantu Nkomo-Ralehoko...
Cape teacher in bid to outlaw teen ‘passion gap’ teeth removal
A Western Cape teacher has launched an online petition aimed at halting the extraction of children’s healthy front teeth for the so-called “passion gap”,...
6 000 waiting for wheelchairs, says Health Minister
The Department of Health has a massive wheelchair backlog crisis, with a waiting list of more than 6 000 countrywide, reports the Cape Argus.
Health...
Suspected ‘murder-suicide’ of doctor couple
Limpopo police have opened a murder case and inquest into the suspected murder-suicide of Polokwane’s Dr Mainfred Mphikeleli Shikwambana and his wife, Dr Tshimangadzo...
Three dead and eight blinded from contaminated eye drops
Eye drops contaminated with a rare bacteria have led to the deaths of three people in the US, and resulted in another eight losing...
Extra Covid jabs for 'medium risk' adults no longer vital – WHO
Additional Covid-19 vaccine booster doses for regular, medium-risk adults are no longer being recommended by the World Health Organisation, which says the benefit “is...
Blacklisted firms still allowed to bid for Gauteng Health tenders
Despite 93 companies being blacklisted and implicated in fraud, maladministration and corruption, including those linked by the SIU to the Tembisa Hospital scandal, not...
India cancels licence of company linked to deadly cough syrups
Authorities have “permanently cancelled” the manufacturing licence of an Indian firm that produced cough mixtures linked to 18 child deaths in Uzbekistan after analysis...
Kidnapped Eastern Cape biokineticist back home
A biokineticist from the Eastern Cape who was apparently kidnapped outside a medical practice by armed men nearly two weeks ago has been reunited...
Windy barrister wins thousands of pounds in flatulence case
A flatulent barrister who tried to sue Britain’s Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has won £135 000 after his working from home request was denied,...