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News Update
Most interns, junior doctors finally placed
More than 1 100 medical interns and junior doctors have finally been placed for the medical Internship and Community Service Programme (ICSP) – just...
Gavi green-lights new jab in global fight against polio
The governing board of Gavi, the international organisation that provides vaccines to developing countries, had added a new shot to its roster that could help...
650 000 UK hospital cancellations as NHS strike bites
Mass National Health Service (NHS) strikes have resulted in 650 000 hospital cancellations and appointment postponements so far, with worse to come as Britain braces...
Indian firm allegedly used industrial-grade ingredient in toxic cough syrups
Marion Biotech, the Indian manufacturer of cough syrups that Uzbekistan said last year had poisoned 19 children, had allegedly used a toxic industrial-grade ingredient,...
DA slams wasted R115m spent on unfinished hospital wards
A whopping R115m spent on building new hospital wards at Kopanong Hospital in Vereeniging during the pandemic – a project which was never completed...
Gang arrested after Carolina Hospital attack
Four people have been arrested after assaulting and robbing staff at Carolina Provincial Hospital in Mpumalanga earlier this month, after which they ransacked the...
Paramedics suspended for refusing to carry patient up stairs
Two KwaZulu-Natal paramedics have been suspended after apparently refusing to walk down a stairway to reach a patient in Umlazi, ordering family to bring...
Gauteng Health opts for multiple suppliers to address food shortages
A multi-vendor approach will be introduced by Gauteng Health to acquire food for healthcare institutions after reported shortages and inconsistent supply, it said last...
Challenges in developing 'vital' HIV vaccine
The genetic diversity of the HIV virus is greater than any other pathogen, and constructing an effective vaccine is vital, despite its scientific challenges,...
How Mpumalanga Health is addressing clinic challenges
The provincial Health Department in Mpumalanga has responded to the third report from community-based clinic monitoring group Ritshidze on public health facilities in the...
Funerals and social gatherings linked to cholera
The national Department of Health says most of the country’s positive cholera cases and deaths have been linked to social gatherings and funerals.
The latest...
Spate of attacks at Mpumalanga, Eastern Cape facilities
Criminals are taking advantage of soft targets like clinics to terrorise staff and patients and brazenly attacking and robbing them, notes MedicalBrief, with both...
'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...