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News Update
New leadership team for the WHO
Nearly a year after his appointment to a second term as the World Health Organisation’s director general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has finished a revamp...
Hospital group pioneers e-scripting
In a nod to the digital era, electronic prescriptions (e-scripting) at Netcare hospitals is making traditional handwritten prescriptions obsolete, and reducing the risks of...
Beijing hospital fire kills 26
A deadly blaze at a Beijing hospital this week killed 26 patients and injured dozens of others in one of the Chinese capital’s worst...
Cancer deaths in South Africa on the rise
Deaths due to cancer are increasing in South Africa, with the black and coloured population seeing the most alarming climbs, according to a report...
Regulator intensifies probe into GEMS vitamins tender
After concerns were raised about a multimillion-rand contract for vitamins awarded by the Government Employees Medical Scheme (GEMS), the medical scheme regulator has now...
Sahpra withdraws pholcodine from shelves
The South African Health Products Regulatory Authority (Sahpra) has withdrawn all pholcodine-containing medicines from the market due to the increased risk of sudden, severe...
World's first bird flu death recorded in China
In the first known human fatality from the avian influenza strain, a woman has died from H3N8 bird flu in China, according to the...
Noose tightens as doctor’s role in Bester escape uncovered
The Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA) is launching an investigation into Dr Nandipha Magudumana, lover of fugitive and convicted murderer Thabo Bester,...
Gauteng Health owes thousands of suppliers R4bn
The R4bn owed to more than 42 000 service providers by the Gauteng Department of Health is ballooning because senior managers ignore invoices, and...
Africa faces 5m shortage of healthcare workers
During the pandemic, around half of the world’s health workers experienced burnout, while 55 countries face serious shortages of health workers, exacerbated by the...
SA measles cases dropping – NICD
The National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) said measles cases countrywide appear to be decreasing, except for Limpopo, where numbers have remained stable and...
Urgent plea to Phaahla to resolve snake anti-venom crisis
A group of 27 experts in South Africa has written to Health Minister Joe Phaahla for urgent intervention in the critical shortage of anti-venom...
TB drug shortages hamper North West healthcare
A shortage of critical tuberculosis medication is frustrating primary healthcare facilities in North West Province, with Kopano Klaas, project co-ordinator from the Stop Stockouts...
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...