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News Update
Tembisa tender tycoon now under scrunity over blue-lights cavalcade
Tembisa Hospital tender tycoon Vusimuzi Matlala – whose companies earned contracts worth some R5m that were red-flagged by Babita Deokaran and who is already...
Depression during and after pregnancy needs more attention, says obstetrician
Half of expectant mothers in South Africa experience undiagnosed and untreated depression during pregnancy and after childbirth, that risks their own and their babies’...
KZN paramedics robbed at gunpoint
An armed gang held up two paramedics who were responding to a call just after midnight last week in the Shongweni area in KwaZulu-Natal.
The...
Equatorial Guinea confirms Marburg virus outbreak
Equatorial Guinea confirmed its first-ever outbreak of Marburg virus disease this week, with preliminary tests carried out after the deaths of at least nine...
Life Healthcare considers offers for European subsidiary
Life Healthcare has appointed Barclays and Goldman Sachs to evaluate unsolicited offers for its diagnostic imaging services subsidiary Alliance Medical Group (AMG), it announced this...
Surgery marathons to tackle Gauteng backlogs
With more than 32 000 patients on lengthy lists awaiting surgery, the Gauteng Department of Health has vowed to clear the backlogs at local...
Top medical aid schemes rated by customers
Medical aid schemes customer satisfaction levels were mostly on the rise, according to the findings of the consultancy group Consulta's latest South African Customer...
Medical experts in plea to exempt child health services from budget cuts
More than 100 doctors, healthcare workers, academics and child advocacy groups have released a joint statement addressed to government, raising the alarm about the...
Fake medicines kill half a million Africans every year
Trafficked and fake medical products are killing almost 500 000 sub-Saharan Africans every year, and urgent action is needed to stem the flow, the...
US recall on eye drops after severe drug-resistant infection
Risks of permanent vision loss and death due to possible contamination have led to a product recall by the US Centres for Disease Control...
Clinics discriminate against sex workers, gays, other groups – survey
A survey of more than 9 000 people by Ritshidze has found that sex workers, drug users and gay people, as well as those...
Umlazi hospital patients and staff struggle with water outage
Prince Mshiyeni Memorial Hospital in Umlazi, south of Durban, has been without water for several days after a pipe burst, with patients thirsty and...
Best-selling vape stripped from UK shelves over illegal nicotine levels
Chinese company Elf Bar, which produces Britain’s best-selling vape that is used illegally by tens of thousands of children, has admitting to breaking the...
Big pharma in payment stand-off over millions of unwanted Covid vaccines
Not only have mega-large drug companies declined to refund $1.4bn in advance payments from poor countries for now-cancelled Covid-19 doses, but separately, Johnson &...
Breakthrough cardiac surgery now also at East London hospital
East London’s Life St Dominic’s Hospital has introduced groundbreaking surgery in its cardiac treatment, which until now has been available only in the Western...
SA records two cholera cases
Two cases of cholera have been recorded in South Africa, attributed to two sisters from Johannesburg who visited Malawi for a funeral, according to...
Three arrested with stolen HIV drugs
Three men were arrested in Bloemfontein last week in possession of antiretrovirals worth R85 000, which had been stolen from a clinic in Boshof.
Lieutenant-Colonel...
MSF staffer out on bail over alleged meat looting
A Doctors Without Borders (MSF) driver was one of two people arrested and who appeared in the Melmoth Magistrate’s Court last Wednesday on theft...
Missing patient found hanged at Limpopo hospital
A mental healthcare patient who had been reported missing at Hayani Psychiatric Hospital in Limpopo was found five days later, hanging from a bed...
African countries commit to end child Aids deaths by 2030
Twelve African countries, including South Africa, plan to end Aids in children by 2030 through HIV testing, treatment and prevention programmes, the goal, initiated...
Unemployed doctors labelled ‘too fussy’ about job placements
Young doctors who have completed their studies make excuses not to work in rural areas where they are placed, and find themselves unemployed because...
Covid drug Paxlovid now approved for use in SA
The South African Health Products Regulatory Authority (Sahpra) gave the green light this week for Pfizer’s Paxlovid, an antiviral medication designed for Covid-19 that...
Back to drawing board for HIV vaccine after latest setback
It's back to square one for the scientists leading the research on the Johnson & Johnson (J&J) Mosaico vaccine – the only HIV vaccine...
Deadly diet pill reclassified as poison after 33 people die
More than 30 people in the UK have died after ingesting a highly toxic chemical compound used in slimming pills, most of which are...
Doctors warn about ageing side-effects of diabetes weight-loss drugs
Doctors are warning about “Ozempic face”, a possible side effect of using prescription diabetes drugs both as a weight-loss method and without the proper...
World ‘dangerously unprepared’ for another pandemic: Red Cross
Despite Covid-19 killing more people than any earthquake, drought or hurricane in history, the world is “dangerously unprepared” for future pandemics, the International Federation...
Whooping cough cases still rising
Whooping cough (pertussis) cases in South Africa continue to rise dramatically, with cases doubling in just a few weeks, and officials warning that a...
Expert calls for Pollsmoor revamp to control TB spread
Cape Town alone notifies more TB cases than the whole of the USA, UK and Switzerland do every year.
Additionally, says Professor Linda-Gail Bakker, director...
Face mask firms referred to Competition Tribunal for collusion
At the height of the pandemic, two face mask suppliers allegedly colluded to exploit Takealot.com’s listing algorithm to maximise profits, according to the Competition...
Autistic teen suffers fatal heart attack after spraying deodorant
The parents of a 14-year-old British girl who died after inhaling aerosol deodorant want clearer product labelling to warn people of the potential dangers,...
Man throws urine at clinic staff after long wait
A man who was apparently fed up with his four-hour wait at a clinic while nurses sat and chatted over lunch, lost his temper...
Guinea worm disease eradication in sight
The painful and debilitating tropical condition that once affected millions of people in Africa and Asia could be the first to be wiped out...
India launches its first nasal Covid vaccine
India has introduced its first Covid vaccine inhalant, iNCOVACC made by Bharat Biotech, and administered in the form of drops which then stimulate an immune response...
Booster jabs available, says Health Department
The Department of Health has renewed its calls for all eligible South Africans to have Covid-19 booster shots, with spokesperson Foster Mohale saying they...
Global WHO award for SA for malaria elimination
South Africa has been recognised on the global stage for its malaria-elimination efforts, being among the first recipients of a Word Health Organisation (WHO) award...
MSF staffer filmed among meat truck looters in KZN
A police investigation is under way after a video showing scores of people, among them a Doctors Without Borders (MSF) employer in a branded...
North Korea issues five-day lockdown over ‘winter flu’
Authorities in the North Korean capital Pyongyang have ordered a five-day lockdown after rising cases of an unspecified respiratory illness, the Russian embassy and...
SA needs R200bn to fix hospitals before NHI roll-out, says Phaahla
South Africa’s National Health Insurance (NHI) plan won’t be taking shape any time soon as the government needs to lay its hands on around...
ICU nurses at Charlotte Maxeke waiting for pay from last year
Problems are never-ending at the beleaguered hospital which, two years after the devastating fire, crippling theft and corruption, is now grappling with major issues...
Juicy R500 000 Tembisa hospital chicken tender allegedly irregular
The ongoing Special Investigating Unit’s probe into the hundreds of dodgy payments at Tembisa Hospital has found that half a million rands was paid...