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News Update
SA’s teen births increase, including among 11 and 12-year-olds
A growing and worrying number of South African teenagers aged 17 and younger are having babies, with Stats SA saying 45 257 births registered...
No date yet for SA withdrawal of J&J baby powder
Johnson & Johnson (J&J) still supplies SA retailers with its baby powder, more than two years after withdrawing it from US and Canadian shelves...
Condom shortage places Mpumalanga sex workers, truckers at risk
A rise in STI cases and HIV diagnoses in Mpumalanga was possibly a result of a two-month shortage of condoms at a truck stop...
Tembisa 10 'births' 'unsubstantiated', Public Protector finds
The “Tembisa 10” decuplets never existed, and the sensational media claims, as well as allegations by the supposed father of the babies, were “unsubstantiated”,...
US medical school apologises for prisoner experiments
A Californian medical school has apologised for conducting dozens of unethical medical experiments on some 2 600 incarcerated men in the 1960s and 1970s,...
Prison for German GP who issued illegal mask exemptions
A German doctor has been sentenced to two years and nine months in prison for illegally issuing more than 4 000 people – most...
Experts debunk false claims from anti-vax film
A controversial documentary with misleading information and old, dated unrelated footage cunningly linked by the producers to Covid-19 vaccines, has prompted a slew of...
US hospital fires nurses involved in viral TikTok video
A group of labour ward nurses in the US who took part in a TikTok “ick’ challenge, have been fired.
IOL reports that a video...
WHO warns of SA’s health sector collapse if NHI derailed
South Africa needs to embrace universal healthcare if it hopes to change the trajectory of its healthcare system, the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) co-ordinator...
Private healthcare shake-up looms large on South Africa’s horizon
The headwinds facing healthcare in South Africa are driving a reconfiguration in the private sector, likely to affect medical aid schemes and private hospital...
Seven babies die in Western Cape as whooping cough cases rise
Health authorities have noted a sharp increase in whooping cough infections countrywide, particularly in the Western Cape, where seven infants under two-months-old have died...
Gauteng drops costly Ashanti COVID hospital deal
The Gauteng Government has resolved to abandon the hugely expensive white elephant AngloGold Ashanti Hospital, formerly identified and refurbished as a COVID-19 critical care...
COVID paediatric jabs in 2023 for vulnerable 5-11-year-olds
Immunocompromised children aged from five to 11 would be eligible for two doses of the paediatric Pfizer vaccine from February 2023, Health Minister Joe...
Eli Lilly tightens diabetes drug access, frustrates obese patients
After the recent furore and viral social promotion on TikTok of a diabetic drug for weight-loss among teenagers, and its subsequent shortage, Eli Lilly...
Two BQ COVID strains cause for concern
The latest circulating COVID-19 Omicron variants – BQ.1 and BQ.1.1 – have shown greater immune escape, which is likely to lead to increasing cases...
COVID cases soar in China, ‘impossible’ to track
Chinese health authorities, who say the spread of COVID-19 is now “impossible” to track, have stopped recording asymptomatic cases in their daily tallies, amid soaring...
COVID vaccine for six-month-old babies gets green light in UK
A COVID-19 vaccine for infants as young as six months has been given the go-ahead by Britain’s health regulator, opening the door for vaccinating...
Rural provinces’ health services worst hit by COVID disruptions
A report by the Rural Health Advocacy Project (RHAP) has exposed the devastating aftermath for health systems countrywide of the COVID-19 pandemic, which disrupted...
Africa’s neonatal death rate five times higher than 2030 target – WHO report
A World Health Organisation report says Africa’s health systems remain weak and way behind other regions of the world, particularly maternal health, and if...
Patient accuses medical practitioner of rape at E Cape hospital
A patient and her family are receiving psycho-social support after a doctor, who has since been suspended, allegedly raped her in a locked consultation...
Aspen gets $30m grant to make vaccines for Africa
To help make affordable vaccines for Africa, Aspen Pharmacare has secured funding of $30m from the Gates Foundation and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness...
Measles immunisation campaign to start in February as cases spread
Health Minister Dr Joe Phaahla has announced that a national measles immunisation campaign would kick off nationally – but only in February 2023, this...
Disabled students call for education system reform
Sign language should be included among the host of spoken languages offered in schools, while universities should employ more disabled people to design inclusive...
End health sector corruption, urges civic group
Fed up with the “normalisation and acceptance of corruption”, civic organisation Defend Our Democracy, along with several other representatives, picketed outside the Gauteng provincial...
UK health agency warning over antibiotic-resistant diphtheria strain
After both Switzerland and Germany reported recent cases of antibiotic-resistant diphtheria, the UK Health Security Agency has alerted NHS laboratories to be on the look...
Developing nations plead for fairer treatment access
As three days of international talks kicked off last week regarding the drafting of new rules for combating future pandemics, developing nations, including South...
Big jump in heart, cancer-related claims since COVID – Discovery
Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Discovery Employee Benefits says it has seen a huge spike in cardiometabolic and cancer claims, recording a...
Tembisa Hospital corruption 'well-orchestrated' and 'meticulously planned'
The Tembisa Hospital tender scandal was not an overnight idea. Rather, it was a well orchestrated, meticulously planned series of thefts and corruption of...
SAHPRA clears backlog of new drugs registrations, but ‘still too slow’
Although SA’s medicines regulator has finally cleared its backlog of applications for registering new products, more than a year after its initial target of...
First batch of donated mpox vaccines heads to Africa
A donation from Korea will see the African continent receive its first batch of mpox vaccines, 50 000 doses in all, according to the...
Sugar daddies, blessers, to blame for STI spike among KZN girls
Blessers and sugar daddies are mainly responsible for the leap in sexual infections among young girls in KwaZulu-Natal, provincial Health MEC Nomagugu Simelane said...
SA short of thousands of ambulances
Government ambulances services are in a state of crisis, with not only a shortage of 3 401 vehicles, but of the 3 342 ambulances...
Gauteng Health on the right track, MEC tells Scopa
Newly appointed Gauteng Health MEC Nomantu Nkomo-Ralehoko, responding to concerns raised by the Auditor-General and members of the Standing Committee on Public Accounts (Scopa),...
Odyssean malaria case treated in Gauteng
A man living in an informal settlement in Ekurhuleni has been successfully treated for odyssean malaria, also known as airport, suitcase, minibus, or taxi-rank...
New issues with repairs of recalled Philips ventilators
The woes of Philips’ subsidiary Philips Respironics are not over, it seems, with new issues affecting some of the repaired devices after the company’s replacement...
UK parents warned about strep A after seven deaths
Britain is seeing a rise in strep A infections, and health authorities have warned parents to be on the look out for symptoms in...
COVID restrictions loosen after countrywide protests in China
Chinese authorities are slowly reopening the economy after nationwide protests against tough zero-COVID policies, announcing yesterday that it would allow patients with mild symptoms...
TikTok bans videos promoting sunburn after backlash about cancer
Social media giant TikTok is in hot water again, this time after millions of users shared pro-tanning material and encouraged sun burning, with Australian...
Thousands more NHS ambulance workers to join massive UK strike
Another 10 000 British ambulance workers have voted to strike this month as GMB, a member-led trade union and the biggest in the sector, joins the...
Payment relief for protesting Sedibeng healthcare workers
After not being paid salaries for three months, about 200 community healthcare workers from the Sedibeng district municipality, who had been camping outside the...