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News Update
UK proposing ‘wilful neglect’ law for care staff
Care staff in the UK who wilfully neglect patients under their supervision could face time in jail and expensive fines from 2015. People Management...
Surprisingly few doctors wash their hands when they should
Doctors only wash their hands 40% of the time they are supposed to, global studies have shown. The Times reports that Groote Schuur Hospital’s...
Newborns in the UK infected by contaminated liquid food
A newborn baby has died and 14 others are suffering from blood poisoning after they were infected by a contaminated batch of liquid food...
Warning on the urgency of repairing KZN radiotherapy machines
Dr Imran Keeka, the Democratic Alliance’s KZN provincial spokesperson on health, has noted in a Politicsweb report that the second of two radiotherapy machines...
AspIrin not the drug of choice for atrial fibrillation sufferers – Nice
More than a million people with heart rhythm disorders have been told not to take aspirin to guard against stroke, in a reversal of...
The statins debate continues
A group of doctors in the UK is calling for a rethink on an NHS proposal that people at low risk of heart disease...
Smartphone apps increasing STD risk
Ga y and bisexual men who use smartphone apps to meet other men for sex are at an increased risk of some se xually...
Doctors ‘need not panic about certificate of need’ – Health Department
Doctors do not need to panic about being forced to work in places where they do not want to, according to the Department of...
TB a ‘public health emergency’ – activists
Tuberculosis should be declared a public health emergency and ‘war rooms’ should be set up in each province to deal with the disease. And...
PE women lauded for response to contraceptive implant
Port Elizabeth doctors are lauding women for their enthusiastic response to a new contraceptive implant, saying it is a major boost for the fight...
Lack of machine maintenance puts KZN cancer patients at risk
The maintenance contract for two state-of-the-art cancer radiotherapy machines at a Durban hospital has not been paid for the past 11 months. News24 reports...
‘Alarming’ shortages at Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital – Health MEC
Gauteng Health MEC Qedani Mahlangu has admitted the biggest hospital in the southern Hemisphere, Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital in Soweto, Johannesburg, is short...
No quota system at new SA private medical university
KwaZulu-Natal is poised to get SA’s first private medical university and newly elected premier Senzo Mchunu is quoted in the Sunday Tribune as saying,...
Depression rising in SA men
Burnout and depression among men are hidden – and rising – afflictions in SA, reports The Times. The number of men admitted to private...
Number of cancer survivors is rising in the US
The number of cancer survivors in the US will rise from the current 14.5m to nearly 19m by 2024. Medicinenet reports that a survey...
Superbugs found in the Middle East
University of Queensland researchers have discovered antibiotic resistant bacteria in the Middle East, which is cloaking itself in genetic material to avoid detection and...
Free State orthopaedic patients facing painful delays
Patients at the orthopaedic unit of Pelonomi Regional Hospital in Bloemfontein face painful delays. A Sunday Times report says 34 patients with fractured bones...
Most South Africans ignorant of hypertension risk
Three out of four men in SA with hypertension (high blood pressure) don’t know that they have the condition. And, says a Mail &...
Large study to look at impact of mobile phone use on teenagers
Schoolchildren in London will be recruited into the largest ever study to investigate the impact of mobile phone use on teenagers’ developing brains. The...
Questions raised on usage of new US cancer drug
Almost overnight, a powerful new painkiller has become a $100m business. But, reports The New York Times, questions are emerging about how the drug...
See-saw arguments over e-cigarettes continue
On the upside: E-cigarettes are considerably more effective than over-the-counter treatments such as nicotine gum and patches at helping people to quit smoking, a...
Cannabis could be used to treat severe epilepsy
The potential of medical marijuana and pure cannabidiol – an active substance in the cannabis plant – for neurologic conditions is highly controversial. However,...
SA government plans to tackle ‘lifestyle’ diseases
‘If we do not stop the scourge of lifestyle diseases we will not be able to implement the National Development Plan,’ is the warning...
Call for calm after ‘cancer-causing chemicals’ alarm
A cancer researcher has called for calm after reports that a US study had identified ‘cancer-causing chemicals’ in everyday life, reports The Times. A...
Inequality between SA's urban and rural hospitals a ‘problem’
The plight of doctors working in rural areas, an issue that was forced to the fore by a recent Constitutional Court case, has been...
UK shows dramatic improvements in cancer survival
Dramatic improvements in cancer survival mean that half of those diagnosed in the UK today can expect to live for at least 10 years....
Flawed dietary supplements lingering on US store shelves
Flaws in the way that dietary supplements are monitored and reported are causing potentially life-threatening delays in how long dangerous products linger on store...
Asthma still killing thousands in the UK
Children and adults in the UK are dying needlessly from asthma attacks, according to a Royal College of Physicians report, which found that in...
Row over Pfizer take-over bid on AstraZeneca intensifies
The row over Pfizer’s £63bn takeover bid for the British drugs company AstraZeneca has intensified as the predator’s own former top scientist railed against...
HIV-positive women sue KZN Health for ‘forced sterilisations’
More than a dozen HIV-positive Durban women are suing the KwaZulu-Natal Health Department after they allege they were ‘forcibly’ sterilised. The Independent on Saturday...
Discovery helps in the treatment of Cryptococcus infections
A discovery by University of Liverpool scientists means that the initial treatment for a brain infection caused by fungus could now be treated in...
Hospital group to build more SA day hospitals
More people will soon have the option of undergoing minor surgery at a hospital that will discharge them on the same day, following the...
UK’s NHS says breast cancer drug is too expensive
A Herceptin-style drug that can offer some women with advanced breast cancer nearly six months of extra life has been turned down for use...
Scottish scientists develop novel flu treatment
Scottish scientists have developed a novel treatment that could protect against any strain of the flu. Medical Xpress reports that the preventative treatment could...
Advances helping the blind see and the deaf hear
Thanks to a high-tech procedure that involved the surgical implantation of a ‘bionic eye’, Roger Pontz, who was diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa as a...
Surviving Ebola carries a stigma
A doctor has beaten the odds and survived Ebola, but he still has one more problem: The stigma of the deadly disease. News24 reports...
Legal wrangle won’t stop inquiry into SA’s private healthcare sector
The inquiry into private health care in SA will continue despite legal wrangling between industry player Netcare and KPMG, which was appointed as a...
‘Revolutionary’ drug trial to open up ‘new era’ in cancer fight
A ‘revolutionary’ drug trial aimed at discovering personalised treatments for the UK’s biggest cancer killer will begin in July, in an advance which experts...
New sensor to prevent pressure sores
Researchers have developed a new type of pressure sensor – dubbed a ‘second skin’ – which could prevent dangerous sores, reports BBC News. The...
Exodus of medical staff at Universitas alarms health professionals
Health professionals say that the exodus of medical practitioners from the Universitas Academic Hospital in Bloemfontein has reached ‘crisis level’. And, according to a...