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News Update
Gauteng Health denies dragging heels on cancer tender
The Gauteng Department of Health has dismissed suggestions that it was deliberately delaying awarding a tender for the outsourcing of oncology radiation services for...
Toe removal surgery ends in nightmare full leg amputation
A diabetic domestic worker (59) who was admitted to Charlotte Maxeke Academic Hospital for a toe removal, is now wheelchair bound and unemployed after...
Public healthcare facilities lag in security compliance
Security compliance at clinics and district hospitals countrywide sits at only 58%, the Office for Healthcare Standards Compliance (OHSC) says.
OHSC CEO Dr Siphiwe Mndaweni...
Hearing loss concern for SA miners
Noise-induced hearing loss has displaced tuberculosis (TB) and silicosis as the top priority health threat in the South African mining industry, an industry seminar...
Drastic surge in medical gap cover
The medical aid industry is struggling to contain inflation, say experts, with insurance underwriters describing regular individual gap payouts to cover medical aid shortfalls...
Updated WHO Covid guidelines slammed
While hospitals in at least four American states have reinstated mask mandates amid a rise in cases of Covid-19, seasonal flu and other respiratory...
UK pharmacists to treat for common ailments, cutting out GPs
Under changes to pharmacy regulations in England, customers can now get treatment for seven common conditions without needing to see doctors, freeing up 10m...
Patient beaten to death by fellow psychiatric patient
A 36-year-old patient at Elizabeth Donkin Psychiatric Hospital in Gqeberha was smashed into a wall and badly beaten, later dying in hospital, after a...
Pick n Pay recalls three peanut butter brands
Pick n Pay has recalled No Name Smooth Peanut Butter, Eden Smooth Peanut Butter and Eden Crunch Peanut Butter over possible health risks, with...
Eastern Cape Health owes security firm R4m
A security company in Nelson Mandela Bay has terminated its contract a month early with the Eastern Cape Health Department because it is owed...
China reports first known death from H3N2-H10N5 flu co-infection
In what is possibly the first known case in a human, a Chinese woman who died in November was co-infected with H3N2 seasonal flu...
Gauteng Health still mum on oncology tender
Cancer Alliance has again sounded the alarm over the Gauteng Department of Health’s lack of communication about the outcome of a key tender for...
CT scanner disaster at major hospital
One of the country’s biggest public hospitals has been operating with just one back-up CT scanner, resulting in patients having treatment delayed, receiving inadequate...
Biogen halts sales, development of controversial Alzheimer’s drug
Biogen is to end development and commercialisation of its Alzheimer’s drug Aduhelm, which was approved against outside experts’ advice in mid-2021 and caused congressional...
FDA adds compulsory boxed warning for CAR-T therapy
Several pharmaceutical companies have been instructed by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to add a boxed warning – the agency’s strongest safety label...
Unions deny that young doctors are refusing rural jobs
The national Health Department, which last week said young doctors choose to reject rural placements, has been accused of propaganda by the Health and...
Not just NHI causing SA doctors to flee
Numerous long-standing issues, including dysfunctional equipment, poor working conditions, and high patient numbers – and not just the National Health Insurance Bill – are...
Updated sepsis guidelines in UK
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), the health watchdog in England, has issued updated guidance recommending that people who are severely...
UK firm recalls cough medicines from US
Eight batches of cough syrup in the United States have been recalled by British healthcare company Haleon, which has cited microbial contamination and risk...
New York health advisory lists social media an environmental toxin
New York City is the first city to issue an advisory officially designating social media as an environmental toxin.
Last week its Department of Health...
Philips stops sales of breathing devices after FDA settlement
Philips Respironics is to halt sales of all of its breathing machines in the United States after reaching a settlement with the Food and...
UK to ban disposable vapes
The British Government is moving to ban disposable vapes as part of plans to tackle the rising number of young people adopting the habit,...
UHC hampered by lack of funds staff, globally
While most member states of the World Health Organisation support universal health coverage, a discussion and report by the agency’s board last week highlighted...
WHO says Covid-19 deaths three times higher than reported
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has expressed concern about the handling of Covid-19 worldwide, saying not enough people are being vaccinated or taking adequate...
SA and UK labs team up to boost genomic surveillance
A Stellenbosch University laboratory is collaborating with one in Britain to keep the focus on genomic surveillance globally as the Covid-19 emergency recedes.
Both were...
Measles warning in Europe as cases surge 30-fold
The World Health Organisation has issued an urgent warning over measles after an “alarming” 30-fold rise in cases across Europe, with 30 000 cases reported...
GP found dead before trial sentencing
An Eastern Cape doctor, 54 – previously found guilty of shooting and wounding a male friend in 2019, and who was due to sentenced...
Covid lessons could prepare world for ‘Disease X’
Had earlier information been acted upon, Covid vaccine development might have been initiated faster, say some experts, after documents released last week showed that...
Spike in Covid cases as Zambia battles cholera outbreak
Deleted: While still battling to control a massive cholera outbreak, Zambia has also activated Covid-19 monitoring systems after registering an increase in new cases,...
Cameroon first to launch ‘routine’ malaria jab project
Cameroon has launched the world’s first routine malaria vaccine programme, which is expected to save tens of thousands of children’s lives per year across...
Call for 'watershed' Surgeon-General's report on vaping
Public health experts say a US Surgeon-General report – similar to one issued 60 years ago that settled a longstanding public debate about cigarettes...
British fatalities in Spain prompt call for inquiry into painkiller
There have been growing calls for a comprehensive national study in Spain to establish the adverse side-effects of the controversial painkiller metamizole, linked to...
CRISPR treatment now approved for beta thalassemia
The CRISPR-based medicine Casgevy, approved in December by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to treat sickle cell disease, has been given the green...
FDA approves AI device to check skin cancer
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has authorised the first artificial intelligence-powered medical device to help doctors detect the most common forms of...
SA confirms cholera cases amid global resurgence
The WHO has classified the global resurgence of cholera as a grade 3 emergency, its highest internal health emergency level.
In South Africa, the two...
DA flags staff safety crisis at public hospitals and clinics
There have been more than 200 attacks on government hospital and clinic staff over the past two years – more than half of them...
Global manifesto calls for improved morphine access
A group of global, regional and national palliative care organisations has urged governments and regulators to end the practice of pharmaceutical companies marketing sustained-release...
Valproate treatment rules tightened over children's disorder risk
The European Medicines Agency (EMA) has issued various precautionary measures governing treatment of male patients with valproate after concerns of a heightened risk for...
New 'more reliable' NHLS LDL-cholesterol calculation method
Clinicians rely heavily on low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) – the main target for lipid-lowering therapies and preventing cardiovascular disease – and in randomised control...
Medical students tackle SA’s organ donation crisis
With 4 000 South Africans awaiting a life-saving organ transplant and 60 viable organs going to waste each week, a group of fourth year...