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News Update
DNA backlog under-reported, says Action Society SA
An unexplained discrepancy shows that the police under-reported their DNA backlog – sitting at 241 000 cases, not 173 000 as they had said...
Kempton Park Hospital to be reopened 25 years later
Kempton Park Hospital has been closed for 25 years but the Gauteng Health Department plans to reopen it, News24 reports.
In answers to the Gauteng...
Limpopo measles cases increase
Another 14 measles cases have been reported in two sub-districts in the Mopani district, increasing the total number of confirmed cases in Limpopo to...
New booklet clarifies migrants’ rights to free healthcare in SA
SECTION27 has launched an online publication titled Free healthcare services in South Africa: A case for all mothers and children, in collaboration with partner...
US agency green-lights Roche monkeypox detection test
The US Food & Drug Administration (FDA) has given the go-ahead to a test by Swiss company Roche to detect monkeypox, approving it for...
Cape's 'singing surgeon' helps fund surgery for children with cardiac conditions
Specialist cardiothoracic surgeon and chairman of the Young Hearts Africa Foundation NGO has teamed up with musicians to launch a spiritual album, called Sacred...
Bogus health officials target Cape eateries to score free meals
Cape Town restaurant owners have been warned to check credentials of people claiming to be Health Department officials and demanding free meals.
City of Cape...
China slackens COVID restrictions for travellers
China has shortened quarantine requirements for travellers coming into the country, the National Health Commission said, and has announced some 20 measures outlining the...
Union ‘war chest’ to sponsor UK striking nurses
Despite less than half (102 out of 215 NHS trusts in Britain) voting in favour, thousands of British nurses will strike for the first...
Major SAMRC study identifies top disease and death risk factors
Unsafe sex, interpersonal violence, high body mass index (BMI), high systolic blood pressure, and alcohol consumption are the top risk factors for disease and...
Government dodges issue of NHI funding model – DA
The DA (DA) has written to Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana asking for a presentation on the financial feasibility, cost and implications of the proposed...
Vaccines still vital as COVID-19 changes – Abdool Karim
The fundamental reality of COVID-19 is that “no one is safe until everyone is safe”, says epidemiologist and former head of the COVID-19 ministerial...
Toxic levels of benzene found in dry shampoo – US group wants recall
Recent findings show that dry shampoo not only contains the known human carcinogen benzene, but also the highest levels yet found in a consumer...
More community-based emergency services needed in Africa
With the country's emergency services being understaffed, underesourced and overwhelmed, community-based ambulance services are the logical option for coping with these crises.
In a medical...
Call for urgent inquiry into UK mental health services after abuse allegations
A major exposé into the care of British mental health patients and allegations of systemic abuse in inpatient units has resulted in a call...
Chris Barnard centenary birthday a reminder of SA's current cardiovascular burden – Gray
Tuesday marked what would have been the 100th birthday of the late cardiovascular trailblazer, Professor Christiaan Barnard, who performed the first human-to-human heart transplant...
Cyber thieves post patients' data stolen from Australian medical insurer
The personal data of hundreds of Australians have been posted online after being stolen last month from the country’s largest health insurer, Medibank, and...
Marathon surgery collaboration cuts Kimberley hospital backlog
In collaboration with Gift of the Givers, surgical teams performed 72 operations at the Northern Cape’s only tertiary academic hospital last weekend, the Robert...
Coded messages add to COVID lab leak theory, say specialists
Coded messages hidden within reports from the Chinese lab at the centre of COVID origin theories add to a growing body of evidence that...
Pfizer to apply for approval of first maternal RSV vaccine
Pfizer’s experimental respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) vaccine, found to be effective in preventing severe infections in infants after being given in a late-stage study...
Costly Cuban doctor training programme drains provincial budgets
The controversial Cuban medical student training programme has come under the spotlight again after Health Minister Joe Phaahla revealed that the ballooning costs of...
UJ defends awarding doctorate to COVID denialist
The University of Johannesburg (UJ) has defended its decision to confer an honorary doctorate on Professor Michael Levitt, who, at the height of the...
Coal mine residents suicidal, suffer long-term trauma, says report
A recent report has highlighted the psychological impact of coal mining on local communities, with an expert saying years of residents' exposure to several...
Norovirus that felled rugby players not from our water – eThekwini
After an outbreak of severe gastroenteritis among around 50 visiting rugby players from Glasgow Warriors and Ulster in Durban recently, an independent medical review...
Measles outbreak spreading across Limpopo, warns NICD
Until recently, measles cases in Limpopo had been confined to the greater Sekhukhune district around Groblersdal, but now three new cases have been reported...
Unions flag public servants’ mental health crisis
SAPS staff are 11 times more likely to commit suicide than the average citizen and five times more likely to commit suicide compared with...
Petition over Netcare's closure of Ballito maternity, paediatric units
More than 11 000 residents in Ballito, KZN have signed a petition in protest against Netcare’s Alberlito Hospital announcing it was closing overnight paediatric, neonatal...
NHS offers laser beam surgery for some epilepsy patients
In a move that will help up to 150 epileptic patients a year whose condition has not responded positively to anti-seizure drugs, NHS England...
Nigeria denies signing agreement with UK to stem brain drain
No bilateral agreement aimed at restricting Nigerian doctors’ emigration to Britain has been signed, says the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria (MDCN). It...
Loss of expertise concern after renowned cancer surgeon resigns
The resignation of renowned breast cancer specialist surgeon Professor Carol-Ann Benn from the Helen Joseph Hospital has fuelled concerns about the loss of expertise...
HIV not over, warns UNAids South Africa director as infections spiral
New HIV infections are escalating at an alarming rate worldwide, it was revealed during an emergency meeting this month convened by UNAids and its...
WHO launches first list of most risky fungal pathogens
The World Health Organization has drawn up the first ever list of fungal pathogens posing the greatest threat to human health, warning that some...
Charlotte Maxeke fully functional only in 2026
Despite promises that the Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Hospital would be fully repaired by the end of next year, the fire safety measures will only...
Four new measles cases in Limpopo
Another four cases of measles have been reported in the Greater Sekhukhune District Municipality in Limpopo, bringing the total to seven, in people aged...
World first deal allows cancer drug access to middle-income countries
A licensing agreement has been signed by pharmaceutical giant Novartis to increase access to a vital leukaemia treatment, marking the first-ever such agreement for...
Ministers chastised for not using state health facilities
Government Ministers have come under fire for using health facilities at a huge cost to taxpayers when they could be using the public hospitals...
Leading health journals plead for climate change help in Africa
Richer countries must increase climate support for African nations as accelerating impacts of global warming sicken and kill hundreds of thousands every year across...
72 hospitals now exempted from load shedding
A total of 72 state hospitals will now be exempted from load shedding, an increase from the previous 31 institutions that were excluded.
They include...
WHO shifts to one-dose cholera jab as outbreaks increase, stocks dwindle
An international cholera vaccine shortage has forced a temporary shift to a one-dose strategy from the usual two in campaigns to fight numerous outbreaks,...
Advocacy group says food industry ‘neglects health for profits’
A civil organisation has pointed fingers at the food and beverages industry, accusing it of bullying the government to prevent the introduction of warning...