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News Update
SA’s worst measles outbreak in 10 years – 600 cases and counting
Measles cases in South Africa had climbed to more than 600 by last week, fuelled by the disruption to routine childhood vaccination programmes caused...
Warning of possibly more cholera cases
A sixth case of cholera has been identified in South Africa, with the national Department of Health warning that there could be more to...
Dis-Chem says white dispensary clients left after CEO’s letter
Dis-Chem, SA’s second largest pharmacy group, lost some regular dispensary customers who pulled their scripts from stores in October after a memo was leaked...
US to renew PEPFAR funding despite SA, Russia ties
American senators visiting South Africa last week to assess the impact of a major US-funded HIV-Aids scheme said they would renew the programme, despite...
Omicron XBB.1.5 variant now dominant in SA but no need to worry, say experts
The Omicron subvariant XBB.1.5, also known as Kraken, is now the dominant strain among positive Covid-19 tests in South Africa, but experts say it...
Psychiatrists group urges government to spend more on mental healthcare
The South African Society of Psychiatrists (Sasop) has appealed to the government to up its mental healthcare spend, raising concern that mental healthcare was...
A woman dies every two minutes in pregnancy or childbirth: UN report
Maternal mortality rates climbed or stagnated in nearly all regions across the world in 2020, according to a report released by United Nations agencies,...
35 000 test backlog at forensic science labs
Ageing, unreliable equipment has resulted in a backlog of 35 776 tests at the forensic chemistry laboratories in Cape Town, Johannesburg and Pretoria, the...
FDA grants breakthrough tag for Moderna’s melanoma drug
Moderna’s experimental personalised mRNA skin cancer vaccine – in combination with Merck’s drug Keytruda – has received breakthrough therapy designation from the US Food...
Gauteng Health says unsafe tap water rumours have no basis
The Department of Health has dismissed claims that Gauteng’s tap water is unsafe to drink, with spokesperson Motalatale Modiba saying messages circulating on social...
No fire clearance certificates, floor plans, at Gauteng hospitals
Hardly any of the government hospitals in Gauteng have fire clearance certificates, floor plans or fire detection systems, with some not even having emergency...
Combo flu-Covid home test gets the nod from FDA
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has green-lighted the first combination test for flu and Covid-19 that can be used at home, giving...
Wuhan virus escape probably accidental – US agencies
The US Energy Department has reversed its previous position and used new research to conclude that the Covid-19 virus more than likely leaked from a...
Double tragedy as son killed after leading paramedic dies
The tragic death of well-known paramedic Paul Herbst, director of Medi Response KZN, two days after his return from a rescue mission in Turkey,...
Nurse stabbed at Helen Joseph Hospital
Two men, who had accompanied a patient to the casualty unit, attacked and stabbed a male nurse at Helen Joseph Hospital on Sunday and...
Community pharmacies can help reduce illegal abortions in SA
Community pharmacies can help women safely terminate their pregnancies although most are unaware of this service.
Thousands of women still seek illegal and dangerous backyard...
CDC warning about drug-resistant Shigella
The US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has issued an alert about an observed increase in drug-resistant (XDR) Shigella infections in the...
Ugandan doctors strike after no pay for four months
Doctors in Uganda have downed stethescopes and scalpels over the government’s failure to pay their allowances for four months.
According to general secretary of Senior...
Little relief for embattled health sector in 2023 budget
Additional funds set aside for healthcare in the 2023 budget would be insufficient to counter the effect of cuts announced in 2021, reports BusinessLIVE,...
Major pharmacy group warns against low price-increase threshold
Local factories are heading for devastation if the government doesn’t raise the price-increase threshold for medicines, says Adcock Ingram, as local pharmaceutical manufacturers struggle...
Unplaced junior doctors freed from Gauteng Government contracts
Scores of medical graduates with bursaries, who have still not been placed at state hospitals, cannot do the required community service and are worried...
Third patient HIV-free after virus-resistant cell transplant
A man known as “the Duesseldorf patient” has become the third person declared cured of HIV after receiving a stem cell transplant that also...
Health Department in trouble with regulator over Covid-19 data
SA’s information regulator has referred the national Department of Health to its enforcement committee over its failure to report on how it has dealt...
Africa’s first incompatible kidney transplant at Groote Schuur
A Mitchell’s Plain mother has a new lease of life and a new kidney, thanks to a device which enables incompatible transplant, and allowed...
SA slashes antibiotics in animal farming to reduce AMR
Globally, the overuse and misuse of drugs – especially antibiotics – in the food chain and in the pollution from livestock farming (spills of...
FDA issues alert over weight loss pills
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued an alert advising consumers not to buy or use Alfia Weight Loss Capsules, a product...
Bottled water group slams ‘toxic’ findings
Mineral water producers are fuming over a report claiming that tests had found bottled water to be potentially toxic and loaded with heavy metals,...
Global research group focuses on bats to avoid next pandemic
With Covid-19 still an issue of global concern, for an international group of researchers, the focus is on preventing the next pandemic – and...
WHO drops plans for second phase of Covid-origins probe
Challenges over attempts to conduct crucial studies in China have led to the World Health Organisation (WHO) abandoning the second phase of its scientific...
Life Esidimeni victims, families, paid R405m
More than R400m has been paid to victims of the 2016 Life Esidimeni tragedy, when 144 people died after 1 500 mental health patients...
Tembisa Hospital reviews suspension of visiting hours
The embattled Tembisa Hospital, which last Thursday announced a ban on visiting hours for the emergency and accident units until tensions in the area...
Global race for Marburg vaccine
Marburg virus, initially presenting as a cold before an explosion of symptoms, including organ failure and bleeding from multiple orifices, is spreading through Central...
Africa's first virtual angioedema centre launched in Africa
The University of Cape Town’s Lung Institute, Allergy & Immunology Unit has launched the Sinovuyo South African Virtual Angioedema Centre, the first of its...
Umlazi hospital’s taps flowing again
Piped water began flowing again this past Sunday at Prince Mshiyeni Memorial Hospital in Umlazi, south of Durban, after a fortnight of no water,...
Measles detected in Western Cape
The National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) says four laboratory-confirmed measles cases were reported in Cape Town between 24 January and 17 February but...
Erectile dysfunction drug prices dropping
Treatment for erectile dysfunction (ED) is becoming more affordable in South Africa as the drug prices continue to fall, with increased competition in the market leading...
UK chemists to sell controversial weight loss jab
British chemists will soon be able to sell a controversial weight loss jab used by numerous celebrities, including Elon Musk, and which contains the...
US anti-vax doctor's licence in the balance
The licence of Dr Simone Gold, founder of the controversial America’s Frontline Doctors, is at stake after the Medical Board of California (MBC) filed...
SA stocks of diabetes drug drained after global weight loss frenzy
People with type 2 diabetes in South Africa have been left without one of their cheapest and most effective treatments because doctors are now...
Rise in number of young South Africans seeking help for cannabis abuse
There’s been a significant climb in the numbers of cannabis users seeking substance abuse treatment in South Africa, fanning the flames of an already...