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News Update
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...
Zimbabwe the first to green-light injectable HIV prevention drug
In a first for Africa, Zimbabwe’s Medicines Control Authority has approved the long-acting injectable cabotegravir (CAB-LA) as a pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) for HIV prevention,...
‘DNA project’ nails serial killers, rapists, in KZN
Senior prosecutors in KwaZulu-Natal are scouring DNA reports to identify serial rapists, with Elaine Zungu, the province’s Director of Public Prosecutions, saying DNA testing...
Sharia scheme for Discovery Health Muslim members
Discovery Health members can now have their health administered in a sharia scheme at no extra cost and with no impact on their benefits,...
India vaccine-maker destroys 100m expired COVID doses
The Serum Institute of India (SII), the world’s largest vaccine manufacturer, dumped 100m doses of its COVID-19 vaccine after they expired, said CEO Adar...
US teenage suicides up by 29% in past 10 years, finds report
Suicides had jumped 29% among American adolescents aged 15 to 19 over the previous decade, rising from 8.4 per 100 000 during the 2012-2014...
Health ombud warns that worsening state health facilities won’t make NHI grade
South Africa’s health ombud has warned Parliament that government health facilities won’t make the grade to provide services under National Health Insurance (NHI) because...
Medical schemes’ racial profiling inquiry report delayed
The findings of a high-profile inquiry into alleged racial profiling by medical schemes and administrators has been delayed over an apparent impasse between the...