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News Update
Aspen SA to halt vaccine output as J&J orders dry up
Aspen Pharmacare, intended to be a game-changer for the continent at the time of its launch in Gqeberha, will stop making COVID-19 vaccines from...
Soweto hospital drags its heels in implementing 2020 recommendations
Soweto’s Bheki Mlangeni Hospital has not yet implemented some of the recommendations made in a report compiled after an investigation in 2020. Among other...
Africa CDC in discussions to obtain monkeypox vaccines for the continent
Africa’s public health agency says the continent of 1.3bn people still does not have a single dose of a monkeypox vaccine, but discussions were...
Officials fear spread after first polio case in US in nearly 10 years, and UK cases rise
In America’s first confirmed case of the disease in a decade, an adult resident in New York City, has been diagnosed with polio after...
Why SA women still seek risky backstreet abortions
Illegal abortion and the dumping of babies has always been an issue in South Africa, despite free, legal medical abortions being available, with women...
Discovery cushions blow of 2022 premium increases for its members
Discovery Health, which has thus far deferred its annual increases, will finally push up its 2022 prices but these will only come into effect...
Zimbabwean measles outbreak kills 150 children
The Zimbabwe Government will step up its vaccination campaign after a measles outbreak that has killed at least 157 children, with more than 2...
State launches organ donation awareness campaign
The National Department of Health, concerned that many people lose their lives due to the unavailability of organs that could save them, has launched...
SA healthcare on collision course with staffing crisis and growing disease burden
With a quarter of South Africans over 50 conservatively projected to be suffering from one or more non-communicable diseases (NCD) by 2040, the country...
CMS caps medical aids price hikes at 5.7% for 2023
The Council for Medical Schemes (CMS) issued a guidance note last week, saying medical aids should keep 2023 price increases reasonable.
“In the context of...
Medical schemes' NHI transition will take 'years to decades' – Crisp
The Treasury has approved R30m of this financial year’s National Health Insurance scheme budget for the salaries of 44 technical positions for the NHI,...
Nursing council denies preventing private hospitals from training nurses
The South African Nursing Council (SANC) has said accusations that it restricted private hospitals from training nurses “were factually incorrect, untrue and irresponsible”, after...
Uncovering the 200 suspicious Tembisa Hospital contracts flagged by Deokaran
Three weeks before she was murdered, Babita Deokaran identified more than 200 “possibly fraudulent” companies doing business with Tembisa Hospital that she felt needed...
First SA death directly linked to vaccine, but 37.5m others safe, says Sahpra
One person has died after having the Janssen or Johnson & Johnson vaccine, said the South African Health Products and Regulatory Authority (Sahpra) last...
Complex private health system more complicated than state's – Crisp
Neither of South Africa’s two parallel health systems, public and private, functions well, says Dr Nicholas Crisp, deputy director-general in the Health Department, although...
Amended Critical Skills List a short-term fix to shortages, say health institutions
The revised version of Home Affairs Minister Aaron Motsoaledi’s Critical Skills List, which now includes numerous medical specialists, nurses and doctors, has been met...
Fauci says monkeypox spread ‘very reminiscent’ of early days of HIV
In late spring, when data were starting to show the monkeypox virus was “efficiently” passing from person to person in the US, Dr Anthony...
Partial TRIPS waiver for COVID-19 vaccines – finally
Intellectual property restrictions on the manufacture and production of COVID-19 vaccines have been partially waived for the next five years, after an agreement was...
R30m state-of-the art upgrade of paediatric unit at Mthatha’s St Mary’s
A newly upgraded and state-of-the-art paediatric unit, which can now accommodate 32 patients, was unveiled at Life St Mary’s Private Hospital in Mthatha last...
SA’s fertility rate likely to drop since COVID, says Stats SA
South Africa might see a drop in its fertility rate, resulting not just from the COVID-19 pandemic but also the accompanying economic downturn, says...
Malawi blocks nurses from taking jobs abroad
Malawian nurses, who are applying for jobs abroad due to the country’s huge unemployment rate, have asked President Lazarus Chakwera to intervene and prevent...
Jump in Africa's life expectancy but still below world average – WHO report
While healthy life expectancy in Africa has increased 10 years between the turn of the century and 2019, the latest World Health Organisation (WHO)...
Eradicating malaria in southern Africa requires collaborative effort
Targeting the elimination of malaria across southern Africa will require collaboration and teamwork, as well as effective implementation policies and greater community awareness, said...
Mediclinic and Remgro reach agreement on buyout offer
Mediclinic, South Africa’s most valuable hospital group, has reached an agreement with Remgro, its biggest shareholder, on a buyout offer that values its shares...
Gauteng health boss ignored Deokaran’s plea for probe, claims acting HoD
Gauteng Health boss Lerato Madyo lied when she told Babita Deokaran that her discovery of R850m in dubious Tembisa Hospital payments had been bumped...
Government slashes already under-funded health budget
South Africans using state health facilities should gird their loins for the government’s planned and extensive cuts to public health budgets, Wits adjunct professor...
Nursing Council resists training of new nurses, despite dire shortage, HASA conference told
Despite the chronic shortage of and desperate need for more qualified nurses, the SA Nursing Council (SANC) is stubbornly blocking the training of new...
South Africa ‘on the cusp’ of a major measles outbreak, say experts
Some local experts fear small measles outbreaks recently reported in Gauteng may be precursors to much larger outbreaks. This comes after recently released survey...
Critical staff shortage affects East London’s Frere Hospital surgeries
East London’s tertiary Frere Hospital, which serves nearly half – 2.8m – of the province’s 6m plus population, has reached crisis point, says a...
Gauteng Health denies written warning issued to whistle-blower doctor
Dr Tim de Maayer, the paediatrician who spilled the beans in a whistle-blowing letter about the shocking conditions at the Rahima Moosa Mother and...
Fort Hare speech therapy students face extra year after alleged 'low standard course'
Students studying speech-language therapy at Fort Hare University, who have accused the institution of offering a low-standard course barring them from graduating, have been...
Africa fears monkeypox vaccine side-lining as disease spreads
While monkeypox has spread to around 16,000 people in more than 70 countries, with the first deaths reported in Spain and India, and been...
Doctor commits suicide after being hounded by anti-vaxxers
Austrian medical representatives have called for greater protection for doctors after a GP, who faced months of violent threats from anti-vaccination activists and pandemic...
Public Protector to probe health, safety hazards at Phoenix mortuary
The Public Protector is launching an “own-initiative systemic investigation” into the Phoenix mortuary in Durban, where, as reported in MedicalBrief last week, there had been...
Psychiatric patients go hungry and barefoot at Eastern Cape hospital
Komani Psychiatric Hospital in the Eastern Cape has been accused of gross mistreatment of patients – that they go to bed hungry and share...
Western Cape legislature to set up TB caucus by month-end
More than 12 months after a proposal by the South African TB Caucus (SATBC), the provincial legislature has agreed to set up a tuberculosis...
Civil society report on medication collections at North West health facilities
Data collected by civil organisation Ritshidze, in the second edition of the North West State of Health report, said there were still problems in...
Medical interns from African countries struggle after removal from SA critical skills list
Frustrated and fed-up foreign graduates who studied medicine in SA and now can’t get placed for internships after Home Affairs’ removal of doctors from...
Early deaths of epileptics rising: SA Neurological Association
The risk of premature death in people with epilepsy is up to three times higher than in the general population, with these sudden, unexpected...
WHO, Unicef flag worst decline in childhood immunisations in 30 years
Global childhood vaccination rates experienced the largest decline in about three decades amid COVID-19 disruptions, with 25m children missing out on at least one...