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News Update
Minister in talks with funders to address funding shortfalls
Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi said talks had begun with local and international foundations on funding to fill the budget shortfall in its HIV/Aids treatment...
Helen Joseph Hospital woes symptom of a bigger problem
The findings of an investigation by the Health Ombudsman into conditions at the Helen Joseph Hospital have confirmed some allegations by former broadcaster Thomas...
Gauteng Health teetering under financial strain
A health worker has described a “point of no return” in Gauteng’s public health services as prolonged freezing of posts and the potential loss...
Provinces owe billions to struggling National Health Laboratory Service
The National Health Laboratory Service is owed R8.9bn in unpaid accounts by various provinces – while also battling staff shortages and huge backlogs in...
Scrap private healthcare tariff plan, government urged
The government’s proposal for a collective bargaining scheme for private healthcare providers has been described as flawed and unworkable, with calls for the plan...
No bail for male nurse charged with raping teen patient
A male nurse from Ekurhuleni has been denied bail after being accused of raping a 17-year-old patient and sexually assaulting a 19-year-old man.
He told...
Teen footballer dies after being turned away from clinic
The family of Katlego Ledwaba (16) and members of his football club in Zebediela, Limpopo, are blaming nurses at the local clinic for his...
SAMRC joint report calls for coal-power phase out
The SA Medical Research Council (SAMRC) has called for coal-fired power stations to be phased out, after the release of a 10-year study finding...
WHO probes causes of DRC mystery illness
An ongoing investigation into an unexplained illness cluster in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) province of Equateur suggests chemical poisoning or rapid-onset bacterial...
eSwatini’s snakebite success on shaky ground as US funding ends
Remarkable progress against snakebite in eSwatini has been abruptly curtailed by the Trump administration’s funding cuts to US foreign aid, and the closure of...
MS patients in England in line for take-at-home pill
Thousands of NHS patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) in England are to become the first in Europe to benefit from a major roll-out of...
Nurses ignore teen mum who gives birth to twins alone
An Ekurhuleni hospital has denied ignoring the pleas for help from a 15-year-old girl who gave birth to twins on her own. Neither of...
US state wins lawsuit against China for hiding knowledge about Covid
China had deliberately concealed knowledge of the emerging coronavirus in the pandemic’s crucial early days and used the extra time to stockpile protective equipment,...
Snake invasion closes Hillcrest clinic
Multiple snake sightings – including of a black mamba – at a clinic in Ngcolosi, near Hillcrest, have raised safety concerns and forced it...
Fed-up foreign doctors embark on hunger strike in France
Hundreds of medical staff with non-EU diplomas have started a three-day hunger strike in France to protest against how they are being treated, and...
Screening for anal cancer – SA’s most ignored disease – urgent
Despite South Africa’s status as home to the world’s largest population with HIV, the country has made no progress in addressing anal cancer screening...
Private hospitals take legal action against NHI Act
The Hospital Association of SA (Hasa) has asked the Gauteng High Court (Pretoria) to declare the National Health Insurance Act unconstitutional and unlawful and...
Government must take the lead, say scientists and activists
Scientists and healthcare activists have been unanimous in expressing frustration over government's slow response to the funding cuts, and in urging a rethink on...
HIV under-reported as cause of death – MRC study
Doctors are significantly under-reporting HIV as the cause of death on official forms and inadvertently undermining the government’s ability to monitor the effect of...
SA stocks of snake, scorpion and spider anti-venom dry up
The National Health Laboratory Service has admitted that construction work at its specialised facility has halted all manufacturing of snake, scorpion and spider anti-venom,...
Mystery illness in DRC kills more than 50 people
An unknown illness has killed more than 50 people in the northwest of the Democratic Republic of Congo, including a group of children who...
Hope for blood test to ID 50 cancers
The makers of a blood screening test that is able to detect 50 types of cancers say it could be rolled out by the...
Measles jab a personal choice, says Kennedy after child’s death
After an unvaccinated Texas child died from measles this week – the first US death in a decade from the disease – vaccine sceptic...
Boy (4) dies of Ebola in Uganda as US slashes help
The Trump administration has cancelled at least four of the five contracts with organisations that helped manage the Ebola outbreak in Uganda – which...
Africa’s medical system risks ‘collapse’, warns health leader
Health services in Africa are at risk of “collapse in the next few years” due to soaring chronic diseases, a senior public health leader has warned.
Foreign...
US university loses patent fight with SA generics company
The University of California’s (UC) governing board has suffered a legal setback in South Africa after a High Court revoked its patent over a...
Boy (5) killed in hyperbaric chamber explosion
A five-year-old Michigan boy was killed last week while he was inside a hyperbaric chamber that exploded, killing him instantly.
CBS News reports that when...
FDA expands access for schizophrenia drug
The US Food & Drug Administration (FDA) has eliminated a longstanding requirement that patients taking clozapine, an anti-psychotic used for treatment-resistant schizophrenia, to submit...
Sweden may green-light home abortions
A Swedish Government-commissioned investigation has recommended a legislative change that would allow home abortions without requiring patients to visit a clinic for their first...
Mpox cases rise to 28 in SA
The National Health Department has announced that three new cases of mpox have been confirmed in South Africa – all from Ekurhuleni.
The first case,...
Ugandan intern doctors angry over plan to end sponsorships
A planned policy by the Ugandan Ministry of Health to stop sponsoring recently graduated intern doctors has sparked widespread unrest among medical students, supported...
'Piecemeal' HMI implementation won't bring down costs, say experts
More than five years after the Health Market Inquiry’s final report was published, the government has taken its first steps towards acting on the...
Commission’s probe into insulin market ‘long overdue’
Health activists have welcomed the Competition Commission’s announcement that it will launch an investigation into two pharmaceutical giants regarding potential anti-competitive practices in the...
Hospital Covid renovation contracts ‘illegal, unlawful’ – Tribunal
The Special Investigating Unit (SIU) has declared decisions by the Gauteng Departments of Health and Infrastructure Development enabling 12 companies to earn R93m from...
UNAIDS supports SA's HIV medicines drive
UNAIDS said it welcomes South Africa’s plans to put an additional 1.1m people with HIV on life-saving treatment by the end of 2025 as...
NHS warning after deaths tied to obesity drugs
The medical director of the NHS has warned that 82 people in the UK have died after taking drugs for diabetes and weight loss,...
Police hunt for hijackers who raped EMS worker
Western Cape police are intensifying their search for seven men who hijacked an ambulance and raped one of the emergency medical services (EMS) staff...
Girl (12) on ventilator in critical condition from vaping habit
A 12-year-old girl in Thailand who vaped for two years – without her parents’ knowledge – has been diagnosed with severe lung damage and...
Hand, foot and mouth disease spreads to East London
The Eastern Cape Department of Health has reported 13 cases of hand, foot and mouth disease (HFMD) cases in the Buffalo City metropolitan municipality,...
Warning about potential air travel effects on insulin pumps
An alert has been issued by Medtronic about possible fluctuations in insulin pump delivery during changes in air pressure during, for example, aeroplane take-offs...