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News Update
FDA and Fauci eyeing a second COVID-19 booster in coming months
US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) officials are “very carefully” considering second booster doses of the mRNA COVID-19 vaccines, while Anthony Fauci, the US...
Zim health sector workers boycott duties citing incapacitation
Zimbabwe’s troubled health sector is headed for paralysis after doctors, radiographers, nurses and other specialists have boycotted on-call and night duties, citing incapacitation., reports...
HPCSA hikes registration fees by up to 13%
The annual fees due to the Health Professions Council of SA, as well as fees regarding registration, examinations and restoration to the register, have...
South Africa's health sector in the 2022 budget
Despite a commodities-fuelled revenue bonanza of R182bn and the winding down of COVID-29 related expenditure, Health expenditure increased only marginally, reports MedicalBrief. The lack...
With 7m doses set to expire, DOH tries to boost sluggish vaccination campaign
With a third of South Africa’s vaccination doses expiring midyear and less than half of adults vaccinated, the national Department of Health is trying...
NICD: No evidence that municipal water is source of typhoid outbreak
There is no evidence that contaminated municipal water is implicated in the recent outbreak of typhoid in South Africa and the spreading of such...
Malawi declares outbreak following Africa’s first wild polio case in five years
Malawi has declared an outbreak of polio after a child in the countryʼs capital, Lilongwe, developed the disease in the first case of the...
SAHPRA approves COVID-19 pill but only private patients will benefit
Medicines’ regulator SAHPRA has granted drug-maker MSD emergency authorisation to import its coronavirus pill molnupiravir, the first treatment that high-risk patients can potentially take...
Mogoeng stirs controversy with latest vaccine remarks
Retired chief justice Mogoeng Mogoeng, in hot water previously for controversial comments about the COVID-19 vaccine, has once again come under fire for a...
Calls for improved hospital safety following hijacking and attempted rape of doctor
The SA Medical Association (SAMA) has again called for better, more stringent security measures at public sector hospitals after a doctor was hijacked and...
Anaesthetist’s name omitted from memorial at Netcare helicopter crash site
When a memorial was unveiled yesterday (Wednesday 23 February) and tribute was paid to the crew that died a year ago in a Netcare...
SAMA chair Dr Angelique Coetzee resigns
Dr Angelique Coetzee, the chairperson of the South African Medical Association (SAMA) board, has stepped down from the position with immediate effect.
Previously, the SAMA...
Hospital Association ‘perplexed’ by omission of medical skills from Critical Skills List
Hospital Association of SA Chief Executive Officer, Dr Dumisani Bomela, says HASA is “perplexed” by the omission of medical skills, in particular nurses and...
1 Military Hospital: Top officials liable for R156m in irregular expenditure
Despite more than R411m being spent on the Department of Public Works’ repair and maintenance programme at One Military Hospital (Pretoria) between 2006 and...
Report exposes 'widespread and overwhelming' racial discrimination in NHS
Racism, discrimination and poor ethnicity data have for years “negatively impacted” the health of black, Asian and minority ethnic people in England and radical...
MRC: Pandemic deaths approach 300,000 mark, triple SA’s official tally
When excess deaths are factored in, a SA Medical Research Council (SAMRC) calculates that early 300,000 people have died from COVID-19 in South Africa...
Turkish man tests positive for COVID for 14 straight months; remains isolated
When Muzaffer Kayasan first caught COVID-19, he thought he was destined to die as he already had leukaemia. Fourteen months and 78 straight positive...
Eastern Cape Health owes R3bn, causing unpaid contractors to halt services
Unpaid service providers at Eastern Cape hospitals have halted their services, putting patients’ lives at risk.
Provincial health said it owed creditors more than R3bn,...
Scepticism from EU experts over abolition of all COVID curbs in England
Last week Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced plans to abolish all COVID regulations in England, including the need to isolate after testing positive, from...
UK’s Chief Medical Officers issue first exercise guidelines for disabled children
Britain’s chief medical officers have recommended that disabled children and young people, who are often overlooked during the COVID pandemic, should do 20 minutes...
WHO chief calls for Trips waiver and praises SA’s vaccine development project
On a high-level visit to Cape Town this past weekend (11/12 February) with a delegation comprising European diplomats and South African ministers, the World Health...
New Critical Skills List records no shortage of medical skills in South Africa
It’s official, writes Peta Lee for MedicalBrief. There is no shortage of medical skills in South Africa. The latest Home Affairs Critical Skills List,...
SAHPRA comes under pressure over illegality of home testing
Rapid home tests for COVID antibodies are used widely in the UK, the US and many European countries, as they are cheap, easy to...
KZN Health’s turnaround plan labelled an ‘attack on lives’
A cost-cutting plan drawn up by the financially struggling KZN Department of Health has been criticised by the SA Medical Association (SAMA), labour parties,...
SAHPRA approves Chinese COVID vaccine Sinopharm for use in SA
The SA Health Products Regulatory Authority (SAHPRA) has registered Chinese COVID-19 vaccine Sinopharm, effectively clearing the way for its use in the country.
In a...
Gauteng Health fails to pay full January salaries to dozens of doctors
Despite working long hours and over the 80-hour overtime limit for the month, dozens of doctors working for Gauteng Health did not receive their...
New penalties for those who refuse to be vaccinated
The negative implications of being unvaccinated are manifesting in unexpected ways, writes MedicalBrief. In the US, a patient has been refused a heart transplant...
UK government backs down on mandatory Covid vaccinations for NHS staff
A contentious legal requirement for frontline NHS workers in England to be fully vaccinated against COVID by 1 April, and to have their first...
CGE retracts on COVID vaccine's supposed effect on women’s reproductive health
In an about-turn, the Commission for Gender Equality (CGE) has withdrawn its statement that COVID-19 vaccines have an impact on women’s reproductive health, following...
NHS to use genetic analysis to match more cancer patients to clinical trials
In a significant breakthrough, thousands of NHS cancer patients, who have exhausted all other options, are being offered liquid biopsy blood tests to match...
Donations plea to fund Groote Schuur’s 6,000 surgery patients’ backlog
A Surgery Recovery Project has been launched by Groote Schuur Hospital in partnership with humanitarian group Gift of the Givers to raise R10m to...
Landmark CCMA decision on dismissal of employee refusing vaccination
In what appears to be a landmark decision, the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) has ruled that a company’s decision to fire...
Accepting the virus: Europe under pressure to shift its COVID-19 strategy
The European Union is under pressure from some member countries like Spain and Portugal – as well as from growing population resistance to onerous...
Most State of Disaster restrictions 'unfit for purpose', say SA's top health experts
End all curfews, school and outdoor activity restrictions, and do away compulsory mask-wearing outdoors. And stop the “hygiene theatre” at many workplaces, venues and...
Only one paediatric ICU in UK is fully staffed with specialist nurses – PICANet report
The UK’s paediatric intensive care units (PICU) that are struggling with severe shortages of specialist nurses, with only one PICU in the entire country...
Latest CDC COVID-19 travel risk list: South Africa more dangerous than Zim and Mozambique
The US Centres For Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has issued its updated list of COVID-19 Travel Recommendations by Destinations. South Africa is on the...
Soon-Shiong launches new vaccine manufacturing plant in SA
President Cyril Ramaphosa has given weight to the policy of vaccine self-reliance in SA and Africa broadly with the launch of the NantSA vaccine...
Strict new vaccine law and hefty penalties approved by French government
Franceʼs parliament approved a law on Sunday (16 January) that will exclude unvaccinated people from all restaurants, sports arenas and other venues, in government...
Warnings of ‘catastrophe’ as 80,000 unvaccinated NHS workers face dismissal
More than 80,000 unvaccinated “patient-facing” staff —about 6% of the NHS’s workforce — face dismissal at the end of March if not vaccinated by...
Monthly fines for unvaccinated over-60 Greeks
Greece has imposed a vaccine mandate for people 60 and older as a spike in infections exerts pressure on local hospitals, where most of...