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News Update
Global strategy to combat hepatitis C
Worldwide leaders have come together in Geneva, Switzerland at the World Health Organisation to begin to develop a five-year strategy to combat hepatitis C.
SA nursing shortage drives health costs
SA's critical shortage of nurses has serious implications for the implementation of a nurse-dependent National Health Insurance(NHI) system, but also appears to be a significant cost driver for the private hospital sector, according to a Mediclinic submission to an private healthcare costs inquiry.
Investment in 'neglected' tropical diseases
Scaling up investment to tackle leprosy, dengue fever, sleeping sickness and other neglected tropical diseases would improve the health and well-being of more than 1.5bn people, says a new World Health Organisation report.
R37m for university cancer research units
The SA Medical Research Council has committed R37m to three universities to establish research units geared towards specific types of cancer.
WHO call for 'smart syringe' use
Smart syringes that break after one use should be used for injections by 2020, is the call from the World Health Organisation (WHO). Reusing syringes leads to more than 2m people being infected with diseases including HIV and hepatitis each year.
Toxic enemas to 'cure' autism, malaria
Some parents are apparently trying to cure their kids autism – by giving them a 'miracle' solution enema in order to flush the vaccines out. In SA the quack product has been touted as a malarial cure.
HIV vaccine trial starts in SA
An NIH-led safety and efficacy trial of an experimental HIV vaccine regimen has begun in SA, with experimental vaccines from Sanofi Pasteur and Novartis.
Generics agreement on paediatric HIV med
The Medicines Patent Pool (MPP) has announced a generics licence with Merck for paediatric formulations of raltegravir, a key medicine approved for children living with HIV.
Schools open in Liberia after Ebola
Schools have reopened in Liberia for the first time in six months after being closed as a precaution against Ebola.
Call to reinstate SA's HIV/Aids committee
SA civil society groups, including the Desmond Tutu HIV Foundation, have renewed their demand that the Joint Committee on HIV and Aids be reinstated. The committee, initially set up in 2012, was disbanded in 2014.
UK guidelines: No safe drinking in pregnancy
Updated Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists guidelines say women trying for a baby and those in the first three months of pregnancy should not drink any alcohol.It had previously said a couple of glasses of wine a week was acceptable.
Changing the vaccination rhetoric
Some US public health authorities are retooling their vaccination messages, toning down sometimes strident rhetoric, in order to convince often affluent anti-vaccination families.
Hopes of a wholly artificial polio vaccine
An international team is to try to develop a wholly artificial vaccine to combat polio. The hope is that the new approach can address some shortcomings in an existing vaccine, and so help eliminate polio altogether.
UK obese refusing treatment may lose benefits
A UK Conservative government will attempt to ensure that tens of thousands of people who claim welfare on the grounds of obesity, drug or alcohol addiction are 'incentivised' to go back to work. Those who refuse treatment could lose their welfare benefits.SAMA accuses hospital groups of ‘collusion’
SA Medical Association (SAMA), representing more than 7,000 doctors, slammed the three biggest hospital groups, Mediclinic, Life and Netcare, and medical aid administrator Discovery Health. The association claimed that they colluded in deciding which treatments would be available in hospitals.
DoH pushes on patent meds price benchmarking
SA’s Department of Health has has instructed multinational drug firms that make patented medicines to disclose their prices in other countries. Business Day reports that this is the 'first concrete step towards implementing a mandatory international benchmarking system'.
SA's private hospitals blamed for high costs
Dominance by private hospital groups and their cosy relationships with specialist doctors and medical schemes, coupled with gaps in regulation and a lack of transparency, have been named in submissions to the Competition Commission as major causes of expensive private healthcare in SA.
Cancer bodies slam Johns Hopkins study
International cancer bodies have slammed a Johns Hopkins study suggesting that two-thirds of cancers were caused by chance and therefore could not be prevented, saying it is misleading and potentially harmful.
Increase in UK cancer diagnoses predicted
One in two people will be diagnosed with cancer in their lifetime, according to Cancer Research UK, up from previous estimates of one in three. The local estimate is that one in five South Africans will develop cancer in their lifetime.
African Centre for Disease Control mooted
SA Health Minister Dr Aaron Motsoaledi has called on big mining houses to help set up an African Centre for Disease Control (CDC) to help fight Ebola, as well as do more to combat TB, silicosis and other mining-related illnesses.
Inquiry rejects claims on NHS death rates
A report by the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges has dismissed high-profile claims that 45% more patients die in English hospitals than US hospitals, because of weaknesses in National Health Service care, including poorer out-of-hours GP services, long waiting lists and bed shortages.
28 die in EC summer initiation season
At least 28 boys died as a result of injuries sustained during the summer initiation season, the Eastern Cape Health Department said.
Call on UK doctors to declare financial interests
The financial interests of all UK doctors should be made public, the British Medical Journal has said, after an investigation revealed large financial incentives have been offered to doctors by private healthcare companies in exchange for referring patients to their hospitals.
First successful newborn transplant in UK
UK doctors have carried out the first successful organ donation from a newborn in that country. The baby’s kidneys were transplanted and her liver cells were transfused.
WHO Contingency fund to confront epidemics
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has announced it will create a contingency fund and an emergency workforce to respond quickly to crises after strong criticism of the agency's delay in confronting the Ebola epidemic.
SA groups lobby for cheaper 'miracle' drug
Advocacy groups are lobbying to get Gilead Sciences''miracle' hepatitis C drug Solvaldi onto the SA market at substantially reduced cost.
Karoo fracking could cause cancer – CANSA
Carcinogenic chemicals used in fracking could lead to an epidemic of cancer in the Karoo, says Cancer Association of SA (CANSA) acting head of research Dr Carl Albrecht.
Disease risk on the agenda at Davos
The risks posed by pandemic threats such as deadly strains of flu and drug-resistant superbugs have shot up the agenda of global security issues at this year's World Economic Forum in Davos.
China reports growing HIV infections
China has diagnosed 104 000 new cases of HIV/Aids in 2014, a 14% increase on 2013. Chinese state-run media said that half a million people – less than 0.04% of the population – were living with the disease or the virus, although hundreds of thousands more are thought to be undiagnosed.
Drug firms 'to blame' in antibiotic resistance
The CEO of Dutch DSM Sinochem Pharmaceuticals says that although doctors are usually blamed for bacterial resistance because of over-prescribing, lax procedures at drugs companies are the real cause.
Plan to tackle UK's persistent TB problem
British health authorities have launched a £10m plan to tackle the country's persistent tuberculosis (TB) problem. UK TB rates are nearly five times those in the US.
SA community service doctors sit and wait
About 180 of SA's community service doctors are sitting at home waiting for placements in hospitals, despite dire staff shortages.
SA Health warns over foreign qualifications
SA’s Health Department has advised students wanting to study medicine overseas to ensure that the qualifications of their prospective institutions are recognised here. This comes as more than 13 medical graduates were barred from practising after graduating from universities in China, Turkey and Mauritius.
Dipping in the African gene pool
The African gene pool is so diverse that SA researchers are now using this unique genetic material in the effort to find a cure for HIV/Aids.
Combination Alzheimers’ pill approved
The US has approved a combination pill called Namzaric for moderate to severe Alzheimer’s disease in people already being treated with both drugs, Namenda and Aricept.
High insurance scares off SA specialists
Rocketing medical insurance costs are scaring off SA specialists, with only three paediatric surgeons in the country and all of them working in the public sector.
Deputy-minister opposes decriminalisation
Moves to decriminalise s ex work may come to nothing. SA's Justice Deputy Minister John Jeffery told a meeting in Johannesburg to address HIV infection among sex workers that decriminalising sex work could have negative consequences for the country.
SA's NHLS in 'critical condition'
SA’s National Health Laboratory Service (NHLS) is in debt to the tune of R5bn, is leaking skilled staff, and many of the employees who remain are demoralised.
SANDF is bleeding medical staff
SA’s military is losing doctors to the national Department of Health, the private sector and to other countries at an alarming rate. City Press...
Australia luring UK medical staff
A survey found that no fewer than half of the UK’s National Health Service nurses had thought about quitting their job, with many considering...