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Sunday, 13 July, 2025
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News Update

NICD: SA should consider vaccinating adolescents against COVID

South Africa should consider vaccinating adolescents against the coronavirus according to the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD), reports Bloomberg. “Given the high prevalence of...

Patient stabs two women doctors in Kimberley hospital casualty

A male patient has stabbed two female doctors in the casualty ward of Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe Hospital in Kimberley, reports TimesLIVE. In September last year,...

100m COVID vaccines will expire in rich countries by Christmas

An “unconscionable” 100m stockpiled COVID vaccines will expire in rich countries by Christmas while poorer nations are starved of supplies, reports The Independent. The research...

UCT and Stellenbosch academics line up behind mandatory COVID-19 vaccines

The Senate of the University of Cape Town (UCT) Senate has voted overwhelmingly to make vaccines mandatory for all staff and students from next...

Intersexuality row: UCT’s VC backs off but specialist says it's a ‘necessary conversation’

Social media criticism of a University of Cape Town seminar on science and intersexuality has drawn an apology from UCT’s vice-chancellor and the abandonment...

Action group calls for withdrawal of ‘catastrophic’ Compensation Fund regulations

The Injured Workers’ Action Group (IWAG) has called for the immediate withdrawal of the “catastrophic” new Compensation Fund regulations, saying they will have prejudicial...

SA doctors want an ‘open disclosure’ culture over medical mistakes

The overwhelming majority of South African doctors (92%) believe healthcare workers must be in an environment where they can admit errors, apologise and learn...

Cancer Alliance: R50bn needed for cancer over next decade

South Africa’s Cancer Alliance has released a groundbreaking report spelling out the anticipated costs of cancer over the next 10 years, reports MedicalBrief. With cases...

Private ambulances shun road accidents over RAF impasse

Private ambulances are refusing to attend to KwaZulu-Natal crash scenes as their battle over non-payments with the Road Accident Fund (RAF) remain unresolved, reports...

Australian regulator bans off-label Ivermectin use as prescriptions climb

Ivermectin has been banned from off-label use in Australia, except by certain specialists, after the number of people using it as aN unproven treatment...

Suicide levels in Malawi and Kenya rocket as pandemic bites

Suicides have surged in Malawi and Kenya with a 72% surge in the first quarter in Malawi and more suicides in Kenya in the...

South Africa’s top’s world misery list in foetal alcohol syndrome

SA again tops an international list of misery, this time with the world’s highest prevalence of foetal alcohol syndrome, reports MedicalBrief. Authorities are concerned about...

US claims that SA’s Cuban doctors may have been trafficked

The 187 Cuban doctors who were deployed to SA to help fight the COVID-19 pandemic may have been forced to do so. An IOL...

Pneumonic plague outbreak in Madagascar

Thirty cases of pneumonic plague have been reported in Madagascar, according to the latest communicable disease threats report from the European Centre for Disease...

NHS trials blood test to detect cancer before symptoms appear

Thousands of people will take part in an NHS trial of a simple blood test that can detect more than 50 types of cancer...

Another key pro-Ivermectin meta-analysis is retracted

Less than a month after the withdrawal of a widely touted preprint claiming that Ivermectin could successfully treat COVID-19, the authors of a meta-analysis...

HPCSA boss suspended one day, unsuspended the next; wants legal costs paid

Newly appointed Health Minister Dr Joe Phaahla has lifted the precautionary suspension of Health Professions Council of SA's registrar and CEO David Motau. Last...

SAMRC/UCT analysis: Pandemic deaths in South Africa approach 300,000

As well as almost 75,000 death directly attributed to the pandemic, most of the 222,000 excess deaths recorded over the past year are probably...

‘Not a single vaccinated person in COVID-19 high care ward’ — Groote Schuur doctor

As Western Cape hospital admissions increase amid the COVID-19 third wave, Dr Marc Mendelson has yet to see a vaccinated person develop COVID pneumonia,...

WHO confirms Marburg virus discovered for first time in West Africa

The World Health Organisation has cofirmed one death in Guinea from Marburg virus, a highly infectious haemorrhagic fever similar to Ebola. It marks the...

Nursing unions: State hospitals like rudderless ships, with acting CEOS

The shortage of appropriately skilled medical leadership at Gauteng hospitals is frustrating nursing trade unions, reports the Sunday Independent. Apparently, despite the province reeling under...

J&J vaccines from Gqeberha plant wing their way to AU states

The first monthly shipment of Johnson & Johnson (J&J) COVID-19 vaccines secured by the African Vaccine Acquisition Trust for African Union (AU) member started...

Wastewater analysis identifies KZN unrest as super-spreader event

The Institute for Water and Wastewater Technology (IWWT) at the Durban University of Technology has identified the recent civil unrest in KwaZulu-Natal as a...

WHO reclassifies India variant as being of global concern

The World Health Organization (WHO) has announced that the triple-mutant B.1.617, known as the India variant, is now classified as a variant of global...

SIU still probing R82m tender linked to Mkhize

The Special Investigating Unit (SIU) said an investigation into a R82m tender issued to a company allegedly linked to Health Minister Zweli Mkhize’s associates...

Budget: No new taxes to fund vaccines but medium-term Health funds slashed

Government estimates that total funding for COVID-19 vaccines could come to R19.3bn, and it is prepared to fund this through the budget and –...

Alcohol- and tobacco-free Europe envisaged in leaked Commission plan

A leaked European Commission plan to combat cancer envisages a tobacco free generation by 2040 with stricter regulation of e-cigarettes, heated tobacco products, as...

UCT report on 'corrosive' factors around suicide of Health Sciences dean

The University of Cape Town released its report into the suicide two years ago of Health Sciences dean, Professor Bongani Mayosi, reports MedicalBrief. The...

NW Health makes U-turn on controversial suspension of Prof Variava

The controversial "precautionary suspension" of one of North West Health’s senior clinicians two weeks ago has been lifted, with Professor Ebrahim Variava returning to...

Oxygen stocks run low in Gauteng as strain mounts

Gauteng doctors say that oxygen stocks are running low and that the testing system, already under strain, is malfunctioning, reports Daily Maverick. Doctors in Gauteng...

Mkhize warns of 'exponential rise' of COVID-19 infections

South Africa's COVID-19 infection rate continues to rise rapidly approaching an expected “exponential” surge during the latter winter months of July and August...

Eastern Cape hospitals crisis: 'Patients fight one another for oxygen'

It has been a very dark week in the Eastern Cape as all the unheeded warnings, the hidden agendas, patchy leadership and years of...

Row over CMS suspension of black medical schemes' merger

The Council of Medical Schemes (CMS) has stepped in to halt the proposed merger of black-owned Sizwe Medical Aid and Hosmed Medical Scheme, in...

Stay-away brings another EC hospital to the brink of collapse

Yet another Eastern Cape hospital is on the brink of collapse because stay-away actions by general assistants, including porters and hospital cleaners, and nurses...

US claimed to have bought most stocks of COVID-19 drugs

The US has bought up virtually all the stocks for the next three months of one of the two drugs proven to work against...

Doctors and nurses desert patients in Eastern Cape hospital

One of the Eastern Cape’s most important rural hospitals has become a ghost facility after doctors and nurses walked out, leaving patients to fend...

COVID-19 among staff and patients forces closure of third private hospital

A Mediclinic facility in Johannesburg has joined two Durban Netcare facilities in closing its doors to new admissions, while KZN Health has given Netcare...

BAT accused of bypassing policy on e-cigarette advertising

British American Tobacco (BAT) is marketing e-cigarettes and heated cigarettes with pictures of attractive models and using hashtags such as “I dare you to...

Lack of clinical trials fuels doctors' reluctance to prescribe cannabis

High expectations among the UK public of the benefits of medicinal cannabis are being disappointed because doctors are unwilling to prescribe it in the...

FDA recommends TB Alliance's MDR-TB treatment regimen

Independent experts of a US Food and Drug Administration advisory panel voted in favour of the not-for-profit TB Alliance’s treatment for drug resistant tuberculosis, as...