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News Update
European warning that two strains of Omicron from SA are ’variants of concern’
The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) has issued a warning that two strains of Omicron from South Africa have been labelled...
Board members unpaid for seven months despite E Cape Health’s R17m budget
Despite sitting on a R17m stipendiary budget, the Eastern Cape Health Department has not paid one cent of this to hospitals’ and clinics’ board...
NHI will ‘require time and excellent leadership’ – Discovery CEO Adrian Gore
A one-size-fits-all National Health Insurance (NHI) fund would only be palatable if it provided current levels of medical scheme benefits for all – which...
North Korea admits to ‘explosive’ outbreak of COVID, then claims a miraculous recovery
Last week, North Korea, one of only two countries in the world without a COVID-19 vaccination campaign, reported its first COVID-related deaths, while hundreds...
CDC expresses concern over monkeypox outbreak in UK
An outbreak of the rare tropical disease monkeypox has global health authorities concerned and UK health chiefs, where the first case was diagnosed, considering...
FDA authorises Pfizer COVID booster for children aged 5-11
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has given the go-ahead to a booster shot of Pfizer-BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine for children aged 5 to...
NICD: First case of Lassa fever in SA in 15 years linked to Nigeria traveller
The National Institute of Communicable Diseases (NICD) has reported the first case of Lassa fever in South Africa since 2007.
A man with an extensive...
WHO plans sugar taxes and restrictions on marketing unhealthy foods to children
The introduction of a “sugar tax” on sweetened beverages and restrictions on marketing unhealthy food to children are just two measures planned by the...
R8.8bn donated to South Africa’s Aids, TB and malaria programmes
South Africa has received a massive boost in its efforts to eradicate HIV/Aids, TB and malaria, after receiving aa three-year, R8.8bn donation from the...
Pig heart used in US transplant may have been infected with porcine virus
Transplant specialists believe that the pig heart transplanted into a US patient earlier this year in a landmark operation carried a porcine virus that...
SA’s doctor shortage has worsened substantially in past 3 years
South Africa has a critical shortage of doctors, with less than one doctor to treat 1,000 patients, Minister of Health Dr Joe Phaahla revealed...
Another blow to Aspen’s SA plant: WHO has no plans to buy its vaccines
The World Health Organization (WHO) and its COVID-19 vaccine partner Gavi have no immediate plans to buy shots made by Aspen Pharmacare, the two...
WHO chief: China’s zero-COVID policy is ‘not sustainable’
The head of the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Tuesday (11 May) that China’s zero-tolerance COVID-19 policy is not sustainable, in rare public...
Doctors Without Borders grapples with charges of racism in its ranks
Doctors Without Borders (MSF), renowned for providing medical aid in some of the most challenging emergency zones around the world, is grappling with another...
Omicron: 9 symptoms affecting fully vaccinated; 2 new early signs of infection
Fainting and fatigue are two warning signs of Omicron infection – even if you have been vaccinated, while a cough, runny nose and headache...
Crisp: Vaccine apathy means SA may have to destroy COVID-19 doses
South Africa is scaling back its COVID-19 vaccination drive and may have to destroy doses because of a lack of demand from citizens as...
New dashboard lets public track COVID levels in local sewerage systems
South Africa’s COVID-19 positivity rate, the percentage of tests that indicate confirmed coronavirus infections, rose by 5% between Monday and Tuesday to 23%, and...
Groote Schuur is first hospital in SA to perform corneal neurotisation
Groote Schuur Hospital last week became the first South African institute to perform the complex ophthalmological procedure corneal neurotisation, reports TimesLIVE.
After suffering a stroke...
Dirco loses appeal bid over Cuban donation interdict
The SA government has lost a bid to appeal a ruling granting AfriForum permission to interdict it from donating R50m to Cuba. The Gauteng...
Police officer and two patients dead after Cape Town hospital shooting
The gunman involved in a fatal shooting in New Somerset Hospital in Cape Town last Saturday (7 May) is a former police officer, who...
Charlotte Maxeke casualty unit reopens but for arranged transfers only
After a prolonged closure, the casualty unit at Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital has finally reopened, but the hospital’s critical trauma and emergency unit...
Racial split on perceptions of COVID-19 risk as most US restrictions fall away
Black and Hispanic Americans are more concerned about the risks of catching COVID-19 than their white counterparts, with a much higher percentage of them...
Africa’s first vaccine plant faces closure after Aspen receives no orders
Africa’s first COVID-19 vaccination plant, established by South African pharmaceutical manufacturer Aspen at Gqeberha, may close because it hasn’t received a single order, despite...
SA tap water quality is declining, with DoWS warnings to boil drinking water
The government’s latest Blue Drop report reveals an alarming decline in water quality and management processes, with 23% of municipalities ranked at critical risk...
India pre-empts WHO: Claims ‘only’ 475,000 excess deaths in 2020
India registered about 475,000 more total deaths in 2020 than the previous year, government data released months ahead of schedule on Tuesday showed, as...
US paediatricians’ association to bin outdated race-based guidelines
Outdated, racist and flawed guidelines are to be binned by the American Academy of Paediatrics (AAP), which has followed, for years, flawed guidance linking...
40% of US adults know someone who died of COVID
With the USA poised to reach the milestone this month of 1m official deaths from the COVID-19 pandemic, 40% of American adults say they...
Crisp: Unjabbed will ‘bear the brunt’, as infections rise and vaccinations stall
Health Department Deputy Director-General Nicholas Crisp has criticised those who refuse to get their jabs, saying the “unvaccinated will bear the brunt” of the...
BLSA: Vigilance needed over State’s use of new COVID-19 powers
Business Leadership SA (BLSA) CEO Busi Mavuso says the organisation intends being vigilant in ensuring that the state’s new COVID-19 powers are used appropriately,...
NICD statistics: COVID cases rise as two Omicron sub-lineages spread across SA
Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal are being hit hard by escalating COVID infections at the moment, while another five provinces are also seeing a rise in...
Phaahla: Welcome Back strategy to reinstate abandoned HIV treatments
Health Minister Dr Joe Phaahla says there are standard operating procedures in all nine provinces to compel patients who abandoned their anti-retroviral treatment (ART)...
WHO concern over global outbreak of acute paediatric hepatitis
A World Health Organization (WHO) global alert has been issued after a mystery strain of severe hepatitis , which has been reported in 169...
Guns now beat cars as the leading cause of death for American youth
For the first time, firearm-related injuries surpassed motor vehicle crashes as the leading cause of death for children and teenagers in the US in...
Tests and wastewater analyses signal a possible 5th wave in SA
A rise in test positivity rates and the presence of the SARS-CoV-2 virus in the country’s wastewater are sounding the alarm for the arrival...
Vaccine hesitancy among South Africans is becoming entrenched – UCT
A COVID-19 Vaccine Survey (CVACS 2) by the Southern Africa Labour and Development Research Unit (SALDRU) at the University of Cape Town (UCT), led...
Workers want E Cape Health placed under administration
Health workers in Gqeberha have vowed to continue with the shutdown of clinics in Motherwell that started last Tuesday (19 April), in attempts to...
ANC warns of imminent collapse of Western Cape healthcare system
While the Western Cape has a reputation for the most efficient healthcare system in the country, the ANC’s shadow MEC of Health Rachel Windvogel...
DoH: R200m to repair KZN healthcare facilities and Charlotte Maxeke repairs expedited
The national Department of Health estimates the repair of flood-damaged healthcare facilities in KwaZulu-Natal to cost about R200m, according to head of health facilities...
UK midwives angered by trans terminology replacing anatomical terms
Maternity staff in Sussex hospitals, England, have described new terminology rules as “ridiculous” but are too scared to speak out.
The guidance issued by the...
DA concern over ‘lack of leadership’ in Gauteng Health
The DA has expressed its concern about the lack of effective leadership in the Gauteng Department of Health as COVID-19 cases shoot up in...