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News Update
Costly Cuban doctor training programme drains provincial budgets
The controversial Cuban medical student training programme has come under the spotlight again after Health Minister Joe Phaahla revealed that the ballooning costs of...
UJ defends awarding doctorate to COVID denialist
The University of Johannesburg (UJ) has defended its decision to confer an honorary doctorate on Professor Michael Levitt, who, at the height of the...
Coal mine residents suicidal, suffer long-term trauma, says report
A recent report has highlighted the psychological impact of coal mining on local communities, with an expert saying years of residents' exposure to several...
Norovirus that felled rugby players not from our water – eThekwini
After an outbreak of severe gastroenteritis among around 50 visiting rugby players from Glasgow Warriors and Ulster in Durban recently, an independent medical review...
Measles outbreak spreading across Limpopo, warns NICD
Until recently, measles cases in Limpopo had been confined to the greater Sekhukhune district around Groblersdal, but now three new cases have been reported...
Unions flag public servants’ mental health crisis
SAPS staff are 11 times more likely to commit suicide than the average citizen and five times more likely to commit suicide compared with...
Petition over Netcare's closure of Ballito maternity, paediatric units
More than 11 000 residents in Ballito, KZN have signed a petition in protest against Netcare’s Alberlito Hospital announcing it was closing overnight paediatric, neonatal...
NHS offers laser beam surgery for some epilepsy patients
In a move that will help up to 150 epileptic patients a year whose condition has not responded positively to anti-seizure drugs, NHS England...
Nigeria denies signing agreement with UK to stem brain drain
No bilateral agreement aimed at restricting Nigerian doctors’ emigration to Britain has been signed, says the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria (MDCN). It...
Loss of expertise concern after renowned cancer surgeon resigns
The resignation of renowned breast cancer specialist surgeon Professor Carol-Ann Benn from the Helen Joseph Hospital has fuelled concerns about the loss of expertise...
HIV not over, warns UNAids South Africa director as infections spiral
New HIV infections are escalating at an alarming rate worldwide, it was revealed during an emergency meeting this month convened by UNAids and its...
WHO launches first list of most risky fungal pathogens
The World Health Organization has drawn up the first ever list of fungal pathogens posing the greatest threat to human health, warning that some...
Charlotte Maxeke fully functional only in 2026
Despite promises that the Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Hospital would be fully repaired by the end of next year, the fire safety measures will only...
Four new measles cases in Limpopo
Another four cases of measles have been reported in the Greater Sekhukhune District Municipality in Limpopo, bringing the total to seven, in people aged...
World first deal allows cancer drug access to middle-income countries
A licensing agreement has been signed by pharmaceutical giant Novartis to increase access to a vital leukaemia treatment, marking the first-ever such agreement for...
Ministers chastised for not using state health facilities
Government Ministers have come under fire for using health facilities at a huge cost to taxpayers when they could be using the public hospitals...
Leading health journals plead for climate change help in Africa
Richer countries must increase climate support for African nations as accelerating impacts of global warming sicken and kill hundreds of thousands every year across...
72 hospitals now exempted from load shedding
A total of 72 state hospitals will now be exempted from load shedding, an increase from the previous 31 institutions that were excluded.
They include...
WHO shifts to one-dose cholera jab as outbreaks increase, stocks dwindle
An international cholera vaccine shortage has forced a temporary shift to a one-dose strategy from the usual two in campaigns to fight numerous outbreaks,...
Advocacy group says food industry ‘neglects health for profits’
A civil organisation has pointed fingers at the food and beverages industry, accusing it of bullying the government to prevent the introduction of warning...
Zimbabwe the first to green-light injectable HIV prevention drug
In a first for Africa, Zimbabwe’s Medicines Control Authority has approved the long-acting injectable cabotegravir (CAB-LA) as a pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) for HIV prevention,...
‘DNA project’ nails serial killers, rapists, in KZN
Senior prosecutors in KwaZulu-Natal are scouring DNA reports to identify serial rapists, with Elaine Zungu, the province’s Director of Public Prosecutions, saying DNA testing...
Sharia scheme for Discovery Health Muslim members
Discovery Health members can now have their health administered in a sharia scheme at no extra cost and with no impact on their benefits,...
India vaccine-maker destroys 100m expired COVID doses
The Serum Institute of India (SII), the world’s largest vaccine manufacturer, dumped 100m doses of its COVID-19 vaccine after they expired, said CEO Adar...
US teenage suicides up by 29% in past 10 years, finds report
Suicides had jumped 29% among American adolescents aged 15 to 19 over the previous decade, rising from 8.4 per 100 000 during the 2012-2014...
Health ombud warns that worsening state health facilities won’t make NHI grade
South Africa’s health ombud has warned Parliament that government health facilities won’t make the grade to provide services under National Health Insurance (NHI) because...
Medical schemes’ racial profiling inquiry report delayed
The findings of a high-profile inquiry into alleged racial profiling by medical schemes and administrators has been delayed over an apparent impasse between the...
Omicron-specific booster shows promise in trials, under consideration for SA
In the wake of a surge of COVID cases in the country, specifically the Western Cape and Gauteng, the South African Health Products Regulatory...
Tembisa tender ‘big cheese’ linked to Ramaphosa’s family
President Cyril Ramaphosa has been linked by default to the massive R859m Tembisa Hospital procurement scandal after revelations that a nephew of his by...
Free State doctor abducted, shot and killed
Free State police are investigating a case of house robbery and murder after a doctor was abducted in front of his family on Monday...
NICD declares measles outbreak in Limpopo
A measles outbreak has been declared in Limpopo by the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) – an outbreak classified as three lab-confirmed cases...
Cape Town hospital denies abuse of 82-year-old patient
The New Somerset Hospital in Cape Town has denied accusations of abuse after an 82-year-old patient died on Monday, with her family saying she...
Midwife delivers quadruplets at Musina clinic
A woman has successfully given birth to quadruplets at the Masisi Clinic near Musina in Limpopo, the Health MEC Dr Phophi Ramathuba has said,...
Report shows deteriorating conditions at Free State clinics
“Today we were lucky they did not send us back home,” says Makhothatso Mohomaile (63) outside the Bloemspruit Clinic in Mangaung where she is...
SA Cabinet approves signing of African Medicines Agency Treaty
The African Medicines Agency (AMA) will be key to the integration of African manufacturing into the global pharmaceutical value chain, an important step for...
Pioneering world-first intestine transplant for Spanish baby
A 12-month-old Spanish baby girl has become the world’s first recipient and survivor of a successful intestine transplant from a donor who died of...
New COVID wave spreading in Europe, WHO warns
The World Health Organisation (WHO) and the European Centre for Disease Control & Prevention (ECDC) have warned that a new wave of COVID-19 appears...
Three more charges for former officer in Cape hospital shootings
A former Vredenburg police officer charged with murdering a fellow officer and two patients at New Somerset Hospital in Cape Town this year will...
KZN mortuary workers protest over state of facilities
Disgruntled workers at KwaZulu-Natal government mortuaries are demanding changes in the functioning of some provincial morgues, accusing the Department of Health of not meeting...
Revamped R29m Eastern Cape mental health facility for teenagers
Eastern Cape Health MEC Nomakhosazana Meth unveiled a R29m newly upgraded child and adolescent facility at Fort England Hospital in Makhanda last week, marking...