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News Update
WHO launches free cancer meds for children in low-income countries
The World Health Organisation has launched a new platform providing cost-free cancer medicines for thousands of children living in low- and middle-income countries, whose...
Hackers target Aussie IVF giant in data breach
One of Australia’s largest IVF providers, Genea, is urgently investigating a cyber-attack that may have exposed the data of thousands of families and expectant...
Pfizer discontinues costly haemophilia B gene therapy
Less than a year after approval, Pfizer is planning to discontinue its haemophilia B gene therapy fidanacogene elaparvovec (Beqvez) across all global markets, citing...
Rain wreaks havoc on Eastern Cape facilities
Heavy rains in the Alfred Nzo District, Eastern Cape, last week, disrupted services at three hospitals, three clinics, a community health centre and a...
Ebola outbreak in Uganda under control
The recent outbreak of Ebola in Uganda has been deemed “contained”, according to the Minister of Health, after the announcement that eight patients who...
FDA places two Indian manufacturers on import alerts
The FDA has prohibited two Indian API manufacturers from shipping products to the US, with the agency reporting it found bare footprints in one...
FDA green-lights rapid-acting insulin biosimilar product
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved Merilog (insulin-aspart-szjj) as a biosimilar to Novolog (insulin aspart) for the improvement of glycaemic control...
Trump’s aid cuts halt crucial SA-led HIV vaccine trials
Critical South African-led HIV research, the outcome of which could affect millions of people worldwide, has been stopped in its tracks at a vital...
New coalition awaits state response on reworked universal healthcare model
Government has so far failed to respond to proposals by the Universal Healthcare Access Coalition (UHAC) for healthcare reform before the National Health Insurance...
Landmark deal jumpstarts Africa’s vaccine production
In a deal inked in Cairo last week and backed by a $1.2bn investment from Gavi, the vaccine alliance, an end-to-end mRNA vaccine production platform...
WHO scrabbles to comply with Trump demands
New challenges are looming for the WHO and its partners since the Trump administration’s orders have resulted in chaos and the collapse of USAID...
Grade 3 girl dies after eating toxic chips
A seven-year-old Brakpan girl has died from multiple organ failure, allegedly linked to a packet of chips contaminated with a deadly insecticide that was...
Union calls for HRC to probe into ‘human rights violations’ in KZN
The Public Servants Association (PSA) wants the Public Protector and the Human Rights Commission (HRC) to investigate a list of alleged health violations, including...
Hand, foot and mouth disease on the rise at Durban schools
The number of confirmed reports of hand, foot and mouth disease (HFMD) in Durban schools has more than tripled in a week, with the...
125-year-old Eastern Cape hospital in dire straits
The shocking and dilapidated state of a rural Eastern Cape hospital that was built in 1900 led to angry locals protesting outside the facility...
Nurse accused of raping two boys
A “trusted” nurse accused of the rape and sexual assault of two teenagers will appear in the Nigel Magistrate’s Court tomorrow after his bail...
FDA alert for mix-ups tied to spinal jabs
The US Food & Drug Administration says it continues to receive reports of tranexamic acid injection being erroneously administered intrathecally instead of the intended...
UK to slash funding contribution to Gavi
The prediction that Britain is likely to cut funding to global vaccination group Gavi – which has inoculated more than 1bn children in developing...
Patient with oxygen mask dies in fire after lighting cigarette
A patient died after lighting a cigarette while apparently wearing an oxygen mask – which then sparked a fire – said the KwaZulu-Natal Department...
New app helps graduates find work experience
Profmed, the medical aid for professionals, is connecting graduate doctors with locum opportunities to strengthen the country’s healthcare system.
In South Africa, patients often travel...
Ramaphosa urged to escalate action on US funding crisis
A coalition of civil society groups has urged President Cyril Ramaphosa to lead a co-ordinated response to prevent “mass healthcare disruptions, preventable deaths, and surges...
Officials fired for Anglo Ashanti Hospital fraud and corruption
The Gauteng Government has fired five of the nine senior managers from the Gauteng Departments of Health and Infrastructure Development who were implicated in...
Still no CEOs for Eastern Cape hospitals
Eastern Cape Health MEC Ntandokazi Capa has failed to appoint CEOs for major state hospitals within the first six months of her term, as...
Union accuses Umlazi hospital of human rights abuses
The Public Servant’s Association (PSA) has called on the Human Rights Commission to intervene in a crisis at Prince Mshiyeni Memorial Hospital in Umlazi,...
Gauteng hospitals postpone elective surgeries
A number of state hospitals in Gauteng have put elective surgeries on the back burner until the next financial year, but this will only...
Pietermaritzburg ambulance shortage at crisis point
A chronic shortage of state ambulances in Pietermaritzburg means critically ill patients are being left stranded and paramedics are fearing for their lives, with...
Young dentist hit and killed by Ferrari driver
Family and friends are mourning the loss of Durban dentist Dr Ncumisa Mdlokolo (32) who was hit and killed in Cape Town a week...
Medical profession alarmed by Kennedy’s racist theories
President Donald Trump’s choice of Robert F Kennedy to become America’s leading health official has caused consternation.
His theory, for instance, that black people have...
Penile rehab programme for botched circumcisions
After hundreds of botched circumcisions in the Eastern Cape, the provincial Health Department has launched an expanded programme to help young men whose male...
Medical equipment, dental amalgam on new mercury ban list
Medical products are among those on a list of items banned in terms of regulations for the management of mercury in South Africa, which...
Concern as Guillain-Barre syndrome cases rise in India
A six-year old boy is among around 160 reported cases of Guillain-Barré Syndrome (GBS) since early January in Pune, India.
GBS, a rare disorder where...
Healthy babies aborted after scan misdiagnosis in new NHS scandal
An investigation has found that two British couples each made the decision to have a healthy foetus aborted because they were wrongly informed that...
Chinese regulator defends quality of local generic drugs
China’s healthcare regulator has defended the efficacy of off-patent medicines it had approved to be distributed through the country’s state hospitals – after complaints...
Sepsis and necrosis after butt-lifts, UK investigation finds
A British “beauty consultant” is carrying out potentially dangerous cosmetic procedures – many of which result in disfiguring infection and needing surgery – and...
Fat-burning jabs, steroids seized in police raid
Police have arrested a gang in Pretoria that was selling illicit drugs online, seizing a substantial quantity of counterfeit and illicit performance-enhancing drugs, steroids,...
Mother, baby die as doctors watch YouTube to perform C-section
A bereaved husband has described how a medical team at Lebechi Hospital in Owerri, Nigeria, reportedly watched a YouTube tutorial while performing a Caesarean...
Mitral clip implant first for Charlotte Maxeke Hospital
Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital has become the first government health facility in Gauteng to perform the MitraClip implant, a procedure designed to treat...
Netcare CEO delays retirement – again
Long-serving Netcare CEO Richard Friedland, who was due to retire shortly, has had his contract extended again after a selected candidate identified for his...
Reprieve for medical aids with NHI 'breakthrough'?
The government of national unity (GNU) has apparently quietly reached an “agreement” on two key aspects relating to National Health Insurance (NHI) which, if...
Unemployed doctors call for firing of Finance Minister
Fed-up and desperate unemployed health graduates are calling for Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana’s head, saying he should be fired for his failure to increase...