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News Update
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...
Drug pricing committee denies 'ambiguity' in its formula
The advisory body that guides the Health minister on medicine price increases says there is no ambiguity in the formula it applied, contrary to...
With NICD reporting two more listeriosis deaths, fatalities reach 193
Two more people have died from listeriosis in South Africa, raising the death toll to 193, according to the National Institute for Communicable Diseases...
Interim results show affordable hepatitis C treatment to be safe
An affordable hepatitis C treatment has been shown to be safe and effective, with very high cure rates for patients including hard-to-treat cases, in...
Pakistan reports first known drug-resistant typhoid epidemic
The first known epidemic of drug-resistant typhoid is spreading in Pakistan, raising fears that more diseases worldwide are heading towards being untreatable. The typhoid...
Tissue-destroying ulcer cases at epidemic proportions in Australia
A severe tissue-destroying ulcer once rare in Australia is rapidly spreading and is now at epidemic proportions in regions of Victoria, prompting infectious diseases...
Prem babies born to HIV-positive mothers on the increase in SA
Deaths of premature babies born to HIV-positive mothers are on the increase in South Africa, reports the Cape Argus. According to University of Cape Town researcher...
SA drug manufacturers face significant regulator fees increases
Drug manufacturers will soon face a significant increase in the fees charged by South Africa’s new medicines regulator, as it moves to end an...
Unions combine to hobble North West Health over corruption
Powerful unions have pledged to combine their strengths and bring North West Health to a grinding halt, reports The Citizen. The reason is perceived corruption in the...
Gauteng Health announces that it will pay doctors' overtime
Gauteng Health has announced that it will begin the process of paying overtime claims for hundreds of doctors in the province, The Citizen writes.
This was after...
Limpopo suspends NGO services over health worker non-payment outcry
Limpopo Health has suspended the services of at least 300 NGOs after an outcry over the non-payment of home-based care workers who were in the...
SAHRC acts on 'racist' Limpopo doctor
A Limpopo doctor accused of racially segregating his patients and staff, and charging different rates according to race, has released a general public apology,...
SAHRC investigates medical surgery over ethics breaches
A medical surgery in Mokopane, Limpopo, has come under fire from the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) for alleged racism, breaching a number...
UK doctors working 'unmanageable' hours — Royal College of GPs
GPs across Britain are working above safe levels because of relentless and unmanageable workloads, The Guardian reports leading doctors have warned. Professor Helen Stokes-Lampard,...
AfroCentric Health MD suspended after alleged assaults
The MD of AfroCentric Health has been suspended after allegedly assaulting a close female relative and two friends in the early hours of last...
Gauteng Health is running out of furniture…
Gauteng Health has had more of its furniture seized to settle debts owed to companies, with Gauteng Health MEC Gwen Ramokgopa admitting that the department owes...
Competition threats may block Mediclinic merger
Mediclinic’s proposed acquisition of Matlosana Medical Health Services may be prohibited for the same reasons the Competition Commission blocked Life Healthcare’s bid to acquire...
Cosatu and Motsoaledi on collision course over NHI
Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi and his department are on a collision course with Cosatu over the National Health Insurance (NHI), ahead of the governing...
Italy responds to measles' outbreaks with compulsory vaccination
The Italian has ruled that children must be vaccinated against 12 common illnesses before they can enroll for state-run schools, reports BBC News.
Prime Minister...
Gouging claims batter Aspen's reputation and share price
If not ruined entirely, multinational SA pharmaceutical giant Aspen has suffered untold repetitional damage, all of its own making, writes the Financial Mail.
The report says it is...
Major drug trial looks at statins to treat MS
Scientists are hopeful a major UK drug trial will establish that statins can be used to treat multiple sclerosis, reports The Guardian. The low-cost...
IPM starts three-month ring trial
The non-profit International Partnership for Microbicides (IPM) has announced the start of the first clinical trial of its three-month vaginal ring designed to prevent...