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News Update
Shoddy planning stymies Eastern Cape hospitals digital migration
Despite forking out a massive R200m on digital infrastructure and equipment since 2021, the Eastern Cape Health Department’s roll-out of the technology has been...
Young doctors face placement challenges – DA
The DA has again been inundated with calls from young doctors needing placement for their community service year, after being left in the lurch...
Long-term HIV/TB Eshowe project closes after major achievements
Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) will this month close its long-term HIV and TB project in Eshowe and Mbongolwane, ending the organisation’s more...
Lawyer in medico-legal fees wrangle escapes sequestration bid
Attorney Zuko Nonxuba and his wife Alicia Novelano Nonxuba escaped bankruptcy after the Eastern Cape High Court (East London) dismissed separate applications for their...
Hijack syndicates target health workers
A male nurse, driving a government vehicle with five co-worker passengers, was shot and killed in a hijacking last week in Ndwedwe, KwaZulu-Natal, the...
DRC records 581 suspected mpox deaths
The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has recorded a growing outbreak of mpox cases linked to sexual transmission, the World Health Organisation (WHO)...
Paediatric ‘white lung pneumonia’ cases surge in US, Denmark, China
An area in Ohio, US, is experiencing a surge of paediatric pneumonia, including mycoplasma pneumonia – also known as white lung pneumonia – which...
FDA probes safety of CAR-T therapies
After reports of serious adverse events in clinical trials and post-marketing studies, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has launched in investigation into...
FDA issues warning on Chinese syringe products
A warning from the US Food & Drug Administration last week regarding Chinese-made plastic syringes has alarmed healthcare workers and others.
The FDA said several...
SA firm to produce contraceptive anti-HIV vaginal rings
Within the next few years, South African company Kiara Health of Johannesburg is to start manufacturing the vaginal ring contraceptive for women, which protects...
Ugandan woman (70) gives birth to twins
A 70-year-old Ugandan woman, Safina Namukwaya, has given birth to twins – a boy and a girl – via Caesarean section at a fertility...
Justice committee slaps down medico-legal claims Bill
A Bill aimed at structuring the payment of medico-legal claims against the state has been rejected by Parliament’s Justice & Correctional Services Committee.
The State...
Report on cheap medical aid options handed to Minister, finally
The Council for Medical Schemes has submitted its report on affordable medical scheme options to Health Minister Dr Joe Phaahla – although the Board...
‘Walking pneumonia’ may be causing rise in paediatric illnesses worldwide
A surge in paediatric respiratory infections in China, mainly related to respiratory illnesses and pneumonia, has been attributed to respiratory syncytial virus, influenza, Covid-19,...
MEC slams guards after patient denied clinic access dies
The Limpopo Department of Health has launched an investigation after a patient died at the entrance to Northam Clinic in the Waterberg District at...
SAHRC to probe hundreds of complaints about public hospitals
An investigation has been launched by the SA Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) into allegations of abuse and neglect of patients at dozens of state...
Fraud and waste costs medical aids billions every year
An eye-popping R30bn – or 15% of total revenue – is being lost by medical aids to fraud, waste and system abuse every year,...
UK regulatory body warns about Paxlovid risks
Britain’s health regulator has issued a warning about Covid-19 medication Paxlovid and the potential for risk of harmful drug interactions because of the ritonavir...
Australia bans disposable vape imports
In efforts to clamp down on nicotine addiction in children, Australia plans to ban the import of disposable vapes from January, while new laws...
Health systems must respond to growing NCD burden – Ramaphosa
President Cyril Ramaphosa says the new Dr Pixley Isaka Ka Seme Memorial Hospital in KwaMashu, north of Durban will help tackle the country’s growing...
Protesters call for new Gugulethu hospital
More than 100 people from several Cape Town townships marched to the Western Cape legislature this week to demand a new hospital in Gugulethu,...
First shipment of malaria vaccine reaches Cameroon
Cameroon received its first shipment of Mosquirix malaria vaccines manufactured by British drugmaker GSK last week – the 310 000 doses arriving as the...
Construction and IT companies among 'food suppliers' to Gauteng Health
The Gauteng Department of Health, which has battled this year to ensure patients are fed adequately, has now contracted out-of-town companies to supply food...
Discovery's 'chronic cover’ ad misleading, regulator finds
The Advertising Regulatory Board (ARB) has ordered Discovery Health to qualify its claim to offer “comprehensive” chronic cover after a complaint by leading business...
Health Department slams cost of anti-HIV CAB-LA shot
Government is fuming over the newly announced price of the two-monthly anti-HIV injection from Viiv Healthcare, calling its non-profit price – between R540 and R570...
Full salary for North West health official despite 11-month absence
Despite not reporting for duty since January, a senior North West Health Department official facing misconduct and criminal charges related to alleged tender fraud has...
New Crohn’s guidelines highlight use of stool biomarkers
New guidelines from the American Gastroenterological Association recommend biomarkers found in blood and stools be used in the management of Crohn’s disease, sparing some...
UK first to approve CRISPR-based treatment for sickle cell disease
In a world first, medical regulators in the UK have approved a gene therapy that aims to cure two blood disorders – sickle cell disease...
Western Cape healthcare staff protest against Gaza attacks
Healthcare employees gathered outside the Red Cross War Memorial Children’s Hospital in Cape Town on Tuesday to protest against what they called “systematic and...
‘Just let people die’, UK PM allegedly said during pandemic
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak (the country’s Finance Minister during the pandemic) was quoted as saying the government should “just let people die” at...
Northern Cape state hospital appeals for donations
The hospital committee at the government-run Martha Griffiths Community Health Centre in Port Nolloth, Northern Cape – which has been open only for a...
Study flags treatment of vulnerable groups at KZN health facilities
Vulnerable groups like sex workers, drug addicts, and members of the LGBTQ+ community are still being denied access to medicine, clinics and hospitals, and...
WHO launches commission to tackle loneliness
The World Health Organisation has launched a new Commission on Social Connection – to run for three years – in efforts to address loneliness...
Zimbabwe declares state of emergency over cholera outbreak
Zimbabwe has declared a state of emergency in Harare over a cholera outbreak that has killed dozens of people, with more than 7 000...
Global measles cases and deaths rising, warns WHO
After years of declines in measles vaccination coverage, measles cases in 2022 increased by 18%, and deaths by 43% globally (compared with 2021), according...
Eswatini on track to end Aids by 2030
In 2020, Eswatini became the first African country to achieve the 95-95-95 target, well ahead of 2025, and since then, seems on track to...
Cervical cancer can be eliminated by 2040: UK health boss
Cervical cancer can be eliminated in England by 2040, saving thousands of women’s lives, the head of NHS England said last week, the first...
Fake Ozempic sends users to hospitals
The US Food & Drug Administration has launched a probe after at least three people were admitted to hospitals after using suspected counterfeit semaglutide...
SA snakebite anti-venom shortage resolved
Stakeholders say South Africa’s health facilities now have sufficient supplies of snake anti-venom, after a drastic shortage earlier this year caused panic countrywide.
In April,...
Cable theft affects three Kimberley hospitals
The theft of hundreds of thousands of rands worth of cables and other electrical equipment in the Sol Plaatje Municipality in Kimberley last week...