HomePublic Health
Public Health
Australia issues new restrictions on vitamin B6
A rise in B6 toxicity cases in Australia has led to the the country’s regulator, the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA), strengthening safety controls for...
Global study flags disparities in child cancer deaths
Concerned experts are urging faster action to help reduce childhood cancer rates and boost survival, while calling for investment in registries as well as...
Stroke, lasting damage, after eight energy drinks daily
A British man (54) who was a non-smoking, non-drinking avid runner, was left with permanent damage after a stroke, a result of consuming numerous...
Medical schemes barrier to SA’s costly obesity crisis
A huge chunk of healthcare spending in South Africa goes towards obesity, yet most medical schemes still limit cover for effective treatments – while...
HIV stigma still a major challenge, new report finds
Discrimination and stigma remain a major challenge for HIV+ people in South Africa, according to the 2024 HIV Stigma Index 2.0 report, which found...
UK hospital where no one washes their hands – for health reasons
With a move that flies contrary to conventional wisdom, NHS England staff have pulled the plug on handwashing as part of the fight against...
Woman dies after striking nurses turn away patients
An ongoing pay dispute between the Northern Cape Health Department and nursing staff came to a tragic head this week when a woman died...
Judge orders government, police to block anti-migrant vigilantes
A Gauteng High Court (Johannesburg) judge ruled last week that the City of Johannesburg, the Gauteng and national Health Departments – as well as...
Clinic staff extort money from migrants
Immigrants say clinic staff at several ciinics in Gauteng are now demanding money for them in exchange for ARVs, other chronic medications, and baby...
US to end recommendations for newborns’ hepatitis B jabs
A federal vaccine committee in the US has voted to end a decades-long recommendation that all newborns be immunised at birth against hepatitis B,...
Nurse wins 'unjust dismissal' case over alleged ARV theft
A Free State nurse who was dismissed in 2021 for allegedly stealing anti-HIV medication from the MUCPP Community Health Centre in Bloemfontein has been...
Millions more to be spent on abandoned Kopanong hospital
A R146m Covid-19 project at Kopanong Hospital in Vereeniging remains incomplete and abandoned four years after construction began, with the government now scrambling to...
UK health services alarmed by drop in international nurse numbers
Experts have sounded the alarm over the sharp decline in the numbers of international nurses and midwives arriving in Britain, predicting that stricter immigration...
Malaria tools saved 1m lives last year, but drug resistance rises – WHO
Wider use of new tools against malaria, including dual-ingredient nets and WHO-recommended vaccines, helped to prevent an estimated 170m cases and 1m deaths in...
Court overturns Gauteng Health cancer order
The Cancer Alliance says it is disappointed by the High Court’s overturning of a previous ruling that a March judgment ordering Gauteng Health to...
Villagers build own clinic after years with no healthcare
A rural Eastern Cape village, frustrated and tired of its pleas falling on deaf ears, has taken the bull by the horns and built...
New mpox strain identified in England
A new strain of mpox has been detected, UK health officials have warned, describing it as a mix of two major types of the...
Unpacking revised thresholds for environmental-linked NMCs
Revised case definitions for three notifiable medical conditions (NMC) related to environmental exposures: poisoning by agricultural or stock remedies (pesticides), lead and mercury, have...
Drinking habits in SA, Botswana, to be probed in long-term study
The University of Cape Town and the SA Medical Research Council have launched a five-year multidisciplinary project to address harmful alcohol use in South...
SA experts urged to join global exposome research network
Scientists working on pioneering project to map how individuals’ lifetime exposure to environmental factors shapes their health are exploring ways to collaborate with South...
US approves changes for cervical cancer screening
The American Cancer Society (ACS) is introducing two key changes for cervical cancer screening: the option of self-collection of vaginal samples for primary human...
Istanbul tragedy flags toxin that mimics food poisoning
After the recent tragic death of a German family in Istanbul, an autopsy report confirmed what investigators had long suspected: the highly toxic gas...
WHO fast-track medical training plan unrealistic for SA – SAMA
A new competency-based curriculum promising to fast-track medical students into the workforce has been launched by the WHO Regional Office for Africa but red-flagged...
SA lines up plans to make its own six-monthly anti-HIV jab
The government says it could fill the potential gap in the number of doses of the HIV prevention jab Lenacapavir (LEN) needed to end...
MPs demand action after forced sterilisations on HIV+ women
The National Department of Health denies ever having carried out forced sterilisation on HIV+ women, saying that has never been its policy, and that...
Growing concern over drop in infant immunisations
The Western Cape Department of Health & Wellness recently flagged a concerning decline in infant immunisation rates, and is intensifying its campaign to step...
Queues, staff shortages worsen at clinics after Pepfar cuts
The slashing of Pepfar funding this year has resulted in a notable deterioration in public healthcare facilities around the country, according to community-led monitoring...
Power outage adds to Dora Nginza Hospital woes
Surgeries at Dora Nginza Hospital in Gqeberha had to be cancelled last week when operating theatres were forced to shut down due to electrical failures.
The...
Eastern Cape communications official cleared of qualifications fraud
Four years after being suspended, and undergoing long investigation, Eastern Cape Health’s Director of Communications Siyanda Manana has been cleared of all wrongdoing, reports...
Exhausted UK staffer takes anaesthetic gas, naps in theatre
A British hospital worker has been given a 12-month caution order by a disciplinary panel after being found asleep in an operating theatre, covered...
WHO issues first guidelines on infertility treatment
The World Health Organisation has published its very first global directives to improve the prevention, detection and treatment of infertility, which affects millions around...
Twice-yearly anti-HIV jab added to SA’s Essentials Medicines List
The Department of Health’s National Essential Medicines List Committee (NEMLC) has approved the addition of the recently registered injectable anti-HIV drug lenacapavir (LEN-LA) to...
Pretoria specialist hospital flounders with no CEO
Staff at a Pretoria Hospital say that working conditions are deteriorating as they wait for the Gauteng Department of Health to replace the CEO...
Second legal bid to get authorities to act against Dudula vigilantism
Activists have gone to court again to compel the state to stop xenophobic vigilantes from stopping immigrants and undocumented people from accessing health services....
Netcare optimistic about boosting nurse-training numbers
Netcare CEO Richard Friedland has said there is a glimmer of hope that the company might finally be able to train more nurses –...
Measles outbreaks escalate in Western Cape
The Western Cape Department of Health & Wellness has escalated its vaccination campaigns, warning of an increase in measles outbreaks in areas like Khayelitsha,...
Rising levels of drug-resistant gonorrhoea worldwide, warns WHO
Gonorrhoea is becoming increasingly resistant to antibiotics, warns WHO, citing new data from its Enhanced Gonococcal Antimicrobial Surveillance Programme (EGASP), which monitors the spread...
UCT experts urge community testing to detect early TB
To slow the spread of tuberculosis (TB) and enable early detection of infectious cases in South Africa and other high-burden countries, it’s crucial to...
Rise in adverse events in Gauteng cause for alarm
Concerned experts have flagged the rising numbers of patients coming to harm in Gauteng’s public hospitals – injuries, permanent disability and deaths – because...
AMR in South Africa a 'silent pandemic'
Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) remains one of the most critical global health threats, which could result in 169m people dying of AMR-related causes over the...