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US aid cuts could mean millions of TB deaths – global analysis
Foreign aid cuts by the United States could result in more than 10m additional TB cases and 2.5m more deaths in the next years...
Gauteng Health owes R5.1bn to suppliers
Thousands of businesses providing services to the Gauteng Department of Health are in a precarious position, with hundreds of jobs at risk after the department’s...
Groote Schuur appeals for R100m to open new centre
Groote Schuur Hospital, home to one of the busiest emergency centres in the Western Cape, desperately needs R100m in donations to help equip and...
Emergency services desperate as shortages cripple sector
South African lives are being lost – and thousands more put at risk – as the dire shortage of ambulances and paramedics continues to...
Minister has eye surgery at Bara clinic
Health Minister Dr Aaron Motsoaledi has successfully undergone an optical procedure at Baragwanath Hospital’s St John Eye Clinic, apparently after several months on the...
Health DG enters the legal fray over circumcision device
Director-General of Health Dr Sabelo Buthelezi has entered the legal argument over the award of a tender for a device to be used to...
Kenyan Health Ministry cracks down on rampant fraud
The Kenyan Ministry of Health is determined to clean up the healthcare system, recently handing over 1 188 case files and supporting evidence to...
Task force formed to fight rising cholera cases in Africa
A joint plan has been announced by African leaders to combat the centuries-old disease that has seen cases doubling on the continent over the...
Experts unpack potential cancer risk of tattoo ink
Recent studies have connected tattoos and cancers, including skin cancers, lymphoma and leukaemia, and although the research is early, and many unknowns remain –...
‘Miracle’ Cape baby grew outside mother’s womb
A year ago, little Joshua Nodela was successfully delivered from his mother’s belly instead of her uterus, testimony to the skills and teamwork of...
Doctors flag crippling cuts at major Durban hospital
Doctors have blown the whistle about a crisis at one of KwaZulu-Natal’s most important public hospitals, saying it is functioning far under capacity due...
Chronic staff shortages add to growing mental healthcare burden
The public sector averages just 0.31 psychiatrists per 100 000 people, with far fewer in remote areas, with lack of specialised facilities, collapsing infrastructure...
Dora Nginza staff down tools over unpaid overtime – again
Nurses and support staff at Dora Nginza Hospital in the Eastern Cape, who have been on a wildcat strike for a week, have apologised...
Bed linen crisis hits Bara patients
Soweto’s Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital is struggling with yet another bed linen crisis, leaving hundreds of patients without basic bedding necessities and contributing to...
Gauteng Health flags organ donor scarcity in SA
The critical shortage of organ donors is unlikely to improve unless more people become donors, with Gauteng Health MEC Nomantu Nkomo-Ralehoko warning that at...
Malawi low on TB drugs
Malawi is running out of tuberculosis drugs, with health officials warning that stocks will dry up by the end of September – this just...
Free State team performs robotic surgery marathon
In a medical milestone, six Free State patients recently underwent robotic surgery at Universitas Academic Hospital in Bloemfontein in six days in a breakthrough...
SA diagnostic breakthrough saving lives
New technology developed at the University of the Witwatersrand is being expanded to tackle a broader range of diseases after its proven success in...
SA woman specialist is first adult epileptologist in the country
A South African doctor, the first – and only – woman in South Africa to practise as an internationally trained adult epileptologist, recently returned...
Eastern Cape acts to ease staff shortages, but concerns linger
The dire shortage of medical staff and the critical number of vacancies at Eastern Cape hospitals and clinics – and others, nationwide – may...
NHLS corruption clean-up pays dividends
Strategies that include a tip-off hotline are helping the beleaguered National Health Laboratory Service reduce fraud and criminality – after the organisation was rocked...
Zimbabwe moves on universal healthcare coverage
A new Bill before Zimbabwe’s Parliament aims to provide healthcare for everyone in the country, forcing even private hospitals to fall in line, but...
Nigeria cuts import reliance to produce test kits for HIV, TB, malaria
In a major initiative to fill a gap left by US aid cuts, Codix Bio, Nigeria’s WHO-licensed diagnostics factory, is to produce 147m rapid...
Gauteng Health ordered to treat cancer patients – immediately
The Gauteng High Court (Johannesburg) has instructed the provincial Department of Health to immediately provide cancer treatment to patients on a backlog list –...
How Botswana eliminated paediatric HIV
Political will, free maternity care and digital health tools have helped Botswana achieve high standards for ending mother-to-child transmission, the first African nation to...
US cities abandon strategies to make drug use safer
Various cities in the United States are retreating from “harm reduction” strategies that have helped reduce deaths but which critics, including President Donald Trump,...
Game-changing Lenacapavir to be rolled out from next year
More than 300 government clinics are in line for the first roll-out of the widely-hailed twice-yearly anti-HIV jab lenacapavir within the next two years...
Legal suit on the cards against anti-migrant groups
Civil society groups, with the help of Lawyers for Human Rights, are preparing legal action in a bid to force authorities to act against...
NHLS targets dented by 2024 cyber attack
The National Health Laboratory Service (NHLS) is still suffering from the cyber attack last June that annihilated its ICT systems and infrastructure, and resulted in it...
Plans on track for new Western Cape hospitals
The Western Cape Department of Health & Wellness (DHW) plans to complete three hospital projects by 2033, with the new Klipfontein and Belhar regional...
Life Esidimeni officials to be prosecuted for just two of the deaths
Families of those who died in appalling circumstances in the Life Esidimeni tragedy are furious that the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) has decided former...
Innovative project sees Groote Schuur interns tackle GBV
Cape Town’s Groote Schuur Hospital has provided 50 medical interns with specialised training on how to sensitively screen for intimate partner violence (IPV) and...
Child vapers three times likelier to become smokers – global study
A large global review has suggested links between youth vaping and pneumonia, bronchitis, lower total sperm counts, headaches and migraines, while the researchers also...
Hospital marked for NHI has 200 vacancies
An Eastern Cape hospital selected for NHI implementation has been found to be in dire straits with more than 200 vacancies.
During an oversight visit...
Why lung cancer is a ‘hidden epidemic’ in sub-Saharan Africa
It’s the deadliest cancer in the world, killing 1.8m people each year – more than any other cancer. But the official statistics suggest that isn’t...
Where will millions from Treasury to fill US funding void go?
In response to US funding cuts for South African health services and research projects, National Treasury has provided the National Department of Health with...
Arrests as anti-migrant thugs ratchet up their campaign
Police have made several arrests of militant anti-migrant group members recently, but seemingly with little effect as the organisations continue to terrorise foreigners seeking...
Healthcare staff under siege from crime
Public healthcare workers are living in fear as criminals wage a war of robbery and assault on them, with attacks escalating – and even...
Patients say clinic nurses force them to have HIV tests
Residents in at least three provinces say they have been coerced into undergoing HIV testing at various government health facilities, and that in some...
Mthatha EMS crew forced to sleep in Khayelitsha shack
Two Eastern Cape EMS drivers recently transporting a child from Mthatha had to spend two nights in an informal settlement in Khayelitsha, Cape Town,...