HomePublic Health
Public Health
‘Stuffy nose’ nasal spray warning in UK
Britain’s Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS) has issued a warning to the public about using nasal sprays for blocked noses beyond a week, reminding users...
Pepfar fund debacle should be wake-up call, say MPs
Opposition parties say the government should do more to hire unemployed medical graduates to improve healthcare services and prevent any reduction in HIV/Aids testing,...
Controversial study will delay life-saving vaccine for Guinea-Bissau babies
This week saw the start of a $1.6m trial in Guinea-Bissau, funded by the United States Government, on the timing of hepatitis B vaccinations,...
Novel cholera vaccine shows promise in phase 1 trial
Oral cholera vaccines have played a critical role in efforts to prevent and control the severe and potentially life-threatening diarrhoeal disease. But experts agree...
What’s on the 2026 public health agenda
South Africa is a study in contrasts, and the 2026 public health agenda is no exception. Breakthrough HIV prevention medicine has arrived alongside US...
Concern as NCDs rise in young South Africans – Limpopo study
In a small mining town in Limpopo, young people are showing worrying signs of diseases that were once thought to affect only older adults,...
US drops long-standing advice on alcohol limits
For the first time in more than four decades, US Government guidelines on alcohol consumption do not recommend clear limits.
Ever since the US Government...
Common food additives linked to cancer – French study
A recent study, published in The BMJ, has suggested that greater consumption of food preservatives widely used in processed foods and beverages was associated...
Hidden market fuels fake script industry
The illegal prescription business is flourishing in South Africa, posing increasing public health and economic risks, warn experts, who urge greater effort to combat...
Western Cape surgery backlog climbs to 100 000
Almost 100 000 patients are awaiting surgery in the Western Cape – more than 5 000 at Groote Schuur Hospital alone – thanks to...
Gauteng 'crisis' warning as specialists resign from hospitals
A rash of resignations from public hospitals in Gauteng should have set off alarm bells within the Department of Health – but it denies...
FDA approves second antibiotic for gonorrhoea
The US Food & Drug Administration (FDA) has given the green light to zoliflodacin (Nuzolvence) as an oral treatment for gonorrhoea, a day after...
Millions lost to dangerous fake drugs, warns Motsoaledi
Sales of counterfeit and illicit medicines are thriving in South Africa, with SAHPRA having recorded 507 suspected cases in 2024/25, of which 110 were...
First organ donation at pioneering Tygerberg Life Pod
The Life Pod at Tygerberg Hospital recently housed its first organ donor – the first posthumous multi-organ donation in more than two years facilitated...
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...