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Public Health
New HoD job for official linked to Tembisa corruption
A provincial government official linked to the massive fraud scandal at Tembisa Hospital has been appointed head of department for Johannesburg’s Public Safety portfolio,...
Dodgy childhood vaccination data prompts department review
Recently published childhood vaccination figures by the National Department of Health – showing an alarming drop – may have been skewed by inaccurate population numbers...
Study links Sasol pollution to 1 000 deaths annually
A Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air report has revealed that pollution from Sasol’s Secunda plant can be linked to around 1...
Almost half of world’s farmers poisoned by pesticides every year, study finds
Almost half of the world’s farmers are poisoned by pesticides every single year, according to a study published last week in Frontiers in Public Health, reports...
State doctors and nurses rise up against crumbling institutions
Doctors and nurses are standing up against the continuing deterioration of South Africa’s public healthcare system, warning that crumbling infrastructure, critical staff shortages and...
Crucial medicine shortages being managed, says KZN Health
The KwaZulu-Natal Department of Health says that despite global supply-chain pressures having a huge impact on local essential medication stock, and resulting in shortages,...
New Johannesburg ambulances unused, parked for six years
Despite the chronic shortage of emergency services vehicles countrywide, 41 ambulances bought by the City of Johannesburg – for a total of R16m –...
Gauteng Health warns against bribes, hospital queue-jumping
A warning has been issued to both staff and the public by the Gauteng Department of Health that anyone asking for money to help...
Ageing HIV population calls for new healthcare approach
An estimated 1.5m (29%) people with HIV were 50 and older – and the numbers are growing, according to The Lancet HIV Commission on...
How Kenya bulldozed through walls around UFC
The plan for the reformation of Kenya’s universal healthcare coverage that was implemented in 2023 – passed and approved within a record six weeks...
SA a step closer to new TB vaccine, but community buy-in is crucial
In March 2024, a pivotal clinical trial was launched to evaluate what might well become the first new tuberculosis vaccine on the market in...
PIMART pharmacists get go-ahead to apply for ARV dispensing permits
Ten months after an enabling court judgment, some specially trained South African pharmacists can finally start applying for permits allowing them to dispense ARVs...
Probe after Helen Joseph patient complaint
Johannesburg’s Helen Joseph Hospital has initiated an investigation after a video posted on social media by a patient claimed the hospital is chaotic and...
Eastern Cape ambulance crisis at breaking point, warn staff, union
EMS workers and their union in the Eastern Cape say their ambulance fleet is so depleted that only a handful of vehicles is available...
Jozini hospital gets multi-million-rand upgrade
KwaZulu-Natal is investing R359m in upgrading Mosvold Hospital in uMkhanyakude as the province ramps up its efforts to improve healthcare infrastructure in rural communities,...
Surge in cervical cancer screenings in Cape Town
Health authorities in Cape Town said they are encouraged by the rise in cervical cancer screening tests at local health facilities, the figures having...
Nigeria to decriminalise attempted suicide
Nigeria, which has a crippling shortage of mental health professionals – fewer than 1 000 psychiatrists serving more than 200m people – says it...
Cipla and Health Department in legal showdown over ARV tender
Officials from the Department of Health have denied claims of flawed processes and collusive bidding linked to its controversial HIV drugs tender and in...
Jobless doctors could solve excess workload crisis, says union
Chronic staffing shortages are adding huge pressure to South Africa’s already over-burdened public health sector, and unions say that unemployed doctors could plug the gaps and...
Rob Ferreira Hospital patient waiting time woes intensify
Crippling delays and queues, compounded by sparse, apathetic employees, are frustrating outpatients at Rob Ferreira Hospital in Mbombela, who have complained that staff shortages...
Tobacco Bill under scrutiny by MPs
Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Health this week began analysing the wording of the Tobacco Products and Electronic Delivery Systems Control Bill’s preamble and definitions,...
Mother’s R28.2m claim for son’s brain injury dismissed by SCA
A child’s severe brain injury and subsequent cerebral palsy were unrelated to the birth procedure and resulted from an infection developed before labour, the...
Delayed Tygerberg Hospital project aims for 2033/34 commissioning
The current timeline for the commissioning of the new Tygerberg Central Hospital is only in the 2033/34 financial year, despite the building project first...
Vaccine trial offers hope for deadly diarrhoeal disease
A new vaccine candidate offers hope for millions afflicted by diarrhoea, which kills 1m people worldwide every year, with nearly half of them under...
SA launches folic acid replacement trial
A major clinical trial launched recently will investigate whether a new nutritional supplement could be a potential replacement for the iron and folic acid...
North West dental patients in agony from jab shortages, water issues
North West patients needing dental care are fed up with constant treatment delays at some clinics, saying first they had to wait months because...
Suspended doctor charged after circumcised boy (8) gets septicaemia
A doctor, suspended by the Health Professionals Council of SA, has appeared in the Senwabarwana Magistrate’s Court on charges of fraud after an inspection...
Paarl Hospital outpatients department reopens after fire restoration
After a speedy six-month – and R67m – restoration, Paarl Hospital’s Outpatient Department has officially reopened after a devastating fire had caused extensive damage to the...
Pensioners complain about long waits at False Bay Hospital
Elderly patients are having to wait in long queues and endure extended waiting times at False Bay Hospital’s outpatients department, with the local Pensioners...
Shortened duration of penicillin treatment effective, study finds
A recent study provides strong evidence that just one or two days of intravenous penicillin, followed by a short oral course of amoxicillin, is...
Respectful maternity care starts with better hospital culture – KZN study
Every woman has the right to be treated with dignity, compassion and respect when giving birth, yet for many South African women, childbirth in public...
Pioneering heat treatment bolsters hope for SA women with cervical cancer
After more than a decade of research, testing and Africa’s only clinical trial of its kind, a cancer treatment that could improve the effectiveness...
Aspen clinches deal to produce new once-a-month HIV tablet
In a huge step forward for Aids prevention in Africa, a licensing agreement was recently inked between Aspen Pharmacare and Merck subsidiary MSD, granting...
Charlotte Maxeke shortages put patients at risk, says insider
Patient care has been compromised recently at Charlotte Maxeke Academic Hospital, despite the reassurances and denials from Gauteng Health, according to an insider, who...
Explosive mpox outbreak batters Madagascar
More than 3 000 cases of mpox have been recorded in Madagascar after the virus spread from a single port city to some of...
Gauteng Health denies blame for patient’s blindness
Claims that broken and dysfunctional equipment at a hospital eye clinic was responsible for a patient being left blind in one eye have been...
Migrants’ healthcare under the spotlight again as new hospital opens
The thorny question of who should pay for foreign nationals’ healthcare has been raised again, this time at the opening by President Cyril Ramaphosa...
HIV 2030 target unlikely, as funding crisis pummels global Aids response
The chances of the world ending Aids as a public health threat by 2030 are looking increasingly remote, according to concerned global health experts...
Gauteng Health and DA in spat over Tambo Hospital surgery delays
Gauteng Health has denied accusations that patients at Tambo Memorial Hospital have had their elective surgeries postponed until June 2027, amid claims by the...
Private Free State hospital helps reduce state surgery backlog
A private hospital in Bloemfontein has partnered with the Free State Department of Health to address the backlog of more than 4 000 cases,...