HomePublic Health
Public Health
Illegal sexual enhancement jabs flagged after organ failure
An alert has been issued by Gauteng Health about the increasing use of unregulated injectable substances marketed for body enhancement and sexual performance, after...
US state sues AI firm over chatbot posing as doctors
The American state of Pennsylvania has sued the artificial intelligence company behind Character.AI to stop its chatbot from posing as doctors, reports Reuters.
Governor Josh...
Water crisis overwhelms Kalafong Hospital
Five days of no water supply at an Atteridgeville hospital took their toll on patients, staff and visitors last week, where not just the...
Patients prefer AI chatbot consult to GP visits – UK study
In startling findings, a UK study has found that one in seven people will use AI chatbots for health advice instead of seeing their...
SA’s ARV programme stagnates in 2025 – new Thembisa estimates
The number of South Africans on antiretroviral treatment remained roughly unchanged from 2024 to 2025, according to new estimates, suggesting that the disruption of...
Doctors divided as US moves towards new anti-depressants policy
US Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr’s stance on anti-depressants and his suggested policy changes have been criticised by some medical experts, who have...
Why South Africa’s boys should also get the HPV vaccine
South Africa’s 2026-2030 strategy, which will soon be launched, aims to get girls vaccinated from the age of nine against HPV before they turn...
How SA team homed in on hantavirus
South African scientists’ extraordinarily fast and accurate diagnosis of the rare hantavirus cases in the recent outbreak deserves credit, and did the country proud,...
Judge sets aside tender for untested circumcision device
The award of a tender for an unproven circumcision device used in 40 provincial health districts and the military has been deemed unlawful by...
MEC orders turnaround plan after Wentworth Hospital visit
While an unannounced late night visit to Durban’s Wentworth Hospital by KwaZulu-Natal Health MEC Nomagugu Simelane was welcomed by the nursing union, it was...
Call for action over high suicide rate among SA men
In South Africa, men comprise almost 80% of all recorded suicides in the country – the second leading cause of death for people between...
Unique Cape Town centre focuses on youngsters with kidney disease
Young people with kidney disease in South Africa often fall into the gap between the paediatric and adult healthcare systems, but an innovative clinic...
Malaria mortality slashed in African children after vaccine
WHO’s approval of the RTS,S/AS01 (Mosquirix) malaria vaccine in 2021 was a milestone in global public health, representing not only the first vaccine approved...
Global Fund to cut SA’s grant by 25% in two years – in eight years it will be gone
South Africa has less than eight years before one of the most important sources of funding for its HIV and TB programmes falls away,...
SA experts baffled by drop in teen pregnancies
Contrary to the norm, the most recent statistics show that teenage pregnancies in the country are reversing their usual trend and actually dropping, leaving...
UCT launches pioneering Liver Centre
The launch of a ground-breaking, multi-disciplinary liver centre, pioneered by clinicians at the University of Cape Town, represents a new dawn for patients suffering...
Ambulance crisis worsens TB burden in rural Eastern Cape – report
The scarcity of ambulances in rural areas continues to compromise patient care, particularly those with TB, reports IOL, with the Rural Health Advocacy Project...
Red Cross Children’s Hospital celebrates 70 years
The first and only stand-alone tertiary hospital in sub-Saharan Africa dedicated entirely to child healthcare, the Red Cross War Memorial Children’s Hospital in Cape...
Apology after women filmed carrying water buckets in wards
A video of mothers lugging buckets of water through an Eastern Cape Hospital ward has prompted an apology from the Department of Health after...
Kennedy stalls $600m in jabs for poor countries
US Health & Human Sciences Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr’s push to remake the US vaccination schedule is on hold after a federal judge’s...
Action urged for sickle cell disease in Nigeria, across Africa
The growing burden of sickle cell disease in Nigeria – and across sub-Saharan Africa – has prompted calls by health professionals and researchers for...
CDC flags rise in drug-resistant Shigella
Extensively drug-resistant Shigella – the mostly sexually-transmitted bacterium that causes infectious diarrhoea – is on the rise in the United States, reports Healio.
The latest...
Diabetes dashboard a step forward for SA
The establishment of South Africa’s national diabetes dashboard signals a major step forward in tackling one of the country’s leading causes of death, writes...
South Africa’s giant pain problem
Millions of South Africans suffer from chronic pain, but experts say the country is doing “a terrible job” of managing it, writes Sean Christie...
Southern Africa inches ahead in war against drug-resistant malaria
As malaria cases nudge their way upwards on the continent, and while the cunning parasite evolves to evade detection and conquer drugs used to...
Mystery illness in Burundi kills five
At least five people have died in Burundi, and another three dozen become ill from unexplained causes, reports CIDRAP News.
The case-fatality rate of 14%...
The down side of cheap sex pills
Seeking a quick boost to enhance sexual performance is not that uncommon, but experts warn that cheap unapproved black market products, taken without medical...
Alarm over drop in Gauteng’s childhood vaccination rate
More and more children are skipping their childhood immunisations, with the Gauteng Department of Health warning that the declining rates are reducing protection against preventable diseases,...
Why good hospital ventilation can’t always stop infection – Australian study
Clean, controlled airflow is critical in medical facilities, where infection and bacteria are a constant threat and where contamination can be the difference between...
Africa needs to reassess fight against malaria
As progress on malaria stalls, the case for local research in Africa is stronger than ever, write Edwine Barasa of the KEMRI-Wellcome Research Programme...
US cuts threaten SA’s LEN rollout – global report
The global Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) has warned that South Africa’s planned rollout of HIV prevention shot lenacapavir (LEN) is being jeopardised by...
Malaria outbreak alarms Gauteng officials
The Gauteng Department of Health has recorded 414 confirmed malaria cases and 11 deaths in the first three months of 2026, the fatalities overtaking...
Probe into Cape clinic staff accused of selling patient info
Cape Town police are investigating reports that some clinic staff are apparently selling patient folders to people wanting to fraudulently qualify for Sassa grants,...
Civil society unites to demand action on national diabetes crisis
Enough is enough, say 24 South African civil society organisations that have united to demand urgent, co-ordinated action on a disease that is now...
Stalled Grey’s Hospital repairs project moves up ‘priority list’
There’s hope yet for ailing Grey’s Hospital in Pietermaritzburg, with its non-existent aircon and inhumane operating theatre conditions, amid various delays and drawn out...
Western Cape Health to ramp up its workforce with 800 new frontline posts
Western Cape Health is ramping up its workforce with 800 new frontline posts, but after years of austerity and with long lists of vacancies,...
Massive eye drop recall in US raises questions
A California company has recalled more than 3.1m bottles of lubricating eye drops because it had not properly tested, and thus could not prove,...
Fluoride in water has no impact on IQ or brain function – US study
Contrary to the Trump administration’s suggestions that fluoride in drinking water will affect children’s IQ or decrease cognitive abilities, a large-scale study appears to...
Africa’s health worker brain drain tracks colonial patterns
Africa has a challenge to retain the health staff it needs – with the WHO estimating a global shortfall of 11m health workers by...
Why every South African needs a digital health wallet
All South Africans, whether on the public or private healthcare system, should carry a digital health wallet with their full medical/health records on their...