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Public Health
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,...
Rob Ferreira Hospital launches urgent repairs after HRC probe
A damning human rights probe exposing broken plumbing, chronic hot water shortages, and doorless toilets at an Mbombela hospital has prompted the Mpumalanga Department...
Digital tools help Zimbabwe’s HIV migrants stay in care
As thousands of Zimbabweans return home from South Africa in a wave of deportations and anti-immigrant sentiment, health experts warn that disruptions to HIV...
Indian health staff suspended over paediatric HIV cases
Pakistan has suspended 37 health officials, including doctors, after a mass HIV outbreak among children, reports The Lancet. At least 78 children contracted HIV...
What HIV got right, but obesity still hasn’t
As thousands of scientists, activists and policymakers gather in Rio de Janeiro for the 26th International Aids Conference this week, much of the discussion will...
People living longer, but not healthier – Lancet study
A major study published in The Lancet Public Health suggests that although people are living longer than ever before, many of those additional years...
Africa’s response to Ebola outbreak shows how to shape global health
Countries elsewhere must learn from the continent’s example and combat disease outbreaks by working together, not by closing borders, writes Safura Abdool Karim in...
Massive security upgrades after 100 break-ins at Gqeberha hospital complex
Despite the staggering statistics of more than 100 break-ins, burglaries and robberies at Eastern Cape health facilities last year – resulting in damages of...
Risks to local communities when migrants denied healthcare access
Healthcare workers and humanitarian organisations warn that South Africa’s anti-migrant campaign – and the disruption of their access to healthcare and any interrupted chronic...
UKZN teams help 74 patients in ‘surgical marathon’ effort
Urology specialists and trainees from the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) helped treat 74 patients during a five-day surgical marathon aimed at reducing elective surgery...
Union calls for jobs for doctors
Despite the critical staff shortages in the public healthcare system, at least 1 400 qualified doctors are still unemployed, according to the South African...
Shingles jab may also protect the brain, help ward off dementia
Could a shingles vaccine, which is now available in South Africa, also fight dementia? The evidence appears to be positive, writes Linda Nordling for...
Mental and general health strongly tied to loneliness – collaborative study
A recent collaborative study has suggested that loneliness can have a strong influence on health generally, with people who are socially isolated being far...
Pietermartizburg state hospital forced to use private cardiologists
A chronic shortage of specialists in state facilities – and the mounting difficulties of matching private sector salaries – has led to Pietermaritzburg’s Grey’s...
Motsoaledi defends limited LEN rollout
Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi has defended the limited rollout of the six-monthly injectable lenacapavir (LEN) – this as Gauteng Health last week announced that...
Rob Ferreira Hospital ‘has no hot water, no linen’, oversight visit finds
Nursing staff at Rob Ferreira Hospital in Mbombela have to take kettles to work to ensure their patients have hot water for bathing, because...
The best – and worst – districts in SA in which to give birth
A total of 29 babies died every single day in South African public hospitals in 2024 before they were one-month-old, according to figures from...