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Public Health
Long-term HIV/TB Eshowe project closes after major achievements
Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) will this month close its long-term HIV and TB project in Eshowe and Mbongolwane, ending the organisation’s more...
Bleach ineffective in killing fatal hospital superbug – UK research
Liquid bleach does not kill off a hospital superbug that can cause fatal infections, found British researchers, saying it is no more effective than...
Weight-loss drugs frenzy risks return of body size stigma
As another weight-loss drug was this week approved in the US, adding to the tsunami of demand for the medicines, there is concern that...
Hospital CEOs warn of cash run-out as budget cuts bite
The CEOs of the Western Cape’s three academic hospitals have warned that, because of severe funding cuts, they could run out of cash in...
Concern as diabetes deaths double in past decade
Deaths due to non-communicable diseases (NCDs) are rising in South Africa, the increase being particularly startling because overall, the country has been recording a...
How the state is working to reduce stockouts
Over the past 10 years, the National Health Department has rolled out a range of electronic surveillance systems to monitor medicine stocks throughout healthcare...
Chronic diseases on the rise, warns Stats SA
Stats SA has warned that deaths from chronic medical conditions have increased, its latest report showing that mortality linked to cardiovascular diseases, cancer, diabetes...
Should nurses be allowed to hand out psychiatric drugs?
Because people with HIV are at greater risk of mental health problems like depression or anxiety – which could stop them from taking their...
Lessons for NHI in world's largest health study?
A study being billed as the world's largest, and which hopes to address the failings of the UK's National Health Service (NHS) and reduce...
Corruption fears as Kenyan President signs UHC Bill
Kenyan President William Ruto has approved controversial legislation in the biggest shake-up of the health sector in more than 20 years, with a new...
Vaping scourge among children prompts long-term health effects study
Vaping has become a scourge among children that’s as alarming as cigarette smoking used to be, both in SA and worldwide, with experts saying...
Top health experts rally behind ousted Eastern Cape Health boss
A group of doctors and activists has launched a campaign and signed a petition demanding the reinstatement of Eastern Cape Health HoD Rolene Wagner,...
Eastern Cape Health boss under fire in 'political clean-out'
Eastern Cape director-general for Health, Dr Rolene Wagner, who has eliminated R1bn in previous unauthorised expenditure and saved billions more in crippling provincial medico-legal...
High TB death rate, a worry – Phaahla
The Department of Health has raised concerns over the death rate among TB patients in the country – the WHO estimated 56 000 deaths...
Proposed budget cuts disastrous for health sector, activists warn
Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana ruffled feathers last week with his letter to government departments directing a freeze on posts and other cost-cutting measures. MedicalBrief...
Free State worst performer in ARV dispensing, survey finds
The Free State is performing abysmally when it comes to dispensing ARVs, the percentage of HIV patients receiving a three to six-month supply of...
Bara stillbirth rate 17 times the national average – Wits study
Neonatal deaths at Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital were as much as 12 times the national average, while the stillbirth rate among mothers whose pregnancy...
MTN cuts services to Eastern Cape Health, Afrox threatens to suspend
MTN last month joined the list of service providers to temporarily withdraw services because the Eastern Cape Department of Health failed to pay its...
UCT team develops device to speed up STI diagnosis
A research group from the University of Cape Town (UCT) is developing a user-friendly technology to rapidly detect bacterial vaginosis (BV) and associated genital...
Frustrated Free State community closes clinic
Community members in a section of Botshabelo in the Free State closed their local clinic last Wednesday in protest against a staff shortage at...
Top HIV experts call for PrEP to be prescribed by all nurses and midwives
With 1.5m global incident HIV infections in 2021 – of which 210 000 were in South Africa – there is an urgent need to...
Violent attacks prompt special training for Gauteng healthcare staff
Violence against staff – doctors, nurses, paramedics – and patients, has become an occupational hazard at government hospitals and clinics in South Africa. After...
Experts call for hepatitis B birth-dose vaccine
Despite one in 20 South Africans being infected with the hepatitis B virus – which causes about 820 000 deaths a year globally and...
Lack of supplies and care for desperate SA stoma patients
The ongoing shortage of colostomy pouches in the public health system, where some desperate patients resort to plastic bags glued and taped to their...
Free State infant malnutrition and deaths from starvation on the rise
Free State infants are still dying from a lack of healthy food, with 21 having died from severe acute malnutrition (SAM) between April and...
Germany eyes SA-trained nurses – with government's blessing
Government is in talks with Germany to employ SA-trained nurses to fill vacancies in Europe’s largest economy, while, at home, the shortage of nurses,...
How independent is SA's new Health Ombudsman?
South Africa’s new Health Ombud took on his role this month as some health activists questioned his political allegiances with the ANC, his numerous...
'Dysfunctional and an embarrassment' – outgoing Ombudsman on health departments
In a blistering reflection of the public health sector after seven years in the job, outgoing Health Ombudsman Professor Malegapuru Makgoba labelled the system...
Special interventions to tackle state surgeries backlogs
With state hospitals across the country buckling under a mounting backlog of surgeries, special interventions are being made to tackle the problem which has...
Unsafe national water supply sparks fears of larger cholera spread
As the National Institute of Communicable Diseases (NICD) warns that more cholera cases are likely, Amnesty International has condemned the outbreak that has killed...
Private sector frustration as nursing staff flock to greener pastures
As countries across Africa count the cost of an exodus of talent from its fragile healthcare sectors to richer countries, the situation in South...
No funding model yet, but NHI gets big chunk of health budget
There is still no sign of a cost model for the National Health Insurance (NHI), but a large proportion of this year's much-reduced health...
Poor diet puts SA children at risk of lifestyle diseases – Gqeberha study
A startling 43% of primary schoolchildren in Gqeberha run the risk of diseases like malnutrition, high blood pressure, diabetes and unhealthy cholesterol levels, according...
Loneliness as hazardous as smoking, obesity, US Surgeon-General warns
Loneliness presents a profound public health threat akin to smoking and obesity, US Surgeon-General Vivek Murthy warned in an advisory this week, and could...
Bara borrows food to address critical shortages
The Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital was this week thrust into the spotlight again, this time over a drastic shortage of food for patients...
Eastern Cape hospitals flounder under surgical backlogs and massive debts
Eastern Cape hospitals are battling to stay afloat, with seemingly little hope of catching up on massive surgical backlogs, and the Health Department owing...
EU agency flags carcinogenic compounds found in everyday food
The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has issued a warning that cancer-causing chemical compounds called nitrosamines have been detected in various everyday foods, particularly...
Healthcare workers on losing end after chaotic strike
After a disruptive strike which cost four people their lives, healthcare workers are no better off as the chaos caused has not resulted in...
South African children's height and BMI a cause for concern, say researchers
The mean height of South African boys’ has stagnated, and both boys and girls in rural areas of sub-Saharan Africa have gone from being...
Doctors flag high death risk as Rahima Moosa dysfunctionality exposed
As the full horror of the conditions at the Rahima Moosa Mother and Child Hospital (RMMCH) unfolded with the release of a damning report, and...