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The rights to NHI access by migrants are not absolute — HSRC director
The rights of migrants to healthcare are not absolute, writes Prof Narnia Bohle-Muller, in Daily Maverick. There are exceptions and international human rights law...
Most of Africa's leaders seek their medical treatment abroad
Confronted with failing, under-resourced and understaffed healthcare systems at home, most African leaders seek treatment abroad, writes Dr Chipo Dendere of Wellesley College writes...
SA can rebuild its health systems from the bottom up
The bottom-up process strengthening health systems is already happening and provides valuable lessons for the reforms contemplated in the NHI Bill, writes Prof Helen...
Association between sweetened soft drinks and mortality — large European study
The consumption of sugar-sweetened and artificially sweetened soft drinks was positively associated with all-cause deaths in a large European cohort over more than 16...
Could Ghana's NHI experience be a template for SA?
Ghana is one of the few countries in Africa to have implemented a form of social insurance healthcare, which is being punted as a...
Why doctors are fleeing the public service — and SA
Sometimes small events illuminate big issues. Western Cape Health's bizarre hounding of three registrars explains why doctors are leaving the public service and South...
Little of the criticism of the NHI Bill is 'constructive'
There is a lot of criticism of the NHI Bill, but little of it is constructive, writes Professor Shabir Moosa, a family physician and...
Prescription drug poses new threat to South African youths
South African learners turn to anti-anxiety medication to manage stress but punishment remains the state’s primary intervention, writes Mark Hunter for the social justice...
The African opioid epidemic you haven’t heard about
Weakly regulated painkillers are causing untold damage in West Africa, but stricter controls could have dire consequences for patients with chronic pain. Laura Salm-Reifferscheidt unpicks an...
Daily e-cigarette use may help smokers quit regular cigarettes
A study from Massachusetts General Hospital's Tobacco Research and Treatment Center provides critical population-level evidence demonstrating that using e-cigarettes daily helps US smokers to...
Controversy over NHI must be seen against the backdrop of SA in crisis
Louis Reynolds, associate professor affiliated to the paediatric department at the University of Cape Town and David Saunders, emeritus professor at the School of...
NHI Bill continues to spark furious debate
The battle lines are drawn between the naysayers and supporters of National Health Insurance after the Bill was introduced to Parliament over a week...
Business Day blows away Mkhize's 'noble pipe dream'
Responding to last week’s report evaluating the National Health Insurance’s 10 pilot projects, Business Day writes in in a strongly worded editorial that it...
NHS patients increasingly opt to pay more for private GP visits
Complaints about UK National Health Service primary care are on the rise, with many patients opting for private GP consultations, reports The Daily Telegraph....
Patients are bearing the brunt of SA's inadequate health services
Patients continue to bear the brunt of inadequate health services, as some provinces reveal their health plans over the next financial year, says a...
Revised NHI Bill raises more questions than gives answers
Government is pushing through a revised National Health Insurance (NHI) Bill, which is leaving analysts and medical professionals with more questions than answers –...
Legality of using social media influencers to promote e-cigarettes
To evade tough laws on tobacco advertising, firms like Philip Morris have turned to social media influencers to promote their smoke-free products, reports Bhekisisa. A...
DRC Ebola outbreak is 'nothing short of a perfect storm’ — Brookings
The latest Ebola outbreak – which began in August 2018 in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) – is nothing short of a perfect...
Sugar tax has cut consumption of sugary drinks — meta-analysis
A 10% tax on sugary drinks has cut the purchase and consumption of sugary drinks by an average of 10% in places it has...
SA's big public hospitals should be freed of provincial health depts
SA's public hospitals should be independent entities, removed from the control of under-skilled, understaffed and under-resourced provincial health departments, writes William Gumede of Wits University,...
Popular misconceptions about 'good bacteria' and 'good hygiene'
The Royal Society for Public Health (RSPH) said incorrect theories which became popular in the 1990s were fuelling confusion and unhygienic habits among subsequent...
Rotavirus vaccine also protects children against type 1 diabetes
Being fully vaccinated against rotavirus in the first months of life is also associated with a lower risk of developing type 1 diabetes.
Vaccinating babies...
Vaccines and the 'complacency factor’ — Wellcome survey
Developed countries, like France, have the lowest levels of trust in vaccines, while poorer countries - where people see the human cost of not...
Measles vaccine also delivers significant long-term health, cognition, and schooling benefits
Aside from the measles vaccine preventing an estimated 21.1m child deaths between 2000-2017 and reducing all-cause childhood mortality and infectious disease morbidity outcomes, a...
Chickenpox vaccine reduces incidence of paediatric shingles
Children who receive the chickenpox (varicella) vaccine are significantly less likely to contract shingles, according to a study led by researchers at the Kaiser...
Brazil finds it difficult to replace Cuban doctors
Six months after Brazil's new president, Jair Bolsonaro, triggered Cuba's withdrawal of more than 8,000 medical doctors it had deployed to that country, Brazil...
Getting vaccines to inaccessible corners of the world
Researchers at McMaster University have invented a stable, affordable way to store fragile vaccines for weeks at a time at temperatures up to 40°C,...
NHI — a funding model masquerading as a delivery system
National Health Insurance (NHI) is one of the most misunderstood terms in healthcare in South Africa. Professor Manie de Klerk, head of the University...
Snakebite: 'The world's biggest hidden health crisis'
A crisis in the production of antivenoms is killing tens of thousands of people a year and, reports The Daily Telegraph, scientists are hoping...
Motsoaledi era: HIV/Aids success but public healthcare failures
The Motsoaledi years can broadly be judged on two fronts, the response to the HIV epidemic and the functioning of the public healthcare system...
SA's new health minister is the 'master of survival'
Dr Aaron Motsoaledi leaves the national Health Department after 10 years, with the last few years marred by major failures in public health, while...
Mapping the burden of HIV in sub-Saharan Africa
HIV/Aids remains the most common cause of death in the 47 nations of sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) but with striking geographic variations in prevalence, shows...
Crowdfunding treatment — when survival is a popularity contest
It's increasingly popular to try to fund expensive medical treatments — or alternative therapies — by appealing online for donations. It can be a...
‘Profound’ growth in South Africa’s heroin market fuels drug crisis
James Mashakeni, 22, began smoking nyaope, a heroin-based narcotic, after a blowout fight with his dad nine years ago, writes Krista Mahr for the...
Opioid addiction crisis lawsuits target billionaire family and Purdue Pharma
Five states have sued super-rich members of the family that controls Purdue Pharma. Together they are accused of encouraging an opioid addiction epidemic that...
Marijuana’s decriminalisation in America and South Africa – Implications
Every year on 20 April marijuana advocates from Johannesburg to California celebrate cannabis culture, writes The Conversation. The publication ran a serious of articles...
Doctors and nurses abandon Romania for better paid EU jobs
Despite doubling salaries, Romania has lost 43,000 doctors and more than a fifth of its population since joining the European Union in 2007, reports...
May 8: Heavenly promises but the devil is in the details
Health-e News unpacks the health care promises of the major parties in the run-up to May 8's general election.
The ANC’s much-contested National Health Insurance (NHI)...
Venezuela health system in a state of 'utter collapse’ — Human Rights Watch
The UN is being urged to declare a full-scale humanitarian emergency in Venezuela in the light of the “utter collapse” of its health system...
The health benefits of democracy — 170-country study
Life expectancy improved more quickly in countries that switched to democracy over the past 50 years and there were fewer deaths from cardiovascular disease,...