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Wits team creates inhalable nanosystem to fight TB
A team of researchers at the University of Witwatersrand is developing a system of TB medicine delivery at nano scale – engineering a microscopic...
SA first to register anti-HIV jab
South Africa is the first African country – and SAHPRA the third regulator worldwide – to register the twice-yearly anti-HIV jab, lenacapavir (LEN), inking...
TB caucus relaunched by Motsoaledi
Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi has relaunched the SA Tuberculosis Caucus, a platform for political leaders to advance the response to the disease, as the...
Ritshidze forced to shrink after US aid cuts
Ritshidze, the world’s largest community-led monitoring system, is in jeopardy after the cuts to US development aid announced in January, writes Chris Gilili for...
New pharmacy rival likely to chase Clicks, Dis-Chem
Ambitious plans to double its pharmaceutical retail stores next year are a step closer for the SPAR Group, after getting the nod from the...
Plunge in public healthcare services after Pepfar cuts
Nearly half of hundreds of public health facilities surveyed by the community-led monitoring group Ritshidze have been operating at a reduced capacity since the...
SA firms lose out on lenacapavir production
South African companies were excluded from Gilead Science’s voluntary licensing for the anti-HIV drug lenacapavir because those that were evaluated in 2024 did not...
UFS awarded WHO grant for global traditional medicine platform
A major grant has been awarded to the African Medicines Innovations and Technology Development Platform (AMITD) at the University of the Free State (UFS) under...
SAHPRA and HPCSA sign collaborative agreement
The South African Health Products Regulatory Authority (SAHPRA) and the Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA) recently signed a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA)...
Sugary flavours in infant food harming health – Stellenbosch study
Researchers from Stellenbosch University have called for infant food flavourings to be evaluated and for labelling regulations to be strengthened and enforced after their...
Questions after NHLS audit procurement flaws flagged
Weak controls, expired contracts and irregular expenditure have yet again been linked to the Department of Health and its entities, according to the Auditor-General...
Indian firm to buy chunk of pharma giant Adcock
India-listed Natco Pharma has been given the green light to buy a significant stake in Adcock Ingram, with the South African company’s shareholders voting...
Reimagining mental healthcare amid growing burden – SA Health Review
Mental health has become one of the most pressing public health challenges in South Africa and worldwide. Within our national context, entrenched socio-economic disparities,...
Urgent need for national kidney health strategy to address glaring gaps
Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is an escalating public health crisis in South Africa, and urgent reforms are vital, writes a group of concerned specialists...
South Africa’s immunisation programme falling behind
Childhood immunisation programmes have saved millions of lives and prevented much suffering, but have lost momentum over the past decade or so, writes Elri...
Kidney exchange programme could address donor shortage
Kidney transplantation is the optimal treatment for eligible patients with chronic kidney disease, offering superior survival and quality of life compared with dialysis, yet...
SA launches WHO-backed plan to combat rise of counterfeit meds
A national action plan to fight the alarming rise of fake and sub-standard medicines in South Africa will be implemented from next year, aimed...
KZN doctor, nurses nabbed in drunk driving blitz
A doctor and three nurses were among 66 motorists arrested on the weekend in Port Shepstone, KwaZulu-Natal, for drunk driving, drawing condemnation from Transport...
Changing South Africa’s abysmally low organ donation rates
Thousands of people in South Africa are waiting for a life-saving organ transplant, but our very low donation rates mean many won’t get a...
HIV+ groups battle to access state services, study finds
The fall-out from Pepfar funding cuts for HIV programmes three months ago continues to reverberate, with three specialised clinics in Cape Town serving key...
Millions spent on guarding abandoned hospital
A derelict and vandalised hospital that has stood empty for nearly 30 years is costing the Gauteng Department of Health R750 000 per annum...
Pioneering childhood hypertension study for SA
South Africa still relies on US and European blood pressure charts for children, but Nelson Mandela University is helping to change that through a...
MEC under fire as health facilities buckle under pressure
Grappling with huge staff shortages and shrinking budgets – like public healthcare facilities across the country – Gauteng's Health Department is further crippled by...
Emergency services desperate as shortages cripple sector
South African lives are being lost – and thousands more put at risk – as the dire shortage of ambulances and paramedics continues to...
Gauteng Health flags organ donor scarcity in SA
The critical shortage of organ donors is unlikely to improve unless more people become donors, with Gauteng Health MEC Nomantu Nkomo-Ralehoko warning that at...
SA diagnostic breakthrough saving lives
New technology developed at the University of the Witwatersrand is being expanded to tackle a broader range of diseases after its proven success in...
Free State doctors identify first SA case of novel fungal infection
A Free State medical team has identified a rare fungal infection in an HIV+ patient that has never been seen before in South Africa,...
SA companies lose out on ARV drugs tender
The National Department of Health’s decision to give the lion’s share of the latest R15.5bn Aids drug tender to Aspen Pharmacare but shun many...
Weight-loss drug Wegovy debuts in SA
Novo Nordisk introduced its weight-loss drug Wegovy in South Africa last Thursday, marking its debut in Africa and stepping up competition with Eli Lilly’s Mounjaro, which...
SA pharmacies support flavoured vape ban
Regulation of e-cigarettes in this country is long overdue, with flavoured vapes, especially, being described by the Independent Community Pharmacy Association (ICPA) as “bait”,...
Nurses plead for their mental health, wellness support
Burnout, fatigue and lack of support have become silent threats to South Africa’s nursing workforce within hospitals, clinics and military facilities, with healthcare leaders...
Time to finally end SA/Cuba doctor training deal?
The Nelson Mandela-Fidel Castro medical training programme has been controversial from the start. It’s had high points and low points, and many say it...
SA study highlights need to monitor IV antibiotic use in hospitals
The findings of a study analysing intravenous (IV) antibiotic usage in a private mining hospital in North West Province have emphasised the need for...
Treasury bails out HIV/Aids projects blindsided by Pepfar cuts
While Health Minister Dr Aaron Motsoaledi’s recent tabling of the 2025/26 Health Budget vote and the spending priorities showed efforts to plug some funding...
Procurement boost for physiotherapy sector
The South African physiotherapy industry has received approval from the Competition Commission for centralised procurement for the next five years, enabling the sector to...
Vaccinations urged as measles infections spread in Free State
Health authorities in the Free State have confirmed 64 cases of measles across the Lejweleputswa district in children aged between five and nine, reports...
EU funding boosts SA’s pandemic readiness with genomic research
South Africa is cementing its leadership role in global pandemic preparedness through a major expansion of its genomic surveillance partnership with Germany and the...
Gauteng Health on vaccine drive as measles spreads
Measles cases are escalating in Gauteng, with the Health Department now launching an aggressive vaccination campaign in schools and at taxi ranks, in efforts...
Cancer costs thwart treatment for SA patents
An Eastern Cape man with a rare cancer who was due to have his last immunotherapy session this week – after an expensive battle...
Rethinking how we look at obesity in South Africa
Health workers have long relied on body mass index (BMI) to measure whether people are within a healthy weight range, but leading researchers have...