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South Africa
Data investment key to effective delivery of NHI
Investing in data is arguably the most cost-effective investment South Africa can make to ensure that the NHI delivers equitable, efficient and sustainable healthcare,...
No cardiologists at Livingstone after contracts blunder
For nine critical days – from 1-9 April – Livingstone Hospital in Nelson Mandela Bay had no cardiologists on duty due to an administrative blunder,...
DignitySA launches legal challenge for assisted dying
The non-profit organisation DignitySA filed an application in the Gauteng High Court (Pretoria) last week seeking to have the laws that criminalise medically assisted...
Dental accreditation stand-off impacts student training and graduates
Ongoing problems relating to the accreditation of dental students at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT) remain unresolved, with the South African Dental...
Transgender patients in SA face 10-year state surgery clinic backlog
South Africa’s only state gender-affirming clinic provides surgery to just four patients a year, while receiving up to 10 new referrals a month –...
Activists push for menstrual Bill for free sanitary products
Civil society and social justice advocates are demanding that Parliament treat menstrual hygiene as a fundamental human right through the proposed Menstrual Health Rights...
South Africa’s smallest surviving baby beats all odds
The parents of a baby born in 2002 – weighing just 410g – were told by doctors it would be best to abort because...
Early days, but South Africans warm to GLP-1 drugs
South Africans are taking to GLP-1 weight loss drugs like ducks to water, with a recent study revealing that one in 20 people is...
Choice of new Health boss will test Ramaphosa’s commitment
When push comes to shove, President Cyril Ramaphosa’s talk of building a more capable state hasn’t always been backed up by the appointment of...
How the SAMRC weathered the funding storm
Cuts in United States funding for global health research have dealt a heavy blow to South Africa’s health research ecosystem, which has historically been...
Fed-up SA drugmakers want nominal medicine price rise justified
The national Department of Health has been asked to explain how it devised this year’s minimal 1.47% increase for private sector medicine sales, with...
Crucial that autism support reaches rural classrooms in SA
Children with autism do not struggle because they lack potential; they struggle when the world around them is not ready to understand how they communicate, play,...
Only 3% of South Africans using condoms as STIs rise
Sexually transmitted infections (STIs) are on the rise in South Africa, and while exact numbers are difficult to pinpoint, regional data paint a worrying...
Court allows amputation of child’s feet despite parental objection
A six-year-old who developed gangrene in both feet will undergo lower limb amputation after the Red Cross War Memorial Children’s Hospital obtained permission from...
Landmark South African study shows efficacy of HPV vaccination
A national HPV vaccination programme can be extremely effective in a high HIV-prevalence setting, a Wits-led research published in The Lancet Global Health shows...
Tackling the threat of asymptomatic TB in South Africa
Tuberculosis (TB) continues to spread in South Africa at alarming rates, possibly because some people may have the disease without TB symptoms and may...
Lessons learnt in the anti-HIV drug race as CAB-LA falls behind LEN
The two-monthly HIV prevention injection, cabotegravir (CAB-LA), was approved more than three years ago but never reached government clinics. Now, as the new and...
Guaranteed orders vital for anti-HIV jab production – Aspen
The country’s largest generic manufacturer, Aspen Pharmacare, has warned that local drugmakers will need guaranteed demand to produce Gilead’s twice-year HIV prevention shot lenacapavir,...
Obstetric violence rampant in KZN, Gauteng, survey finds
Pregnant women in South Africa – specifically in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal – are subjected to alarming levels of obstetric violence during their pregnancies, childbirth...
Hospitals botching pain management – South African study
Most patients do not receive important pain treatment during and after surgery, reports GroundUp, with a recent local study – published in Lancet Africa...
Unions step up threats over GEMS increases
Union members of the Government Employees Medical Scheme (GEMS) have threatened to withdraw from the scheme – and are investigating legal action, as well...
Baby formula recalled in South Africa
The National Consumer Commission (NCC) has recalled baby formula produced by Nutricua Southern Africa, saying there is a possibility of toxin contamination within some...
South African children face health harms from household fuels, pollutants
South Africa’s poorest children are often frequently and unfortunately exposed to numerous harmful pollutants, including from alternative energy sources like wood fires and paraffin...
Durban mothers in IVF baby mix-up row
In a legal tussle likely to have lifelong implications on two families, a black couple from Ballito wants the courts to compel an Indian...
Young scientist to explore nanoparticle therapy for brain cancer
Michael Gomes, a PhD candidate at the Wits Advanced Drug Delivery Platform (WADDP), has been awarded the 2026 South African Medical Research Council (SAMRC)...
When will SA take the prevention of chronic HBV infection seriously?
South Africa bears a significant burden of hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection, and a notable prevalence of hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) among pregnant...
How medicines pricing works in SA, how it might change
In South Africa, as in many places, pharmaceutical companies are not free to change medicine prices as they wish. In his Inside The Box...
High deaths rates among starving Limpopo children – Wits study
Thousands of South African children are suffering from severe acute malnutrition (SAM), say concerned experts, calling for urgent review of data quality and reporting...
SA’s cancer fight needs backing of local science
Cancer is a democratic affliction: it does not only target the wealthy, yet its effect on South Africans is deeply unequal – thus requiring...
Eastern Cape patients risk lives in local clinics, report finds
Political parties have slammed the findings of an oversight report exposing appalling conditions at health facilities in the Eastern Cape’s Buffalo City Metro and...
First SA human HIV vaccine trial launched
A safe, affordable vaccine taken in the first year of life – and never again – is the long-term prize scientists are chasing as...
Thousands of KZN community health workers finally employed full-time
KwaZulu-Natal Health has permanently employed more than 5 000 community health workers (CHW), marking a triumph for the National Education Health and Allied Workers’...
SA experts call for warning labels on common, carcinogenic food products
Popular fast and processed foods consumed daily by South Africans are taking their toll on public health, with regulars like bacon, hot dogs and...
Killer terbufos pesticide still being sold by vendors
Despite a ban on illegal sales, the highly toxic pesticide terbufos – commonly known as “halephirimi” (“the sun won’t set”), which has been linked...
GEMS subsidy hike postponed to next month
The planned medical subsidy increase for government employees has been postponed to next month and comes as the Health Minister has promised to intervene...
SA scientist develops tool for fast screening of TB, cancer and Covid
A Cape Town scientist is working on developing a rapid, low-cost portable screening test that could transform the early detection of TB, cancer and...
Experts call for SA lens on contraceptive link to meningioma
Increasing evidence has shown an association between the popular contraceptive injection depot medroxyprogesterone acetate (dMPA) – known as depo provera – and meningioma, leading...
SA HIV vaccine trial picks up again after funding setback
Everything had been leading to the meeting early last year in Zanzibar, where 100 researchers, clinicians and other experts on HIV from across Africa...
KZN Health reverses pharmacy intern freeze after outcry
The financially-stricken KwaZulu-Natal Health Department has done an about-turn on its controversial decision to freeze pharmacy internship posts – announced this past weekend –...
Minister vows talks with GEMS over tariffs hike
The latest hikes by the Government Employees Medical Scheme (GEMS) have come under fire from Public Service & Administration Minister Mzamo Buthelezi, who told...