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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...
The case for a state-owned pharmaceutical company
To haul itself out of its dependency on other nations for its pharmaceutical needs, the country needs to switch its focus from costly imported...
Despite lofty plans, 90% of mentally ill South Africans still without care
Around 30.3% of South Africans experience a mental disorder in their lifetime – and about 16% of them in any given year – but...
Donors commit emergency funding as 100 researchers lose jobs
The dire consequences of the US withdrawal of funding to South African health programmes continue, with Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi saying that more than...
SAMRC study finds HIV death stats worse than thought
It is widely acknowledged among health and demographic experts that relying solely on what is written on death certificates is not always an accurate...
Who is allowed to prescribe medicines in SA?
What medicines need prescriptions and who is authorised to write them is not a straightforward matter. In his latest #InsideTheBox column in Spotlight, Dr...
SAMRC joint report calls for coal-power phase out
The SA Medical Research Council (SAMRC) has called for coal-fired power stations to be phased out, after the release of a 10-year study finding...
More work vital for HIV campaign’s success, say experts
Amid major disruptions caused by aid cuts from the United States Government, the National Department of Health aims to enrol an additional 1.1m more...
Mpox cases rise to 28 in SA
The National Health Department has announced that three new cases of mpox have been confirmed in South Africa – all from Ekurhuleni.
The first case,...
Where we stand with the HIV epidemic
It’s 40 years since Aids was first identified. Major strides have been made since the spread of the virus reached epidemic proportions in 1995...
Health Department plans medical strategy to tackle heroin crisis
The government is preparing to trial a medically-assisted treatment programme to help heroin users who want to quit the drug – this after long...