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Defence Minister backed Cuban ‘wonder drug’ to treat whole of SA
Defence Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula told a parliamentary portfolio that she knew about the SA National Defence Force's purchase of interferon from Cuba but had...
SA vaccine rollout kicks off with some high profile inoculations
South Africa's vaccine drive started on Wednesday (18 February) with assurances that there are enough vaccines in the pipeline to inoculate the 40m needed...
DoH denies 'tension' between Mkhize and Ramaphosa over vaccines
The national Department of Health has issued a statement in which it denied a weekend newspaper report that there was tension between the political...
Public Protector upholds Wits exclusion of low-scoring medical students
The Public Protector’s office has upheld Wits University’s decision not to readmit four medical students who failed to obtain minimum marks allowing them to...
ANC business wing demands its cut of vaccine supply contracts
The ANC’s business wing, the Progressive Business Forum (PBF), is pushing for its members who help fund the party to secure a cut of...
UKZN on cash-for-places: 'We're committed to transparency'
The University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) spent more than R73.5m on an investigation into the irregular admission of students at its Nelson R Mandela School...
SMU to guide tests on traditional healers' 'cure' for COVID-19
Following media reports that the M5 MediGroup (Traditional Practitioners) had positive results from their own testing of a potential “alternative remedy” for COVID-19, the...
Govt's own estimates show a shortfall of 40m vaccine doses in 2021
Health officials expect to see a shortfall of 40m doses of COVID-19 vaccines in 2021, a News24 investigations has found.
In an 'exclusive' News24 reports...
'Urgent legislation' call to protect doctors at legal risk over COVID-19 decisions
TheMedical Protection Society has urged theSouth African government to introduce COVID-19 disaster legislation to protect healthcare professionals from legal challenge relating to clinical resourcing...
Transparency International: A 'damning indictment' of SA's COVID-19 corruption
Corruption has negatively impacted the ability of countries around the world, including South Africa, to manage the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Transparency International's latest...
Middle-men coined it from R431m schools' sanitation contracts
Some companies with no experience or expertise in COVID-19 sanitation earned millions for just hiring subcontractors to do their work for the Gauteng government's...
Ramaphosa: NHI may be a casualty of SA's COVID-19 crisis
A "sombre" President Cyril Ramaphosa has indicated that the government might not be able to achieve everything it planned due to the pandemic, including...
MRC: More than 106,000 excess deaths in period May to mid-January
Between 3 May 2020 and 16 January 2021, the number of excess deaths in South Africa was more than 106,000, of which nearly 85,000...
Discovery issues rebuttal of inquiry finding of racial discrimination
Discovery Health, South Africa’s largest private medical schemes administrator, has published a letter to members in which it says there was no racial discrimination...
DA and Mkhize square up over vaccine delivery and sourcing
The Democratic Alliance (DA) will the government seven days to provide details and information of its vaccine rollout strategy, failing which the opposition party...
Critical shortages of ICU staff mean bottlenecks and untrained nurses
The SA Medical Association has expressed concern about inexperienced medical staff being deployed to ICUs, while KwaZulu-Natal Health says it cannot increase the number...
UKZN loses legal action over report into sale of medical school places
The University of KwaZulu-Natal was ordered by Durban High Court to release to a corruption crusader its secret report into the alleged sale of...
Karim and SAHPRA warn against Ivermectin to treat COVID-19
South African epidemiologist and infectious diseases specialist Professor Salim Abdool Karim has warned against the administering of Ivermectin in the treatment of patients, reports...
Report into claims of racial profiling by medical schemes 'indefinitely delayed'
The release of the report into whether medical schemes and medical administrators use racial profiling when investigating fraud by professionals has been indefinitely delayed,...
Ramaphosa: 'Private individuals' not govt that donated medical supplies to Cuba
President Cyril Ramaphosa has dismissed suggestions that the government has made a donation of "medical material supplies" to the Cuban government, reports IoL. Ramaphosa...
Pressure on SA regulator to authorise Ivermectin for immediate use
The South African Health Products Authority (SAHPRA) is facing pressure, including the threat of a court challenge, to authorise for immediate use the antiparasitic...
Big business 'seriously considering' government request to fund vaccines
South Africa’s biggest businesses said they are “seriously considering” a request by the government to help fund the acquisition of COVID-19 vaccines as the...
Experts slate SA public health sector's lack of readiness for second wave
With death and infection rates climbing, MedicalBrief notes that health experts have slated the government's readiness for the second wave of COVID-19.
The SA Medical...
CMS orders a stop to prepaid, low-cost GP vouchers
Barely a week after Discovery Health joined Netcare in selling a novel prepaid voucher product for GP consultations, the medical aid regulator, the Council...
A new COVID-avoiding dashboard to inform travel decisions
The South African Covid-19 Modelling Consortium (SACMC), together with the National Institute for Communicable Diseases/strong>, has launched the SACMC Epidemic Explorer dashboard. It will...
Cape Town paramedic shot while under SAPS escort
A Cape Town paramedic has now escaped death twice while on call-out, thanks to wearing a bulletproof vest.
News24 reports that "the shooter did not...
Strong warning from SAMA on criminalisation of medical decisions
The SA Medical Association has warned of "immense knock-on effects" to society if doctors fear that their medical judgements may be criminalised, despite them...
Private hospitals face hotspot surge in COVID-19 patients
Following Netcare’s deployment of volunteer nurses, paramedics and medical equipment to the Eastern Cape to cope with the COVID-19 resurgence there, Mediclinic and Life...
SAMA to act against 'unethical' med students paying for choice internships
The SA Medical Association is to probe reports that some medical students are negotiating to pay up to R100,000 to secure their preferred internships.
Sama...
Netcare offers to assist struggling Eastern Cape
To counter the worsening COVID-19 situation in the Eastern Cape, Netcare has deployed extra nurses, paramedics and medical equipment to its hospitals in the...
SA commits to getting initial 10% of its vaccine needs from COVAX
South Africa is going with the COVAX global COVID-19 vaccine distribution scheme, with a committed purchase for 10% of its population of 58 million,...
Mkhize ponders alcohol restrictions as pandemic surges in EC
During an oversight visit to Nelson Mandela Bay to assess the deteriorating pandemic situation in the Eastern Cape, Health Minister Dr Zweli Mkhize warned...
Hospital 'pulmonologist' with two surgeries among 18 bogus doctor arrests
A “pulmonologist” with two private surgeries and a specialist appointment at the Far East Rand Hospital is among 18 arrests by the Health Professions Council...
'Almost all' 62,000 excess SA deaths this year due to COVID-19
South African hospitals likely under-reported the number of patients with the coronavirus and the death toll probably much higher than the official figure, with...
SA unlikely to get Pfizer vaccine before mid-2021 — Madhi
The chances of SA getting a significant volume of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine before end June 2021 are “extremely unlikely”, said Wits University professor of...
Discovery ordered to stop low-cost primary health care products
The Council of Medical Schemes Appeal Board has upheld an appeal by the Board of Healthcare Funders and revoked Discovery's earlier permission from the...
Business lashes Ramaphosa over lockdown uncertainty
President Cyril Ramaphosa’s silence on the possible return to lockdown level two regulations is upsetting the business community, Die Burger reports.
Business for SA...
Health Minister Mkhize denies claims of cash siphoned to ANC
Health Minister Zweli Mkhize has again denied allegations about donations to the ANC made during his tenure as the party’s treasurer-general, as claimed by...
Madhi: SA's contact tracing app is just 'wishful thinking'
Contact tracing has failed and government app is little more than “wishful thinking”, says Wits University’s professor Shabir Madhi, in a Sunday Times report.
Science...
Pandemic's 'severe' financial impact on medical profession
The COVID-19 pandemic has had a severe financial impact on South African practitioners with some GPs, cardiothoracic surgeons and neurosurgeons losing up to 80%...