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Talking Points
Should specialist nurses be allowed to use the Dr title?
Legislation defining who should be allowed to use the 'doctor' title, and especially whether specialist nurses were allowed to do so, have created sharp...
Dickason trial churns up difficult parenting issues
The New Zealand trial of South African doctor Lauren Dickason, dubbed Killer Mum after the murder of her three daughters, raises difficult questions about...
Antibiotic to fight STDs is double-edged sword, say experts
US public health officials are deploying a powerful new weapon in the war against rising sexually transmitted infections: a common antibiotic that works as...
Assisted suicide ethical dilemma for psychiatrists
I remember what it was like to be a medical student at a well-known cancer hospital where patients were dying of cancer, writes Dinah Miller...
Counting the cost of fatal misdiagnoses – BMJ study
A recent study has estimated that overlooking a disease, or diagnosing it erroneously or late, results in 371 000 people dying in the US...
SA’s patent system denies vital drug access
Affordable and lifesaving medication is often still unattainable in South Africa, thanks to high costs and restricted availability, enabled by patent monopolies and a...
Another global agency raises flag about aspartame's cancer risk
The controversy over artificial sweetener aspartame continues, with a global research agency raising a cautious red flag about its link to liver cancer, following...
US doctors rake in millions from unnecessary atherectomies
American doctors are raking in billions of dollars for unnecessary, often reckless surgery – costing patients their limbs and risking their lives – in...
Australia starts world-first psychedelics therapy but experts divided
As Australia became the first country in the world to classify psychedelics as medicines last week, major health organisations have urged caution, even as...
Medical sector helps facilitate global illegal organ trade
Perceptions of the illegal organ trade are that it is an underground crime, organised by mafia-like criminals and “rogue” doctors who perform transplants clandestinely,...
NHI pilots point to critical fault lines
Before plunging into its own concept of universal health care (UHC), and the implementation of the National Health Insurance (NHI) scheme, the government and...
Caution vital for combined herb-drug use
The WHO estimates that 60% to 80% of South Africans use herbal products to treat health problems, the statistic being attributed to the diversity...
How Africa can boost local health manufacturing, procurement
Supporting South Africa and Africa’s capacity to manufacture vaccines and other medical products is a complex and challenging task with real public health consequences,...
What's behind SA's nursing crisis?
Looming retirements, training amendments and provicial budget problems are all contributing to the critical nurse shortages in the country.
The dire situation, as well as...
SA's free methadone project to help whip heroin habit
Within the next five years, South Africa plans to make medicines like methadone, a safer fix for people who inject opioids like heroin, available...
Drug shortage fears as supply chain challenges persist
While Covid-19 had a serious impact on many countries’ healthcare supply chains, including in South Africa, the global industry was in trouble long before...
Fifty reasons why the NHI will not work
As the parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Health concluded its clause-by-clause deliberations on the National Health Insurance (NHI) Bill last week, Michele Clarke, DA Shadow...
Under-pressure medical schemes need innovative, affordable solutions
With private healthcare growing increasingly out of reach of anyone outside the top income brackets, it’s time for the industry to devise solutions that...
Will the Presidential Health Summit be a waste of time and money?
The Presidency and the Health Department will today and tomorrow host a second Presidential Health Summit (the first took place in 2018), at a...
Xenophobia or unsustainable burden on creaking health system?
The Gauteng High Court judgment that foreign nationals, for the most part, are entitled to free healthcare at provincial health facilities will place an...
Migrant health rights’ struggles not over yet
While seen as a significant milestone, the landmark Gauteng High Court judgment confirming the rights of all pregnant and lactating women and children under...
Balancing cheaper, cost-saving imports with support for local vaccine makers
SA's snubbing of a local vaccine producer in favour of cheap imports last week has brought into the spotlight the challenge of governments in...
Autoimmune disease patients' challenge to access medicines
Individually, autoimmune conditions do not attract as much attention from healthcare administrators or funders as infectious diseases like HIV and TB, and other non-communicable...
Concern as social media fuels global weight loss drug fad
The growing, widespread use of a new class of “miracle” weight-loss drugs – exacerbated by massive social media hype – is causing concern among doctors...
SA’s prescription rules unchanged in 30 years, leaving nurses disadvantaged
The list of medicines that South Africa’s professional nurses can prescribe to patients hasn’t changed since 1984, which means their permissions stop at schedule...
Urgent call for state to invest in more nurses to avoid catastrophe
The shortage of healthcare professionals in South Africa has reached crisis point. Not only is the country haemorrhaging specialists and doctors, but there’s an...
Should there be universal screening for the often ignored CMV in newborns?
A condition which affects at least 20 000 babies born in the US each year and leaves about 4 000 of them with serious...
Millions of lives sacrificed for corporate greed and profits – Lancet
Just four industries – alcohol, tobacco, ultra-processed foods and fossil fuels – are said to be responsible for at least one-third of all preventable...
The TB version of long Covid
Just as with Covid, there’s a long version of TB called post-TB lung disease, which can emerge even after people have finished their courses...
How safe is neck manipulation in chiropractic treatment?
Despite many people having chiropractic treatment without incident, the consequences of some neck manipulations can be devastating, because of the severity of the resulting...
Adverse effects of non-prescribed vitamins and supplements intake
While the surge in sales of complementary and alternative medicines, including multivitamin supplements, continues, experts have warned that their potential adverse effects are not...
Why MEC should be disciplined for Zimbabwean patient rant
Limpopo Health MEC Phophi Ramathuba was last month cautioned and reprimanded for unbecoming behaviour and unprofessional conduct after she reprimanded a Zimbabwean patient, but...
Lessons for SA from Rwanda's universal health insurance scheme
Rwanda is streaking ahead of South Africa in its universal health insurance plans, covering almost 90% of its population and with the World Health...
Africa needs to strengthen readiness for public health threats
Africa needs a strong and sustainable local manufacturing industry for medical supplies and tools to strengthen global health security and ensure access to life-saving...
What next for TB treatment after disappointing results for shortened regime?
With high hopes for a new, shortened regime to treat drug-susceptible tuberculosis (TB) in South Africa dashed recently after disappointing trial outcomes, have scientists...
Will bird flu spark the next pandemic?
Global scientists are concerned that a series of viral outbreaks among poultry, which have jumped to animals, including minks and grizzly bears, could culminate...
Current version of NHI Bill risks continuation of status quo
The NHI Bill in its current form lacks adequate provisions to safeguard against medicines access and other key elements and, if allowed to be...
Political action key to addressing alcohol-linked cancer
After tobacco, alcohol is the second biggest cause of cancer – before other risk factors like infections, physical inactivity, or sunlight. Worldwide, around 740...
The key to happiness, according to a world expert
For 84 years, the Harvard Study of Adult Development has tracked the lives of hundreds of Americans. The research, says its director Dr Robert...
Lessons – and mysteries – from fast-disappearing mpox
The US public health emergency declaration for mpox ended last week in America as the outbreak, which once seemed to be spiralling out of...