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Weekly Roundup
NWU develops screening and data-recording kits for schools
In the times in which we currently find ourselves, adequate healthcare and accompanying screening are of the utmost importance to limit the spread of...
UK Scientific Advisory Group: High proportion of recovering patients 'cannot get back to a normal life'
Coronavirus patients could suffer "extreme tiredness and shortness of breath for several months", government scientists have warned. The Daily Telegraph reports that newly-released papers...
British GP's register 8m fewer appointments during COVID-19 shutdown
Almost 8m fewer GP appointments were registered in England in April as the coronavirus pandemic took hold. The Daily Telegraph reports that this is...
Pandemic uncertainty sees Mediclinic scrap its dividend
South Africa’s biggest private hospital group, Mediclinic International, has joined many companies in scrapping its dividend as it seeks to preserve cash amid uncertainty...
Lockdown slows down SA's private ambulance sector
As the lockdown enters its ninth week, an unforeseen casualty has been the private ambulance industry, reports Business Day. The sector – which supports...
Medical schemes administrator 'not doing enough' as regards payment holidays on premiums
Banks, the National Treasury, the Reserve Bank and the government are all offering relief to South Africans hurt financially by the national lockdown. But...
South Africans shunning life-saving treatments out of fear of COVID-19 infection
Thousands of South Africans are avoiding health facilities, shunning life-saving treatment out of fear of being infected by COVID-19 and being harassed by...
North West patients suffer as essential medicine stocks dwindle
Dozens of patients whose lives are at risk as various medicines on the North West Province’s essential drugs list are not available, according to...
Tony Blair's advice to Africa — move to antibody testing to track COVID-19
African nations should use antibody tests to find out whether the slower spread and lower mortality rate of the new coronavirus on the continent...
New York hospitals trialling heartburn medicine as a potential COVID-19 treatment
Hospitals in New York are giving COVID-19 patients heartburn medicine to see if it helps fight the virus, according to the doctor who initiated...
Madagascar sends troops to virus hot spot where bodies were found on streets
Madagascar's government says it will dispatch 150 soldiers and doctors to an eastern town after two people died from the coronavirus and several bodies...
Travel dispensation for final-year medical students complete studies
Higher Education, Science & Technology Minister Blade Nzimande has granted final-year medical students permission to travel to university campuses and training sites to complete...
Mkhize explains how 'hot spot' areas will be treated
Health Minister Dr Zweli Mkhize has explained how government will determine the country’s hotspots areas as part of the country’s new district-based lockdown. Business...
SA state lab testing for TB has halved since lockdown
Testing for tuberculosis (TB) at South Africa’s state laboratory has halved since the start of the lockdown, jeopardising the country’s efforts to control the...
DA calls on Health Department to release of results of 100 foreign qualified doctors
Haseena Ismail, DA member on the Portfolio Committee of Health writes in report on the Politicsweb site: The Democratic Alliance (DA) welcomes the decision...
Travel regulations amended to allow SA's final year medics to return to campus
“Final year medical students registered at South African public universities” have been given permissions to travel and resume their 2020 academic year studies under...
More volunteers needed for Wits rapid test COVID-19 study
Seventy-two South Africans have volunteered to participate in the University of Witwatersrand's COVID-19 rapid test study, but the institution says it needs more volunteers....
Patient access to Gilead's remdesivir curtailed as clinical studies wind down
Gilead Sciences' two clinical studies of its potential coronavirus treatment remdesivir will wind down by the end of May, closing off a path of...
Valkenberg Psychiatric Hospital staff test positive for COVID-19
Staff members and patients at Valkenberg Psychiatric Hospital have tested positive for COVID-19, News24 reports the Western Cape Health has confirmed. But it refuses...
COVID-positve Mahikeng doctor had large number of contacts
A Mahikeng doctor in the North West who tested positive for COVID-19 saw 104 patients at his private practice, The Times quotes the North...
Dis-Chem purchase of Baby City will bring in-store ante- and post-natal clinics
Pharmacy group Dis-Chem has entered into a conditional arrangement to buy Baby City from its founder shareholders, the Aronoff family, for R430m, reports Fin24....
COVID-19 has mixed effect on Aspen Pharmacare's bottom line
Drugmaker Aspen Pharmacare has maintained its profit forecast for its year to end-June, as the COVID-19 pandemic has a mixed effect on the group...
UK's first Covid-sniffing dogs start training at London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
Three cocker spaniels, two labradors and a labradoodle are to begin intensive training at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM)...
São Paulo mayor warns city's health system close to collapse under COVID-19 strain
The mayor of Brazil's largest city, São Paulo, has said its health system could collapse as demand grows for emergency beds to deal with...
BMJ: Too little, too late, too flawed – UK's COVID-19 response
The UK’s response to COVID-19 so far has neither been well prepared nor remotely adequate, argue experts in The BMJ. Public health experts, Gabriel...
SA scores on gender health equality but otherwise at the bottom of world ranking analysis
An analysis of health data from 156 countries across 10 categories found that South Africans are the world’s unhealthiest, with both men and...
Co-trimoxazole and INH combo tablet offers one pill solution for TB/HIV prophylaxis
With South Africa having one of the highest rates of tuberculosis (TB) worldwide, coupled with equally high statistics of people living with HIV (PLHIV),...
Too little information of ventilator use in SA to predict patient survival rates
A snapshot of mortality among COVID-19 patients on ventilators in South Africa is sobering, but too small and incomplete to provide a reliable picture...
Gauteng ramps up efforts to increase number of hospital beds
In line with plans to get Gauteng’s health system ready for an expected surge in COVID-19 cases, the Gauteng Infrastructure Development Department is ramping...
BCG vaccine COVID-19 trial starts on SA healthcare workers
Hundreds of South African health workers were given a century-old tuberculosis vaccine on Monday of last week in a trial to see whether the...
Global COVID-19 pandemic response could spell disaster for those living with TB
The global response to the COVID-19 pandemic and protracted lockdowns could spell disaster for those living with tuberculosis. According to The Times, a modelling...
SA travel ban and lockdown 'saves at least 20,000 lives' says UKZN analyst
Government interventions, including the travel ban and lockdown, have potentially averted at least 20,000 deaths. News24 reports that this is according to Professor Tulio...
CTN company working on antigen to be used in rapid-diagnostic COVID-19 test kits
A Cape Town company has partnered others overseas to produce a plant-based antigen that could possibly be used in rapid-diagnostic test kits for the...
At 0.24% infection, coronavirus not at epidemic levels in Britain
Coronavirus is not at epidemic levels in Britain, The Daily Telegraph reports experts at Oxford University have said, with new figures showing that only...
New York reports 3 child deaths from possibly COVID-19-related rare inflammatory syndrome
Three children in New York have died from a rare inflammatory syndrome believed to be linked to the novel coronavirus, Governor Andrew Cuomo has...
US healthcare sector 'not recession proof' in the coronavirus pandemic
For more than half a century, in good economic times and bad, health care jobs in the US just kept increasing. Economists and health...
WHO: Eradication of smallpox could give pointers in the fight against COVID-19
COVID-19 can only be defeated through global co-operation, as was seen with the unprecedented effort to eradicate smallpox, World Health Organisation (WHO) officials said...
US donates ventilators and PPE to SA
The US government has donated up to a thousand ventilators and accompanying equipment to South Africa, which will be sent to all intensive care...
Lockdown has 'completely failed' in densely populated urban communities, says Wits expert Van Den Heever
The country's hard COVID-19 lockdown has “completely failed” in vulnerable densely populated urban communities, prompting concern that South Africa will have a “raging epidemic”...
SA's COVID-19 roundup – 7 May 2020: Tests on the rise, but supply concerns remain
While community screening is up across South Africa and more tests are being done in the public sector, concerns remain about the supply of...