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Weekly Roundup
Flu season has started but no cause for alarm — NICD
There is no influenza outbreak in South Africa, other than the normal increase of cases expected during winter, News24 quotes the National Institute for...
French medics protest against health budget cuts
Emergency room doctors and nurses have protested outside the French Health Ministry amid strikes at dozens of hospitals across the country as medics warned...
Northern Cape premier spends on new ambulances, not limos
New Northern Cape Premier Zamani Saul has made good on his promise to cut spending on cars for his provincial executive, instead choosing to...
The 'worst clinic' in SA is to be refurbished
South Africa’s ‘worst clinic’ which has never undergone renovations its 25-year existence is set to go through refurbishment. According to a Health-e News report,...
Bara security failure: Baby stolen found after tip off
A newborn baby girl stolen at the Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital was found in Diepkloof after police received a tip off that she...
Trial looks at MRI scans to predict prostate cancer risk
Hundreds of UK men are trying out a new screening test for prostate cancer to see if it should eventually be offered routinely on...
Three UK hospital patients die in listeriosis outbreak
Three hospital patients in the UK have died in an outbreak of listeria linked to pre-packed sandwiches, reports BBC News. Public Health England (PHE)...
Testing for HIV has doubled diagnosis rates — CDC
Tracing and offering HIV tests to exposed partners and children of people living with the virus led to twice the rate of positive tests...
DoH confirms global ingredient shortage behind ARV stockouts
A worldwide shortage of an active pharmaceutical ingredient is the reason behind the anti-retroviral (ARV) medication shortfall across the country, Health-e News reports the...
Ebola outbreak spreads to Uganda
One case of the Ebola virus has been confirmed in Uganda, a Mail & Guardian report says the World Health Organisation has announced. The...
EC Health to take action after pictures of poor hospital food
The Eastern Cape Health Department has come under fire after pictures surfaced on social media of plates of poor-looking food from the Cala and...
Court order ends strike by cleaners at Tygerberg Hospital
The nearly week-long protest by cleaners at the Western Cape’s biggest hospital – arising from months of allegedly being short-changed for their work –...
NHS abandons target of 5,000 new foreign nurses a year
The UK’s National Health Service's (NHS's) controversial target of hiring 5,000 foreign nurses a year for at least 15 years has been cut from...
World's smallest surviving baby leaves hospital after 5 months
The smallest surviving baby in the world left the hospital five months after she came into the world at a San Diego, California hospital....
Mpumalanga HIV+ moms claim breastfeeding being 'forced' by nurses
While exclusive breastfeeding is encouraged, some women in Mpumalanga living with HIV claim nurses force them to breastfeed their newborn babies. But, says an...
At least R10m damage at torched Cape Town clinic
Dozens of patients hoping to get medical attention were turned away from Ikhwezi Clinic in Nomzamo township in Strand, Cape Town after it was...
Infertility rates double in Switzerland in less than 10 years
Over the last fifty years, a marked decrease in sperm count has been observed in the western world. But what about the situation in...
Momentum claims show alarming rise in cancer among young SA women
An alarming number of young women are being diagnosed with cancer. The Times reports that this is if one major life insurer's claims statistics...
WHO classifies gaming disorder and burnout as illnesses
The World Health Organisation has moved forward with a proposal to classify “gaming disorder” as an illness, reports Venture Beat. After a consideration period...
WHO: Africa close to being declared free of endemic 'wild' polio
Africa could be declared free of endemic “wild” polio early next year if a strain last seen in Nigeria almost three years ago does...
Operational mitral valve implanted by Chris Barnard in 1969 found in Italian woman
Italian doctors have discovered one of the first heart prostheses, implanted almost 50 years ago by Christiaan Barnard, who performed the world’s first human-to-human...
New KZN premier defends former Health MEC over oncology crisis
KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) premier-elect Sihle Zikalala has defended former KZN Health MEC Sibongiseni Dhlomo over the oncology crisis that claimed many lives in the province. The...
IPAF position statement on fraud, alleged racism by medical schemes
The Independent Provider Association Foundation of South Africa (IPAF), a national network of family practitioners that comprises of SP Net, ASAIPA, NHC, SAMCC including...
SASOG statement to mark International Day of Action for Women's Health
The 28th May marks the International Day of Action for Women's Health. This year, the global conversation around women’s health takes place amidst a...
First HPCSA hearing regarding Esidimeni tragedy to open in September
The former Gauteng Health Department head who presided over the Life Esidimeni tragedy, Barney Selebano, will face the Health Professions Council of SA (HPCSA)...
Over 500 children diagnosed as HIV positive in Pakistan village
Pakistan has announced that over 600 people, most of them children, had tested HIV positive in a village in southern Sindh province. The Times reports...
Public Health England's immunisation call as mumps and measles cases rise
A significant increase in mumps cases and continuing outbreaks of measles in England have led to calls for people to ensure they are immunised....
Pan-African Parliament to establish a caucus on immunisation
The Pan-African Parliament (PAP) has adopted a resolution on the establishment of an African Parliamentarian Caucus on Immunisation to drive the body’s commitment to...
Limpopo Health disputes claims that baby fractured arm at birth
The Limpopo Health Department is disputing claims that a newborn baby sustained an arm fracture during birth, saying evidence at the disposal of the...
Nurses spend their own money to improve Eastern Cape clinic
Nurses at the clinic in Buntingville, about 18km south-east of Mthatha, use their own money to improve their health facility. According to a Groundup...
Last Missouri abortion clinic to close
As the last abortion clinic in Missouri warned that it will have to stop providing the procedure as soon as Friday of this week,...
Soweto hospital shut down after fire
Bheki Mlangeni Hospital has been shut down until further notice after a fire broke out in the human resources office of the facility, resulting...
FDA grants breakthrough therapy designation to karposi sarcoma therapy
Celgene’s pomalidomide (Pomalyst) has been granted breakthrough therapy designation by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the treatment of patients with previously-treated...
Mental health nurses exit profession in droves — Royal College of Nursing
The number of mental health nurses in England has slumped by more than a tenth over the past decade, The Guardian reports figures have...
Investigation into HPCSA ordered by Ramaphosa is gazetted
The Special Investigations Unit (SIU) has been instructed to investigate allegations of maladministration and corruption at the Health Professions Council of SA (HPCSA).
In the...
Safety concerns could mean closure of Gugulethu clinic
Gugulethu residents fear losing quality health-care services in the area as health workers threatened to leave due to safety concerns after a spate of...
Experts claim that Big Pharma hides true drug development costs
In SA, cancer patients pay exorbitant prices to stay alive, Bhekisisa reports. And loopholes to SA’s patent laws are among the reasons medicine prices...
ARB rules Cape college's nursing course advert misleading
Kingsway College in Cape Town has been found by the Advertising Regulatory Board (ARB) to have made misleading claims in advertising their nursing courses, reports...
Google claims its AI can spot lung cancer a year before human doctors
Google has announced that it has created "promising" artificial intelligence that can spot lung cancer a year before a human doctor, potentially increasing survival...
FDA working to regulate the cannabidiol 'cure-all' deluge
New CBD (cannabidiol) products are cramming store shelves in the US as the market explodes for what many Americans believe to be a miracle...