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Weekly Roundup
Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever case in North West province
A case of Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever (CCHF) has been confirmed in a 54-year-old man in North West, The Citizen reports the provincial health department...
Immunotherapy drug fails in brain tumour treatment trial
Bristol-Myers Squibb Co has announced that its immunotherapy drug Opdivo has failed to meet the main goal of a late-stage trial testing it in...
WHO gives pre-qualification approval for point-of-care viral load diagnostic test
m-PIMA™ HIV-1/2 VL, from Abbott,the world's first point-of-care viral load diagnostic test, has received the World Health Organisation's pre-qualification approval (WHO PQ). The test...
FDA grants fast-track status to leronlimab as treatment for HIV and breast cancer
A monoclonal antibody targeting the CCR5 receptor on T cells maintained HIV suppression in people who switched from oral combination antiretroviral therapy in a...
Ebola epidemic won't be contained if clinic attacks continue
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has warned it may not be possible to contain the Democratic Republic of the Congo's (DRC) latest Ebola outbreak...
Global Fund grant to boost TB drug implementation in SA
A grant from the Global Fund is expected to boost the implementation of tuberculosis drug of 3HP, a short course TB preventative therapy regimen...
Despite legislation, barriers to legal abortions in SA remain
A Cape Argus report says according to the Sexual and Reproductive Justice Coalition (SRJC), less than 7% of the country’s health facilities provide abortions,...
Healthcare in the Fourth Industrial Revolution — World Economic Forum report
Scientific and technological advances in medicine promise to transform health and healthcare to become much more connected, precise and democratised, with significantly improved human...
Tough economic times cause medical scheme members to downgrade
The Times reports that an increasing number of medical aid members who are downgrading because of tough economic times.
Medical aid broker Alexander Forbes said...
Patient in a coma faces 'expulsion' from JHB private hospital over bill
A manager at a private hospital allegedly demanded that a gravely ill patient, who has been comatose since December, be expelled from the facility...
Gauteng Health quashes claims new hospital beds lying in the sun at Bara
The Gauteng Health Department has moved to quash claims that brand new hospital beds are lying in the sun outside the Chris Hani Baragwanath...
Gauteng Health tries to recoup monies paid to Esidimeni NGOs
The Gauteng government wants to recoup more than R1.8m that was overpaid to NGOs implicated in the Life Esidimeni tragedy. According to a Sowetan...
SANC and National Education must together resolve nursing crisis — Solidarity
The trade union Solidarity’s Occupational Guild for Nursing says that there is a vital need to align the health department, higher education and training...
Project slows the tide of KZN fatalities linked to traditional cures
Soap, shoe polish and antiseptic liquid mixed with traditional herbs to treat ailments have led to several deaths of infants and young children in...
Over 1,000 Ebola deaths recorded in the DRC
More than 1,000 people have now died of Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), authorities said, as aid workers warned that the...
Expired HIV medication causes 'fear and alarm' in Zimbabwe
In mid-April this year, Stanley Takaona, 56, who is on antiretroviral treatment (ART) went to Harare Hospital Opportunistic Infections clinic to collect his three-month...
Parents of newborns living in fear in the US measles epidemic
Roberta Traini gritted her teeth through the small talk at the Barnes & Noble checkout, grabbed her purchases and hustled her 5-month-old daughter, Gretha,...
New specialists for North West hospital
The North West Health Department has beefed up Tshepong Hospital in Klerksdorp with 13 high-level specialists to provide patients with quality healthcare. According to...
Khayelitsha protestors burn down community clinic
Angry protesters from Khayelitsha's QQ section, who demanded to be relocated to Mfuleni, burnt a community clinic in the France informal settlement, last week, Groundup...
Eastern Cape Health involved in questionable R11m Coega contract
At the centre of the questionable R111m paid by the Eastern Cape Health Department to the Coega Development Corporation (CDC) is an arbitrator who...
3 health workers killed in Pakistan's polio vaccination drive
Polio workers across Pakistan have been instructed to remain vigilant after multiple attacks on vaccination teams have killed at least three people amid an...
WHO doctor deployed to help in DRC's Ebola crisis killed in attack
Dr Richard Valery Mouzoko Kiboung, an epidemiologist deployed by the World Health Organisation (WHO) in the response to the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic...
UK's NHS to banish whistleblower gagging orders
Gagging orders for whistleblowers will be banished from the UK’s National Health Service (NHS), Health Secretary Matt Hancock has pledged, in an effort to...
Millions of children not vaccinated against measles warns UNICEF
Nearly 170m children in the world under the age of 10, including half a million in the UK and 2.5m in the US, are...
UK to legislate for addiction warnings on opioid medication
All opioid medicines will have to carry prominent addiction warnings to protect people “from the darker side of painkillers”, The Guardian reports the UK’s...
Insurer releases an overview of SA medical malpractice cover
Natmed has published an overview of medical malpractice insurance under the title Understanding Medical Malpractice Insurance in South Africa.
Modern-day doctors are, however, not only...
Mpumalanga holds men's health dialogues
The Mpumalanga Health Department recently held two men’s health dialogues in the Piet Retief and Amsterdam communities in Gert Sibande District, which was attended...
Measles cases in the US jump nearly 20% in 2019
The number of confirmed cases of measles in the US this year jumped by nearly 20% in the week ending 11 April, in the...
Reinstated KZN doctor remains in limbo
Ten months after he was fired from his job, Ngwelezana Hospital’s head of surgery returned to work on Monday of last week, but there...
Merck's kidney cancer therapy approved ahead of expectations
The US Food and Drug Administration has approved Merck & Co Inc’s cancer therapy, Keytruda, as part of a combination therapy for previously untreated...
FDA approves AbbVie's plaque psoriasis drug
AbbVie Inc has announced that the US Food and Drug Administration approved its Skyrizi drug as a treatment for plaque psoriasis at a time...
Two Ghanaian health tech start-ups win top international awards
Ghana’s long unsung health tech sector is getting global validation with two of its most promising start-ups being named among five winners for one...
Gauteng community healthcare workers strike over permanent jobs
About 500 community healthcare workers who are contractual employees of Gauteng Health blocked Johannesburg city streets last week, demanding that the health MEC come to...
Nurse faces criminal charges after performing 'back-yard abortion'
The Far East Rand Hospital in Springs, Gauteng, has laid criminal charges against a nurse who performed an illegal abortion while off duty, reports...
Eastern Cape Health probes video showing drunk employee at work
The Eastern Cape Health Department is investigating a video clip purportedly showing an intoxicated man attempting to serve patients seeking medical treatment at Livingstone...
Mobile health application launched in SADC region
SAfAids, a regional information dissemination organisation focusing on sexual and reproductive health, has launched a mobile health application to stimulate health seeking behaviour and...
Discovery cancer patient numbers nearly doubled since 2010
The number of Discovery Health Medical Scheme members receiving treatment for cancer has increased by 99% since 2010, even though the scheme’s membership numbers...
Inquest into Richards Bay doctor's gunshot death
A well-known Richards Bay doctor has died after he accidentally shot himself in the face at his home. According to a Post report, Dr...
J&J's advanced bladder cancer drug wins FDA approval
Johnson & Johnson’s drug Balversa has won US approval as the first targeted therapy for advanced bladder cancer, the Food and Drug Administration is...
US regulators approve new two-drug combination pill for HIV
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved Dovato, a new single-tablet antiretroviral regimen containing the HIV integrase inhibitor dolutegravir (sold separately as...