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Weekly Roundup
Chinese defective vaccine campaigner goes missing
There are fears for the safety of a woman campaigning about China’s defective vaccines, with activists saying she has been missing for more than...
NICD confirms cholera in traveller returning from Zimbabwe
The National Institute of Communicable Diseases (NICD) has confirmed the diagnosis of cholera in a returning traveller from Zimbabwe. The patient commenced with diarrhoea...
Attack on Red Cross workers treating DRC's Ebola victims
The international community has sounded the alarm over a “heightened sense of fear and distrust” after three Red Cross workers fighting to contain Ebola...
Japanese mosquito-repellent paint to help fight malaria in Zambia
A Japanese paint producer has launched the world's first mosquito-repellent paint in Zambia to help it reach a target to eliminate malaria by 2021,...
Frere Hospital's turnaround recognised with international accolade
Frere Hospital in East London will be among six hospitals in the world to receive a prestigious international accolade at the 42nd World Hospital...
Nearly 400 tonnes of counterfeit medicines seized by Ivory Coast
Nearly 400 tonnes of fake medicines have been seized over two years in Ivory Coast, whose main city Abidjan is a West African haven...
Tips on whistleblowing for healthcare workers
In broken healthcare systems, whistleblowing becomes an integral part of reporting on failures to deliver to the needs of the sick and vulnerable.
Health-e News...
26,000 NHS diabetic medication errors due to lack of specialist staff
Diabetic patients in National Health Service (NHS) hospitals in the UK are being put at risk of serious harm or death as a lack...
Gilead reduces price of amphotericin B for cryptococcal meningitis
Gilead Sciences have expanded their access initiative for AmBisome (a liposomal preparation of amphotericin B) to include cryptococcal meningitis, where previously it was only...
HSF submits comments on the NHI and Medical Schemes Amendment Bills
Charles Simkins, head of research at the Helen Suzman Foundation writes in a brief that has accompanied the foundation’s submission to the National Health...
Solidarity submits comments on NHI Bill
Trade union Solidarity has submitted thousands of comments on the National Health Insurance Bill (NHI) on behalf of everyone who expressed their concerns about...
SA-first operation performed on fingerless girl
A four-year-old girl who was born with only one fingerless hand has had a toe transformed into a finger in the first operation of...
Global EpiPen shortage triggers UK certification of expired pens
Children in the UK with severe allergies who need to carry life-saving medication are being forced to rely on out-of-date EpiPens due to a...
Strike at Health Department building scuppers health clinic project
While staff at the Health Department’s Civitas Building in Pretoria are protesting the “unsafe” condition of the building, a health practitioner’s dream of opening...
Snake farm manager bitten by black mamba dies from anaphylaxis
A 26-year-old snake farm manager died doing what he loved most when he was bitten by a black mamba. News24 reports that according to...
Life Healthcare announces internal investigation into rape claim
Life Healthcare has started its own internal investigation into an allegation that a 17-year-old girl, who had just given birth in its Mthatha private...
Butterworth Hospital blows its annual budget in 6 months
The Butterworth Hospital has blown its annual goods and services budget in less than six months and is now facing the real possibility of...
UN declaration on TB 'falls short' on critical issues
Civil society groups have criticised the UN declaration on tuberculosis (TB) ratified on the 26 September saying it “falls short” on critical issues in...
UN meeting: Industries fuelling 'lifestyle diseases' being let off lightly
World leaders have side-stepped taking action against industries that fuel “lifestyle” diseases ahead of the UN High Level Meeting on Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDS). Instead,...
Health Promotion Levy garners almost R800m for Treasury
The tax on sugary drinks has already generated almost R800m since it was introduced on 1 April. Health-e News reports that this was according...
Health Department workers still refusing to work in 'death trap'
Workers from the national Health and Public Works Departments are refusing to report for duty at the Civitas Building, saying the building is only...
Life Healthcare exits its Indian business
South Africa’s third-biggest private hospital group, Life Healthcare, is finally exiting its Indian business after almost a year’s talks. According to Business Day, it...
Obesity taking over from smoking as the biggest cause of preventable cancer
Obesity is on track to overtake smoking as the single biggest cause of preventable cancer in British women within 25 years, The Guardian reports...
TB remains the world's deadliest infectious disease — WHO report
In 2017, 1.6m people around the world died of tuberculosis (TB) which persists as the globe’s top infectious disease killer, despite being preventable and...
UNICEF mortality estimates: Millions of children dying of preventable causes
An estimated 6.3m children under 15 years of age died in 2017, or 1 every 5 seconds, mostly of preventable causes, according to new...
NCDs cause 7 out of 10 deaths worldwide — 186 country analysis
Seven out of 10 deaths worldwide were caused by non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in 2016, particularly cancer, cardiovascular diseases, chronic respiratory diseases, and diabetes. Health-e...
Aurobindo Pharma receives SAHPRA approval for HIV drugs
Indian pharmaceutical group Aurobindo Pharma has announced that it has received approval from the South African health authority to market its Dolutegravir, Lamivudine and...
SA initiative trains pharmacists' assistants
More than 900 students have qualified as pharmacist’s assistants and an additional 172 are currently enrolled on a training initiative that aims to address...
'ATM pharmacy' unveiled in the Free State
A ground breaking ‘ATM pharmacy’ that gives patients with chronic illnesses repeat medication in under five minutes, has been unveiled in Bloemfontein. The first...
SA health market inquiry final report delayed yet again
The Competition Commission’s long-running health market inquiry has announced yet another delay in the release of its final report, saying it wants to give...
Discovery: Capetonians the fittest, Bloem trails in last
Cape Town is the fittest city according to Discovery, and the people also drive better. According to a Health-e News report, for exercise levels,...
Tower Hospital psychiatrist won't appeal Ombud's findings
Psychiatrist Dr Kiran Sukeri‚ who the Health Ombudsman accused of making false claims of ill-treatment of patients at the Tower Psychiatric Hospital in the...
SA Heart and Stroke Foundation removes its logo from refined grains
The Heart and Stroke Foundation SA (HSFSA) regularly reviews the criteria for its Heart Mark endorsement programme, which is part of an ongoing effort...
Eastern Cape Health paid out unbudgeted R260m in 2017/18 lawsuits
The Eastern Cape Health and Education Departments are facing hundreds of lawsuits‚ with Eastern Cape Premier Phumulo Masualle admitting last week that the Health...
World hunger growing — WHO State of Food Security and Nutrition report
New evidence continues to signal that the number of hungry people in the world is growing, reaching 821m in 2017 or one in every...
More affordable SA health 'imperative' in SA — Afrocentric
Black-owned health-care group Afrocentric says that more affordable health-care models have become "an imperative" given that consumers are under intense pressure. Business Day quotes...
Fort Hare's Alice campus clinic languishes without medication
The campus clinic at the University of Fort Hare in Alice has received no medicines since the end of April this year, the dispensary...
400 Health Department employees protest over building safety
Around 400 national Health Department employees, who work at a building in Pretoria, staged a protest last week to demand that they be moved...
Two dead as plague season starts in Madagascar
An outbreak of plague in Madagascar has killed two people, a health official said, marking the official start of the season when the disease...
EC Health scraps planned mental health facility as 'too expensive'
The Eastern Cape Health Department has quietly scraped a multi-million-rand mental health facility, earmarked for Dora Nginza Hospital. But, says the Democratic Alliance’s (DA’s)...