HomeWeekly Roundup
Weekly Roundup
SA's youngest cardiologist 'did get job offers’ — Gauteng Health
SA's youngest cardiologist received offers from at least three state hospitals, says Gauteng Health, rebutting a City Press report that Dr Viwe Mtwesi has...
Lab failure means review of 2,500 UK smear tests
Thousands of cervical smear test samples are being reviewed by an independent screening service in the UK after a problem was discovered in a...
Assault of pregnant women a 'shock' to KZN Health MEC
Dr Sibongiseni Dhlomo, KwaZulu-Natal Health MEC was left 'shocked and disgusted' following allegations by five pregnant women that they were assaulted by a lay...
Scarlet fever hits highest levels in UK since 1960s
Parents in the UK are being warned to look out for symptoms of scarlet fever as the number of cases reaches the highest levels...
Biosimilar medicines information campaign
The International Generic and Biosimilar Medicines Association (IGBA) has launched an information campaign on biosimilar medicines.
Access to well-referenced information is fundamental to improving worldwide...
UK online drug dealer jailed
A UK man who offered buy-one-get-one-free offers on deadly drugs and posted them around the world from his flat in Wales has been jailed...
SA e-health start-up doubles its user base
South African e-health start-up Vula Mobile more than doubled its user base in 2017 as it expanded its offering, while significantly increasing the number...
Poor information limiting safe abortion choice in SA
More than 21 years after the Choice on Termination of Pregnancy Act was passed, women’s freedom of choice is limited by poor information about...
Retired judge urges mediation for SA medical negligence claims
Retired Judge Neels Claassen has urged parties involved in medical litigation to seek mediation as an alternative to protracted court battles in negligence claims....
MRI scanner causes man's death in bizarre hospital accident
An Indian man died after being sucked into an MRI machine while visiting a relative at a hospital in Mumbai, The Guardian reports police...
NICD says cause of listeriosis outbreak 'elusive'; fears that Day Zero ill fan outbreak
The National Institute of Communicable Diseases (NICD) listeriosis update says that the source of the outbreak remains elusive.
NICD Summary:
Summary
The outbreak continues, with 53 additional...
Air quality is the leading environmental threat — biennial report
The 2018 Environmental Performance Index (EPI) finds that air quality is the leading environmental threat to public health. Now in its twentieth year, the...
SA's new medicines dispensing programme a 'major benefit'
South Africa’s new, recently introduced Central Chronic Medicines Dispensing and Distribution (CCMDD) programme for patients on antiretrovirals (ARVs) and other chronic medication has already...
SA's MRC links with global non-profit to combat antibiotic resistance
The SA Medical Research Council and the Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics (Find) are expected to sign a memorandum of understanding on antibiotic resistance,...
HIV and human rights report released at AU summit
Ambassador Minata Samate Cessouma, the commissioner for political affairs of the AU has launched the Report on HIV, the Law and Human Rights in...
Criminal gangs in the UK run massive prescription drug smuggling rackets
Criminal gangs have smuggled tens of millions of prescription-only drugs out of the UK's protected supply chain, BBC News reports that an investigation has...
M&As in Africa's healthcare sector expected to triple in 2018
Baker McKenzie's Global Transactions Forecast, developed in association with Oxford Economics, predicts that M&A deal value in the healthcare sector will triple in Africa...
SA still in the danger zone for neglected tropical diseases — ALMA
A new scorecard by the African Leaders Malaria Alliance (ALMA) has shown that South Africa has a mass treatment coverage index of just 3%...
New Durban hospital will relieve pressure on other facilities
The new 500-bed Dr Pixley Ka Isaka Seme Memorial Hospital, which will be ready in the next 16 months, will alleviate pressure on the...
PEPFAR has had 'unprecedented' effect
In the long history of successful public health initiatives, such as those leading to the eradication of smallpox, the elimination of polio throughout most...
KZN Health turns to Cuba and India to end oncology crisis
Having failed to lure oncologists from the private sector to help resolve its cancer treatment crisis, KwaZulu-Natal Health is turning instead to Cuba and...
Austerity is forcing Greeks to stop smoking
No campaign could do it. No health warning could do it. And, for a very long time, no change in the price of a...
Preventing HIV in adolescent girls will 'change the course of the epidemic'
Young women between the ages of 15 and 24 years are among the key population groups with the highest risk of contracting HIV. It...
Zambia says it's close to containing cholera outbreak
Zambia is close to containing a cholera outbreak that has killed 78 of the more than 3,600 people who have fallen sick since October,...
Guinea healer held over faking hundreds of pregnancies
Police in Guinea say they have arrested a healer for conning hundreds of women into believing they were pregnant. BBC News reports that N'na...
Hundreds dying every week in US and UK from deadly flu virus
A deadly flu virus has been killing around 100 people per week in the US since mid-December, The Independent reports that the Centre for...
SA higher education institutions rolling out PrEP
1 October, 2017 is set to become a memorable day in some higher-education institutions, writes Thuthukile Mbatha at Section27 in a Spotlight report. Mbatha...
France's Lactalis forced to widen recall of baby milk
French dairy group Lactalis is widening a product recall to cover all baby milk manufactured by a factory at the centre of a salmonella...
Stifling a big sneeze can be hazardous to your health
In a case study, doctors at the ENT, head and neck surgery, University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust, reported the very unusual experience of...
HIV prevention pill 'woefully underused'
From gritty neighborhoods in New York and Los Angeles to clinics in Kenya and Brazil, health workers are trying to popularise a pill that...
FDA approves expanded use of PARP inhibitor drug
The US Food and Drug Administration has announced that it has approved expanded use of AstraZeneca's cancer drug Lynparza to include patients with metastatic...
Rwandan doctor murdered in Cape Town
The body of a Rwandan doctor murdered in Cape Town is suspected to have lain undiscovered for up to 11 days. The Rwandan ambassador...
Eastern Cape Health reports 15 initiation deaths
The Eastern Cape Health Department says dire conditions, suicide, asthma, kidney failure, dehydration, and infected wounds were the main causes of 15 deaths at...
Services continue at Groote Schuur despite fire
Groote Schuur Hospital says that its services will continue as usual following a fire at the institution, reports Eyewitness News. It is still not...
AI analyses scans for heart disease and lung cancer
Researchers at an Oxford hospital have developed artificial intelligence (AI) that can diagnose scans for heart disease and lung cancer. BBC News reports that...
Standerton TB hospital may be relocated
The Standerton TB Hospital in Mpumalanga’s Gert Sibande District could possibly be relocated to other premises in the province where it will be better...
More men should be circumcised – Zulu king
Zulu King Goodwill Zwelithini has called for more men in KwaZulu-Natal to be circumcised as part of efforts to fight the spread of HIV/Aids,...
Private firms making billions out of NHS contacts
Richard Branson’s Virgin Care won a record £1bn of the UK’s National Health Service (NHS) contracts last year, as £3.1bn of health services were...
Baby survives birth with heart outside body
A mother who refused to terminate her pregnancy is celebrating her 'miracle baby' - believed to be the first in the UK to survive...
Church to evict hospital nurses
Nurses at the Holy Cross Hospital in the Eastern Cape might find themselves without accommodation come January 2018, reports Health-e News. This follows a...