HomeWeekly Roundup
Weekly Roundup
Bodies of med students drowned in Cuba brought to SA
The bodies of two medical students who drowned in Cuba earlier this month have been brought back to South Africa for burial. The Times...
UK licences 'milestone' treatment for ovarian cancer
A pill which has the potential to buy an extra 16 months of life for women with ovarian cancer has been dubbed a “milestone”...
SA's 'sugar tax' gazetted
South Africans will start paying tax on sugary drinks from 1 April 2018, according to an Act gazetted on 14 December, reports Health-e News....
Private/public partnership opens Bara paediatric out-patient facility
As part of continued partnership with the private sector, Gauteng Health, global healthcare company GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) and Surgeons for Little Lives, a local non-profit...
UCT clinical tool to manage ADRs for free download
A new University of Cape Town clinical tool – a set of algorithms on how to manage drug-induced ADRs in patients on ARVs and/or...
FDA simplifies trials for rare paediatric disorders
The US Food and Drug Administration has issued a draft guidance to simplify the procedure of developing drugs for rare paediatric disorders, such as...
Half of the people in SSA 'do not know their HIV status'
Thirty-five years after the start of the Aids epidemic, one person in two in sub-Saharan Africa "does not know their HIV status". News24 reports...
Local authorities launch response teams to educate on listeriosis
TThe City of Johannesburg has activated outbreak response teams to 'help educate the public' on preventing the spread of listeriosis, which has so far...
Emotional debate anticipated over amendment to SA 'abortion' Bill
The Choice on Termination of Pregnancy Amendment Bill has been tabled in Parliament, paving the way for an emotional debate on access to abortion...
SA parliament lauded for passing tax on sugar legislation
The South African Parliament has taken a brave and powerful step towards promoting the health of the country’s citizens and reducing diet-related noncommunicable diseases...
LSHTM and Sentebale partner to engage with HIV+ youth
“To end HIV/Aids it’s crucial we start engaging with young people in sub-Saharan Africa who are affected – interventions to improve their lives needn’t...
NCOP adopts sugar tax without amendment
The National Council of Provinces’ (NCOP) select committee on finance has adopted the Bill which includes a provision for the health promotion levy –...
Hopeful slimmers buy potentially dangerous drugs online
One-third of people trying to lose weight have tried potentially dangerous slimming pills bought online, The Guardian reports a UK government survey has found....
Vaccine alliance earmarks $85m for typhoid vaccines
The GAVI global vaccine alliance has earmarked $85m to help support the introduction of typhoid vaccines in poor countries where millions of children are...
SA women part of ARV injection trial
South African women are going to part be part of a trial to test an antiretroviral injection‚ to see if it can prevent them...
UK junior doctors fail to spot lung cancer cases
A hospital in the UK failed to spot cases of lung cancer because patients' chest X-rays were not checked properly, BBC News reports the...
Targets aimed at ending HIV/Aids won't be achieved — Unicef
If current trends persist, 2030 will see 3.5m new adolescent HIV infections, or nearly 300,000 per year. A Daily Maverick report says this is...
HIV-associated TB training programme established at UCT
The Fogarty HIV-associated Tuberculosis Training Programme has been established at the University of Cape Town (UCT), in partnership with Johns Hopkins University (JHU) and...
Dr Salim Abdool Karim joins Population Council trustees
The Population Council, headquartered in New York, has announced the appointment of SA Aids researcher, Salim Abdool Karim, to the Council Board of Trustees....
Latest accreditations by COHSASA
The Council for Health Service Accreditation of Southern Africa has issued its list of newly credited healthcare facilities.
A COHSASA accreditation award means the healthcare...
UK study into football and brain damage to start in 2018
A long-awaited study in the UK into the links between heading a football and brain damage will start in January, BBC News reports that...
Fix the mess at KZN Health or we strike – Nehawu
The National Education Health and Allied Workers’ Union (Nehawu) has warned of an all-out strike if the KwaZulu-Natal provincial government does not “step up...
Gauteng Health ends security contract over strike behaviour
The Gauteng Health has terminated the contract of a private security company "with immediate effect" after its employees staged a protest at the Steve...
Hospital apology for epileptic man's 'negative experience'
The management of Khayelitsha Hospital has apologised after a man with epilepsy was left lying on the floor in his own urine for hours.
GroundUp...
Corrective statements from Big Tobacco
The court-ordered publication of "corrective statements" by major US tobacco companies month should serve as a reminder that tobacco addiction remains a major health...
FDA gives approval to new HIV treatment regimens
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved expanded indication of Isentress to include HIV-1 exposed full-term neonates, from birth to 4 weeks...
Move to stimulate biomedical innovation in Africa
The Centre for Proteomic and Genomic Research (CPGR) has announced that it has entered into a partnership with The Sunflower Fund (TSF) to make...
Survey looks at LGBTQ Americans' experience with discrimination
A report has been released as part of a series titled Discrimination in America that is based on a survey conducted for National Public...
New programme to foster local eHealth innovation
Digital Health Cape Town (DHCT), the first digital health accelerator in the country, has opened applications for its Accelerator Programme designed to foster local...
Diepsloot to get new hospital
A new hospital is to be built in Diepsloot to provide services to residents in the township and surrounding areas. The Times reports that...
Shock at trailer heaped with 42 corpses
Gauteng Health has launched an investigation following the breakdown on the Soweto M1 highway of a trailer, run by a private undertaker, heaped with...
Joburg clinic shut to protect 'threatened staff'
Officials have shut down the Klipspruit West Clinic after staff faced backlash over the arrest of a man who had vandalised property at the...
Prince Harry fights HIV stigma
There are plenty of things Prince Harry has done to honour his late mother, Princess Diana, but his work to end the stigma around...
Pay restraint is giving UK nurses nightmares
Financial pressures from years of the UK government pay restraint are keeping nurses up at night, as four in ten (41%) said they “lose...
Bystanders prevent yet another attack on a Cape ambulance
A speedy response from bystanders helped prevent yet another attack on an ambulance crew in Mfuleni in Cape Town, reports The Times. Emergency Medical...
Budget adjustments highlight crisis at Gauteng Health
The crisis at Gauteng Health took centre stage in the provincial budget adjustments‚ with the MEC warning that the department was not out of...
Former Gauteng Health MEC disputes that she owes money
Former Gauteng Health MEC Qedani Mahlangu is disputing that she owes any money to the Gauteng government‚ claiming that no security upgrades were done...
KZN Health condemns nurse's treatment of patient
A St Mary's Hospital nurse appears to have addressed a patient in a manner that does not convey empathy‚ KwaZulu-Natal Health is quoted in a...
Saving lives but global TB picture remains grim — WHO report
Global efforts to combat tuberculosis (TB) have saved an estimated 53m lives since 2000 and reduced the TB mortality rate by 37%, according to...
Hospersa wants plan to stop attacks on emergency personnel
The Health and Other Services Personnel Trade Union of South Africa (Hospersa) is demanding that an emergency plan be set up to help protect...