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Saturday, 19 July, 2025

FOCUS: HIV/AIDS

SA's fight against Aids gets major boost – but there’s a catch

Venilla Yoganathan - 0
South Africans will receive the groundbreaking lenacapavir drug, seen as the best option to help end Aids in the country, thanks to a R520m offer to buy the twice-a-year anti-HIV jab from the Global Fund to Fight Aids, TB and Malaria. But, writes Mia Malan for Bhekisisa, there’s a snag. The country isn’t getting extra money from the Fund to buy the medicine: it has to use cash from a grant that it has already been awarded and which was cut...
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NEWS UPDATE

Medical schemes' algorithms under scrunity after racial profiling findings

Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi is pushing for more transparency around the software, algorithms and AI programs used by medical schemes to monitor claims from health providers and members following damning findings of racial profiling by major schemes. The inquiry panel had found black providers were more likely to be found guilty of fraud, waste and abuse (FWA) by Discovery, GEMS and Medscheme, and that the healthcare professionals also faced procedural unfairness in how FWA claims were processed. The FWA process is intended to allow medical schemes to recover funds lost due to irregular billing and incorrect claims by healthcare professionals. The industry...

Treasury bails out HIV/Aids projects blindsided by Pepfar cuts

While Health Minister Dr Aaron Motsoaledi’s recent tabling of the 2025/26 Health Budget vote and the spending priorities showed efforts to plug some funding gaps left by the withdrawal of US funding, there is concern that it may not go far enough. Daily Maverick reports the Minister had highlighted key priorities such as strengthening infrastructure, reversing the impacts of years-long austerity measures, and addressing the withdrawal of US aid funding for South African health programmes. Reinforcing HIV/Aids, TB programmes He said Treasury would allocate R753.5m to fill the gap left by the withdrawal of US funding for HIV/Aids programmes under Pepfar, which,...

NDoH considers vaccine to protect infants from RSV

A respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) vaccine to protect infants from severe illness is available in the private sector although not yet in public clinics, but after a recommendation by the advisory group on immunisations to make it available to all pregnant women, the proposal is being considered by the government, writes Catherine Tomlinson for Spotlight. The highly contagious RSV is spread through airborne respiratory droplets and contact with contaminated surfaces, but is often difficult to distinguish from the common cold. However, in some cases, it can become serious enough to need medical care or even a hospital stay, especially for babies...

Probe into Clinical Associates' status, finally

Poorly paid and under-recognised Clinical Associates, introduced 15 years ago to help address the shortage of healthcare workers (especially in rural areas), have finally convinced the national Health Department to review their functions and status. This comes after a probe, promised by Deputy Health Minister Dr Sibongiseni Dlomo at the annual rural health conference in East London in 2023 failed to materialise. Two years earlier, the Professional Association of Clinical Associates (PACASA) complained to the Public Protector whose report, issued in November 2021, supported their concerns, and directed the Department of Health to take remedial action. PACASA explicitly highlighted the lack...

Regulator slashes approval time for local drugmakers

The SA Health Products Regulatory Authority (SAHPRA) has pledged to expedite its evaluation of locally manufactured drugs and vaccines by prioritising the registration of local products in efforts to drastically reduce reliance on imports and improve security of supply, reports Business Day. With most pharmaceutical products sold in this country being imported, intermittent shortages are not infrequent, ranging from GLP-1 agonists used for treating diabetes and obesity to painkillers like morphine. SAHPRA CEO Boitumelo Semete-Makokotlela said the agency aimed to halve the registration time for locally manufactured vaccines from 360 working days to 180. Its review times were longer than other...

Premier promises 50 news posts for jobless KZN doctors

A three-week protest by unemployed doctors has ended in KwaZulu-Natal after Premier Thamsanqa Ntuli pledged to create more than 50 new posts in the province, reports News24. Spokesperson for the Unemployed Doctors’ Task Team Dr Thamsanqa Zakwe said the Premier had told them the posts would be in addition to the 1 200 new doctor posts announced by Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi in April. Ntuli had met a delegation comprising representatives of the South African Medical Association (SAMA), the Employed Doctors Committee, and the Unemployed Doctors’ Task Team on Friday, and confirmed the commitment to the more than 50 medical doctor...

SA cancer drugs not linked to Lancet findings – SAHPRA

The South African Health Products Regulatory Authority (SAHPRA) has clarified that recent findings published in The Lancet about substandard cancer drugs have no bearing on or relation to South African medications. The Lancet Global Health 2025; 13: e1250 had published an investigational study on substandard anti-cancer medications in Sub-Saharan African countries, including Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi and Cameroon, but as SAHPRA pointed out, this study did not include South Africa. The seven medicines/dosage forms mentioned in the study are cisplatin, oxaliplatin, methotrexate, doxorubicin, cyclophosphamide, ifosfamide and leucovorin, none of which is either registered or marketed in South Africa. SAHPRA, in terms of the Medicines...

Staff accused of helping vigilantes block migrants from clinics

Gauteng Health has denied any of its staff are involved in helping vigilante groups bar clinic access to foreigners, or turning away patients – including mothers desperate to vaccinate their newborns – writes Kimberly Mutandiro in GroundUp. Operation Dudula, which is prohibiting immigrants from accessing health services, is contravening the 2023 Gauteng High Court ruling that pregnant and lactating women and children should be granted free healthcare regardless of nationality, while local staff are now being accused of aiding and abetting them. The court had previously ordered Gauteng Health to change its policy denying immigrants healthcare, and to place notices on...

Procurement boost for physiotherapy sector

The South African physiotherapy industry has received approval from the Competition Commission for centralised procurement for the next five years, enabling the sector to negotiate better terms with suppliers and thus allow the savings to be passed on to consumers, reports BusinessLIVE. Provisos, however, include that the industry maintain records and annually, provide a report to the commission on cost savings in rand terms that have been passed on to consumers “and/or medical aid beneficiaries”. The watchdog said the centralised procurement would be conducted through a request for proposal to suppliers for the “discipline-related cost basket” in exchange for participation on...

Top 10 Discovery claims last year totalled R70m

Ten of the highest member claims paid by Discovery Health Medical Scheme (DHMS) in 2024 totalled R70.5m, the highest (R9.6m) going to a 75-year-old member for “care for (the) long-term use of a ventilator”, reports Moneyweb. To fund this claim, it would take a theoretical 283 years’ worth of contributions (nearly 3 400 months). The company said half of the top 10 claims were for the long-term use of a ventilator, with the youngest patient being a new-born (the second youngest was 16). DHMS says 2 108 individuals claimed more than R1m in the year. It paid a total of R45bn in hospital...

Eastern Cape Health official back in court for alleged qualifications fraud

Seasoned Eastern Cape Health communications officer Sizwe Kupelo, who appeared in the East London Commercial Crimes Court last week, has pleaded not guilty to charges of fraud, forgery and uttering brought against him for allegedly submitting a fraudulent matric certificate, reports AlgoaFM. Kupelo is alleged to have used a fraudulent matric certificate to secure a communications officer’s job at the Premier’s Office in April 2002, and, according to the Hawks, then used the same certificate for a Deputy Director of Communications’ position at the provincial Health Department – a job he currently occupies. Prosecutor Siphamandla Ngxokolo said the provincial government suffered...

Gauteng’s new multi-million-rand forensic lab still incomplete

Johannesburg’s much anticipated new state-of-the-art forensic laboratory, initially budgeted with a price tag of R588m but now hovering around R703m, is still only 98% complete because of contractor disputes over non-payment, design flaws and project mismanagement, reports News24. Despite an initial completion date of 2019, numerous setbacks have hampered the project, now apparently supposed to be finished in September this year, while in the meantime, the old forensic pathology laboratory in Hillbrow lumbers along in shocking condition. Contractors for the new lab say they will not complete the building until they are paid. In 2016, Maziya General Services CC was appointed for...

US measles cases hit 33-year high

Measles cases in the United States have hit a 33-year high, with 1 288 confirmed infections in 39 states, according to the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, which said last week that the case count has passed the highest annual count since measles was declared eliminated in 2000. Axios reports that while the disease isn’t consistently spreading – thanks to immunisation campaigns – there have been outbreaks well beyond West Texas, where low immunisation rates and high numbers of school exemptions stoked spread of the contagious virus early this year. The country has seen 27 outbreaks so far this...

Plague kills US man in first death since 2007

An American living in northern Arizona has died from pneumonic plague – previously known as “The Black Death” – health officials said last week. CBS reports that the bacterial infection is rare in humans, with on average only about seven cases reported annually in the United States. No additional information about the death has been released. The disease killed tens of millions in 14th century Europe. During an eight-year period, from 1 346 to 1 353, it killed up to 60% of the population of Europe, the Middle East and Africa, according to estimates. Today, it’s easily treated with antibiotics. The bubonic plague is the...

Court interpreter delivers baby by phone light in holding cell

A quick-thinking interpreter managed to deliver a detainee’s baby by cellphone light during a power outage at the Palm Ridge Magistrate’s Court in Katlehong last week when the woman went into labour in one of the holding cells, reports News24. The building had been using generators for a week after a substation had caught fire, but the back-up generator went off minutes before a woman charged with assaulting a minor went into labour. Interpreter Petunia Mathibeli said five minutes after the woman had made her way from the holding cells up the staircase and into the dock, she had started screaming. The...

European Union to stockpile vital medical supplies for future crises

The European Union plans to stockpile critical medical equipment and vaccines in case of future health crises and to set up a network to ease co-ordination among the 27 member countries, reports Reuters. European crisis chief Hadja Lahbib made the announcement last week, saying a long-term strategy was vital to ensure that “essential supplies that keep society running are always available”. The bloc is scarred by the memory of the Covid-19 pandemic when it faced a shortage of vaccines and protective masks. Under the EU Stockpiling and Medical Countermeasures Strategies, a priority list will be made of medical equipment to be stockpiled,...

MEDICO-LEGAL

Millions in medico-legal claims shackle KZN Health

Negligence claims continue to burden the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Health, with documents from 2024 revealing 2 440 claims valued at R29.1bn, and the number and value of cases currently under investigation sitting at 713 claims worth R8.7bn, reports The Mercury. Political parties argue that the millions of rands paid out to victims could be better spent on increasing access to healthcare, and have called for the department to urgently address its deficiencies and tackle the ongoing shortages in critical departments. They also urge accountability from staff involved in negligence cases. The KZN High Court (Durban) recently handed down a judgment in a...

NPA yet to pursue Life Esidimeni prosecutions

Nine years after the Life Esidimeni tragedy, which resulted in the deaths of 144 mental health patients and in which more than 1 400 others were exposed to severe violations of their human rights, criminal charges have yet to be lodged against those who were responsible, reports Daily Maverick. A year ago, on 10 July 2024, Judge Mmonoa Teffo issued a ruling in the Life Esidimeni inquest, stating that former Gauteng Health MEC Qedani Mahlangu and former director of mental health in Gauteng Dr Makgabo Manamela, could be found criminally responsible for the deaths of nine of the patients. The case...

Surgeon banned from private practice still works for NHS

A colorectal surgeon who has been banned from working for a private healthcare company in England – after an investigation into patient safety – continues to work in the National Health Service (NHS), the BBC reports. Nuffield Health stopped Marc Lamah from working in their hospitals, but he is still operating on patients for the University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust, while an NHS patient left with a twisted bowel after an operation by the surgeon says he should never work again. Lamah did not respond to the BBC’s request for comment sent via his employer. In January, the BBC reported that...

German police investigate doctors for patient deaths

A doctor suspected of killing several patients is being investigated by German police, who have already done a number of autopsies and exhumations linked to the case, reports Medpage Today. The public prosecutor’s office in the town of Itzehoe said they were looking into “past deaths” and that a special commission was probing the case. No details of the number of deaths were provided, “for reasons of investigative tactics”, but the investigators said the forensic medical examination and evaluation of the findings were expected to take several weeks. In a different case, a Berlin doctor was charged in April with the killings...

SOME RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS IN THE PAST WEEK

ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH

Dirty air tied to brain tumours that can trigger other issues – Danish study

After following nearly 4m people over 21 years, Danish researchers have suggested that exposure to higher levels of air pollution over time was tied to a higher risk of...

GENETICS

Breakthrough as subtypes found in autism – US cohort study

Scientists say they have taken a “transformative step” towards understanding the biology underlying autism after discovering four subtypes of the genetic condition – which they believe may help explain why...

OBSTETRICS

First trimester UTI meds raises birth defects risks – US cohort study

A recent study suggests the risk of antibiotic use during the first trimester of pregnancy was higher for infants exposed to TMP-SMX versus β-lactam antibiotics. The finding, which follows earlier...

ONCOLOGY

Weight gain tied to higher breast cancer risk – French cohort study

Obesity can cause various health issues – like type 2 diabetes and an increased risk of heart disease – and even lead to a higher risk of developing breast...

PAEDIATRICS

Childhood obesity tied to early, serious health issues – SA study

A study by the South African Medical Research Council (SAMRC) and Inkosi Albert Luthuli Central Hospital (IALCH) has linked childhood obesity to an escalation in chronic health conditions previously...

VACCINES

Aluminium in vaccines no effect on paediatric diseases – Danish study

A large, nationwide study in Denmark, spanning 1.2m children and 24 years of data, found no link between aluminium in childhood vaccines and autism, asthma, or chronic disorders, the...

ABOUT US

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