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Thursday, 27 November, 2025

FOCUS: PUBLIC HEALTH

Rise in adverse events in Gauteng cause for alarm

Venilla Yoganathan - 0
Concerned experts have flagged the rising numbers of patients coming to harm in Gauteng’s public hospitals – injuries, permanent disability and deaths – because of preventable medical errors and substandard care, calling for enforced regulations, stronger disciplinary actions, and more accountability. It comes as the Eastern Cape, a province struggling with a staggering load of medico-legal cases, was in recent months hit with two more multi-million rand payment orders, notes MedicalBrief. Central News reports that from 1 April 2024 to 31...
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NEWS UPDATE

Lancet Labs fined for data breach

Numerous high-profile data breaches, leaks and other security incidents had been reported in South Africa in the past year, among them Lancet Laboratories, which had suffered multiple breaches and was fined R100 000 for failing to respond to the South African Information Regulator’s demands to address shortcomings in its systems, reports BusinessTech. Information Regulator chairperson Pansy Tlakula said Lancet had paid the fine, which was issued after it failed to comply with an enforcement notice issued in September 2024, but it was concerning that the body had failed to notify the data subjects affected by the security compromise. The Information Regulator...

Groote Schuur doctor’s dismissal over bullying set aside

The Labour Court has overturned an arbitration decision that upheld the dismissal of Dr Kwazi Ndlovu, former head of the Nephrology Unit at Groote Schuur Hospital, reports IOL. Ndlovu had been fired by the Western Cape Department of Health in May 2022 after being found guilty of several charges, including alleged discrimination, disrespectful behaviour and bullying of colleagues. He had than approached the Labour Court after the Public Health and Social Development Sectoral Bargaining Council (PHSDSBC) commissioner found his dismissal fair, despite his allegations of discrimination, bullying and procedural bias during the disciplinary process. The court found that the commissioner failed to properly consider key...

Twice-yearly anti-HIV jab added to SA’s Essentials Medicines List

The Department of Health’s National Essential Medicines List Committee (NEMLC) has approved the addition of the recently registered injectable anti-HIV drug lenacapavir (LEN-LA) to the Essential Medicines List (EML), saying including treatments like this is vital for encouraging the production of generic medicines, and can enhance their availability and affordability. The NEMLC is a non-statutory committee appointed by the Minister of Health, established under the National Drug Policy to develop and review an EML for public sector use, accompanied by standard treatment guidelines for three levels of care – primary, secondary, and tertiary. The South African Health Products Regulatory Authority (SAHPRA)...

Tembisa official and Hawks man nailed in corruption sting

A Tembisa Hospital official and a sergeant from the Hawks have been charged with corruption and are due to appear in court this week, reports News24. Hawks spokesman Brigadier Thandi Mbambo said an officer had been approached by the 41-year-old sergeant who told him a Tembisa official wanted to meet regarding an ongoing investigation linked to the hospital. “The sergeant indicated that the hospital official …was willing to offer gratification to avoid prosecution,” Mbambo said. When the Hawks officer and the hospital official met with the complainant and the case investigator, more than R100 000 was handed to the investigating officer as...

Pretoria specialist hospital flounders with no CEO

Staff at a Pretoria Hospital say that working conditions are deteriorating as they wait for the Gauteng Department of Health to replace the CEO who had left at the end of October. The Citizen reports that although the department says there are plans “in place” to ensure the smooth running of the facility, sources claim they have been left in limbo for the past month, and with no clear communication about the situation. The CEO of the University of Pretoria Oral and Dental Hospital left at the end of October, after having notified staff she would not be renewing her contract. Although...

Second legal bid to get authorities to act against Dudula vigilantism

Activists have gone to court again to compel the state to stop xenophobic vigilantes from stopping immigrants and undocumented people from accessing health services. This comes as Operation Dudula activists, alreadly interdicted in a previous court ruling from blocking access to healthcare, are defying the order and continuing with their actions (see report below). GroundUp reports that Médecins Sans Frontières, the Treatment Action Campaign and Kopanang Africa Against Xenophobia (KAAX) have gone to the Gauteng High Court (Johannesburg) to compel the state to ensure that people have safe and unhindered physical access to the Rosettenville and Yeoville clinics. The case...

Swiss ‘wearables’ for all Netcare patients

Netcare intends to provide Swiss-made medical wearables to every patient in its general wards to continuously monitor their vital signs and improve outcomes, it said, announcing this on Monday when it released its annual results. This would enable it to be “proactive” as opposed to “reactive” about their conditions, it added. The company showed an 18% increase in headline earnings, partly due to a R256m “digital dividend” (cost savings ascribed to its digitisation efforts), reports News24. CEO Richard Friedland said the rollout of the new wearables was crucial to the group’s strategy. The device, similar to a watch, but which doesn’t tell the...

Fewer HIV deaths but lifestyle disease risks worsen – Discovery

The effectiveness of sustained adherence to anti-retroviral treatment has led to a significant decline in mortality rates among people living with HIV, according to Discovery Health Medical Scheme’s data for 13 years, which show members’ HIV mortality rates have almost halved (down 47%). TimesLIVE reports that HIV was the fourth highest cause of death among scheme members in 2012 but dropped to 13th in 2024, with cancer and cardiovascular disease-related deaths now taking the lead. Over the same period, the average age at death for members on its HIV Care programme increased by eight years, from under 43 to over 51. By...

Netcare optimistic about boosting nurse-training numbers

Netcare CEO Richard Friedland has said there is a glimmer of hope that the company might finally be able to train more nurses – not a moment too soon, as statistics show a shortage of more than 150 000 nurses in the country, reports News24. Currently, Netcare is training just a fifth of the number of nurses it trained 10 years ago, and Friedland said this week that after years of frustration, there is finally progress that these numbers could soon grow. According to a 2020 report by the Department of Health, the Hospital Association of SA, and consulting firm McKinsey,...

Bogus medical school closed down in Ladysmith

An unregistered facility claiming to be a traditional medicine training school was shut down in the Ladysmith CBD last week – after enrolling hundreds of students and issuing numerous unaccredited qualifications. Deputy Minister of Education Dr Mimmy Gondwe arrived at the offices on Friday with police, where a solitary man working in the offices was unable to provide satisfactory answers to any questions, reports Northern Natal News. He was told to call the “director of the school” and the conversation put on speaker phone. When Gondwe asked him why he was operating illegally, he replied that he had started the process...

Trio convicted in major UK online illegal medicines bust

A major online syndicate involving a multimillion-pound criminal network supplying controlled drugs and unauthorised medicines has been bust wide open by British authorities. Three people have been convicted for their roles in the large-scale unlawful supply of unauthorised medicinal products online, after the investigation, led by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) Criminal Enforcement Unit (CEU) and known as Operation Lamborghini, uncovered an organised criminal network operating various websites to illegally supply unlicensed medicines, including Class B and Class C drugs. The trio was convicted after a six-week trial at Wolverhampton Crown Court. The investigation had identified almost 2m doses of medicinal controlled drugs and other medicines...

UK trials to test puberty blockers in children, young people

Two studies will investigate the impact of puberty blockers in young people with gender incongruence after researchers said an expert view had suggested gender medicine was “built on shaky foundations”, reports The Guardian. Puberty blockers were originally used to treat early onset puberty in children but have also been used off-label in children with gender dysphoria or incongruence. However, the 2024 Cass Review of NHS gender identity services for children and young people found there was “insufficient/inconsistent evidence about the effects of puberty suppression on psychological or psychosocial well-being, cognitive development, cardio-metabolic risk or fertility”. NHS England subsequently said that children with...

Nestlé urged to ban sugar in baby foods

A group of 20 African civil society organisations, including three from South Africa, have written an open letter to Nestlé, demanding the company stop adding sugar to baby food products – after a probe by Swiss investigative outfit Public Eye uncovered that 90% of Nestlé Cerelac, sold in 20 African countries, has sugar added. In South Africa, Cerelac has 4g added sugar per serving, and 6g added sugar on average in several African countries, according to Public Eye. In Switzerland, Germany and the United Kingdom, Cerelac has no added sugar, reports Joan van Dyk in GroundUp, but the company has, however,...

G20 leaders pledge $11bn to tackle deadly diseases

Several nations have raised $11.34bn for the Global Fund to fight Aids, TB and Malaria, with President Cyril Ramaphosa saying that $36m would be coming from the South African government and business community, reports News24. This was announced in his capacity as the fund’s co-chair for 2025 at the 8th Global Fund replenishment summit in Sandton last Friday. Ramaphosa, who delivered the keynote address, said the replenishment summit took place “at a time when multilateralism is sorely tested”. He described the event as a milestone for global health, saying that building resilient health systems, scaling up local manufacturing of medicines, diagnostics, and...

Measles outbreaks escalate in Western Cape

The Western Cape Department of Health & Wellness has escalated its vaccination campaigns, warning of an increase in measles outbreaks in areas like Khayelitsha, Mfuleni, Eerste River, Somerset West, Mitchells Plain, Kraaifontein and Wesbank, reports IOL. The department said a decline in childhood jabs has contributed to multiple outbreaks of measles, rubella, and diphtheria across the province. “Ensuring immunisation coverage remains our top priority. Since October 2024, the department has ramped up its immunisation efforts to protect children from serious and life-threatening vaccine-preventable diseases,” it said in a statement. It has encouraged parents to keep their children at home if they display...

Rising levels of drug-resistant gonorrhoea worldwide, warns WHO

Gonorrhoea is becoming increasingly resistant to antibiotics, warns WHO, citing new data from its Enhanced Gonococcal Antimicrobial Surveillance Programme (EGASP), which monitors the spread of drug-resistant gonorrhoea. The report highlights the need to strengthen surveillance, improve diagnostic capacity and ensure equitable access to new treatments for sexually transmitted infections (STIs). The release of the this latest data coincides with World Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) Awareness Week, reinforcing the importance of global action against drug-resistant infections. EGASP, launched by WHO in 2015, collects laboratory and clinical data from sentinel sites worldwide to track AMR and inform treatment guidelines. “This global effort is essential to tracking,...

Mediclinic’s pro bono cataract ops slash public facility waiting lists

Cataracts remain one of the leading causes of preventable blindness in South Africa. Without treatment, these can quietly rob people of their independence. Restoring sight through these free surgeries does more than heal eyes, it restores dignity, confidence, and connection to the world around them. During October 2025, 80 public sector patients regained their sight through a series of free cataract surgeries made possible by Mediclinic’s nationwide initiative: six ophthalmologists, four anaesthesiologists, theatre and ward nursing staff across three Mediclinic hospitals is what it took to change these lives. “I sing in the church choir, and I had to hold up the words...

MEDICO-LEGAL

GP gives murder accused nine days’ sick leave without examination

The Western Cape High Court heard that a GP had issued a nine-day sick note to a patient – accused of murder – based solely on a phone call, without ever examining her, and contradicting the court’s belief that she had visited his practice in Elsies River, reports News24. However, despite Zurenah Smit’s hospital stay and private GP’s diagnosis, the court has found no supporting medical evidence. Smit is accused of having masterminded the 2019 killing of her husband, Stefan Smit, at the Louisenhof Wine Farm, alongside her co-accused Derek Sait. Dr Imraan Shaikh testified that he had received a call from...

Judge green-lights opioid settlement with Purdue, Sackler family

A federal bankruptcy court judge has said he will approve OxyContin-maker Purdue Pharma's latest deal to settle thousands of lawsuits over the toll of opioids, and which includes money for thousands of victims of the epidemic. NPR reports that the deal overseen by US Bankruptcy Judge Sean Lane would require members of the Sackler family – who own the company – to contribute up to $7bn over 15 years. The agreement replaces one the Supreme Court rejected last year, finding it would have improperly protected the family against future lawsuits. The judge said he would explain his decision in a hearing...

Nurse accused of swopping liquid opioid with household cleaner

A Massachusetts-based nurse who worked at a long-term care and rehabilitation facility has pleaded not guilty to replacing a hospice patient’s oxycodone with a household cleaner, reports Boston.com Federal authorities allege that Lori Robertson of New Hampshire removed the liquid oxycodone from a hospice and dementia patient’s prescription bottle with a syringe and replaced it with the cleaner. It is not stated in the documents whether or not the cleaner was administered to the patient or how it was discovered that the Schedule II controlled substance had been swopped. Robertson was charged with one count of tampering with a consumer product,“with reckless...

SOME RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS IN THE PAST WEEK

ONCOLOGY

Why screening for the deadliest cancer misses most cases – US study

Recent research has found that current lung cancer screening guidelines could be missing most cases, prompting calls for changes to detect the disease earlier, reports The Washington Post. Jessie Creel’s...

PARP inhibitors under-used for prostate cancer – Utah study

Experts say it’s concerning that nearly half of men with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer who are eligible for PARP inhibitors – which could improve their survival – do not...

ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH

Pesticides damaging Western Cape children’s brains – SA-Swiss study

Routine exposure to agricultural pesticides may be affecting the brains of children living in South Africa’s farming regions, and affecting their cognitive abilities. This is according to findings from scientists...

VACCINES

Scandinavian study shreds Covid jab-myositis link

Previous reports based on individual cases have suggested that myositis can be a rare side effect of Covid-19 vaccines, but a study of national health registry data in Norway...

PAEDIATRICS

Obesity drug fails to slow dementia

Despite initial hopes to the contrary, Novo Nordisk has said that semaglutide, the active ingredient for the weight loss jab Wegovy, does not slow Alzheimer’s, reports the BBC. Researchers launched two...

ABOUT US

MedicalBrief is Africa’s authoritative weekly digest of medical matters, both on the continent and around the world. It brings you a succinct summary of the latest developments, both in news and research, with links to the original material. Contact us: info@medicalbrief.co.za

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