Juta MedicalBrief

A ruling by the Health Professions Council of SA of unprofessional conduct against former UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Health Dr Tlaleng Mofokeng – over social media posts linked to Israel and Gaza – has been set aside by the Gauteng High Court, reports News24. Mofokeng, now the EFF’s Johannesburg mayoral candidate, had been found guilty and fined R1 000 after her posts in 2025, one aimed at Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and another at UN Watch executive director Hillel Neuer. She was accused of “bringing the profession into disrepute” through what was described as abusive, racially charged,...

For years, hospitals have relied on the unpaid, unprotected labour of trainee-specialists to fill their rosters, but these doctors are reaching a breaking point, writes Joan van Dyk for Spotlight. Across South Africa's public sector hospitals, a growing number of aspiring specialists are choosing to work for nothing – sometimes for years at a time – in pursuit of the coveted title. Nearly every step of the 12 to 15 years of training required to specialise or sub-specialise can only happen in the public sector, but provincial Health Departments, bruised by more than a decade of austerity and graft, have few...

A provincial government official linked to the massive fraud scandal at Tembisa Hospital has been appointed head of department for Johannesburg’s Public Safety portfolio, reports The Citizen. In 2025, Lesiba Malotana was subjected to a lifestyle audit by the Special Investigating Unit (SIU), which recommended a forensic investigation into how he may have benefited through his relationship with service providers implicated in fraud worth hundreds of millions. At the time, he was CEO of Gauteng Emergency Medical Services’ special projects division, having been with the provincial health department for more than a decade in various positions. Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi suspended Malotana...

Recently published childhood vaccination figures by the National Department of Health – showing an alarming drop – may have been skewed by inaccurate population numbers provided by Stats SA, officials admitted to Business Day. The issue goes to the heart of concerns raised by critics of Stats SA’s Census 2022, which it uses to calculate mid-year population estimates. Top demographers said that when the census was released in 2024, it was so riddled with anomalies it was not fit for purpose and would compromise future efforts to gauge the impact of government programmes – like childhood vaccination. Then, last month, the Health Department...

A Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air report has revealed that pollution from Sasol’s Secunda plant can be linked to around 1 000 deaths and 260 new childhood asthma cases annually, creating a R19bn burden on society, reports Daily Maverick. Dineo Hoffman, who has lived in Embalenhle for more than 28 years, said that living under the shadow of Sasol Secunda for most of her life meant that, like many of her peers, she hoped to one day work for the petrochemical giant. “Growing up here, I didn’t understand there was anything wrong with me or that the air...

The exorbitant cost of medical scheme membership could be reduced by as much as 30% if everyone earning above the tax threshold were required to sign up, according to research commissioned by the Health Funders Association (HFA), and published last week. While 9.9m people belong to medical schemes, another 8.7m taxpayers don’t – yet they already make extensive use of private healthcare services, but pay out of pocket, it pointed out. Business Day reports that the analysis considered the impact of introducing mandatory membership and a risk equalisation mechanism between schemes. These measures would help stabilise the industry and ensure its...

In a blow to the country’s plans to escalate local production of Gilead’s revolutionary lenacapavir HIV prevention shot, South Africa’s biggest pharmaceutical manufacturer, Aspen Pharmacare, has pulled out of government plans for local production of the jab, reports Business Day. It cites a lack of guaranteed demand as the reason behind the decision, saying it was, instead, targeting Merck’s experimental pill alimatravir. While the South African National Aids Council (SANAC) says it is undeterred in its plans to improve local security of supply by reducing reliance on imported LEN, Aspen’s withdrawal is still a setback, as it is one of only...

A new cohort of 18 young people from disadvantaged communities in Gauteng has been selected to study medicine in Cuba through the controversial Nelson Mandela Fidel Castro (NMFC) Medical Training Programme, reports the Cape Times. The students – 10 males and eight females – were selected after a competitive recruitment process that attracted 2 480 applications when it was advertised in May 2025. Of those, 740 met the qualifying criteria and progressed to the next stage, while 91 candidates were shortlisted based on academic performance, socio-economic circumstances and their potential contribution to the healthcare sector. Only 18 were ultimately selected after home...

The Gauteng Health Department is investigating claims of extortion and corruption at the Germiston Forensic Pathology Service facility, where officials have been accused of demanding money from grieving families to expedite post-mortems, reports IOL. First mentioned in a social media post, the claims have since gained widespread attention. The department said all forensic pathology services are provided at no cost to the public and warned that no official is authorised to request or accept any payments. "All services, including DNA analysis, post-mortem exams and storage of bodies, are free of charge,” it said in a statement. “Forensic Pathology Services are not for sale,...

In the wake of its high-profile setback in heart disease late last week, Swiss pharma giant Novartis really needed a win, but has flopped again, reports Endpoints News. On Tuesday, it reported that in a late-stage trial, an antibody-oligonucleotide conjugate that it got from Avidity Biosciences was not statistically significantly better than placebo in patients with a neuromuscular disease called myotonic dystrophy type 1 (DM1). The HARBOR study was investigating delpacibart etedesiran, or del-desiran for short. It has a primary endpoint of video hand opening time, which is a way of measuring how well patients’ hand muscles relax after contracting. The study...

A label change has been approved by the FDA for ferric carboxymaltose injection (Injectafer in the US but registered in South Africa as Ferinject and distributed by Aspen Pharmacare), warning of risk for symptomatic hypophosphatemia, reports MedPage Today. In the boxed warning, the agency recommends monitoring of phosphate levels in patients at risk for hypophosphatemia and in any patient who receives a repeat course of therapy within three months of the prior course. Ferric carboxymaltose is an iron replacement therapy that was originally approved in 2013. The intravenously delivered drug carries indications for treating iron deficiency anaemia in patients one year...

Covid-19 cases are continuing to spread in the United States, with a Texas school district being forced to cancel classes last week and highlighting how the virus is still disrupting learning, six years after the pandemic first upended education countrywide, reports Newsweek. San Perlita Independent School District in south Texas is the latest to announce the temporary closure of all campuses, saying the shutdown was aimed at helping “to protect the health and safety” of the school community while helping to prevent further spread. The closure comes just days after another school – in Louisiana – was forced to take similar...

The Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo has spread across six provinces, placing severe strain on treatment centres and frontline healthcare staff, and with the WHO saying it urgently needs at least needs at least 5 000 extra pairs of hands to help stem the tide, reports The Citizen. Since 15 May, the virus has killed 3 175 people among the more than 6 600 confirmed infected, with health services being overwhelmed, hampered by insufficient staff and resources. The WHO plans to create 3 000 beds for patients in treatment centres countrywide, but with three medical staff needed per...

A teenager in North Carolina, United States, who was infected with a rare brain-eating amoeba, died last week – the second such death in the country within two months, reports The Independent. The unidentified patient was first reported to be infected with Naegleria fowleri on 27 August,  but no further details were available. The amoeba is commonly found in warm bodies of freshwater, likes rivers and lakes, with exposure leading to the brain infection primary amoebic meningo-encephalitis, triggering seizures, comas, and usually death in around five days. Fewer than 10 people are infected each year in the United States but 97% die. Earlier...

An investigation into the June 2025 death of a long-term patient at Witrand Psychiatric Hospital in North West has been escalated to the NPA but is still unresolved, said the grieving family, which has accused the facility of failing to care for him, reports IOL. Quinton du Plessis, whom doctors had predicted would not live to seven, died at 40 with severe and unexplained injuries – including from sexual assault – in June last year, and his devastated sister, Colette du Plessis, said the family wants answers. In July last year, the North West Department of Health had subsequently announced that...

More than 10 intersex adults have approached a South African support organisation since 2020 saying they underwent surgery or other irreversible medical interventions as children without their or their parents’ informed consent, writes Lerato Kodisang for Health-e News. One of them is Lerato Sikhosana (33) from Orange Farm, south of Johannesburg. She says medical procedures performed when she was a child have left her struggling with physical and psychological consequences decades later. Intersex is an umbrella term for people born with sex characteristics that do not fit typical definitions of male or female bodies. These variations can involve reproductive organs, hormones, chromosomes...

The number of angry women likely to sue Bayer after a defective batch of contraceptive pills resulted in unintended pregnancies is growing, according to attorneys reviewing more than 500 cases for the potential legal action, reports TimesLIVE. The Taz Plus birth control pills, later recalled by the South African Health Products Regulatory Authority (SAHPRA), had resulted in hundreds of unplanned pregnancies countrywide. One KwaZulu-Natal woman (27) who found out at 28 weeks that she was pregnant, said she and her husband had been relying on the pills for contraception, and had no plans for another child. Now, she is one of more...