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Friday, 1 November, 2024

FOCUS: PUBLIC HEALTH

Health experts urge banning of toxic pesticides after children's deaths

Venilla Yoganathan - 0
Evidence linking pesticide exposure to serious health impacts has been steadily mounting, with health experts repeatedly sounding the alarm and now, after six more children have died from poisoning, they are urging government to act against a pushback by a profits-driven chemical industry, writes MedicalBrief. Cancer, birth defects or DNA mutations are just some of the risks of a list of 346 pesticides the government wants removed from shelves by June 2025, while concerned experts said they have been calling...
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NEWS UPDATE

SAHPRA approves bid for unregistered cancer drug

Umhlanga cancer patient Ina Requilet finally has access to potentially life-saving medication after the health regulator approved a treatment not yet registered in South Africa. Ina Requilet (53) who is fighting a disease that could kill her before she turns 55, has endured an exhausting battle with the South African Health Products Regulatory Authority (SAHPRA) after it twice rejected her pleas for access to the medication. Countless letters and dozens of unanswered phone calls formed part of her and her family’s desperate appeal to obtain the unregistered cancer growth-blocking medication that is her last hope for survival. News24 reports that after a...

‘Ghost company’ bags R428m oxygen plants tender

In a scenario reminiscent of the dodgy Digital Vibes scandal, unknown, obscure, apparently unaccredited private contractors have been appointed to install oxygen plants at 55 state hospitals, in a R836m tender. Bulkeng (Pty) Ltd, one of the contractors appointed by the Independent Development Trust – acting as project manager for the Department of Health – is one of those entities that regularly submits bids for all manner of government tenders, from roadworks and laundry equipment to mops and buckets. The company has its fingers in other pies too, reports Daily Maverick, having applied last year for prospecting rights to mine iron...

Drugmaker recalls anxiety medicines over cancer concerns

A recall has been issued for thousands of bottles of the medicine duloxetine because they may contain a potentially cancer-causing agent, according to the US Food & Drug Administration (FDA). Duloxetine is the generic equivalent of Cymbalta, which is approved to treat depression, anxiety, fibromyalgia, chronic muscle and joint pain, and pain from nerve damage in people with diabetes. The recall was voluntary and started by Towa Pharmaceutical, reports WebMD. A total of 7 107 bottles are affected, with lot number 220128 and an expiration date of 12/2024. Each bottle contains 500 delayed-release 20mg capsules. No other formulations of the drug are...

TB back as world's deadliest infectious disease

TB was the leading cause of infectious disease-related deaths in 2023 – reclaiming its title which had been replaced by Covid-19 for three years – according to the 2024 Global Tuberculosis Report released this week. Additionally, last year, 8.2m people were newly diagnosed, which is the highest number recorded since WHO began global TB monitoring in 1995, and which is up from the 7.5m reported in 2022. One of them was Shaka Brown from the US, diagnosed with TB in November 2023 and who initially thought he had flu. However, after weeks of night sweats, fainting spells, and losing his hearing in...

Power cut at KZN Health HQ over hospital’s R6m bill

Pietermaritzburg’s acting city manager Nelly Ngcobo and a convoy of vehicles from the local Msunduzi municipal electricity department descended on Grey’s Hospital on Monday with an ultimatum: pay your R6m account within three hours or be disconnected. Ngcobo said it was unfair that the city was being blamed for having no money for services while consumers are not paying for services rendered, reports The Witness. Grey’s is a government hospital. After delivering the ultimatum, the municipal cavalcade headed for the Department of Health’s headquarters at the Natalia building, to where Ngcobo said the hospital had directed them after saying the department “had...

Health Committee pushes ahead with Tobacco Bill

Parliament’s Health Portfolio Committee is going ahead with processing the Tobacco Products and Electronic Delivery Systems Control Bill despite concerns about the lack of consultation with Nedlac (the National Economic Development and Labour Council). The proposal is to ban smoking and vaping in public spaces, and for cigarettes and vapes to be sold in plain packaging. The Bill will also prohibit the advertising, promotion and sponsorship of tobacco-related products and recommends that health warnings and other information be displayed on all packaging. Committee chair Sibongiseni Dhlomo said he had received the go-ahead from Nedlac’s director who had indicated Nedlac would like...

Novo seeks FDA ban on compounded Ozempic

Novo Nordisk has asked the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to prevent compounding pharmacies from manufacturing their own versions of the company’s weight loss drug Wegovy and diabetes treatment Ozempic, arguing the drugs are too complex for the pharmacies to make safely. However, it has been accused of being solely concerned with profits, and told to remedy its shortage of supply instead. Compounded anti-obesity drugs are sold at vastly lower prices than the branded versions and can give patients access to drugs that are in shortage, reports The Hill. Ozempic and Wegovy cost about $1 000 per month without discounts, and...

Union slams conditions at Eastern Cape mortuaries

The Public Servants Association (PSA) has urged Eastern Cape Health MEC Ntandokazi Capa to urgently tackle the shocking state of state mortuaries and ensure compliance with health and safety standards. In a statement this week, it said unidentified bodies have been stored at various mortuaries since 2019 for various reasons, and that apart from shoddy building maintenance, some mortuaries were also using containers in which to store bodies, failing to meet health standards. “Employees work under hazardous conditions without adequate tools and proper protective clothing,” it added, while items supplied were often substandard and did not meet the South African Bureau...

MPs call for Health Department to recoup foreigner nationals' medical expenses

Parliament’s Health Committee wants the Department of Health to consider recouping money spent on treating foreign nationals at state facilities, saying, after reviewing the department’s 2023/24 annual report this week, that it was concerned about the impact of their treatment on service delivery. DA MP Michele Clark has suggested the matter be raised in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) for governments to reimburse the state for the treatment of their citizens. The committee says oversight visits to state health facilities, particularly in the North West, have highlighted the strain placed on services having to treat foreign nationals – both documented...

UK private healthcare thriving while NHS flounders

British patients are increasingly flocking to private providers for their healthcare as the National Health Service (NHS) buckles under lengthy waiting lists, which have been exacerbated by the Covid pandemic. The surge in demand has seen the value of the private healthcare market ballooning to a record £12.4bn in 2023, with the NHS forking out more than £2bn over the year in its efforts to ease the patient backlog, reports The Independent. Last year’s NHS annual spend was a record – outside the pandemic when emergency funding was given – according to a report by market research company LaingBuisson. What’s more, the...

Community health workers protest for full-time jobs

Community health workers picketed outside the Labour Court in Johannesburg on Tuesday where their employment status is being litigated, saying they have been fighting for their rights to be made permanent since 2008. The National Education, Health and Allied Workers’ Union (Nehawu) is seeking to review a bargaining council arbitration award that ruled against the union’s application to compel the Department of Health to give them permanent jobs. Currently, writes Silver Sibiya for GroundUp, about 50 000 workers countrywide are on recurring fixed-term contracts and have been for many years, despite various promises to make them permanent. Lwazi Nkolonzi, Nehawu national spokesperson,...

Probe at KZN hospital after patient set herself alight

KwaZulu-Natal Health is investigating the death of a woman (41) last week who died after setting herself on fire at Clairwood Hospital, with the blaze then spreading to the rest of the isolation ward. Nearly two dozen patients were safely evacuated from an adjacent ward, which also subsequently caught alight, reports IOL. The fire department was able to extinguish the fire with no further injuries being reported, said authorities.   IOL article – KZN health department probes blaze at Clairwood Hospital after patient set herself on fire (Open access)   See more from MedicalBrief archives:   No injuries in Bloemfontein hospital fire   Addington Hospital patients evacuated after fire...

UK’s disposable vape ban coming next year

Britain is to enforce its ban on disposable vapes next year, with new laws giving suppliers a deadline of 1 June 2025 to dump all stock across England, and Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland expected to follow suit. The prohibition comes amid concerns that children are illegally buying the devices, with the number of youngsters vaping having tripled in the past three years, 9% of them aged 11 to 15, reports The Independent. There has been a 50% rise in the past year in Britain in the proportion of children vaping, according to research by charity Action on Smoking and Health...

MEDICO-LEGAL

Leg amputation not due to medical negligence, rules judge

A Gauteng patient whose right leg was amputated above the knee lost her legal bid to claim damages from the Health MEC, with the court finding, instead, that the hospital was not negligent and that her amputation resulted from a rare neurovascular complication. The Star reports that Nonyaniso Mntimba had approached the Gauteng High Court claiming the amputation was due to the negligence of the doctors and nurses at the Tambo Memorial Hospital in Boksburg. She had been shot in both lower limbs on 26 December 2018, and was admitted and treated at the hospital for five days. While she was...

NPA dragging its heels on Life Esidimeni

Eight years since the tragedy of Life Esidimeni, and four months after the conclusion of the inquest into the case, the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) says it is still “in the process of making a thorough, well-informed decision”. This was in response to a memorandum of demand for justice and accountability for the Life Esidimeni victims that was handed in and accepted by Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Sibongile Mzinyathi yesterday, reports TimesLIVE. In the memorandum, NGO SECTION27, which is legally representing the families of the victims, asked that the DPP expedite the prosecution proceedings and ensure comprehensive accountability. SECTION27 is seeking...

Inquests probe surgeon who pitched ‘cleavage-sparing’ mastectomies

Procedures performed by a convicted British breast surgeon were not a recognised or authorised type of operation, with an inquest hearing last week that Ian Paterson had pitched his so-called cleavage-sparing mastectomy to a patient “almost like a sales job”. Chloe Nikitas, an environmental consultant, died in 2008 at 43 from breast cancer that returned three years after having a mastectomy she believed had removed all of her breast tissue. She is the first of 62 patients operated on by Paterson (66) whose deaths are being investigated as part of one of the largest inquests in British history, to find out whether...

SOME RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS IN THE PAST WEEK

NEUROLOGY

‘Deep brain’ genes tied to Parkinson’s, ADHD – large global study

A massive team of international scientists has shed light on how 254 genetic variants can affect the development of particular subcortical structures, potentially influencing some deep-brain operations, they suggested. Beneath the human brain’s bulging cerebral cortex, smaller structures toil in relative obscurity. Subcortical areas, also known as the ‘deep brain’,...

New concussion sign identified – US study

Concussion researchers say they have recognised a new concussion sign that could identify up to 33% of undiagnosed concussions, particularly on the sports field, and which they believe needs further investigation. After a blow to the head, individuals sometimes quickly shake their heads back and forth, a motion which has...

ONCOLOGY

Radioactive treatment shrinks brain tumour by 50% in UK trial

A new radioactive therapy offers hope to people with hard-to-treat brain cancer, with the first patient signed up to the British clinical trial having seen his deadly brain tumour shrink by half. The trial, being undertaken by doctors at University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (UCLH), targets glioblastoma, a cancer...

NEUROSCIENCE

Cannabis tied to thinning cerebral cortex in teens – Canadian study

A recent study in Montreal has suggested that cannabis use could lead to thinning of the cerebral cortex in adolescents – bad news at an age when the brain is maturing, said the scientists. Led by Graciela Pineyro and Tomas Paus, researchers at CHU Sainte-Justine and professors at the Université de Montréal Faculty...

First cases of new neurology syndrome identified by US team

Long non-coding RNA has been implicated in human disease, according to  findings from a team of scientists in Chicago, who have recently been able to classify a new disorder. In their study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, they wrote that three unrelated American children with deletions of...

PHARMACOLOGY

‘Almost untreatable’ superbug tied to common antibiotic – Australian study

After an eight-year study, scientists recently made a surprising finding in the first recorded instance of one antibiotic causing resistance to another in a different class – resulting in the rise of a nearly untreatable superbug, they said. The Australian-led research found that rifaximin, used to treat liver disease, causes...

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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