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Sunday, 1 June, 2025

FOCUS: COVID

US reverses Covid vaccine guideliness, calls for new scientific evidence

Venilla Yoganathan - 0
The US is clamping down on Covid vaccinations, with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announcing that it would allow the use of Covid vaccines in over-65s and those with certain medical conditions, but might require additional studies before approving the shots for other healthy Americans. The jab will also no longer be recommended for healthy children or healthy pregnant women, ending a pandemic-era policy aimed at protecting all Americans from the coronavirus. At the same time, the FDA has asked Pfizer...
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NEWS UPDATE

US cuts affect vital cervical cancer screening, research in SA

More than 1 400 cervical cancer patients in Gauteng will be transferred to already overstretched public hospitals after the abrupt closure of several cervical cancer screening and prevention clinics operated by the Clinical HIV Research Unit (CHRU), in the wake of the US funding stoppages. CHRU clinics have played a critical role in the early detection, diagnosis, and treatment of cervical cancer for 20 years, writes Yoliswa Sobuwa for Health-e News, and the future of affected women looks bleak. Cervical cancer is a leading cause of cancer-related deaths among South African women, being the second most common cancer in women, with an...

Official claims she was ‘removed’ from post after exposing hospital scam

The Eastern Cape Department of Health has denied that the acting district manager for Nelson Mandela Bay’s clinics and the Uitenhage Provincial Hospital was removed from her position because she had exposed a scam at the hospital, saying it would not “silence a person who means good”. Sonia Lupondwana told Daily Maverick she was being “silenced” because she blew the whistle on a scam at the hospital, where, she alleges, officials were running a private hospital for payment using resources from the Department of Health. However, her claims were denied by department’s spokesperson Siyanda Manana. He confirmed the existence of a...

NGO launches private prosecution against health official

Fed up with and frustrated by the state’s tardiness in laying criminal charges against the suspended head of infrastructure at the National Department of Health, civil society organisation Right to Justice is to pursue a private prosecution against Ayanda Dakela. This follows more than a year of suspension and serious allegations of misconduct against the official, but without any formal criminal accountability – and while multiple Health Department staff have been arrested and dismissed recently for procurement-related misconduct, Dakela has remained uncharged, leading to renewed calls for justice. Right to Justice told The Star it was meeting the National Director of...

Mounting legal bills to defend NHI

The Health Department has spent R9.7m defending legal challenges to the National Health Insurance (NHI) Act and the National Health Act since October 2023, Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi told MPs yesterday. Responding to a question in the National Assembly from DA MP Michéle Clarke, the minister said the department’s legal team included five senior counsel and seven junior counsel, a BusinessLIVE report says. They were working on five legal challenges to the NHI Act, which was signed into law by President Cyril Ramaphosa in May 2024, and two legal challenges to the National Health Act, he said. The first piece of...

Court battle over 'unsafe' circumcision device

A tender for a circumcision device, which is used in all provincial healthcare centres and the military, is under legal scrutiny amid claims that the device is untested and unsafe. Unicirc Pty Ltd has filed papers in the Gauteng High Court (Pretoria) seeking to review and set aside the award of the tender to CircumQ RF Pty Ltd, amid claims that the CircumQ device is “vastly inferior” compared with its own and others. In GroundUp, Tania Broughton writes that in his founding affidavit, Dr Cyril Norman Parker said the application was “in the public interest” to ensure only safe and proven...

Health official’s assets seized in alleged PPE fraud case

A former Health Department secretary in Mpumalanga was the subject of a Hawks raid last week, during which several luxury cars and a Sandton home allegedly tied to a dodgy R5m personal protective equipment (PPE) contract were seized. The raid netted a R1.5m house in Sunninghill and a Toyota Quantum, a Hyundai truck, and a VW Golf – worth a combined R1m. News24 reports that in 2020, during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic that sparked a PPE delivery feeding frenzy, the director’s secretary from the Mpumalanga Department of Health, Sanele Sanderson, allegedly colluded with two service providers to fake PPE purchases and...

New Covid strain spreads from Asia into US

The spread of a new Covid variant – NB.1.8.1 – has been tracked in states across America after a large surge in China, although right now, say experts, LP.8.1, which is a descendant of JN.1, is the nation’s dominant strain. The US Centres for Disease Control said it was in regular contact with international partners, and aware of reported NB.1.8.1 cases in China, an agency spokesperson told The Independent. It said there had been too few US sequences reported thus far for the variant to be included in its dashboard. In Asia, however, it has resulted in increased hospital admissions and emergency room...

First blood test approved for Alzheimer’s

The first blood test for Alzheimer’s has been given the green light in the United States, paving the way for earlier treatment with newly approved drugs that slow the progression of the devastating neurological disease. The test, developed by Fujirebio Diagnostics, measures the ratio of two proteins in the blood. The ratio is correlated with amyloid plaques in the brain – a hallmark of Alzheimer’s that, until now, has been detected only through brain scans or spinal fluid analysis. “Alzheimer’s disease affects more people than breast cancer and prostate cancer combined,” said US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner Marty Makary. There are...

Eastern Cape calls off hunt for whistleblower after backlash

The quest to identify the whistleblower who let the cat out of the bag about critical staff shortages at Livingstone Hospital has ended. The Eastern Cape Department of Health admitted that after a social media backlash, it had changed its mind about hunting down the author of a letter about conditions at the Gqeberha hospital, that it was no longer pursuing the person’s identity, and that whistleblowing was encouraged. News24 reports that last week, after a letter purporting to be from the surgery department warned patients of a shortage of doctors at the outpatient clinics, the department’s director of communications Siyanda Manana...

Millions set aside to fix dysfunctional hospital laundries

The Gauteng Department of Health has admitted to a “frequent breakdown of laundry machinery” but says R50m has been allocated to deal with the issue, and that it is currently assessing which equipment and machines need to be replaced and repaired. Patients at Bheki Mlangeni Hospital in Soweto were recently forced to lie on plastic sheeting and told to supply their own blankets, according to provincial legislature member Jack Bloom, while six months ago, growing mounds of dirty laundry were seen piling up at Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital. The department said there was “a backlog due to machinery breakdown challenges”...

Allegations of ARV theft at Durban clinic

A former government employee from a municipal clinic in La Lucia, north of Durban, and at least one accomplice – who still works at the clinic – are allegedly selling antiretroviral drugs to the public, apparently raking in huge profits, reports Health-e News. The pair is charging R2 000 for a year’s supply of the medication, according to one buyer, who previously had medical aid that covered the costs of his ARV treatment. When he was forced to cancel his membership after he could no longer afford the monthly premium, and uncomfortable with visiting a public clinic, he began purchasing...

NHS England rolls out ‘world-first’ gonorrhoea jab as cases rise

A vaccine for gonorrhoea is to be rolled out in England as part of a world-first programme, with officials calling it a “landmark moment for sexual health”, that aims to tackle the alarming rise in the sexually transmitted infection (STI). Gonorrhoea cases in England topped 85 000 in 2023, the highest since records began in 1918, with warnings over some strains being resistant to antibiotics, reports The Guardian. The vaccine is an existing jab, known as 4CMenB, that is used against the meningococcal B disease, a serious bacterial infection that can cause meningitis and sepsis. It is used in the routine childhood programme...

Three medical aids fail to maintain required liquidity

The solvency rate of medical aids is down but, at 43%, is higher than the required minimum – except for three: Medihelp, Sizwe Hosmed Medical Scheme and Transmed Medical Fund, which all failed to maintain their solvency ratios at or above 25% in 2023, reports Moneyweb. This is revealed in the Council for Medical Schemes (CMS) Financial Performance Industry Report 2023 released last week. Transmed improved its solvency ratio to 23.79% in 2023 from 17.7% in 2022 but this is at least the fourth consecutive year it has failed to comply with the statutory prescribed solvency ratio after achieving a liquidity...

Durban sounds alarm over 7 000 teen pregnancies in a year

Health officials have expressed concern over the rising number of teenage pregnancies in eThekwini, revealing that 7 627 cases were recorded between April 2024 and April 2025, including 154 girls aged between 10 and 14. The data were presented at a Teenage Pregnancy Indaba hosted by the eThekwini Municipality last week, attended by government departments, teachers, health professionals and civil society to address the escalating crisis. Deputy Mayor Councillor Zandile Myeni said the pregnancies affected not just the young mother and child but also entire communities. “For the province to reduce these numbers, a targeted approach and practical solutions are urgently needed,”...

Brain-dead pregnant woman kept alive by US law

In a case that has reignited debate and controversy over US abortion laws, a 30-year-old woman – who has been declared brain-dead – is being kept on life support against her family’s wishes, but according to the law, because she is pregnant. Adriana Smith, a registered nurse from Georgia, was nine weeks pregnant when she started having severe headaches in February, said her mother, April Newkirk. TimesLIVE reports that Smith sought medical help at a hospital but was allegedly sent home with medication and no further testing. “They gave us some medication, but they didn’t do any tests, didn’t do any CAT...

SAHPRA gives green light for emergency use mpox test

The South African Health Products Regulatory Authority (SAHPRA) has listed the first mpox in vitro diagnostic test kit – using the WHO PQ assessment under Emergency Use Listing. The approval of the Alinity m MPX assay, developed by Abbott Molecular and licensed to Abbott Laboratories SA (Pty) Ltd, represents a critical advancement in expanding diagnostic capacity amid mpox outbreaks. Currently, only molecular RT-PCR (reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction) tests are considered for approval by SAHPRA – they are nasal swab tests. The African Centres for Diseases (Africa CDC) and the WHO have noted that there is no independently validated antigen RDT (Rapid...

Inquiry after baby lands on floor during birth

A Limpopo mother from whose pleas for help were dismissed when she went into labour, and whose baby was born and fell to the floor while she was forced to walk out of the labour ward, wants the nurse to be held responsible. On 8 May, Karabo Magabe (30) started getting contractions and was taken to Dilokong Hospital, where the doctor told her she was experiencing false labour, and should be admitted to the antenatal care ward. Magabe told Thomo Nkgadima from Health-e News that she refused, knowing she was ready to give birth. She was then taken to the labour ward,...

France votes to legalise assisted dying

Campaigners have welcomed the news that assisted dying is to be legalised in France, after the country’s Parliament voted in favour of a Bill that will pave the way for caregivers to help patients end their lives under what would still be some of the strictest conditions in Europe. The first reading of the Bill was passed by a vote of 305 to 199, and members also unanimously backed a less contentious law establishing a right to palliative care in specialist end-of-life institutions, reports The Guardian. Both votes are the start of a long parliamentary process that will require the Bills...

China pledges $500m to WHO, bridging US gap

Beijing will replace the United States as the World Health Organisation’s top state donor, pledging $500m and expanding its influence as America retreats from international co-operation. Chinese Vice-Premier Liu Guozhong told the World Health Assembly that his country was making the contribution to oppose “unilateralism”, a trait Beijing often ascribes to Washington as relations between the two powers deteriorate. The US withdrawal from the organisation in January left Beijing as the most powerful member country, reports The Washington Post. The pledge of $500m, which Liu said would be given over the next five years, is one of the clearest examples of Beijing’s...

MEDICO-LEGAL

Cape Town surgeon accused of harassment asked to leave hospital

A Cape Town general surgeon accused of inappropriate conduct by a patient and harassment of female staff, and who has been dismissed from Mediclinic Panorama, has denied any “intentional” wrongdoing. Dr Ignatius Botha has permanently vacated the hospital group’s premises, Mediclinic spokesperson Nokuzola Plaatjie told News24. Botha was suspended from working at the hospital earlier this year amid an internal investigation into the complaints against him. According to sources, Botha had been accused of performing a pelvic examination without surgical gloves on a young woman who presented with an abscess under her arm. A complaint was lodged and subsequently investigated by the Health...

Midwife accused of ‘ignoring pleas’ to admit mother to private hospital

The mother of a baby born with severe brain damage testified last Friday that she was taken to the wrong hospital by her now deregistered midwife after multiple requests to go to a private hospital of her choice during her difficult labour were ignored. Yolande Maritz Fouche allegedly took the woman to the state Tshwane District Hospital instead of Netcare Montana Hospital, and while there, Fouche allegedly assisted in the delivery of another baby while her own patient awaited assistance from doctors. The mother said Fouche had ignored her numerous pleas to be taken to the private hospital of choice, instead...

Eastern Cape MEC hit with another negligence claim

A R5m medical negligence claim is to be launched against the Eastern Cape Health MEC after the Eastern Cape High Court (Bhisho) last week granted an East London woman leave to pursue the lawsuit – linked to treatment at Cecilia Makiwane Hospital in Mdantsane. Her case will now proceed after Acting Judge Ntsikelelo Mtshabe ruled in her favour. Provincial Health spokesperson Siyanda Manana said the department was “studying the judgment”, reports Daily Dispatch. Background A summons had been issued against the MEC on 3 August 2022 followed with a notice in terms of rule 41A delivered to the State Attorney’s Office in East...

Inquiry after baby lands on floor during birth

A Limpopo mother from whose pleas for help were dismissed when she went into labour, and whose baby was born and fell to the floor while she was forced to walk out of the labour ward, wants the nurse to be held responsible. On 8 May, Karabo Magabe (30) started getting contractions and was taken to Dilokong Hospital, where the doctor told her she was experiencing false labour, and should be admitted to the antenatal care ward. Magabe told Thomo Nkgadima from Health-e News that she refused, knowing she was ready to give birth. She was then taken to the labour ward,...

Victims of rapist surgeon in child abuse trial question apathy

Members of a campaign group formed by victims of France’s most prolific paedophile, a former surgeon whose trial ended this week, are outraged at the lack of response by authorities, and questioned why an official investigative commission hasn’t been established into the case that involved the abuse of hundreds of children. A prosecutor has requested the maximum 20-year sentence fo Joel Le Scouarnec, who is accused of 111 rapes and 189 sexual assaults on 299 victims, mostly of minors under 15, at a dozen hospitals in western France. The 74-year-old admitted in March to sexually abusing all 299 victims between 1989...

Surgeon sued after removing woman’s kidney instead of spleen

A US woman is suing a surgeon and a hospital after a medical mistake that cost her a healthy left kidney, with Wendy Rappaport accusing the doctor and the Allina Health system of medical malpractice and battery. However, Allina told CBS the court filings “don’t accurately reflect the full picture” and intends to fight the suit in court. Rappaport was admitted to Abbott Northwestern in March 2022 and was scheduled for a spleen removal surgery. After the doctor recommended the surgery, the suit says he had reviewed the risk of procedure with her. However, while performing an open laparotomy procedure, Rappaport’s “left...

Lawsuits mount as weight-loss drug users lose vision

More than a dozen lawsuits have been filed on behalf of weight-loss drug users who claim that popular weight-loss medications like Ozempic have caused a loss of vision. US patients from New York and New Jersey say they suffered non-arteritic anterior ischaemic optic neuropathy after taking drugs containing semaglutide, the active ingredient in Ozempic, Wegovy and Rybelsus. The condition is rare and includes a loss of blood flow to the optic nerve that causes sudden vision loss in one eye. “People are just waking up and developing this condition,” said Jason Goldstein, the lawyer representing the patients. “They wake up and suddenly...

SOME RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS IN THE PAST WEEK

GENETICS

Rare disease found in small town where most people are related

A rare syndrome affecting residents of a remote town in Brazil was only recently identified – solving a mystery among the inhabitants of a village where almost everyone is...

NATURAL REMEDIES

Common weed shows potential to fight cancer – SA study

South African researchers have discovered that a common weed – usually dismissed as an invasive plant – might have the potential to fight cancer, and be a contributing tool...

NEUROLOGY

Link between Alzheimer’s and cold sores emerges in new data

Recent research suggesting an unexpected link between a common form of herpes and Alzheimer’s disease could mean that anti-viral treatments might offer a potential preventative measure, said the scientists. Previous studies have shown...

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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