Juta MedicalBrief

The global Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) has warned that South Africa’s planned rollout of HIV prevention shot lenacapavir (LEN) is being jeopardised by the Trump administration’s funding cuts that have dismantled delivery systems, reports Business Day. The National Department of Health received its first shipment of LEN earlier this month, but the funding withdrawal has eviscerated the systems required to provide it, according to a report from the non-profit PHR, released on Tuesday. Drawing on interviews with 40 South African doctors, researchers, people with HIV and others involved in the country’s efforts to combat HIV, it said the Trump administration had...

In a South African first, a Centurion surgeon has performed a hip and limb salvage procedure using a liquid nitrogen dipping technique, saving the leg of a 15-year-old boy with Ewing’s sarcoma, an aggressive bone cancer, reports The Citizen. The pioneering approach, performed at Netcare Unitas Hospital in Tshwane, could significantly expand treatment options for certain patients with orthopaedic cancers, particularly those who would typically require removal of the affected bone and its replacement with a prosthesis. In this particular case, standard treatment would usually involve removing the cancerous section of bone and replacing it with either a large metal prosthesis or...

Six Limpopo mourners have died and dozens more fell seriously ill after eating food served at a funeral in Mmotong-wa-Bogobe village outside Polokwane last weekend, reports IOL. All of them starting suffering from diarrhoea and severe headaches, prompting a rush to nearby hospitals and clinics. Some of them had since been discharged. At this stage the cause of the suspected contamination is still unclear.   IOL article – Limpopo food poisoning: Six dead, over 70 hospitalised after eating at a funeral (Open access)   See more from MedicalBrief archives:   Another death from suspected food poisoning   Action plan launched to combat food poisonings in SA   Cape Town sees rise in...

Experts have advised a number of local schools to immediately stop drinking from water tanks after testing at 72 of them found 20 samples – 12 from taps and eight from Jojo tanks – to be “dangerously unsafe”, with possible E. coli contamination, reports News24. The results of the tests, conducted in the Western Cape, Free State, KwaZulu-Natal and Mpumalanga, were part of civic group WaterCan’s initiative to track water quality and have been uploaded to its Map My Water portal. The results were “highly concerning”, said WaterCan’s citizen science and training co-ordinator Nomsa Daele, because they indicate possible faecal contamination, “a...

The Gauteng Department of Health has recorded 414 confirmed malaria cases and 11 deaths in the first three months of 2026, the fatalities overtaking last year’s total and signalling a dramatic increase in injections, reports IOL. For the whole of 2025, the province recorded just 230 cases and only one death for the same period – and 666 cases and seven deaths for the year – and the department has warned of an urgent need for strengthened surveillance, early detection and prompt treatment to prevent lives. Officials attribute the spike largely to increased travel during the festive season, with many residents returning...

Cape Town police are investigating reports that some clinic staff are apparently selling patient folders to people wanting to fraudulently qualify for Sassa grants, reports News24. The files, which contain detailed medical histories, are often central to determining eligibility for disability and other grants, and are essential for legitimate patients, but sources say employees at these clinics are now being paid – possibly by a syndicate – to allow unlawful access to the records. It is alleged that the clinic folders are stolen and the original patient details replaced with those of the person intending to use them. While applicants can apply...

Enough is enough, say 24 South African civil society organisations that have united to demand urgent, co-ordinated action on a disease that is now the country’s leading cause of natural death, and to hold themselves accountable, too, reports Daily Maverick. Diabetes has become a leading cause of natural death in South Africa, overtaking TB in recent years. More than half of those with the condition remain undiagnosed, said Zukiswa Zimela, communications manager at the Healthy Living Alliance (Heala) at the media launch of the Johannesburg Declaration for Accelerated Action on Diabetes in South Africa last week. “This is not just a...

Six employees who worked for the healthcare NPO organisation Right to Care will be paid out six months’ salary after the Johannesburg Labour Court ruled that their retrenchment was substantively unfair, that the organisation had failed to justify the dismissals, had ignored viable alternatives, and applied an unfair selection process, reports IOL. The dispute arose when Right to Care retrenched the six – most of them pharmacist assistants – after a reduction in US donor funding for its APACE programme, which focuses on HIV/Aids and TB interventions. The court rejected the argument that the slashing of funds from the United States...

A new facility in northern KwaZulu-Natal plans to regulate and expand the traditional medicine sector and become both an economic driver as well as a conservation hub, reports The Mercury. The Empilweni Traditional Health Practitioners (THP) Warehouse project, launched last week in Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Park by Economic Development, Tourism and Environmental Affairs (EDTEA) MEC Musa Zondi, will monitor and manage the supply of medicinal plants and animal by-products while supporting traditional health practitioners with legally sourced, quality-controlled materials. Zondi said the hub would centralise the storage and distribution of medicinal plants, seeds, and processed materials, with all products certified and traceable. It...

The legal challenge regarding whether Parliament acted in accordance with the Constitution when it passed the NHI Act will be heard at the Constitutional Court from 5-7 May, when the Board of Healthcare Funders and the Western Cape Government (WCG) will argue they were not properly consulted during the Bill’s development and the Act’s assent, reports The Star. Meanwhile, President Cyril Ramaphosa has agreed to delay the proclamation of any sections of the Act until the judgments in the two challenges. The Department of Health has said this pause will not, however, affect the timetable for the implementation of the NHI. The...

A brand new forensic laboratory that was officially opened in KwaZulu-Natal last week will end the province’s reliance on facilities in other regions to process its DNA evidence, and help make a dent in the more than 13 000 unresolved cases on the backlog list, reports the Independent on Saturday. Until now, KZN has depended on labs in Pretoria and the Western Cape for DNA processing, but the new Mayville Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) is expected to become a “turnkey solution” for the province’s justice system. Officially handed over by Public Works & Infrastructure Minister Dean MacPherson on Friday, the facility...

In an innovative partnership, the state-owned South African Nuclear Energy Corporation (Necsa) has joined forces with Sibanye-Stillwater, the multinational mining and metals processing group, in opening a new frontier for the country’s platinum group metals in the fight against cancer, reports News24. The two companies will collaborate on developing a radioactive isotope derived from rhodium, a metal traditionally tied to emissions control and industrial use, and now being positioned for advanced nuclear medicine applications. Central to the effort is palladium-103, an isotope already used in brachytherapy to treat localised tumours, including prostate cancer. The technique is used in precision oncology to deliver...

There’s hope yet for ailing Grey’s Hospital in Pietermaritzburg, with its non-existent aircon and inhumane operating theatre conditions, amid various delays and drawn out inter-departmental standoffs, reports IOL. Provincial MEC Martin Meyer said the hospital has been moved up the priority list of stalled projects due to receive urgent attention. He said the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Public Works & Infrastructure had made significant strides in resolving paused projects in the northern region of the province, reducing the number from 63 to around 15. The remaining projects were close to being resolved, and it had been agreed that Grey’s Hospital would be...

A major funding injection of £4.5m from the Wellcome Trust will boost a collaborative effort between South African and British scientists to fast track the understanding of fungal diseases – which claim about 2.5m lives a year – with University of Cape Town researchers having a leading role in the project. The funding will support the global Mycology Bioimaging Initiative (MBI), which aims to develop cutting-edge tools allowing scientists to visualise how dangerous fungal pathogens grow, spread and cause disease. UCT researchers, based in the Institute of Infectious Disease and Molecular Medicine (IDM) and the Neuroscience Institute (NI), will work alongside...

A University of Cape Town expert in allergy research was recently acknowledged for his invaluable contribution to the field, reports News24. Professor Jonny Peter, head of the division of Allergology and Clinical Immunology at the UCT Lung Institute, was presented with the SA Medical Research Council (SAMRC) gold scientific award for impactful research that has improved clinical practice, informed global policy, and contributed to better health outcomes. His work focuses on drug reactions in TB and HIV patients, and highlights the need to build research capacity and support early-career scientists in South Africa. Peter said there was a pressing need for allergy...

Western Cape Health is ramping up its workforce with 800 new frontline posts, but after years of austerity and with long lists of vacancies, questions now turn to how soon the new posts will translate into staff on the ground, writes Christina Pitt for Spotlight. Health MEC Mireille Wenger said the recruitment drive includes 316 nurses, 124 doctors and 80 emergency medical personnel. For staff to have more time at their patients’ bedsides, she said this plan also targets 38 allied health professionals, like physiotherapists and dieticians, alongside 278 administrative and management staff. As it stands, she added, more than 33...

If the planned 9% contribution increase planned by the Government Employees Medical Scheme (GEMS) is not withdrawn, unions have warned that public servants will launch a nationwide protest, reports The Witness. In a joint statement, the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) and the Federation of Unions of South Africa (Fedusa) said the increase would add financial pressure to state employees, and that it effectively cancels out recent wage adjustments, leaving them worse off. GEMS had failed to respond to concerns raised by organised labour, including calls to reverse the hike, engage meaningfully with unions, and provide transparency on how...

A California company has recalled more than 3.1m bottles of lubricating eye drops because it had not properly tested, and thus could not prove, whether the products were sterile – not the first time a massive recall has occurred in the eye drop market, notes pharmacist C Michael White in The Conversation. He writes: These products are sold under several names at major retailers across the United States. The company, KC Pharmaceuticals, initiated the recall on 3 March 2026. I am a clinical pharmacologist and pharmacist who has assessed risks of poor-quality manufacturing practices and lax oversight for prescription drugs, eye drops, dietary supplements and nutritional products in the United...

LifeLine Western Cape, which is struggling with a funding shortfall of about R1.48m after closing its 2025/26 financial year under financial pressure, said it is continuing to provide provincial counselling services from its Mowbray and Khayelitsha centres as well as remote platforms, reports IOL. The NPO, offering telephone, WhatsApp and face-to-face counselling to people experiencing mental health crises, ended the year with a monthly deficit of roughly R123 000 and has been drawing on reserves to sustain operations, it said. Its reserves have fallen from about R3.36m in March 2025 to around R2.58m in March 2026. The funding gap reflects rising...

A US grand jury had indicted Florida surgeon Thomas Shaknovsky (44) on a second-degree manslaughter charge for allegedly removing a patient’s liver instead of his spleen in 2024, resulting in copious bleeding and then death, reports MedPage Today. Shaknovsky, who faces up to 15 years in prison if convicted, was released on bail and and is scheduled to be arraigned on 19 May. Prosecutors said that in what was scheduled to be a laparoscopic splenectomy, Shaknovsky removed 70-year-old William Bryan’s liver, resulting in “catastrophic blood loss and the patient’s death on the operating table”. Florida suspended his medical licence a month after...

A Los Angeles doctor, James Heaps, has been sentenced again to 11 years in prison for sexual and other offences after a retrial, reports Beckers Hospital Review. The court had determined Heaps was denied a fair trial because the judge did not share a note with the defence counsel that indicated one juror lacked sufficient knowledge of English. In February, an appeals court ordered that Heaps receive a retrial. Last week, the LA District Attorney’s Office announced that Heaps had pleaded guilty to six felony counts “of sexual penetration of an unconscious person, five felony counts of sexual battery by fraud,...

Achieving universal health coverage can never be realised through piecemeal reforms that tinker at the margins of a fundamentally unequal system, writes Moremi Nkosi in the Daily Maverick, noting that incremental fixes may address isolated inefficiencies, but they leave intact the structural fragmentation, inequitable financing and misaligned incentives that define the status quo. Nkosi writes: Transparent and honest debate is essential and should be encouraged. However, advancing a narrative that ostensibly seeks to address challenges affecting the broader population, while in reality promoting a particular agenda aimed at preserving a status quo that marginalises the majority for the benefit of a...

Investing in data is arguably the most cost-effective investment South Africa can make to ensure that the NHI delivers equitable, efficient and sustainable healthcare, suggests Dr Evelyn Thsehla in an editorial in the SA Medical Journal. Thsehla writes: The National Department of Health published the Health Technology Assessment (HTA) Methods Guide in 2022 with the aim of strengthening HTA practice and informing decisions on the inclusion or exclusion of medicines from the national Essential Medicines List. The National Health Insurance (NHI) Act has further legislated the establishment of an HTA function to guide decisions on which health technologies should be prioritised for...