Medical Brief News Updates

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… Read more »

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… Read more »

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… Read more »

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… Read more »

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… Read more »

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,… Read more »

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… Read more »

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… Read more »

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… Read more »

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… Read more »