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The highest dose of an experimental pill has dramatically lowered an inherited form of high cholesterol in a mid-stage trial. Eli Lilly announced that, according to the data, the drug, muvalaplin, reduced levels of lipoprotein(a), or Lp(a), by 70% using a traditional blood test and by nearly 86% based on… Read more »

Limpopo Premier Phophi Ramathuba has the ANC’s full support for her 2022 remarks to a Zimbabwean patient in Bela Bela Hospital about foreigners “killing” the health system, but a judge has described her protests as “contrived and self-serving”. Amid a Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA) probe into her… Read more »

Johannesburg’s Randburg Clinic is sagging beneath the weight of limited resources and growing patient numbers, resulting in long waits in overcrowded conditions and regular medication stockouts. With only one doctor to serve 350 to 400 patients daily, the facility’s ability to deliver quality care is increasingly being compromised, reports Randburg News,… Read more »

Children from a primary school in Limpopo were checked for suspected food poisoning last Thursday after 75 of them complained of stomach ache – the day before President Cyril Ramaphosa addressed the nation about the spate of similar cases countrywide. The principal immediately sent the pupils to Nkhensani Hospital in… Read more »

Health Minister Dr Aaron Motsoaledi said last week that the Geneva-based Global Fund is sending its own investigators to SA to probe allegations that its money was used to issue a multimillion-rand tender for an unaccredited company to supply oxygen to 55 public hospitals. Motsoaledi revealed this to MPs in… Read more »

The DA has urged Premier Panyaza Lesufi to remove HoD Lesiba Malotana – one of three officials implicated in the Special Investigating Unit’s (SIU) probe of two questionable contracts within Gauteng Health. The trio is allegedly linked to tenders involving the supply and delivery of three-division plastic containers with lids,… Read more »

President-elect Donald Trump has caused more concern in health circles with his selection this week of celebrity doctor, cardiothoracic surgeon Mehmet Oz, to oversee a key government agency. Oz will oversee the Centres for Medicare and Medicaid, which is responsible for more than $1trn in annual spending, with objectors describing… Read more »

An extended impasse over a vital agreement for training and improved hospital management between the Gauteng Department of Health and Wits University remains derailed, despite behind-the-scenes efforts to get it back on track, writes Ufrieda Ho for Spotlight. The critical deal aimed at bolstering healthcare services in a province with… Read more »

Gauteng’s Health Department has had to step in after linen supplies at Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital ground to a halt when the washing machines broke down. A spokesperson said that “a team of infrastructure technicians is working with the appointed contractor to restore laundry services to full capacity as… Read more »

Measles cases are escalating worldwide at an alarming rate – mainly due to a drop in vaccines – according to a report from the WHO and the US Centres for Disease Control & Prevention, with 10.3m people being infected last year, a 20% jump from 2022. At least 95% coverage… Read more »